Retirees on the Go
By Loydean Thomas
By Loydean Thomas
If retired people in San Antonio are not involved in activities that enrich their lives, they aren’t really trying.
Life-long sports enthusiasts Harold and Angie Keller balance their lives with a mix of athletics and travel. During their employment years, the Kellers’ opportunities to travel were limited by work and family responsibilities. Their daughter Cynthia and son Steven have long since left the nest, and six years ago the Kellers swapped their Prospect Hill family home for an easy-to-keep garden home.
The Kellers passed their love of sports on to their children and grandchildren. The oldest is 23 and the youngest is 7. Harold coached Steven’s Little League team for “about eight or ten years.” When Steven was in college, playing third base for the St. Mary’s University Rattlers, he was named All-American.
“When we’re at home, we’re either watching sports or playing sports,” Angie says. “Our children complain that we’re gone so much they have to make an appointment to see us.” She retired from her job as an auditor with United Way four years ago, although she still returns temporarily to help out with the organization’s fall fund-raising campaign. Harold retired after 30 years with the maintenance department at Lone Star Brewery.
Both Angie and Harold compete in the U.S. Senior Games. Harold works out three days a week at Jewish Community Center gym and plays on two teams in the San Antonio Softball League. He also coaches men’s softball. Twice a week Angie plays senior division volleyball. She and her teammates, all over the age of 70, compete every two years in the national games, which draw 8,000-10,000 participants. “They don’t lose,” Harold says of Angie’s team. “They always bring home a trophy.”
“Well, one time we didn’t win the gold, we won the silver. We came in second,” Angie amended.
The Kellers sometimes manage to combine their leisure-time passions, as they did when Harold’s team competed in Hawaii. They also took up scuba diving a few years ago when they were in Hawaii. “We’ve gone on dives all over Florida, and this year we’re going to Cozumel, which is a diver’s haven. The deepest we’ve gone down is 110 feet,” Harold says.
Angie’s favorite trip was three weeks they spent in Italy with their friends Connie and Phil DeMeo and Jim and Kara Pedersen. “We rented a van and did everything north of Rome. It was a wonderful trip.” Harold’s favorite was a train trip across Copper Canyon in Northwestern Mexico, an area that still seems to echo the ghosts of fallen warriors, martyred Jesuits and Pancho Villa’s army.” There was a guard on the train armed with an M-16 rifle,” Harold recalls.
Golf is the sport preferred by Bill and Helen Schluter. Weather permitting, this retired couple usually play three or four mornings a week. Bill is a systems specialist born in New York City. Helen, who was born in Switzerland, was a laboratory technician doing research at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden when they met on a ski trip and married in 1958 in Switzerland. Before Bill took a job in San Antonio with USAA, they lived in Mexico, where both of their daughters were born, and in New Jersey. In 1970 they bought their home in Castle Hills, a small incorporated city on the north-central edge of San Antonio.
Bill retired in 1985, but they didn’t jump right into it.” I didn’t start working until Robin, our youngest daughter, was in high school,” Helen says. “I opened a gift shop. When Bill retired he became a partner in the shop and we expanded. At one time we had five hotel gift shops. We closed the last one last year, and finally we actually retired.”
The Schluters invest almost as much energy in retirement as when they were involved in their careers. They take several trips each year. “Most of our travels have started or ended in Switzerland because we combine it with family visits. Besides Switzerland, we’ve gone to Germany, Italy and France, mostly,” Helen says. Recently, they also visited the Costa Rican rain forest and took a Danube cruise from Prague to Vienna and on to Budapest. “We travel very light. The last time we traveled by car for three weeks, we had only a little carry-on suitcase.” Their most recent European foray took them to Zurich and Berlin by rail.
In addition to playing golf, Helen gives bridge lessons to a group of ladies on Monday, goes to exercise class three mornings a week and volunteers one day a week at the Christian Assistance Ministry thrift shop. She does all of the gardening for the yard, which covers almost a half-acre of ground. The couple share the mowing and lawn-care chores. Bill also works out two days a week at the Jewish Community Center gym.
Both of the Schluters take classes at the Academy of Learning in Retirement. “For one fee of $75 you can go to as many courses as you like,” Bill says. “They have everything: computer instruction, languages—French, German and Spanish--dancing, history, art. The ones we enjoyed the most were the history classes. We took the course on World War II, then the following semester on World War I. We also took one on the life of Winston Churchill. A lot of the instructors are retired professors.”
Four or five years ago Bill took up oil painting, a result of one of the classes offered by the Northeast Independent School District. “I really do enjoy it,” he says. “You lock yourself in a room, and you start painting.”
