Curtis, who served in the U.S. Army for five years, including during World War II, also is one of 11 oldest living World War II veterans in the United States.

Lonnie Wangen, Fargo, commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs, conducted research for the information about the oldest living World War II veterans.

Curtis, who resides at Minot Lodge Senior Living, will be observing his birthday at a party planned by his family at the assisted living facility this afternoon.

His daughter, Teresa Glaspey of Portal, will be at the party and another daughter, Becky Gray, and her husband, Dave, of Alexandria, Minnesota, will arrive later in the day. His other daughters, Judy Antrim and Julie Antrim, both of Laporte, Indiana, and Connie Toffle of Morgantown, West Virginia, will be unable to attend the party.

MDN File Photo Ray Curtis of Minot holds a photo of himself when he served in the U.S. Army. This photo was taken in 2021 when he celebrated his 104th birthday.

According to earlier interviews by The Minot Daily News, Curtis, who was born Feb. 11, 1917, in Portal, moved with his family to Minot In 1927. He graduated from Minot High School, which was located in the building that now houses Central Middle School, in 1935.

For five years he was in the U.S. Army, first as an enlisted military member and then as an officer, according to Glaspey. Most of his time in the military was spent in the United States and he also was overseas for a time.

Curtis had a short time left in the Army when Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked in December 1941. He and his then girlfriend, Ellen, married in Reno, Nevada, and were together for a few months, then she went to Minot to stay with his parents until he was discharged from the Army in December 1945.

He had various military jobs. For the first two months of his time in the Army, he was a clerk-typist in Minot, he said in a 2021 interview. He also served as a communications officer, an aircraft automatic weapons unit commander and overseas he was an infantry unit commander.

After his Army discharge, Curtis farmed the family farm in the Columbus area for many years. He and Ellen retired in 1983 and moved to Minot. Ellen died Dec. 24, 2014. Curtis moved to the assisted living facility a number of years ago.

At Minot Lodge Senior Living, Curtis stays active by going to exercise class each morning and also playing card games and bingo.

For his birthday, Curtis made a special request – to have lutefisk – a request Minot Lodge Senior Living was planning to fulfill today.