105-Year-Old Man Has Spent Decades Chasing Solar Eclipses — But He’s Still Excited to See His 13th

LaVerne Biser has spent more than 60 years traveling to see solar eclipses, but this year, he won't have far to go at all

For the first time in more than 60 years, 105-year-old eclipse chaser LaVerne Biser will have the path of total darkness cutting a path close to home on April 8.

Born in 1918, this will mark the 13th eclipse that Biser's experienced in his lifetime.

In a video chat with PEOPLE, Biser, who will turn 106 in June, is cautiously optimistic about being able to see the eclipse. But it's the weather, not his age, that makes him nervous.

“I’m afraid we won’t see it because of the clouds. I’ve seen 12 of ‘em and I always want to see the next one,” he says with a giant smile.

Growing up in his family's farm in Ohio, Biser says he vividly remembers looking at the stars in the sky, the Milky Way and all the celestial wonders that he loved.

“Back on the farm, it was really dark so you could see the Big Dipper, Orion, all the constellations,” he says. "We were well acquainted with the sky. I hate that kids nowadays have never really seen a sky like that.”

He studied mechanical engineering at the Ohio State University, worked for a while in San Diego, California and later moved to Texas where he met his late wife Marion, who passed away last year at 97. The two raised their three children in Ft. Worth in a home where he still lives.

The last trip they took together was to see the total solar eclipse in Beatrice, Nebraska, in 2017.

While speaking with PEOPLE, Biser glances frequently at the paper notes from Marion’s detailed accounts of their travels, including the eclipse trip they took with their then-young son Tim who was allowed to bring his hamster buddy.

And then there was the time Marion noted that their daughter Carol had given them two dates to choose from for her wedding.

“If you want me to give you away, it will have to be on June 3 because I’ll be at Prince Edward Island on July 8, ” Biser said at the time about the 1972 eclipse trip.

Why not just have the wedding at the eclipse site?

Biser says he didn’t think to ask, and his daughter Carol, now 76, adds she was never given the option. Maybe, she says, she might have considered it.

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The family's first eclipse trip came in 1963 when they drove the 2,000 miles to Maine to see the total eclipse of the sun.

“I guess before we went to Maine all of ‘em were so far away we couldn’t go. We can’t drive to China,” he says. “But in ‘63 when it was in Maine, I said ‘We can drive there!’ “

At the time, Biser was 45 and he still remembers unpacking his equipment and waiting for the momentous event with the family while sitting in a farmer’s field in the middle of nowhere.

He also remembers that there was a sense of quiet awe as the crown peeking around the moon gave way to sudden darkness.

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Biser says since them they have driven to all of the eclipses that have happened in the United States and later he and his wife saw a few on cruises. “We drove to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, Beatrice Nebraska, we drove to Alabama. We made it part of our vacations,” he adds.

This time, he won't have far to travel.

Barlow lives in Plano, about a hour's drive from Ft. Worth and directly in the path of totality. She’ll pick up her dad and they’ll watch it together.

Although the next eclipse won't happen in the United States until August 2044, Biser notes that the next total solar eclipse will occur on Aug. 12, 2026, where totality will be visible from Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic Ocean and Spain.

“You would have to fly,” he says, seemingly pondering the possibilities.

As for the secret to his youthful sense of adventure, Biser says, "Never a sip of liquor, no puff of cigarette, no drugs, whatever. Just plenty of chocolate milk."

We won’t be counting him out for no. 14.

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