[Music]
so I’m driving in my car back to my
cabin through the Lamar Valley and
Yellowstone National Park under a full
moon
as I often do I pull off and stop and
shut off the engine and turn off the
lights the river below me is shrouded
with a layer of fog
it’s an unbelievable view it’s been
another day for me of dealing with park
visitors having them stay away from
animals and answering their questions
reminding them that they really need to
be safe and keep the animals safe and
explaining to them that the Bison are in
the mating season in the full rut I shut
off my engine I get out and I stand
there I hear the grunting of a bull
bison some of you know that sound
I explained the visitors all day the
tails up means charged or discharged a
while later a bit further along a great
gray owl drops off as snow steak as I’m
driving back toward my cabin and it
glides across the road through the beam
of my headlights it’s the size of a
stump I’ve seen and I’ve learned so much
during my time in Yellowstone stuff that
I never thought I’d see every day I’m
transferring what I’ve learned to people
who have never been in this place before
or seen a coyote or an elk or a moose
this spring I saw an old grizzly bear
that we call Scarface walk right through
a group of startled visitors on his way
to get food I see dozens of bears every
season Grizzlies and black bears
probably more than any other Ranger
Ella stone icy weather that most people
never get to see triple rainbows sudden
hail storms blue skies 365 degree views
icy waterfalls that take my breath away
I work outdoors in the midst of one of
the largest intact ecosystems on earth
I’ve been mentored by countless wildlife
guides biologists and experts and by
knowledgeable regulars that I’ve come to
meet along the roadsides many of whom
had become lifelong friends I often see
wolves and I hear them howling in this
incredible place and I watch and learn
it’s amazing
in 2004 I retired from WGBH Boston’s
public broadcasting station I worked
there doing the big growth here so I was
a lucky guy
Julia Child alistair cooke Nova
masterpiece theater this old house you
know the lineup
I started in production and then I
became their main mendicants Air Fund
racer and I raised millions of dollars
with my staff from corporations from
individuals and from foundations it was
a wonderful run and my career there
during those early days spanned over 40
years I had three wonderful children I
was active in my community as many of
you are here and I served on boards and
I did the whole nine yards and then like
some of you here and many of you who
will have this happen in the future I
arrived at that gold watch moment
suddenly in what seemed like a fraction
of a second I was no longer mr. WGBH
Public Broadcasting and NPR became
something that I watched and that I
listened to not the place where I went
to work and at age 65 I was suddenly a
pip a previously important person
so what was I to do I sought the counsel
of friends and one of them said take
everything that you’ve done before in
your life and put it in the rearview
mirror put it where you can see it the
good the hurdles the whole nine yards
but look out the front windshield that
conversation was the key to my own shift
my metamorphosis I now realize that I
was sitting on the edge of an enormous
new opportunity to shift into new work a
time to try new things that really
mattered to me and that touch my heart
things that I dreamt about as a kid you
know in that moment you suddenly lose
your former identity and that very often
defined who you were you’re no longer
the senior partner the head of surgery
but you know the chief the
superintendent that guy from public
broadcasting whatever it is
so gold watch in hand you wonder what to
do next
few people know how hard you worked you
know they don’t even notice that you’re
gone it turns out but like millions of
other boomers who are now perched on
that same edge it’s also a moment of
enormous possibility for lots of us it’s
a time to look out the front windshield
and to harness your passions maybe you
were an engineer who saw the waters into
which your colleagues dumped their
sewage
catch fire so after you left at work you
move to the mountains and you took on a
new task which was writing a column a
no-nonsense concert conservation column
in the newspaper and you told it like it
was Burt Raines or maybe after a long
time making fishing here and climbing
equipment and rescue stuff you took up
welding
and you began crafting large beautiful
sculptures that harnessed your muse and
that also found their place in the front
places of museums and corporations and
businesses all across the country I came
to the West to find the place that had
inspired me earlier on to find balance
to figure out what I wanted to do next
and one day I walked into the
Yellowstone Park Foundation in Bozeman
Montana it’s now called Yellowstone
forever how do you people raise the
private money that you do to help
Yellowstone Park I asked the
receptionist I think I may have thought
in some distant way that maybe I could
be of some help to them because I cared
so much about conservation she
introduced me to Michael Carey who was
then the president of the foundation
Michael told me about raising money for
a new visitor center and some of the
other projects that he was working on at
that time he casually mentioned that
they were also funding too small summer
internships working in Lamar Valley get
this as wolf ambassadors with the help
of the student Conservation Association
the park and some generous donors now I
was a little old to be a student
applicant but it turns out that I was a
student and therefore qualified well I
thought I’ve got to get one of those
internships and so I applied and so I
did and each day before dawn I got up
and I went out into Lamar Valley as you
know one of the most beautiful and wild
places on earth I sat at the feet of the
top biologist the outdoor guides others
I met the Rangers one by one people who
