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we have been having these past few weeks. During this crazy pandemic, people have been working from home, and hopefully, they stay home when possible. Although it is tough some days to not go directly to the store when you run out of milk or stay home when we want to visit the library, it has been important to remember that people over age 60 are susceptible to illnesses of all types. HAT AN ADVENTURE
This issue of 60-Plus is a part of our Adventure Issue, and we are spotlighting some marvelous people who have been on unique adventures over the past year, decade, and longer. Our Active Living is about Pat Whitaker, who has been skeet shooting for six decades. He has also been a friend and mentor to many young skeet shooters as a coach for shooting teams. In another article, we profile Sandra Martin, an Omahan in her 70s who undertook a solo trip to Israel to study the Jewish tradition of Kabbalah. Suffering from foot pain certainly is not fun, but, although it afflicts many seniors, it can be avoided. Michael Zimmerman, DPM, of CHI Health Clinic Foot and Ankle explains how and why taking care of your feet is important. And if you want to talk about adventurous people, Ron Cooley has spent his life living one adventure after another. As the guitar player for Mannheim Steamroller, he spent years traveling from one worldwide locale to the next, often performing in more than one city each week. He has also mentored many students as an instructor at Creighton University. Spring has sprung, and it is a great time to have an adventure.
Contributing Editor
Pat Whitaker MAY 2020 • 60PLUS
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ACTIVE LIVING // Story by Jeff Lacey // Photography by Bill Sitzmann // Design by Derek Joy
A QUIET EYE ON SIX DECADES OF SPORT SHOOTING THE HARRY A. KOCH TRAP AND SKEET RANGE in Omaha is open every day but
Monday. The field house has a great wall of windows that looks out on to the shooting ranges and the muffled, deliberate sound of shotgun fire can be heard outside. The field house is spacious and peaceful, and sport shooters sit, drink coffee, watch people shoot, and talk about life.
One of those shooters is Pat Whitaker. Whitaker visits the range three or four times a week to help coach the Iowa Western Sport Shooting Team and to shoot on his own. At 78, he is handsome, bright-eyed, and humble. Sitting down for a cup of coffee with him, one might not suspect that he is revered in the Omaha sport shooting community; they might never guess he had at one time been a world champion in the sport, or that he once set sport-shooting records in military competition. >>
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<< Whitaker hails from Midland, Texas, and learned how to shoot from his father, hunting dove and quail on those arid western plains. Then he joined the Army, where he served actively for 24 years. He completed three tours in Vietnam, and was an infantry officer. Eventually, he earned a spot in the Army’s competitive marksmanship unit. Insofar as his accomplishments as a marksman go, a highlight of his career was winning a world championship. These days, the National Skeet Shooting Association conducts annual championships at their home grounds in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to the establishment of that facility, the championships rotated among a handful of facilities large enough to accommodate several hundred competitors. In 1972, Rochester, New York, was the selected site. One of the events was a 200-target event that embraced international rules, requiring a low gun starting position, variable delayed release of the target, and speedier targets overall. Whitaker won that championship. The month prior to that, he lost a shoot-off for second place in the Olympic selection shoot in Phoenix, Arizona (He was the alternate for the Munich Games), and two months before that, he won the Inter-Service Military Championships, setting a then national record in the process.
Range supervisor Ryan Glow said Whitaker’s presence is an absolute gift to the facility, and to sport shooting. “He’s just a great ambassador to the sport,” Glow explained. “Pat helps out with everything that he can around here. He helps coach the college teams and the high school teams. He has even been coaching me for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been shooting competitively for 15 years.” Glow said Whitaker stands out as a teacher for his experience and his ability to understand the individual needs of each student. “He’s been around the world, he’s seen everything. He’s shot a little bit of every discipline. He’s been there, and he knows what he’s talking about. He also knows how to connect with different kids. He knows how to get a thought across. It doesn’t work the same way with every kid, and he knows how to switch up his teaching tactics to help each student.” Shooting skeet appears to be a simple activity that most people can imagine a basic version of. The shooter stands, gun cradled in the shoulder, eyes cast out into open air. When ready, the shooter calls pull, and from one of two towers (referred to as the high tower and the low tower, set across from each other exactly 120 feet, nine inches) the orange target
“Whitaker’s presence is an absolute gift to the facility, and to sport shooting. He’s just a great ambassador to the sport.” Ryan Glow When asked about this list of honors, Whitaker, true to the fundamentals of his sport, keeps his eyes out front. “Whatever accomplishments I have I don’t really worry about now. Those things are nice, but what I like now is to stay active and teach others the sport.” So he does. He is a regular at the Koch Range on 68th and Harrison streets, showing up several days a week to guide young shooters who are learning the craft of shotgun sports—which, incidentally, is the second-fastest-growing collegiate sport, only bested in growth rate by competitive bass fishing.
