A 90-year-old New Iberia welder says he has no plans to hang up his torch.

Adam Lenard says he’s a welder through and through. Lenard keeps busy doing what he’s done nearly all his adult life.
 
“I get up in the morning. I come in here. Nobody bothers me and I work. That’s all,”  Lenard added.
 
Adam says he was born and raised on a farm. At 17 years old, he started working with a welder.  He says that’s what sparked his interest.
 
“If I stop and tell you to do something, just listen. Don’t answer me and say that you know better,” Lenard said.
 
Lenard said he didn’t work as a welder right away. He did a bit of moving from job to job. “I was working there cleaning yards. Well, I had to work for a living, you know?”
 
Lenard says it was that same job that lit the path to his welding career. “I said ‘Look, if you get a welding machine and a torch here, I’ll fix the bracket for you.’  He said ‘You’re joking.’ I said ‘No sir. I’ll fix it for you.'”  

Lenard says that was it. He was a working welder — from there on out. “It got so big I had six other guys under me.”
 
Eventually, at age 76 he retired. “I said you know something; it’s time for me to retire. I told them I was retiring. They didn’t believe I was retiring.”
 
He has his own welding shop. He said his wife from time to time wishes he would take a break and truly retire the torch. 
 
“When God tells me ‘That’s the end of it. Stop!’ I’m going to stop,” Lenard said.
 
“I can say I did everything I wanted to do or accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish. That’s it,” Lenard said.