LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― The world’s oldest man, Walter Breuning, whose first memories included the day U.S. president William McKinley was shot in 1901, has died at age 114, the retirement home where he lived said Friday.

Breuning was the second oldest person in the world, 26 days younger than American woman Besse Cooper, according to the Gerontology Research Group which tracks the world’s oldest centenarians.

He was a retired rail worker who attributed his longevity to eating only two meals a day for the past 35 years.

Breuning was born in Melrose, Minnesota, on Sept. 21, 1896, and moved to Great Falls in 1918, finding work with the Great Northern Railway.

Breuning married Agnes Twokey in 1922. They had no children, and she died in 1957. Breuning never remarried.