Exactly 100 years ago today, a baby boy was born to Richard and Bertha Bird of Salt Lake City, who named the child after his father.

You might want to wish Richard Bird a happy birthday today.

You can catch him at his law office.

But call ahead of time. He might be busy with a client.

All centenarians get to 100 a little differently. Richard got there by going to work.

"My feeling is that people who stop working die," he said. "This (coming daily to the office) keeps me interested, it keeps me alive, and that's why I continue to do it."

And so far, no one's been able to prove him wrong.

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I first heard about Richard Bird a month ago when a reader, Dave Brunelle, sent me the following e-mail:

"I wanted to tell you about my attorney. He was recommended to me by a friend for my divorce 20 years ago. He said, 'He's 80 years old, (but) he is really good and cheap.' Somewhat skeptical, I used him, and several times since, never losing a case. He turns 100 in April, goes to work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday. This amazing Utahn deserves recognition while he is here to get it."

I immediately called Richard Bird at his office. He picked up the phone on the second ring. He agreed to an interview on one condition: I couldn't write anything about him turning 100 until he actually made it.

"I don't want to jinx it," he said.

For context, he told me about a brother-in-law of his who made it to 99 1/2, came home from church one Sunday, and never saw Monday.

So I kept my promise until the Big Day — today. Richard Bird has not only turned 100, but he still has his driver's license (it expires in 2010), his downtown law practice, his wood-paneled law office and a mind that remains, if my recent conversation with him is any indication, as sharp as the day he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1933.

He worked at a variety of assignments in a law career 74 years and counting, including a stint with the federal government in Washington, D.C., before settling into private practice in 1943. He's been running his own firm ever since. First it was Richards & Bird, then Richards, Bird & Hart, and currently Richards, Bird & Kump.

Bird's son David, 53, earned a law degree and joined his dad's firm when Richard was 72.

"I thought I'd practice with him for a few years," said David, who has now worked side-by-side with his father for 28 years.

The decor in Richard Bird's office suggests this is a man who does not look backward. There are no mementos or plaques on the walls save one: a certificate that authorized him to present cases in the United States Supreme Court in the 1930s, when he worked for the Justice Department.