Gunnel Stenbäck, Finland’s oldest living person, dies at 110
The Gerontology Research Group is saddened to report news that Mrs. Gunnel Stenbäck, the oldest living person in Finland, passed away in Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland on 30 November 2024 at the age of 110 years, 70 days.
The supercentenarian case of Gunnel Stenbäck was meticulously examined and verified by Wacław Jan Kroczek, GRG Correspondent for Poland and Nordic Countries, and Henrik Stenbäck and validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) on 6 October 2024.
Gunnel Stenbäck was born in Lumparland, Åland Islands, Russian Empire (now Finland) on 21 September 1914 to parents Paul Sivard Stenbäck (1880–1965) and Hulda Cecilia Sofia Isaksson (1888–1953). She graduated from Kotka Lyceum High School in 1933. That same summer, during a Christian summer gathering in Kokkola, she discovered her life mission and calling. She received an invitation to apply to the Deaconess Institute, and the following year, she began her studies at the Helsinki Deaconess Institute’s Nursing School.
In 1943, she was ordained as a deaconess and served in that role for about ten years with the Swedish-speaking congregation of Sörnäinen. In 1956, Sister Gunnel was appointed head nurse at Rinnekoti, an institution for individuals with intellectual disabilities run by the Deaconess Institute. During the following decade, she pursued social policy studies at the University of Helsinki, earning her licentiate degree in political science in 1969. That same year, she was named Principal of Helsinki Diakonia College, the very school where she had begun her studies in 1934, though the school had undergone several name changes. A few years later, she was appointed director of the Deaconess Institute, a position she held until her retirement at the end of 1977.
On 13 January 2023, following the death of 110-year-old Sirkka Nieminen, she became the oldest living person in Uusimaa.
On 12 June 2024, following the death of 110-year-old Helvi Kissala, she became the oldest living person in Finland.
On 16 October 2024, following the death of 112-year-old Gunborg Hancock of Sweden, she became the oldest living Finnish-born person.
Following her death, the new oldest living person in Finland is 107-year-old Arvi Hämäläinen (born 16 January 1917) of Pirkanmaa, who already holds the title of oldest living man in Finland, since the death of 107-year-old Gunnar Stolt on 2 March 2024.