He especially loves the sense of teamwork he sees develop on a shotgun team. “Particularly on the high school teams, there is a wonderful sense of team play that many kids get to experience who might not be able to otherwise. We don’t cut. Everybody can shoot. There’s a great sense of teamwork.” His most memorable student would probably be his own son, Nash (currently an emergency room physician in Indianapolis). “I taught him to shoot as my dad taught me, with the same shotgun, an Ansley Fox, side-by-side, 20-gauge,” Whitaker said. “We’ve shot a lot of father-son events. He’s a good shot. He’s salty, too.” It is obvious when talking to Whitaker that he loves the sport deeply, and that he loves mentoring others in the art and science of shotgun marksmanship. He radiates kindness. However, Whitaker is no ostrich as far as the current cultural issues surrounding guns go. He is very aware of how culturally charged the subject is. The career Army infantry officer and expert marksman explained his current feelings on the subject: “I do not belong to the NR A. I resent when any organization starts to direct me how to vote. I am against assault rifles. I don’t feel they have a role in our society. But I also fear losing our second amendment rights to overreach. I love to hunt, I love sport shooting.” “Where’s the voice of reason?” he continued. In 2018, Whitaker was inducted into the Nebraska Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame. Some might take that as a sign to rest on your accomplishments. Whitaker, true once again to the principles of his sport, has no such intention. At 78, he has his eyes out front, ready with a steady hand to teach the sport he loves when the chance comes.
leaps as quick as a thought. The moment is a blink, a breath, a reflex; the gunshot cracks and echoes; the target sails free, or, if hit, shatters (either in part, or completely). Then the moment is over. While the act appears straightforward, Whitaker said a great number of things need to converge in the hands, eyes, and mind of the shooter in order to make those few seconds a display of accuracy and grace. As an instructor, Whitaker is patient and focused, an expert at offering only the advice the shooter needs. He has done this with countless sport shooters, including 20 years assisting the Creighton Prep trap team. MAY 2020 • 60PLUS
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To Israel With Love THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME M U S T B E TA K E N E V E RY DAY ~PROFILE // Story by Sara Locke // Photography Contributed // Design by Derek Joy~
I
T IS A brave soul
who feels a calling to travel, drops everything, and crosses the world for a journey of selfexploration. What makes Sandi Martin’s journey of discovery more unique is that it came long after she had built a life she loved, and felt no need to escape from.
“The trip was a surprise to many people,” Martin mused. “That a woman over 70 would take off on a solo trip across the world.” Unlike many people who plan adventures during a time of transition or to escape a stagnated existence, Martin wasn’t lost, alone, or aimless. A noted writer, devoted mother, and faithful member of the Jewish community, she was living a fulfilling and happy life. She wasn’t trying to get away, she was diving deeper.
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~Finding the Questions~ “I’d reached a point where I realized I still needed some answers,” Martin said. “What is my purpose? Am I a body with a soul, or a soul with a body? Why is there evil?” As she searched her faith for answers to the eternal questions, Kabbalah, the ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible, became her Rosetta Stone. Martin became interested in Kabbalah after taking classes led by Rabbi M. Mendel Katzman of the ultraorthodox organization ONE Chabad. While many are familiar with Kabbalah through its commoditization by celebrities such as Madonna, true practice isn’t through a book or a bracelet. It may seem to be a Hollywood dream, but to the faithful practitioners here in Omaha, it embraces the soul of Judaism.
“It’s not as visible here as it is in Israel, of course,” Martin said. “In big ways and small, there are people practicing all over Omaha. Kabbalah is the way you live. It is both the showing of and feeling of true gratitude. After spending more time with people who knew more than I did, believed and worshiped and practiced differently, I really felt the call to make my first trip.” Having explored Europe with friends previously, Martin knew this call was more than a case of wanderlust. In October 2018, she took her first trip to Israel through Amiel Tours. The tour stopped in Tsfat, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Golan Heights. A valuable spiritual resource during this time was her own rabbi, Rabbi Emeritus Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel. He spent time with Martin, helping her plan classes and activities to attend while in Israel.
