Retirement Means New Beginnings for CAS Alumni

Every 8 seconds, according to a National Public Radio report, another North American baby boomer has turned 60 since the beginning of 2006.  That adds up to 11,000 each day and 4.5 million each year.  Beyond their staggering numbers, what’s significant about this aging Boomer generation is that it’s retiring old notions of what it means to be retired.

America’s new breed of retirees isn’t planning to let life pass them by.  Rather, they’re using their later years to reinvent retirement by continuing to work, entering new careers, launching new businesses, serving as volunteers, going back to school, and pursuing other paths that build on the interests, skills, and wisdom they’ve developed over the years.

This trend complements two of the desired characteristics and capabilities fostered by SIUE’s College of Arts and Sciences—life-long learning and citizenship.  The college is dedicated to ensuring that its graduates acquire the ability and knowledge needed to become life-long learners and responsible citizens. 

Indeed, SIUE alumni are showing that they maintain a sense of curiosity, an appreciation for the process of learning, and an eagerness to participate in community affairs even into their retirement.

Jo Harmon Arnold (B.A. ’72, Sociology) is a case in point.  Arnold worked at Emerson Electric in St. Louis for forty years.  She began working there in the employment office as a clerical associate, and by retirement, she was Sr. Vice President.  In her position, Arnold was responsible for many of the administrative functions, involving executive compensation, the charitable foundation, and Emerson facilities throughout the world.

At retirement, Arnold was asked to consider a consulting agreement which requires her to work part-time.  She has now consulted for over two years, working primarily to represent Emerson on key boards and initiatives in the St. Louis community.

Arnold’s experience is consistent with the findings of an AARP survey which showed that seven out of ten workers 45 and older plan to work during their retirement years.  While earning money is a major motivator, one in three say they will work mainly for enjoyment and a sense of purpose.  Certainly, continuing to learn and contribute to society are invaluable elements of life-long personal fulfillment.

Arnold describes how the college’s efforts to instill an appreciation for the process of learning have been of great personal benefit:  “Clearly, my liberal arts and sociology background has been an asset in all these endeavors.  The broad exposure of a liberal arts education simply made me more curious about many different areas of life from the statistics of executive compensation to the cultural world of music and art.  Sociology and the study of group dynamics provided the underlying philosophy to help me in working with many different groups and cultures.”

A 2004 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that more than 2/3 of the respondents plan to volunteer for public serve or community organizations, and in addition to continuing to work, Arnold has maintained her interest in the culture and the arts by serving on a number of community boards.  Among them are the St. Louis Symphony, the Opera Theatre, the Urban League, Oasis, and Interlochen Academy for the Arts.

Bob Brock (M.S. ’71, Theater) is another alumnus who has dedicated much of his retirement to serving the local arts community.  Brock was an Army Officer at the time he received his master’s in 1971.  He ‘retired’ from the Army in 1979 after 21 years in uniform to begin his second career in software sales, marketing, and design, which lasted 13 years.  In 1992, Brock started his third career when he joined his wife’s Medicare home health agency as the Executive Vice President.  In 2003, the couple sold the agency and retired.

Throughout all the career changes, Brock has maintained a dedication to community theater work.  Even while stationed in Italy with the Army, he played Pseudolus in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and Biggley in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”  In addition to performing, Brock has also done some writing and directing over the years.

But Brock’s biggest passion is for opera.  “Since I was a teenager, I’ve been interested in opera.  I have always attended opera wherever I’ve lived (except, of course, in Vietnam during the war).”

Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, Brock has had such opportunities as directing Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love” and doing set and lighting design for Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors.”

Brock’s activity in the San Francisco Opera Guild began in 1985.  Now in retirement, he serves on the Board of Directors, as the Vice President of all the Guild Chapters, and as the Western Representative of the Board of Opera Volunteers International.  His main role in the local opera community, however, is as publisher of “Operabobb’s E-news,” an e-mail newsletter providing about 1,000 Bay Area opera fans with opera news and events.

Brock describes opera as “very prolific” in the San Francisco Bay Area, with 22 opera companies active in a 70 mile radius.

Jack Klobnak (B.A. ’73, Mass Communications) is another SIUE alumnus who stays tremendously active in his retirement years.  Klobnak retired as the Chairman/CEO of Laser Vision Centers, Inc., a publicly traded, NASDAQ listed company, in 2001 when it merged with TLC Laser Eye Centers to form TLC Vision.

“I was the entrepreneur who started the company literally from one desk and one phone.”  Klobnak’s role was to help build the company that, with the second excimer laser ever built, was the first to do laser refractive eye surgery on a commercial basis.

By the time of its merger, Klobnak’s company performed one out of every eight such surgeries in America, with additional centers in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Greece and Cyprus.  Laser Vision Centers, Inc. also designed several patented devices, one of which was named among the top ten advancements in ophthalmology in 1997.

After graduating from SIUE in 1973 with a degree in Mass Communications, Klobnak worked as a reporter and producer for radio and television.  He notes that the difference between a successful broadcaster and businessperson isn’t as big as one might think.  “You might say that the job of a broadcast producer is much like that of a CEO.  Both jobs need to be able to juggle many balls in the air simultaneously and work with a lot of different personalities.”

Now retired, Klobnak remains involved in business opportunities.  He is a strategic partner in one of the country’s largest life science venture capital firms, SV Life Sciences, and is the non-executive Chairman of one of the firm’s portfolio companies.

Like Arnold and Brock, Klobnak also makes community involvement a priority.  He is active with Better Living Communities, a Lutheran-based housing charity in North St. Louis.  By the spring of 2007, the organization will have built thirty-four new homes for low-income families on the north side.

Klobnak and his wife are also kept quite busy by their twelve-year-old daughter.  Between all of these responsibilities, Klobnak somehow finds time for his two personal passions—books and British automobiles.  He has restored two vintage British autos and enjoys taking them out on nice days, and he is an avid reader, devouring an average of three books each week.

Clearly, these alumni embody the characteristics that SIUE is committed to fostering in its graduates.  By continuing to challenge themselves and explore their creative abilities into retirement, they epitomize the spirit of life-long learning.   By further prioritizing community participation at the local, national, and global level, they model a responsible citizenship by which aging citizens engage in, rather than fade from, public life.

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