in many cases were half or less of my
age they accepted me and one day the
district Ranger took me into her office
and said you should become a ranger and
so I applied and I got the job and I’ve
proudly worn the famous flat hat and the
badge and
stuff for 14 seasons now my work is with
a protection division I work more animal
jams than any other Ranger that’s the
place as most of you know we’re bears or
other critters and people come together
now it’s easy to make fun of that but
that’s the seam that’s the place where
the wild and the human landscape come
together and so we try to keep the
critters and the people safe it’s a very
important place and so what I did is I
threw myself into that task with the
same enthusiasm that I used to go on the
air at WGBH and say call that number
break your pledge I also work as an EMT
and that’s serious stuff it’s about a
hundred miles to the nearest hospital in
many places that we are in Yellowstone
so I see a lot it’s not all cheerful and
I do whatever I can in that work and in
every other way to assist the visitors
and the other Rangers as best I can
in addition in my dotage I am naturally
now a steward of the wild a host in
America’s first national park it’s an
amazing opportunity and I feel very
fortunate I’m doing it partly with the
voice of Mardy Murie the grandmother of
conservation I went to see her when she
was in her final days and I sat with her
and held her hand and she held mine and
I said what can I do
and she said save the wild so each day I
do my best to try to elevate the
experience of every visitor that I come
in contact with I fail every day what I
try I try to also when I do that realize
that what I’m doing is elevating my own
experience and that of my family and
everybody I love because every day is an
adventure for me so to be frank about it
I’m also not a bad investment for the
park because my pay is a gs5 general
Ranger is frankly pretty low I rent my
own cabin just outside the park in the
northeast entrance up in little silver
gate populations seven I have contact
with between twenty-five and fifty
thousand visitors every year rough count
and I also have a lot of hustle and I
care a lot so I think to be frank about
it and not egocentric I’m not a bad deal
for the park year so let’s go back to
that gold watch moment for just a minute
mark Freedman of encore org says it’s an
incredible new opportunity to unleash
your passions now some of you are not
anywhere near that point but I assure
you you will be there so think about it
mark reminds us that years ago we would
have retired at that moment we would
have gone to the porch we would have
watched the Sun setting and maybe we
would have written our memoirs
retirement was a creature of the
Industrial Revolution a way to sit back
and rest from your toil in the factory
or the railroad or wherever you worked
and wait for God to snatch you away but
now most of us are healthy and when we
get that gold watch we want to do
something else we want to give back and
we want to stay and be active so sitting
on the porch for us isn’t a good option
we’re smart we’re experienced and some
of us have saved up a tiny bit of money
and we’re an enormous force in the
country and in the world for positive
change some of this group may prefer to
travel where others want may want to be
president of their homeowners
association or play Canasta at the
Senior Center and that’s fine but I’m
talking about those people who really
want to get going and there are a lot of
them I say that a better idea is to fire
new work at that point when you reach it
to never use the word retired to lean
forward to open a new chapter to shift
into new gear to begin something
entirely new that you’ve never thought
about doing maybe unless you were young
and when you were young you probably had
some good ideas and I bet you have them
now so I say go for it
think what could happen to our world if
a large proportion of all the people who
are hitting that gold watch moment would
do just that think what could happen if
the big agencies like the National Park
Service or the government or the schools
or businesses all across the country
actively recruited from this enormous
pool of new affordable talent and
solicited the best of these older people
and put them to work in brand-new ways
these experienced talented geezers and
I’m one of them could be additive to
what they already do not just as
volunteers and a lot of agencies have
good volunteer programs but in addition
to that be paid people to do important
work seasonal part-time or other think
what could happen too if the internet
was harnessed to match such people with
new work and encourage them to do this
and what if geezer chat rooms were
better ways to compare notes and help
them decide what they can do and how to
do it although they may have to have
their children help them actually do
that
so I’m standing here is just one living
example that such a plan can really work
I’m here to testify firsthand that
retirement is an outmoded concept I’m
here to encourage you when you hit that
point to embrace it to refuse to retire
to never use that word instead to jump
in and to find new work to turn the page
to knock on doors if they’re not open
and to take the risk to become a senior
Ranger to wear a new sort of a hat to
help show the companies and the agencies
and the organizations that this enormous
enormous talented and eager group of new
older workers like yourself is ready to
go to work now and at a fair price to
help them set up new mechanisms to
recruit such people and welcome them and
place them in new good work and to know
that this moment of metamorphosis and
have changed and of starting over from
the bottom may become one of the best
things that you and that the agencies
and organizations that hire you ever do
it may become your Great Awakening and
may be theirs
so put what you did in the rearview
mirror look out that front windshield
and go for it
and thank you [Applause]
so I’m driving in my car back to my
