Roctogenarians: University Professor Looks at Late-in-Life Achievers in New Book

Not everyone is an early starter. Although many people may become famous, build thriving businesses or make ground-breaking discoveries at a young age, there have always been late-in-life achievers who are just getting going when most of us are planning our retirements.

Montclair State University English Professor Jonathan Greenberg and CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca have come out with a new book titled Roctogenarians, Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs, which is a collection of stories that feature the inspiring lives and achievements of some of these exceptional elders who made their mark late in life.

Profiling people like Colonel Sanders, who was in his 60s when he founded the restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken, or Mary Church Terrell, who at 86 helped lead sit-ins at segregated Washington, D.C., lunch counters in the 1950s, the book is a celebration of those who live life to the fullest.

Here are some highlights from Roctogenarians, Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs and Greenberg’s thoughts…

…On Roctogenarians and what makes them special

It’s not just advanced years that make a person a Roctogenarian, Greenberg says, but an outlook on life – a certain mindset.

“A Roctogenarian is a person who rejects the basic cultural narrative that age is necessarily a story of decline and diminishing powers, and instead sees every new phase of life as a chance for new opportunities, a return to forgotten or neglected dreams and ambitions, or just a chance to build further on things that they already have accomplished,” explains Greenberg.

Going against the cultural norms of what older people should be and do is also very Roctogenarian, Greenberg notes. “We’re looking at a culture that says by the time you round into maybe your third act of life, it’s time to start packing it in, and here we’re saying, “Here are dozens of stories of people, famous and not famous, who have done just the opposite.’”

…On a few Roctogenarians featured in the book – famous and not

The lives and achievements of Mel Brooks, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Diana Nyad, Clara Peller, Peter Mark Roget and many others, some with household names, some without, are featured in Roctogenarians. Here are three that Greenberg highlights:

• Colonel Sanders – After working a lifetime in different jobs – including a roadside chicken and biscuit eatery in Georgia – at age 65, starting with nothing but a couple pressure cookers, a bag of seasoning, his $105 Social Security check and his ambition, Harland David Sanders set out and founded Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and turned it into a worldwide franchise empire. He is a good example of someone who took an idea and did something brand new, becoming a pioneer in franchising.
• Tyrus Wong – A hugely talented artist, Tyrus Wong exhibited his paintings and also worked for numerous companies, most notably Disney, for which he was the lead production illustrator for the 1942 classic animated film, Bambi. He revolutionized the Disney look but wasn’t officially recognized for it until 2001, when he was inducted as a Disney Legend at age 91. Wong continued to create art and receive awards until his death at 106.
• Henri Matisse – One of the great French artists of the 20th century, Henri Matisse was successful and celebrated throughout his life but a series of struggles when he was in his 70s – including divorce, World War II, cancer and the resulting surgeries – left him unable to paint. Instead of giving up art, he turned to a new medium, cut-outs or cut paper collages. With help from his assistants, he would cut shapes out of sheets of colored paper and arrange them to form compositions. It became an entirely new and celebrated phase of his career that continued until his death nearly 15 years later.

…On what Roctogenarians have in common – 3 shared attributes

Although no two individuals are entirely alike, Greenberg speaks of three attributes or qualities that are common in Roctogenarians and shared by most of them:

• Freedom. As people get older, they tend to stop caring as much about what other people think – a kind of freedom from needing the approval of others.
• Awareness. Awareness of time becomes more acute for many Roctogenarians and they may become aware of their own mortality in a new way, resulting in a “now-or-never” attitude. One such person was Frank McCourt, who wrote Angela’s Ashes as a first-time author at 65, saying “If I hadn’t finished it, I would’ve died howling with despair.”
• Drive. There are certain people who just don’t want to stop and Frank Lloyd Wright was one of them. He had already enjoyed a remarkable career when, at age 76, he was approached to design a museum for New York City. He didn’t have to do it; his legacy was already ensured, but he took on the challenge and spent the next 15 years working on the Guggenheim Museum.

…On how anyone can become a Roctogenarian

Greenberg has some suggestions for anyone who wants to make the most of their later years and become a Roctogenarian.

“Sometimes it’s as simple as going back to what you loved doing at 16, 25 or 30,” he says. “My cowriter, Mo Rocca, did a bit on WNYC public radio in New York and people were calling in and saying ‘I’m a Roctogenarian!’ and telling their stories. For some people, it’s the artistic side of themselves, for some people it’s even athletics.”

Greenberg says another mini-narrative in the book is about people who had basically dropped their dreams or ambitions and later returned to pick them back up. An example from the book is the guitarist Brian May of the rock band Queen.

“Brian May, when he joined Queen with Freddie Mercury, was working on a PhD in astrophysics in London,” Greenberg relates. “Obviously, he couldn’t do both so he gave up the astrophysics and became a rock star. When he was nearing 60, he mentioned it in an interview and the chairman of his old department wrote to him and asked ‘Do you want to pick up your old research?’ May went back and completed his PhD in astrophysics at 60 and became a consulting expert in the field of spectroscopy.”

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