At 59, Gwynna Fedde is a former cafeteria cook intent on adding a new heading to her résumé: nurse.
The mother of four grown children is enrolled at Otero Junior College nursing school in La Junta and expects to begin hunting for her first nursing job when she is 60.
Fedde is a member of the baby boom generation that is expected to reshape the way Americans think of retirement. Many will seek re-education over the next few years as they retool to take on second careers.
A 2005 survey conducted for Merrill Lynch by Harris Interactive found that 76 percent of baby boomers plan to keep working and earning in retirement.
“As a result of living longer, this generation plans to be ‘younger’ longer and work longer. Most boomers will stop working for pay and retire in the traditional sense at some point. However, that phase is more likely to begin in the late 60s, than at age 60 or 65,” according to the study.
The American Association of Community Colleges is reviewing ways to meet the expected rush of older students at the nation’s 1,200 community colleges, said Margaret Rivera, the association vice president of member and information services.
“We are talking about what might happen and looking at what our colleges are doing,” she said. “A lot of community colleges have had programs for seniors, but they tended to be art appreciation and things like that. We are talking about things that are more substantive.”
Many boomers are expected to gravitate toward jobs like teaching, nursing and other service professions, she said. Many will have little choice but to work because they haven’t saved enough to retire.
The Colorado Community College System, which oversees 13 community colleges, is beginning a review of demographic and other information to decide how best to serve students in the future, said Community College System spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz.
Fedde, who quit CU nursing school in 1968 three semesters before she was to graduate, decided to follow her heart and study nursing at Otero Junior College after 18 years as a cook for Fowler public schools.
The decision had nothing to do with money, Fedde said.
“My husband is a farmer; he is a good provider and I could get retirement from the schools. I always had regrets, and always thought “why didn’t I (finish)” and I always beat myself up, and I thought why do that? Why not just go back. So I just gave my notice two years ago and I just quit.”
New career not planned
Gina Wilson, 59, had a high-paying, executive-level job in investor relations at Stillwater Mining Co., the only U.S. producer of platinum and palladium, when the company moved from Denver to Montana in 2001.
Wilson, who has had a longtime interest in gardening, traveled for a year, then started taking classes in gardening at Denver Botanic Gardens.
She went on to study horticulture at Front Range Community College in Denver before starting a landscape design business, Lovely Landscape Designs.
“I didn’t start out to make another career out of it. I went to classes for my own edification,” she said.
She doesn’t make nearly as much as she did in the corporate world and she works a lot harder. She doesn’t regret the move, nor does she plan to retire soon.
“I had lost interest,” she said. “I didn’t find it as interesting as getting into gardening.”
Companies that contact Arapahoe Community College to recruit students are expressing more interest than in the past in hiring older workers, said Cindy Norwak, director of the school’s corporate learning division. The older students, many of them boomers, need less training and in many cases have a stronger work ethic than their juniors.
So far, Arapahoe hasn’t experienced an increase in the number of older students, Norwak said. About 20 percent of students are older than 40, and 64 percent of all students are women.
Getting away from desk
Kam Breitenbach, 57, quit her job as an administrative assistant for the town of Parker’s police department, after doing volunteer work on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
She said she was tired of the desk job and wanted more freedom. She now is an event coordinator for the local Chamber of Commerce and is enrolled at Arapahoe Community College, where she plans to earn an events management certificate.
When she completes the 10-month program, she will be qualified to manage the annual Parker Country Festival, which is expected to draw 100,000 people next June.
“I don’t have to work, I could stay home. But I truly am happy. I finally found my niche. Being able to take these classes that show me how to do what I enjoy doing is incredible.”
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