cabin through the Lamar Valley and
Yellowstone National Park under a full
moon
as I often do I pull off and stop and
shut off the engine and turn off the
lights the river below me is shrouded
with a layer of fog
it’s an unbelievable view it’s been
another day for me of dealing with park
visitors having them stay away from
animals and answering their questions
reminding them that they really need to
be safe and keep the animals safe and
explaining to them that the Bison are in
the mating season in the full rut I shut
off my engine I get out and I stand
there I hear the grunting of a bull
bison some of you know that sound
I explained the visitors all day the
tails up means charged or discharged a
while later a bit further along a great
gray owl drops off as snow steak as I’m
driving back toward my cabin and it
glides across the road through the beam
of my headlights it’s the size of a
stump I’ve seen and I’ve learned so much
during my time in Yellowstone stuff that
I never thought I’d see every day I’m
transferring what I’ve learned to people
who have never been in this place before
or seen a coyote or an elk or a moose
this spring I saw an old grizzly bear
that we call Scarface walk right through
a group of startled visitors on his way
to get food I see dozens of bears every
season Grizzlies and black bears
probably more than any other Ranger
Ella stone icy weather that most people
never get to see triple rainbows sudden
hail storms blue skies 365 degree views
icy waterfalls that take my breath away
I work outdoors in the midst of one of
the largest intact ecosystems on earth
I’ve been mentored by countless wildlife
guides biologists and experts and by
knowledgeable regulars that I’ve come to
meet along the roadsides many of whom
had become lifelong friends I often see
wolves and I hear them howling in this
incredible place and I watch and learn
it’s amazing
in 2004 I retired from WGBH Boston’s
public broadcasting station I worked
there doing the big growth here so I was
a lucky guy
Julia Child alistair cooke Nova
masterpiece theater this old house you
know the lineup
I started in production and then I
became their main mendicants Air Fund
racer and I raised millions of dollars
with my staff from corporations from
individuals and from foundations it was
a wonderful run and my career there
during those early days spanned over 40
years I had three wonderful children I
was active in my community as many of
you are here and I served on boards and
I did the whole nine yards and then like
some of you here and many of you who
will have this happen in the future I
arrived at that gold watch moment
suddenly in what seemed like a fraction
of a second I was no longer mr. WGBH
Public Broadcasting and NPR became
something that I watched and that I
listened to not the place where I went
to work and at age 65 I was suddenly a
pip a previously important person
so what was I to do I sought the counsel
of friends and one of them said take
everything that you’ve done before in
your life and put it in the rearview
mirror put it where you can see it the
good the hurdles the whole nine yards
but look out the front windshield that
conversation was the key to my own shift
my metamorphosis I now realize that I
was sitting on the edge of an enormous
new opportunity to shift into new work a
time to try new things that really
mattered to me and that touch my heart
things that I dreamt about as a kid you
know in that moment you suddenly lose
your former identity and that very often
defined who you were you’re no longer
the senior partner the head of surgery
but you know the chief the
superintendent that guy from public
broadcasting whatever it is
so gold watch in hand you wonder what to
do next
few people know how hard you worked you
know they don’t even notice that you’re
gone it turns out but like millions of
other boomers who are now perched on
that same edge it’s also a moment of
enormous possibility for lots of us it’s
a time to look out the front windshield
and to harness your passions maybe you
were an engineer who saw the waters into
which your colleagues dumped their
sewage
catch fire so after you left at work you
move to the mountains and you took on a
new task which was writing a column a
no-nonsense concert conservation column
in the newspaper and you told it like it
was Burt Raines or maybe after a long
time making fishing here and climbing
equipment and rescue stuff you took up
welding
and you began crafting large beautiful
sculptures that harnessed your muse and
that also found their place in the front
places of museums and corporations and
businesses all across the country I came
to the West to find the place that had
inspired me earlier on to find balance
to figure out what I wanted to do next
and one day I walked into the
Yellowstone Park Foundation in Bozeman
Montana it’s now called Yellowstone
forever how do you people raise the
private money that you do to help
Yellowstone Park I asked the
receptionist I think I may have thought
in some distant way that maybe I could
be of some help to them because I cared
so much about conservation she
introduced me to Michael Carey who was
then the president of the foundation
Michael told me about raising money for
a new visitor center and some of the
other projects that he was working on at
that time he casually mentioned that
they were also funding too small summer
internships working in Lamar Valley get
this as wolf ambassadors with the help
of the student Conservation Association
the park and some generous donors now I
was a little old to be a student
applicant but it turns out that I was a
student and therefore qualified well I
thought I’ve got to get one of those
internships and so I applied and so I
did and each day before dawn I got up
and I went out into Lamar Valley as you
know one of the most beautiful and wild
places on earth I sat at the feet of the
top biologist the outdoor guides others
I met the Rangers one by one people who
in many cases were half or less of my