“There’s a saying among visitors, ‘You go to Israel the first time to see where you want to come back to.’ In my case, that’s exactly what happened. I needed more time in Tsfat.” Soon after her initial return, Martin applied for an Albert and Eleanor Feldman Family Israel Foundation grant through the Jewish Federation of Omaha. The foundation’s purpose is to implement and enhance the relationship of Jews in Omaha with Israel. She readied herself to spend nearly a month solo in Israel.
~Across the World in a Click~ Prior to her 2019 trip, Martin learned of Yedidah Cohen, an experienced practitioner and guide of the Kabbalah practice who lives in Israel. Cohen offers courses online leading students through the text, creating a safe place to explore and learn in a small community. Those like Martin, who make the journey to Tsfat, are able to explore the texts with Cohen in person. “One day I finally asked Yedidah, ‘Why do we struggle with good and evil? Why do good people still fight this battle?’ and she told me that the ego shouts, but the soul whispers.” Laurie Rappeport, owner of Myrtle the Turtle Guest House in Tsfat, has seen visitors of every kind since purchasing the space in 1987. Out of all of these stories, she remembers Martin’s courage and kindness during her stay in the cottage.
“The trip was a surprise to many people,” Martin mused. “That a woman over 70 would take off on a solo trip across the world.” “Sandi was really open to the whole experience, welcoming even the unpleasant aspects of travel with grace and warmth,” Rappeport said. “She didn’t speak the language, but was very patient. She didn’t let the language barrier stop her from immersing herself in the experience.”
~The Reverence of Effort~ Martin casually recalled the physical effort of the trip, which she references as a metaphor to the religion. “It’s no coincidence that the destination was difficult to access,” Martin said. “There was, of course, the plane, the train, and walking, but a surprising amount of climbing. I had to be as strong of body to finish this experience as I was strong of spirit to start it. But by the time I got home and should have been exhausted, I found myself ready to endure the rest of the journey. I’m ready to keep listening, to keep learning without judgement.”
Martin stated that while she hasn’t ruled out another trek to Israel, the lesson she brought back was that it wasn’t where she was going that made the trip revelatory. It was the act of making a decision to ask a question, to move toward truths, and to embrace the journey. “It’s not about finding answers, it’s about finding the courage to ask the questions, and to listen to the whispers. It was affirming to realize that I was the only one who could limit myself, in how much I can do and how much I can learn.” Realizing that there will always be more to learn doesn’t present as an insurmountable task to Martin. Rather, it shows that this is a story that doesn’t end, and whose next chapters she has yet to write.
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biggest mistake people make is not getting “ The treatment soon enough. A lot of the people in that age group, especially. They wait until the pain is more severe, especially when it comes to deformity issues, like hammertoes and bunions. - Michael Zimmerman
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HEALTH // Story by Linda Persigehl // Design by Derek Joy
Seniors & Foot Pain Need Not Be Inseparable EARLY CARE, NEW TREATMENTS OFFER PROMISE
M
ICHAEL ZIMMERMAN, DPM,
a podiatrist and foot surgeon with CHI Health Clinic Foot & Ankle, sees a lot of seniors in his practice. Whether the cause is age-related, such as arthritis or stress fractures from brittle bones, or injury-related, from an accident or overuse, debilitating foot pain affects many in their golden years, prohibiting them from living their best life.
Unfortunately, many of them come to him after suffering in silence far too long. “The biggest mistake people make is not getting treatment soon enough,” Zimmerman said. “A lot of the people in that age group, especially. They wait until the pain is more severe, especially when it comes to deformity issues, like hammertoes and bunions. “If treated early, they could have a faster, easier recovery. Instead, the treatment plan takes longer, is more extensive.” It’s estimated than one in four adults over the age of 45 suffer from foot pain, which can greatly affect one’s mobility and balance. In fact, one study showed foot pain was associated with a 62% increased risk of falls. Maintaining good foot health as one gets older is vital to maintaining overall health and an active lifestyle. With 26 bones, 33 joints, and dozens of muscles, tendons, and ligaments, the foot is a complex system that needs personal attention. Zimmerman said many foot ailments affecting seniors can simply be avoided with good practices. “Age, overuse, injury or strain, not allowing injuries to properly heal, improper shoe gear…these are all causes of foot pain,” Zimmerman said. “And in many cases these causes are not completely unpreventable.”