Bill is quite involved in Castle Hills city government. He attends all of the council meetings and serves on the Crime Control and Prevention District. He also is chairman of the Board of Adjustment, which hears citizens’ requests for a variance of a city ordinance. “We weigh the need that person has and then make a decision whether or not it’s beneficial to the city.” In appreciation for his service, in 2008, the city presented him with a plaque naming him “Citizen of the Year” for his “dedication and commitment to our city.”
Helen says a couple of years ago, she felt they had too rigid a schedule. “I didn’t have any time for myself. Then, last year, we couldn’t play golf because it rained so much, and we didn’t sign up for classes. All of a sudden, we had too much time on our hands, and you just sit there, lost.” Today, they’re happily back on schedule.
Unlike the Kellers and the Schluters, Jim and Carolyn Fisher were done roaming when Jim retired after almost 50 years in the Air Force. The couple live in Air Force Village, a retirement community 15 miles southwest of downtown San Antonio. It was built for officers of all branches of the U.S. military and their families.
While earning an electrical engineering degree from Iowa State University, Jim took two years of ROTC. Just after the Korean War he joined the Air Force. “I was in Vietnam, but as a family we were never on overseas assignment. However, we lived in 13 different places over the years. Engineers usually stay in one place for about five years. Pilots move more often than that,” Jim says. Carolyn says, “Many years ago we put money down to retire here to Air Force Village, and six years ago we moved from Redlands, CA.” Air Force Village is everything they expected—and more, she added. To enjoy an active social life, they never have to leave home.
“Almost everything we need is right here, from dining rooms where residents can take their meals or have them delivered,” Jim says. There is a swimming pool, a gym, and a game room with domino tables where Jim gets together with his friends for a game of forty-two. There’s a beauty salon and barber shop where both Carolyn and Jim get their hair cut or styled.
The Fishers both volunteer to act as witnesses for the signing of other residents’ documents. They also enjoy showing visitors around the community they share with some 400 neighbors. Jim assumes responsibility for setting up the chapels where services are held for several different denominations.
When the Fishers go off campus, they usually take one of the community’s buses. “They go anywhere and everywhere—to the base exchange or the commissary, to Wilford Hall Medical Center or to Wal-Mart and H-E-B grocery stores. They go once a week to different shopping malls, and once a week they take a group to eat out at different restaurants,” Carolyn says, adding that they also provide transportation to a variety of entertainment venues, such as Trinity University’s Laurie Auditorium, the downtown Majestic and Empire Theatres and museums.
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Life-long sports enthusiasts Harold and Angie Keller balance their lives with a mix of athletics and travel. During their employment years, the Kellers’ opportunities to travel were limited by work and family responsibilities. Their daughter Cynthia and son Steven have long since left the nest, and six years ago the Kellers swapped their Prospect Hill family home for an easy-to-keep garden home.
The Kellers passed their love of sports on to their children and grandchildren. The oldest is 23 and the youngest is 7. Harold coached Steven’s Little League team for “about eight or ten years.” When Steven was in college, playing third base for the St. Mary’s University Rattlers, he was named All-American.
“When we’re at home, we’re either watching sports or playing sports,” Angie says. “Our children complain that we’re gone so much they have to make an appointment to see us.” She retired from her job as an auditor with United Way four years ago, although she still returns temporarily to help out with the organization’s fall fund-raising campaign. Harold retired after 30 years with the maintenance department at Lone Star Brewery.
Both Angie and Harold compete in the U.S. Senior Games. Harold works out three days a week at Jewish Community Center gym and plays on two teams in the San Antonio Softball League. He also coaches men’s softball. Twice a week Angie plays senior division volleyball. She and her teammates, all over the age of 70, compete every two years in the national games, which draw 8,000-10,000 participants. “They don’t lose,” Harold says of Angie’s team. “They always bring home a trophy.”
“Well, one time we didn’t win the gold, we won the silver. We came in second,” Angie amended.
The Kellers sometimes manage to combine their leisure-time passions, as they did when Harold’s team competed in Hawaii. They also took up scuba diving a few years ago when they were in Hawaii. “We’ve gone on dives all over Florida, and this year we’re going to Cozumel, which is a diver’s haven. The deepest we’ve gone down is 110 feet,” Harold says.
Angie’s favorite trip was three weeks they spent in Italy with their friends Connie and Phil DeMeo and Jim and Kara Pedersen. “We rented a van and did everything north of Rome. It was a wonderful trip.” Harold’s favorite was a train trip across Copper Canyon in Northwestern Mexico, an area that still seems to echo the ghosts of fallen warriors, martyred Jesuits and Pancho Villa’s army.” There was a guard on the train armed with an M-16 rifle,” Harold recalls.
