VALENCIA — Robert Kent has seen much in his lifetime; from flaming rivers in downtown Pittsburgh to fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II to marrying in the middle of a blizzard.

But now, Kent likes to turn his attention to something a little more celestial.

Kent of Valencia celebrates his 100th birthday today.

“We know how lucky we are to still have our dad,” said Lynn McIlroy, one of Kent’s three daughters, who lives in the North Hills.

Sitting in his room at daughter Bobbi Bartlett’s Valencia home, a computer behind him and a bookcase filled with science books and DVDs flanking the bed, Kent recalled almost a century of memories.

“There were so many things in life, it’s hard to remember them all,” he said.

Although he made his living as a salesman, Kent has had a lifelong interest in science and, with Bartlett, uses his telescope, which the family has dubbed “Yoda” for its squat shape, each night.

“My daughter and I look out this window at the moon,” he said. “The other night it was the most fabulous picture you’re ever going to see.”

Holding a stack of DVDs, McIlroy said her father is interested in “anything having to do with astronomy and astrophysics” and instilled that love of science in his children.

Ensconced in a dark blue recliner, a harmonica and Sodoku puzzle on the end table beside him, Kent recalled his childhood as the oldest of five children on Mount Washington, where his family kept chickens in the backyard.

After high school, Kent took a job at Standard Machine and Supply on Pittsburgh’s South Side. He and his brother were working there when Pittsburgh was flooded in 1936.

Looking out the window, the Kent brothers noticed the river, on fire from the flooding of a nearby gas station, swirling around the building. With part of the building already on fire, the pair had no choice but to jump. They swam to shore near the Liberty Bridge and walked up Mount Washington to home.

“That was quite an interesting excursion, I tell you,” Kent said.

A framed map on the wall beside his bed traces the path of the 42nd Infantry Division of which Kent was a part. Holding a hat displaying the infantry name, Kent recalled making a Christmas tree for the men in his unit.

“I was in charge of maintenance, radios and other equipment,” he said. “I cut a tree down, put little lights on it from the supply and (we used) the batteries for the radios to light the Christmas tree lights.”

Kent was married to his wife, Myrle, for 72 years. The pair, who met when he asked her to teach him how to dance, eloped in 1940 in the middle of a blizzard. They went on to have four children, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren with one more “on the way.” Myrle died in 2012.

“You can tell I had a nice family,” Kent said, motioning to a shelf filled with pictures of his children, and grandchildren. “Wonderful family. Wonderful.”

“He is the center of this family,” McIlroy said.

In addition to an interest in science, Kent keeps busy doing Sodoku puzzles and playing the harmonica, doing a rendition of “You Are My Sunshine,” that McIlroy says is the family’s cell phone ring tone.

Kent listed his secrets to reaching 100: good genes (his mother’s twin sister lived to 106), strong family ties, an interest in the world around him and lifelong learning and a good diet. Kent enjoys crab, seafood and corn on the cob.

The family plans to have a “one century celebration” in early January.

“We’ve had a good run,” McIlroy said.

“That’s right, a good life,” Kent added.