Five Golden Rings: Wise Counsel About Robust Retirement
My uncle, Arthur F. Jurack, died at 92, April 14, 2006, early on Good Friday morning. Our family all believe that he will enjoy Easter, in eternal joy at last, with his wife Maud, who died in 2000. Of her he often said, "I had a 60 year marriage and a 70 year romance."
We had all been wrong about their final days. They were a devoted couple and devout Lutherans. He always asked God to let him live ten minutes longer than Maud, because he said, "She would make a terrible widow." (She always needed him to "do things.") She died before him, contrary to all actuarial tables. He did not die ten minutes later. Nor did he remarry, for she had been the love of his life. That he lived for another 6 years was a surprise to him, as well as the rest of us. But he used those additional years to provide anyone who loved him with wise counsel about retirement. I think of it as his "Five Golden Rings."
He was a retired CPA, who had built his own accounting firm in Milwaukee, WI into an enterprise worth selling to a younger generation of professionals. The sale of that business was helpful to his retirement, which he began in his early 70's. What surprised him so much, was that he would be retired for 20 years. "I retired too soon," he would announce firmly. "Nobody really understands how much time the hours of work actually occupy in the given days of any week. You need five engaging activities to fill the huge void left by the absence of your former career," he said.
In this, as in so many other things, Arthur was a true role model. For some years before his retirement, he and Maud explored what life might be like in Naples, Florida. They made friends there, found a community, and after the sale of the business, moved there permanently. His Five Golden Rings were:
1. Their faith was the bedrock of their lives, individually and as a couple. So, when the Lutheran community there outgrew its facility, it was natural that he would wind up on the finance and development committee that worked hard to generate the resources needed to build a brand new church.
2. Golf was a passion he and Maud shared. Their retirement home overlooked a golf course, but they did much more than "overlook." They played on men's and women's foursomes and they played alone and together. They worked to develop their skills and could use them in fundraising.
3. Bridge was another avocation they enjoyed for years in the Milwaukee area and exported to Florida. Because they worked at their skills and were willing to share what they learned, it was another vehicle for both friendship and friendly fund-raising.
4. Their Florida retirement home was located in an Association. So, naturally, over the years there, he held varied offices that made life in their little community more livable, friendlier, more caring, more attractive. When Maud died, his only daughter helped him move closer to her in the Lisle/Naperville area of Northern Illinois. He become the president of the resident's association, chairman of the hospitality committee and of the men's club at The Devonshire, where he lived until he went into hospice care nearby.
5. Concordia University, Mequon, Wisconsin, also occupied my uncle's time and concern. In one of those unique complete circles of life, using his professional background, he facilitated the sale of a handsome property along the shores of Lake Michigan from Catholic educational leadership to Lutheran educational leadership. The property had been a Catholic Convent and home to the formation program for the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a teaching order to which I belonged for seven years. My uncle visited this beautiful property at the time of my own formation in the order. The sale of the property helped Concordia expand its educational mission and long after, Uncle Art continued to care about the growth and development of the university, helping materially and through his wise counsel.
My Uncle Arthur's "Five Golden Rings" filled and enriched his last years on earth. But before, during and after his retirement came family. His two children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren, his nieces and nephews and their families, were sources of tremendous interest, pleasure and communication. They were and are his treasure on earth.
The strong hand that supported Arthur's Five Golden Retirement Rings was the long term of dedication and hardship that he undertook to build his accounting practice into a property worth selling to other entrepreneurs. His small business survived good times and bad. One of the worst was a devastating fire in the midst of a bitterly cold December. The fire hose jetties froze critically important documents essential to the spring tax season into solid caked blocks. My Aunt and Uncle saw the preservation miracle in this, and labored like beasts to meticulously thaw and restore those documents page by page so not a single client was damaged by their hardship.
Art's grace under pressure and the lovely balance of service and pleasure in his Five Golden Rings are all worth imitating. Rest in peace and thank you so much, Uncle Art, for wise counsel about Robust Retirement.
We had all been wrong about their final days. They were a devoted couple and devout Lutherans. He always asked God to let him live ten minutes longer than Maud, because he said, "She would make a terrible widow." (She always needed him to "do things.") She died before him, contrary to all actuarial tables. He did not die ten minutes later. Nor did he remarry, for she had been the love of his life. That he lived for another 6 years was a surprise to him, as well as the rest of us. But he used those additional years to provide anyone who loved him with wise counsel about retirement. I think of it as his "Five Golden Rings."
He was a retired CPA, who had built his own accounting firm in Milwaukee, WI into an enterprise worth selling to a younger generation of professionals. The sale of that business was helpful to his retirement, which he began in his early 70's. What surprised him so much, was that he would be retired for 20 years. "I retired too soon," he would announce firmly. "Nobody really understands how much time the hours of work actually occupy in the given days of any week. You need five engaging activities to fill the huge void left by the absence of your former career," he said.
In this, as in so many other things, Arthur was a true role model. For some years before his retirement, he and Maud explored what life might be like in Naples, Florida. They made friends there, found a community, and after the sale of the business, moved there permanently. His Five Golden Rings were:
1. Their faith was the bedrock of their lives, individually and as a couple. So, when the Lutheran community there outgrew its facility, it was natural that he would wind up on the finance and development committee that worked hard to generate the resources needed to build a brand new church.
2. Golf was a passion he and Maud shared. Their retirement home overlooked a golf course, but they did much more than "overlook." They played on men's and women's foursomes and they played alone and together. They worked to develop their skills and could use them in fundraising.
3. Bridge was another avocation they enjoyed for years in the Milwaukee area and exported to Florida. Because they worked at their skills and were willing to share what they learned, it was another vehicle for both friendship and friendly fund-raising.
4. Their Florida retirement home was located in an Association. So, naturally, over the years there, he held varied offices that made life in their little community more livable, friendlier, more caring, more attractive. When Maud died, his only daughter helped him move closer to her in the Lisle/Naperville area of Northern Illinois. He become the president of the resident's association, chairman of the hospitality committee and of the men's club at The Devonshire, where he lived until he went into hospice care nearby.
5. Concordia University, Mequon, Wisconsin, also occupied my uncle's time and concern. In one of those unique complete circles of life, using his professional background, he facilitated the sale of a handsome property along the shores of Lake Michigan from Catholic educational leadership to Lutheran educational leadership. The property had been a Catholic Convent and home to the formation program for the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a teaching order to which I belonged for seven years. My uncle visited this beautiful property at the time of my own formation in the order. The sale of the property helped Concordia expand its educational mission and long after, Uncle Art continued to care about the growth and development of the university, helping materially and through his wise counsel.
My Uncle Arthur's "Five Golden Rings" filled and enriched his last years on earth. But before, during and after his retirement came family. His two children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren, his nieces and nephews and their families, were sources of tremendous interest, pleasure and communication. They were and are his treasure on earth.
The strong hand that supported Arthur's Five Golden Retirement Rings was the long term of dedication and hardship that he undertook to build his accounting practice into a property worth selling to other entrepreneurs. His small business survived good times and bad. One of the worst was a devastating fire in the midst of a bitterly cold December. The fire hose jetties froze critically important documents essential to the spring tax season into solid caked blocks. My Aunt and Uncle saw the preservation miracle in this, and labored like beasts to meticulously thaw and restore those documents page by page so not a single client was damaged by their hardship.
Art's grace under pressure and the lovely balance of service and pleasure in his Five Golden Rings are all worth imitating. Rest in peace and thank you so much, Uncle Art, for wise counsel about Robust Retirement.
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