As a newsman, Toby O’Notterby, 95, has seen it all. It wasn’t until the past three years, however, that he started reporting on it. Born January 1, 1913, O’Notterby was the New Years baby of Mary St. Catherine’s Home for Unwed Mothers outside Boise, Idaho. Technically he was the second baby born that night, but the first was sold for drugs and thus O’Notterby won the title. O’Notterby grew up poor, subsisting mostly on rat poison and discarded shoes. Eventually he learned a trade and grew to prominence as one of Mary St. Catherine’s top potato peelers, just like his unwed mother and her unwed mother before her.

By the time he was 16, O’Notterby was the most powerful potato-peeling magnate in Greater Boise, with franchises as far away as Garden City. But then on Oct. 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. Which wouldn’t have been so bad, but O’Notterby also accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with a potato peeler. Now without depth perception, he could never “skin a spud” again. Penniless, he moved to New York City, where he soon found great success as a bum.

In 1941, O’Notterby was elected King of the Hobos by the United Panhandlers Local 432. As King he was privileged to the finest day-old fish remains, the most succulent of rats, and the least-soiled newspapers to sleep under. It was then, lying beneath the lights of Times Square and browsing the business section of the New York Herald Tribune, that O’Notterby developed a love for the printed word.

That passion grew in 1952, when O’Notterby learned to read.

For the next 50 years, O’Notterby would read every scrap of newspaper, pamphlet, flier and used prophylactic wrapper that passed through his ink-and-feces-stained hands. By 2002, at age 89, O’Notterby realized his calling: He was going to be a journalist. He was accepted to The New School and given a full scholarship, plus some lovebeads and a dime bag of marijuana. He graduated in 2005, and almost immediately found work at USA Tomorrow, where they’re desperate for writers.

In March 2007, O’Notterby won Employee of the Month at USA Tomorrow for being the only employee not to steal office supplies. He dedicated the award to his unwed mother, who taught him to always follow his dreams, or at least hook up with them later.