One of the most common ailments Zimmerman sees is seniors is plantar fasciitis, which is caused by inflammation of the tendon, or fascia, that runs along the bottom of the foot and connects the toes to the heel. “There’s general pain at the insertion point where the fascia hits the heel bone, and it can vary from a sharp, stabbing pain to a just an ache,” he said. “The pain is worst when you first awake and step out of bed or walk barefoot.” While rest and icing the sore fascia help relieve the pain, Zimmerman said stretching the achilles tendon first thing in the morning and several times throughout the day is the at-home therapy he recommends most. “All-day management offers the best outcome for treatment and prevention.” If at-home therapy fails, he typically prescribes the patient anti-inflammatory medication, or prescription medication such as oral steroids. “We also may try over-the-counter orthotics, sometimes prescription orthotics….Maybe steroid injections at the pain site, or physical therapy. “Typically, 80-95% of patients see signs of improvement within four to six weeks” with these treatments, he said. “A combination of therapies is best, not just one modality.” Rarely is surgery needed. Zimmerman said patients must try conservative therapies for at least six months (with little success) before surgery is initiated. “Only then do we take an MRI and determine the right surgical treatment. (After surgery), the patient walks in a boot for a week or so, then moves to normal shoe wear.”
Another very common foot ailment Zimmerman sees in seniors is Achilles tendonitis, which is typically caused by overuse/injury of the Achilles tendon—the largest tendon in the body—which connects lower calf muscles to the heel bone. Like plantar faciitis, tendonitis can be treated with eccentric (or elongation) stretching. “(For the Achilles) this involves stretching the tendon by placing your foot on a step so the heel hangs off, then slowly lowering the heel, elongating the tendon,” Zimmerman said. “Patients should do this three to five times a day and hold for 10 to 15 seconds each time.” Treatment may also require placing a heel lift in the shoe—full time at first, then gradually less time—to relieve some of the tension on the heel. These inserts can be bought over the counter at retailers like The Good Feet Store or Kohll’s Pharmacy. Should stretching and heel lifts not prove sufficient, physical therapy, including deep tissue massage, and anti-inflammatory medication (either oral or topical) may be prescribed. “Again, surgery is a last resort,” he said. Zimmerman said he’s encouraged by a host of newer foot pain treatments that are being employed by physical therapists to treat plantar fasciitis and tendonitis, including dry needling. The technique, also called myofascial trigger point needling, uses a thin filiform needle to go through the skin and stimulate underlying muscular and connective tissue for pain management. “It’s similar to acupuncture, but the treatment goes to one area,” he said. Another cutting-edge treatment showing promise is platelet-rich plasma injections, or PRPs, Zimmerman said. The treatment involves extracting the patient’s own blood platelets and injecting them into the injured muscles, ligaments, and other body tissues to accelerate the healing process. Though some patients seek great benefits from rehab treatments, over-the-counter solutions, and physical therapy, there are still those who require surgical solutions. However, there is progress on that front, Zimmerman said, encouragingly. “We’re also doing more minimally invasive procedures, too, which involve smaller incisions and sometimes using cameras to do surgery, rather than a large, open surgery,” he said. “These allow for a faster recovery.”
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FEATURE // STORY BY JENNIFER LITTON // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
Omaha's
Ron CooleY & His Global Adventures MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER MUSICIAN Ron Cooley was led to his life’s work through the guitar he found of his father’s while in high school exploring his grandparents’ house. “I was real happy to find that guitar and I basically taught myself for most of the early years,” Cooley said. Cooley has a master’s degree in period composition and music education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. After nearly 50 years on the road, touring in vans, buses, commercial flights, and private jets, at age 71, he’s officially retired. Now, he plays where he wants, when he wants…which is quite often, actually. He performs jazz before the Creighton Bluejays men’s basketball games and plays to tourists at Gorat’s during Berkshire week. On Sunday mornings, he plays in the Freedom Choir during Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
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C
OOLEY WAS BORN in South Dakota, where his father, William, attended college on the G.I. Bill after returning from World War II. The family moved to Omaha for a job and lived near 16th and Lake streets before moving to Florence. He remembers his dad riding the trolley car to work at his job with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in the early 1950s.
