WWII veteran Dick Scherzinger turns 100

During the war, Scherzinger served as a paratrooper, and then, after injuring his leg, he became a combat engineer. It was as a combat engineer that he landed on the beaches of Normany on D-Day, walked across Europe in front of the army to make bridges and roads, and helped liberate several concentration camps, including the Dachau Concentration Camp in 1945.

“We rammed the front gate down with the tanks,” Scherzinger said of that day. “And the guys there, they were just skin and bones. It was miserable to see those people like that, but we were able to free them. They were free.”

According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, run by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, American forces approached Dachau on April 26, 1945. At the time there were 67,665 registered prisoners in Dachau, with 43,350 people classified as political prisoners, and 22,100 as Jews, with the remainder falling into various other categories. With the Allied approach, Germans began death marches, where they force-marched more than 25,000 prisoners south, or transported them away via freight trains.

On April 29, American forces, including Scherzinger, were able to liberate the remaining prisoners of Dachau. Other American forces were able to liberate the prisoners on the death march in early May 1945.

Just over a week after the liberation of Dachau, on Scherzinger’s 21st birthday, he would receive what he said was the best birthday present of his life.

“It’s the only birthday where I remember exactly where I was,” Scherzinger said of that day on May 8, 1945. “I was sitting against the wall of the city hall of Donauworth on the Danube River. There was seven of us left in our platoon and we were trying to figure out how to get the tanks across the Danube River so they could go south. And a little airplane flew over, said ‘Don’t shoot, the war is over. Don’t shoot, the war is over.’ And the war was over on my birthday.”

Scherzinger said that he and his platoon wept after seeing that plane, as they couldn’t believe they’d survived. He said that when he was drafted, he had never expected to live through the war, let alone make it to 100.

After the war, Scherzinger was able to go back to school, enrolling in Oregon State University to study biology. Following his graduation, he went to work for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as a wildlife biologist, where he would spend the rest of his career.

Though he would stay with the same department, he wouldn’t stay in the same place, as Scherzinger frequently moved throughout Oregon, going wherever ODFW needed him. Throughout his career, he lived in cities all across the state, including La Grande, Baker, Eugene and Silverton. When it came to his retirement, however, there was one city that stood out to him: The Dalles.

“Of all the places I lived, I enjoyed this one the most,” he said.

Retirement was just another adventure for Scherzinger, full of family and creativity. During his retirement, he dove into his hobbies, becoming a Master Gardener. He also picked up woodcarving, creating 160 intricately carved and painted statues of birds before having a stroke, which made it difficult to use his left hand and leg.

Even so, Scherzinger keeps his body and mind active, always doing puzzles, coloring and taking time to walk. He’s also never lonely, with friends at The Springs who love to help him with his 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles and a large, loving family who loves to visit.

Scherzinger has eight children in total, with one daughter from his first wife, who passed away after 44 years of marriage, two step-children from his second wife, who passed away after 11 years of marriage, and five step-children from his third wife, who passed away after 12 years of marriage. Despite the loss he’s endured, he considers all of his children and grandchildren to be his own and is proud of the family he’s gotten to be a part of.

“They all mean very much to me, they call me ‘dad,’” he said. “And it’s wonderful, wonderful to be their dad.”