age they accepted me and one day the
district Ranger took me into her office
and said you should become a ranger and
so I applied and I got the job and I’ve
proudly worn the famous flat hat and the
badge and
stuff for 14 seasons now my work is with
a protection division I work more animal
jams than any other Ranger that’s the
place as most of you know we’re bears or
other critters and people come together
now it’s easy to make fun of that but
that’s the seam that’s the place where
the wild and the human landscape come
together and so we try to keep the
critters and the people safe it’s a very
important place and so what I did is I
threw myself into that task with the
same enthusiasm that I used to go on the
air at WGBH and say call that number
break your pledge I also work as an EMT
and that’s serious stuff it’s about a
hundred miles to the nearest hospital in
many places that we are in Yellowstone
so I see a lot it’s not all cheerful and
I do whatever I can in that work and in
every other way to assist the visitors
and the other Rangers as best I can
in addition in my dotage I am naturally
now a steward of the wild a host in
America’s first national park it’s an
amazing opportunity and I feel very
fortunate I’m doing it partly with the
voice of Mardy Murie the grandmother of
conservation I went to see her when she
was in her final days and I sat with her
and held her hand and she held mine and
I said what can I do
and she said save the wild so each day I
do my best to try to elevate the
experience of every visitor that I come
in contact with I fail every day what I
try I try to also when I do that realize
that what I’m doing is elevating my own
experience and that of my family and
everybody I love because every day is an
adventure for me so to be frank about it
I’m also not a bad investment for the
park because my pay is a gs5 general
Ranger is frankly pretty low I rent my
own cabin just outside the park in the
northeast entrance up in little silver
gate populations seven I have contact
with between twenty-five and fifty
thousand visitors every year rough count
and I also have a lot of hustle and I
care a lot so I think to be frank about
it and not egocentric I’m not a bad deal
for the park year so let’s go back to
that gold watch moment for just a minute
mark Freedman of encore org says it’s an
incredible new opportunity to unleash
your passions now some of you are not
anywhere near that point but I assure
you you will be there so think about it
mark reminds us that years ago we would
have retired at that moment we would
have gone to the porch we would have
watched the Sun setting and maybe we
would have written our memoirs
retirement was a creature of the
Industrial Revolution a way to sit back
and rest from your toil in the factory
or the railroad or wherever you worked
and wait for God to snatch you away but
now most of us are healthy and when we
get that gold watch we want to do
something else we want to give back and
we want to stay and be active so sitting
on the porch for us isn’t a good option
we’re smart we’re experienced and some
of us have saved up a tiny bit of money
and we’re an enormous force in the
country and in the world for positive
change some of this group may prefer to
travel where others want may want to be
president of their homeowners
association or play Canasta at the
Senior Center and that’s fine but I’m
talking about those people who really
want to get going and there are a lot of
them I say that a better idea is to fire
new work at that point when you reach it
to never use the word retired to lean
forward to open a new chapter to shift
into new gear to begin something
entirely new that you’ve never thought
about doing maybe unless you were young
and when you were young you probably had
some good ideas and I bet you have them
now so I say go for it
think what could happen to our world if
a large proportion of all the people who
are hitting that gold watch moment would
do just that think what could happen if
the big agencies like the National Park
Service or the government or the schools
or businesses all across the country
actively recruited from this enormous
pool of new affordable talent and
solicited the best of these older people
and put them to work in brand-new ways
these experienced talented geezers and
I’m one of them could be additive to
what they already do not just as
volunteers and a lot of agencies have
good volunteer programs but in addition
to that be paid people to do important
work seasonal part-time or other think
what could happen too if the internet
was harnessed to match such people with
new work and encourage them to do this
and what if geezer chat rooms were
better ways to compare notes and help
them decide what they can do and how to
do it although they may have to have
their children help them actually do
that
so I’m standing here is just one living
example that such a plan can really work
I’m here to testify firsthand that
retirement is an outmoded concept I’m
here to encourage you when you hit that
point to embrace it to refuse to retire
to never use that word instead to jump
in and to find new work to turn the page
to knock on doors if they’re not open
and to take the risk to become a senior
Ranger to wear a new sort of a hat to
help show the companies and the agencies
and the organizations that this enormous
enormous talented and eager group of new
older workers like yourself is ready to
go to work now and at a fair price to
help them set up new mechanisms to
recruit such people and welcome them and
place them in new good work and to know
that this moment of metamorphosis and
have changed and of starting over from
the bottom may become one of the best
things that you and that the agencies
and organizations that hire you ever do
it may become your Great Awakening and
may be theirs
so put what you did in the rearview
mirror look out that front windshield
and go for it
and thank you [Applause]
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