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With help from his walker and a family member, Ken Tebow makes the walk up and down his Westwood, Kansas, street almost every day.
"The heat doesn't bother me," Tebow said. "If it's raining hard, I do not like to get out, but a little bit of drizzle I'll get out."
One step at a time. That's how he says he takes his walks and his life.
He prides himself on staying active, whether it's outdoors or indoors on his treadmill .
Tebow enjoys listening to music, a fitting pastime considering it served as the soundtrack to his life for decades.
"I started playing the violin when I was in second or third grade," he said.
He also learned to play the trumpet, a skill that landed him in the National Guard Band before he joined the Army as a military bandsman in 1941.
That gig sent him overseas during World War II.
"But when the fighting got severe, the instruments were cased, and we picked up a rifle and went about our business," he recalls.
That included combat action at the Battle of the Bulge in Germany.
While he doesn't dwell on that aspect of his service, he does fondly recall playing music once the fighting was over for newly liberated European towns they were marching through.
"When we began to play for dances, and oh my, they loved that!" he said. "They enjoyed it so much that people were free to go out and dance and so on!"
He returned to the United States and the new bride he'd left behind. Tebow, of course, met his wife at a military band performance.
"We had a happy married life, and we just knew we had each other," he said with a smile.
Together they raised four children, helped out with 12 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Many of the children and grandchildren carried on his love of music.
And his influence reached beyond his own family.
He taught music students for 40 years, including many in Johnson County. He also formed an elite orchestra program for middle school students.
"I was just interested in making music, and giving them music that would inspire them in life," he said.
That inspiration continues to play out.
That's something we learned after we did a story with Ken when he turned 105 last summer.
We attended the surprise ice cream social put on by family and all his neighbors.
After that first story aired, one of Ken's former students, now living in North Carolina, reached out to us. He was excited to learn his favorite teacher was still alive.
"So when my friend in high school sent me a link to your article on the website, I was thrilled," John Gerken said. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me?"' Gerken said.
Now a member of the Raleigh, North Carolina, Symphony Orchestra, Gerken credits Ken, or "Mr. Tebow" as he still calls him, with fostering a lifelong love of music.
"He set the stage for all the music things that I've done in my life," Gerken said.
We were touched by what Gerken told us and we played some of that ZOOM interview for Ken.
"Well, I appreciate that, Ken said with a smile. "I remember John! It moves me."
As we talked about former students, Ken revealed there are others who went on to play professionally.
So, we caught up with a couple of them, too.
Elana James tours the country as part of a trio, "Hot Club of Cowtown," playing the same violin she once used in Ken's orchestra.
"Being a musician, you really kind of carry a piece of everyone who taught you something along the way," James said. "Every time I pick up a violin or I'm performing, he's there."
And that's a note echoed by another former student who tours the country playing music.
"He was just, he was really inspiring," Illana Katz said. "He made me want to play my best. I cannot thank Mr. Tebow enough for the foundation of music that I got."
While Ken, he might not be able to play the instruments he once loved, but, learning his lessons live on in so many of his students has been music to his ears.
"I had wonderful groups, wonderful parents, and I was just happy, happy, happy," he said with a big smile.
NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series Anchor Caitlin Knute does profiling people making a difference in their communities, often in unique ways. If you know someone we should profile, send Caitlin an email at Caitlin.Knute@kshb.com.
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