Cooley’s music adventures took him to Guam at age 22 when his band, Pilot, played a twomonth gig at a Japanese hotel during the last years of the Vietnam conflict. “There was a lot of peace and love songs. We were hippies.” He said their style didn’t go over well there. “A lot of the enlisted men liked us, but the generals wanted to put our band off limits.” Cooley knew the owners wanted to fire the band, but they couldn’t find anyone else to replace them. “We learned a whole new repertoire while we were there. It was a unique experience,” he said. After returning to the United States, the band broke up. He then moved to Boston and studied with jazz guitarist Mick Goodrick, but he soon returned to Omaha where, in 1974, he met Mannheim Steamroller founder Chip Davis. The duo toured the nation with country artist C.W. McCall of 1970s “Convoy” fame. Cooley remembers when Mannheim Steamroller played in Germany in the early 1990s. “I would get up and walk the streets of whatever city we were in,” Cooley said. “It was so much fun.” Those years were busy for him. On Mondays and Tuesdays he would teach music at Creighton University. Todd Fink of the bands The Faint and CLOSENESS took his first guitar class with Cooley when he was a freshman at Creighton University. “I liked it so much that I ultimately decided to major in classical guitar,” Fink said. “It was a long road. I mean, I had a lot to learn. I think the most valuable thing I learned from him was how to listen to all of the simultaneous melodies in the music and make each of them really sing.” Fink says you can play all of the notes in a piece of music but it doesn’t really sound musical until you are hearing the components (melody, harmony, and bass) separately and understand how they relate to each other. “The clearer your understanding, the better you can communicate the music. I still think about the music I make this same way,” he said. “Ron is a fantastic player and an ideal teacher. He taught me classical guitar, but knowing that he knew other guitar styles— blues, jazz, rock, etc., made him relatable.” // 120 //
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“In my mind, I have him as a king, emperor, prime minister. He’s just a wonderful man.” - Doug Fackler After teaching students who would soon become rock stars like Fink, Cooley would visit a different city with Mannheim Steamroller, stay for four or five days, and perform seven shows. “We did that for about five years,” Cooley said. “Then we started doing arenas.” As Mannheim Steamroller’s fame progressed, so did their entourage. “We went from one truck to eight trucks for arenas. It was huge,” Cooley said. They played a show, then the crew loaded the trucks and moved forward. Cooley continued, “The band would get in Chip’s jet and we’d fly to do The Tonight Show or the Today show or Good Morning America.” His still remembers the heat of volcano lava while touring Hawaii during down-time for a gig. He played a duet with the Welsh diva Charlotte Church thanks to a connection he met on the road. “It was just me and her and the orchestra,” Cooley remembered. He toured Captain Cook Cove with his wife, Christine. He met presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush when Mannheim Steamroller played at the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. And while he’s met two different leaders of the free world, musician Doug Fackler regards Cooley in near equal stature. “In my mind, I have him as a king, emperor, prime minister. He’s just a wonderful man,” said Fackler, former bandmate of Cooley’s in Omaha’s River City All-Stars, a popular rock band in the 1980s. “Ron is the godfather of musicians and rock and roll,” he said. “It seems like at Disneyworld one of the questions they ask is ‘Is that the way that Walt would have done it?’” Fackler continued. “Walt Disney had his way of doing it and it’s always put the people first and build up the talented people around you, and Ron is very similar to that. He always takes people into consideration.”
“It seems if you’re going to make a change in your band like in personnel, logically, we would say, ‘well, you’d better talk to Ron first because Ron would give you all of the inside because he’d have all the answers,” he said. Fackler first saw Cooley play at Sandy’s Escape, a popular teenage hot spot in in Benson during the mid-1960s. “He was playing in a great band, L.A. Carnival.” Eventually the two began to play together. “We took our acoustic guitars and played them with no borders,” Fackler said. “One of us had a tambourine on our foot and we had an old parade drum that we would use to keep beat. Just to widen things out. It was a lot of fun.” Doug “Otis Twelve” Wesselmann, local radio legend and Omaha Magazine contributor, remembers seeing the River City All-Stars play. “They were so good,” Wesselmann said. “Such great musicianship. Ron was always amazing, as was Doug Fackler, and Richie Thieman may be the best songwriter I ever worked with. Tight.” “Ron Cooley never plays above your ability to join him,” said broadcaster and Omaha emcee Dave Webber. “He can play any style, any kind of guitar. We were sitting out at Shirley’s Diner. We’d get together…and I said, ‘Let’s do “El Paso,” Ronnie.’” “He goes bum bum ba bum bum, da bum, bum…and so we sing ‘El Paso’ and he does all the little guitar licks that Marty Robbins and all those guys out in L.A. did for that song and I go, ‘Oh my God,’” Webber said. Cooley’s musical path, forged with hard work mixed with fortune, has led him to legendary status in the music world. “I like to think I’ve been very lucky because there’s not too many people that can say they’ve survived as a freelance musician and a freelance music teacher in a city this size for all these years.” His many fans, no doubt, will keep coming to hear Ron Cooley play his guitar wherever he decides to appear. For more information visit mannheimsteamroller.com