Schenectady

Edwin Hammond has four daughters, eight grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a little red Chrysler Sebring convertible.

And now the Schenectady man, who turned 94 on the Fourth of July, has a lifetime membership to Best Fitness, where he's worked out for the past seven years.

The spry nonagenarian's daughters and the gym staff surprised him Wednesday with the membership and birthday cake that he shared with everyone during the celebration.

Holding his heart, Hammond joked that when he walked into the gym and realized what was happening that he nearly had "the big one."

He said sights and sounds of the gym help keep him young.

"I think between (staying fit) and all these young girls, that keeps me going," he said with a chuckle.

Hammond is a familiar face at the Crosstown Plaza facility, where he works out three times a week — riding six miles on the exercise bike — and hands out friendship bracelets and other mementos.

He's recruited family members by telling them working out and staying fit is one of the keys to his longevity.

"He spreads joy wherever he goes," his daughter, Juliann Dellarocco, said. "He strikes up conversations with people every time he leaves the house."

Outside the gym, Hammond maintains an active lifestyle, mowing the lawn and running the snowblower at home in the Bellevue neigborhood.

His daughters say he attends religious services at the Rotterdam United Methodist Church, maintains and swims in his backyard pool and helps his daughters and grandchildren with repairs around their places.

Hammond, who served in the Army in Germany during World War II, retired in 1985 from Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.

Mariann Rapple of Ticonderoga said Hammond started going to the gym when he suffered a stroke not long after his wife of more than 50 years passed away a dozen years ago.

"He loves just being around people, so he joined the gym to get the therapy part of it, and he just kept it up," she said.

The daughters say their father has always been something of a social butterfly and they consider lucky to have him around.

"He does bring joy and talks to everybody and anybody," said Suzann Young of Rotterdam. "He strikes up conversations every place he goes and has the candy or the bracelet to give to somebody."

pnelson@timesunion.com