J. Russell Coffey, the oldest World War I surviving veteran, passed away in Ohio at 109. He died on Thursday, according to the personnel of a nursing home in the town of North Baltimore.

He was one of only three U.S. veterans still living almost 90 years after the war ended. Harry Richard Landis, 108, of Sun City Center, and Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, West Virginia, are the surviving US veterans.

Moreover, 107-year-old John Babcock of Spokane, Wash., served in the Canadian army and is the last Canadian veteran of the war.

Although a war veteran, Coffey never engaged in combat with the enemy because he enlisted in October 1918 and was in basic training shortly before the Allies and Germany reached the cease-fire agreement in 1918. He was a student at Ohio State University when he decided to enlist in the army.

Approximately 4.7 million Americans enrolled in the military between 1917 and 1918.

Mr. Coffey died on Thursday at the Briar Hill Health Campus in North Baltimore, said nursing director Gaye Boggs for the AP.

"We're sure going to miss him. He was our most famous resident, that's for sure." Boggs said.

He had two older brothers who also fought in the war. Coffey was very disappointed in 1918 because the war ended before he shipped out, but he later confessed to the Associated Press in April 2007:

"I think I was good to get out of it."

After the war, Coffey returned to Ohio State University where he finished his bachelor's and master's degrees. He got a doctorate in education at New York University.