100-year-old man dies of coronavirus after losing twin to Spanish flu
A 100-year-old Long Island man who lost his twin brother to the Spanish flu has died of the coronavirus — in a case of two pandemics devastating one family a century apart.
Philip Kahn, a decorated World War II veteran from Great Neck, succumbed to the illness last week after surviving the Great Depression and a deadly sniper attack, said his grandson Warren Zysman.
“My grandfather Phil and his brother were pandemic bookends,” Zysman, 39, told The Post. “He knew the devastation of the first one — and he told me, ‘Warren my boy, history repeats itself.'”
Born on Dec. 15, 1919, as the Spanish flu raged — ultimately killing up to 50 million people worldwide —Kahn’s twin brother, Samuel, perished from the virus after living only a few weeks.
Kahn grew up the son of a Manhattan baker before joining what was then the Army Air Forces, and co-piloting missions over Iwo Jima during World War II.
“He was loving guy with blue collar values who worked hard his whole life, and took on dangerous jobs,” Zysman said. “The fact that he lost his twin so early always rang in his mind; he would bring it up a lot.”
During the war, Kahn lived through a sniper attack and a booby trap that hurled him 15 feet into the air, knocking him unconscious and causing him hearing loss.
Decades later, as an electrical foreman, he helped build the Twin Towers — and eventually had two twin grandchildren of his own.
He was later praised as the oldest living veteran in Nassau County, and photographs he took during the war were displayed at the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan.
When the coronavirus outbreak exploded earlier this year, he spoke to his grandkids about the weight of the crisis.
“He was still with it, and he told me ‘I was alive on this earth during the last pandemic — and it’s going to happen again,’” Zysman said.
Kahn fell ill at his home before passing away soon after on April 17.
At his funeral, his grandchildren and great-grandkids gave heartfelt virtual speeches.
“I just want to tell him thank you for all he’s done for us,” his 9-year-old great-grandson Elliot said, according to CBS New York. “He loved us and we loved him the same.”