DUNWOODY, Ga. — It’s special to honor a community member turning 100 years old, and even more impactful when the resident is a World War II veteran.
Fewer than 120,000 of the 16.1 million Americans who served in World War II are alive today, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
When Americans think of the “1 percent,” it’s unlikely they have Hilbert “Hilby” Margol in mind.
Margol, U.S. Army veteran and 40-year Dunwoody resident, celebrated his 100th birthday with more than 40 neighbors and friends Feb. 18 at the clubhouse on Village Oaks Drive.
During the celebration, Margol went through more than 20 photos of him throughout his childhood, teenage years and military service.
The first photo in the presentation was of him and his twin brother, Howard, as toddlers.
When Howard Margol passed away in February 2017, the twins had already begun to share their experiences as Jewish-American soldiers who liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp.
After the war, the twins teamed up with their older brother, Melvin, to start a furniture business called National Home Supply.
Howard moved to Atlanta in 1965 and Hilbert and his wife, Mary Ann, followed in 1984.
Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch, who used to live nearby on Village Drive, surprised Margol at the neighborhood party. She read a proclamation declaring Feb. 22, 2024 as Hilbert Margol Day in Dunwoody and presented him with a key to the city.
“In Dunwoody, when you reach the auspicious milestone of turning 100 years old, I will present a key to the city,” Deutsch said. “The key will not get you out of a traffic ticket.”
Military service in Europe
Recounting past experiences proved easy for the 100-year-old.
The Margol twins were born in 1924 in Jacksonville, Florida, to a Jewish Lithuanian family.
“Since I was born 10 minutes before him,”…
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