Allen Beermann says he’s graduated from being kiddingly known as the “state fossil” to being officially declared “the state’s oldest living relic.” But after nearly five decades in the public eye, the 79-year-old is about to take on a new title: “retired.”

Beermann, who served as Nebraska secretary of state from 1971 to 1995, will end 24 subsequent years as the executive director of the Nebraska Press Association on Jan. 31.

Read the entire story here.