Ethel Percy Andrus Enriching generations of Americans By Craig Walker
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be accomplished by groups inspired by courage and vision. Grey Gables is r. Ethel Percy Andrus was 72 years old when she moved to Ojai in a realization that retired folk need not wait to be served by their younger 1954. She didn’t come here to retire, however; she came to create an innovative new retirement home. Along the way, she also built brethren but can build and administer their own future.” an organization that would revolutionize aging and retirement in In addition to Grey Gables, Dr. Andrus offered her NRTA members America. health insurance, travel programs, disAfter a successful 40-year career count medications, and many other in education, which included 28 years benefits. Soon, non-teacher retirees as principal of Lincoln High School began asking for these same benein Los Angeles, Dr. Andrus turned fits. In 1958, Dr. Andrus formed a new her attention to the plight of retired organization open to all retirees. She teachers, most of whom lived in povnamed it the American Association erty following the Great Depression. of Retired Persons, or AARP. In 1947, she founded the National For several years, she ran AARP Retired Teachers Association and out of her NRTA offices at Grey devoted the next few years to raising Gables. The organization grew so teacher pensions. quickly that the Ojai Post Office had One day, Dr. Andrus discovered to expand, and the Bank of America a retired teacher living in a chicken hired two new tellers to process the coop. She vowed that no retired memberships that rolled in. teacher would ever have to live like In 1964, Dr. Andrus built a pavilion that again. She set a new goal for at the New York World’s Fair where NRTA: to create a new kind of retireshe displayed a scale model of Grey ment home, where retired teachers Gables of Ojai. It was billed as “the Submitted photo future of retirement living in Ameron fixed incomes could live with Ethel Percy Andrus independence, dignity, and purpose. ica.” The next year, Andrus worked She wanted it to be a model for future with President Lyndon Johnson to retirement homes. pass the Older Americans Act that For two years, Dr. Andrus searched for guaranteed the rights of the elderly just the right location to create her new and instituted nondiscrimination Some of the dragons retirement home. She envisioned the laws. residents volunteering with NRTA and in Today, The Gables of Ojai is still we saw and resolved the local community. She saw the whole a beautiful and caring retirement operation as an experiment to discover home, though it is no longer owned to slay were loneliness, what retired people were capable of by NRTA. The organization that Dr. boredom and the and what kind of life they could build Andrus founded in Ojai, AARP, is now for themselves. She felt strongly that America’s largest nonprofit memterrible sense of the home should be located in a small, bership organization, with nearly 40 insecurity.” vibrant town where retired teachers million members. It stands as a legacy could continue to interact with peoto one Ojai woman’s vision of the ple of all ages and remain active in the new retirement — a retirement we community. can all look forward to with anticipation, instead of dread. In 1953, Dr. Andrus discovered Ojai. “Ojai is a small town with a big In his remarks following Dr. Andrus’ death at age 85, President Johnson vision,” she observed. Just the place to pursue her own sizable vision! She wrote: “The life of each citizen who seeks relentlessly to serve the national purchased a run-down old inn named “Grey Gables” that was located on good is a most precious asset to this land. And the loss of such a citizen the corner of Montgomery Street and Grand Avenue. She moved the is a loss shared by every American. In Ethel Percy Andrus, humanity had a NRTA offices onto the property, opened the facility to retired teachers, trusted and untiring friend. She has left us all poorer by her death. But by and set about to transform their lives. her enduring accomplishments, she has enriched not only us, but all “Some of the dragons we saw and resolved to slay were loneliness, succeeding generations of Americans.” boredom and the terrible sense of insecurity,” she wrote. “Grey Gables is To view the pdf of the new book about Dr. Andrus, visit: more than a residence or clubhouse of retired folk. It symbolizes what can https://www.aarp.org/content/.
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