Golf is the sport preferred by Bill and Helen Schluter. Weather permitting, this retired couple usually play three or four mornings a week. Bill is a systems specialist born in New York City. Helen, who was born in Switzerland, was a laboratory technician doing research at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden when they met on a ski trip and married in 1958 in Switzerland. Before Bill took a job in San Antonio with USAA, they lived in Mexico, where both of their daughters were born, and in New Jersey. In 1970 they bought their home in Castle Hills, a small incorporated city on the north-central edge of San Antonio.
Bill retired in 1985, but they didn’t jump right into it.” I didn’t start working until Robin, our youngest daughter, was in high school,” Helen says. “I opened a gift shop. When Bill retired he became a partner in the shop and we expanded. At one time we had five hotel gift shops. We closed the last one last year, and finally we actually retired.”
The Schluters invest almost as much energy in retirement as when they were involved in their careers. They take several trips each year. “Most of our travels have started or ended in Switzerland because we combine it with family visits. Besides Switzerland, we’ve gone to Germany, Italy and France, mostly,” Helen says. Recently, they also visited the Costa Rican rain forest and took a Danube cruise from Prague to Vienna and on to Budapest. “We travel very light. The last time we traveled by car for three weeks, we had only a little carry-on suitcase.” Their most recent European foray took them to Zurich and Berlin by rail.
In addition to playing golf, Helen gives bridge lessons to a group of ladies on Monday, goes to exercise class three mornings a week and volunteers one day a week at the Christian Assistance Ministry thrift shop. She does all of the gardening for the yard, which covers almost a half-acre of ground. The couple share the mowing and lawn-care chores. Bill also works out two days a week at the Jewish Community Center gym.
Both of the Schluters take classes at the Academy of Learning in Retirement. “For one fee of $75 you can go to as many courses as you like,” Bill says. “They have everything: computer instruction, languages—French, German and Spanish--dancing, history, art. The ones we enjoyed the most were the history classes. We took the course on World War II, then the following semester on World War I. We also took one on the life of Winston Churchill. A lot of the instructors are retired professors.”
Four or five years ago Bill took up oil painting, a result of one of the classes offered by the Northeast Independent School District. “I really do enjoy it,” he says. “You lock yourself in a room, and you start painting.”
Bill is quite involved in Castle Hills city government. He attends all of the council meetings and serves on the Crime Control and Prevention District. He also is chairman of the Board of Adjustment, which hears citizens’ requests for a variance of a city ordinance. “We weigh the need that person has and then make a decision whether or not it’s beneficial to the city.” In appreciation for his service, in 2008, the city presented him with a plaque naming him “Citizen of the Year” for his “dedication and commitment to our city.”
Helen says a couple of years ago, she felt they had too rigid a schedule. “I didn’t have any time for myself. Then, last year, we couldn’t play golf because it rained so much, and we didn’t sign up for classes. All of a sudden, we had too much time on our hands, and you just sit there, lost.” Today, they’re happily back on schedule.
Unlike the Kellers and the Schluters, Jim and Carolyn Fisher were done roaming when Jim retired after almost 50 years in the Air Force. The couple live in Air Force Village, a retirement community 15 miles southwest of downtown San Antonio. It was built for officers of all branches of the U.S. military and their families.
While earning an electrical engineering degree from Iowa State University, Jim took two years of ROTC. Just after the Korean War he joined the Air Force. “I was in Vietnam, but as a family we were never on overseas assignment. However, we lived in 13 different places over the years. Engineers usually stay in one place for about five years. Pilots move more often than that,” Jim says. Carolyn says, “Many years ago we put money down to retire here to Air Force Village, and six years ago we moved from Redlands, CA.” Air Force Village is everything they expected—and more, she added. To enjoy an active social life, they never have to leave home.
“Almost everything we need is right here, from dining rooms where residents can take their meals or have them delivered,” Jim says. There is a swimming pool, a gym, and a game room with domino tables where Jim gets together with his friends for a game of forty-two. There’s a beauty salon and barber shop where both Carolyn and Jim get their hair cut or styled.
The Fishers both volunteer to act as witnesses for the signing of other residents’ documents. They also enjoy showing visitors around the community they share with some 400 neighbors. Jim assumes responsibility for setting up the chapels where services are held for several different denominations.
When the Fishers go off campus, they usually take one of the community’s buses. “They go anywhere and everywhere—to the base exchange or the commissary, to Wilford Hall Medical Center or to Wal-Mart and H-E-B grocery stores. They go once a week to different shopping malls, and once a week they take a group to eat out at different restaurants,” Carolyn says, adding that they also provide transportation to a variety of entertainment venues, such as Trinity University’s Laurie Auditorium, the downtown Majestic and Empire Theatres and museums.
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