Rose Torphy is three years older than the national park itself, and recently joined as its oldest-ever junior ranger

Rose Torphy has had a large life.

At 103, she’s the matriarch of a family with five generations now below her. She loves bowling, traveling and watching poker. Every afternoon, she takes her daily glass of wine into her bedroom to toast a photo of her late husband of more than six decades, Ralph: “Here’s to you: no one better, no one damn near as good.”

And Torphy has just become the oldest-ever junior park ranger at the Grand Canyon national park – which is three years younger than she is, and is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its designation this week.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rose Torphy (pictured front) and her parents and siblings. Photograph: Anjali Pinto/The Guardian

“It was a special occasion,” Torphy said of her swearing-in ceremony. “I enjoyed every minute of it.”

Torphy visited the park with her husband in 1985 and fell in love with it. “We thought it was the most marvelous thing,” Torphy said in a recent interview at her home in Fox Lake, Illinois, an exurb about an hour north of Chicago. “We always talked about it to the kids. I always told them it was something they have to go to see.”

But, she said, she never went back until last month. She and her daughter, Cheri Stoneburner, took a trip to visit Stoneburner’s daughter, who works at the canyon. There, Torphy recreated a photograph she’d taken with her husband more than 30 years ago, sitting in a chair President Theodore Roosevelt had sat in, and went all the way up to the edge of the great expanse – something she didn’t get to do during her and Ralph’s quick senior bus trip in the 80s. At the conclusion of the January visit, she was sworn in as a junior park ranger. Her job duties? To spread the word about the park’s beauty and virtues.

“Everywhere she goes, she wears [her park ranger badge] on her coat,” Stoneburner said. “She tells everybody all about it.”

Torphy’s love of nature began as a child. Born in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1915, she went with her family to a different lake every weekend, when – she’s quick to note – a night in a cabin cost just a dollar. Her appetite for adventure continued after she met Ralph, with whom she traveled extensively until his death in 1999. “We planned vacations around going to see the world,” Torphy said. “We had a wonderful life.”

In all her travels, which included Belgium, where her parents emigrated from more than 100 years ago, the Grand Canyon stood out, and she was always sure to tell her kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and great-great grandkids about it. She’s seen a lot change over the years – a woman who remembers the advent of radio has lived long enough to become a viral sensation online – but was pleased to see the Grand Canyon was mostly as she’d remembered it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rose Torphy at home in Fox Lake, Illinois. ‘Everywhere she goes, she wears [her park ranger badge] on her coat,’ her daughter said. Photograph: Anjali Pinto/The Guardian

“The area had grown up a little,” Torphy said. “But the canyon still looked the same, and it was wonderful.”

Now, Torphy is getting to promote the park to a wider audience, not least during an appearance on Good Morning America that she remains incredulous about.

The Grand Canyon turns 100: rare photos of life and adventure Read more

For the Grand Canyon Conservancy, the not-for-profit organization that funds the junior ranger program and conducted Torphy’s swearing-in, that means a charming new spokeswoman for the park, which was established on 26 February 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson and today attracts more than 6 million visitors a year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Torphy and her late husband. Photograph: Anjali Pinto/The Guardian

“People like Rose help us educate the public to ensure this natural wonder is here for the next 100 years,” Susan Schroeder, the group’s CEO, said in an email.

For Torphy, it’s just one more achievement in an extraordinary run.

“I’m lucky,” she said in the home she’s shared with her daughter since November, surrounded by photographs of her family, turning over in her hands a locket containing a photograph of Ralph. “I feel blessed.”