- Wednesday, April 02, 2025
In 1963, LaVerne Biser had driven nearly 2,000 miles with his family from Texas to Laine to see their first solar eclipse.
By: Shubham Ghosh
A MAN in Texas, US, aged 105, is set to witness the 13th solar eclipse of his life on Monday (18) and he is as excited before the latest celestial phenomenon as he was before his first.
LaVerne Biser, a retired plane designer, has been an “eclipse chaser” since 1963 when he drove his late wife and their three children in his car nearly 2,000 miles from Texas to Maine to see their first solar eclipse.
“That one eclipse was all it took,” Biser, who was 45 then, told the Washington Post last week. “I saw one and I had to see them all. I was hooked.”
He literally meant it as he has been travelling the world to witness as many solar eclipses as possible.
Read: Enthusiasts prepare for total solar eclipse in US, Canada & Mexico despite weather worry
Biser, who is now wheelchair-bound, and his late wife have travelled to Brazil, the Black Sea and many more places across the globe to get the best viewpoint of eclipses.
This will be, however, the first time that the centenarian will be seeing it without his wife, who passed away last year at 97.
The last time the couple shared the experience of seeing an eclipse together was in 2017 and Biser told Fox $ Dallas that “it was a good one”.
Biser grew a love for astronomy from his high school days in the 1930s. In rural Ohio, where he lived, the stars and moon shone bright above his family’s farmland. He later studied mechanical engineering at Ohio State University and made a career in designing planes at General Dynamics near Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth in the Lone Star State.
But the man never gave up his love for astronomy. As he worked, Biser made his own telescopes and planned visits to different states of the US and other countries where total solar eclipses were set to occur.
Carol Biser Barlow, his 76-year-old daughter, told the Post that she had been to 49 states in the US by the time she had finished her high school, thanks to the frequent road trips the family would make to see eclipses.
Barlow is hosting her veteran father for his 13th eclipse and said the latter’s obsession for the rare spectacles even influenced the date when she got married.
“I told my parents about two possible dates for my wedding — one on June 3rd and one on July 8th,” she told the newspaper.
“My dad said, ‘If you want me to give you away, you’ll have to pick the earlier date. I won’t be here on July 8th.’ He had an eclipse to get to,” she added.
Biser’s granddaughter is driving him from his Fort Worth residence to Barlow’s place in Plano for the eclipse since the sun is expected to be completely blocked by the moon for a minute more.
To an eclipse lover, that one minute is “a big deal,” he told the newspaper.
For Biser, who will turn 106 in June, this eclipse is immensely special since the next total solar eclipse visible from the US would only happen after two decades.
