>https://developers.slashdot.org/story/18/02/12/1959248/the-quest-to-find-the-longest-serving-programmer
>
>Throw your hat in the ring?

I wrote my first (functioning) program for the IBM 705II in 1958.
To be fair I went into management in 1959 (more money!!) and, except for an occasional short program, stayed away from programming for a couple of decades, so I don't know whether or not I'd qualify as a "programmer" back then.
I did the bulk of my programming after I left the corporate world during the mid 1980's.

This amazing fella, a good friend, probably had the record till he died in 2016.
A dinner with Zel was both enjoyable and educational.
He was quite a man.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zel-landy-52601618/