Ahead of their Time...

Keith and Carmen Taylor, who will celebrate their 60^th wedding anniversary next year, met in 1951 at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was an Indiana-born senior and she was a college freshman from the Island of Guam. After Keith graduated from Antioch with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, he enlisted in the US Air Force and they were married shortly thereafter. Their respective choice of Antioch was based in part on its unique cooperative work program, and the school’s hallmark values of gender equality and individual expression are reflected in the people they are today.

The Taylors spent their first few years of marital bliss traveling throughout the western United States with the Air Force, starting a family, and establishing early households in military-supplied ‘homes’ which included a converted chicken coop and converted WWII barracks. 3 ½ years later, with two children in tow, it was time for Keith to fulfill the promise he made to Carmen when they married: to provide opportunities for her to complete her own college education.

Education runs deep: When Keith left the Air Force at the end of his 4 year commitment, he worked as a sales engineer, traveling three weeks each month while Carmen raised their three children (a fact he’s quick to acknowledge and praise her for). As a result of subsequent job changes, Carmen attended a total of 10 different schools before completing her undergraduate, master’s and post-graduate education over the next 20 years. She majored in education with an emphasis on reading, motivated in part by their daughter’s learning disability.

Keith’s own quest for knowledge led the family to sell their home, pack up the kids, and move to Glendale, AZ for nine months so he could complete a Masters Degree in International Business at Thunderbird School of International Management to prepare for a career abroad. Founded in 1946, Thunderbird is now widely recognized as the world’s No. 1-ranked school of international business.

After completing his advanced coursework, Keith landed a position in his home state of Indiana, which provided a springboard for management opportunities in Brazil, Venezuela, and England before returning to the United States in 1972. Moving every few years can be quite a challenge for any family. When asked how the moves affected her, Carmen simply replied, “Since my family had lost everything during the War (WWII), starting over was just part of life.” Keith had also moved with his family several times during the war due to his father’s work, so it was no surprise that “we never bothered to put down an anchor” (until they discovered California, that is.) Years later, their children acknowledged they were less than enthusiastic about the moves, but didn’t complain either.

Despite wonderful international experiences, Carmen felt a bit “cheated” because they were unsuccessful in establishing close friendships with native residents in South America. Instead, American and British ex-patriots formed their own social network. Carmen and Keith’s fondest international memories were of the time they lived in the village of Ryhall, England, where they were almost immediately embraced by several “curious” villagers whose friendships have continued to this day. Carmen and Keith quickly adapted to life in the village, and found it easy to become involved in community affairs.

When Keith worked himself out of his job in England, the family returned to Arizona where Carmen continued her education and worked as a bilingual interpreter. Keith was 45 and still didn’t know what he wanted to do when he “grew up,” so he contacted a management search firm. After much thought, one of the consultants proposed that he consider becoming a college professor. So casually dropped by Arizona State University the next business day (Monday), and began his Doctoral program that week!

After graduation, Keith landed a job as Assistant Professor at Utah State, and Carmen worked as VP, Student Services and in the reading lab. Six years later, in 1985, a professorship opened up at Sonoma State University for Keith, and Carmen joined him a year later when her contract expired.

Now retired, Keith and Carmen still keep full schedules. Keith has served on the board of Becoming Independent and Santa Rosa Sunrise Rotary, Carmen volunteers regularly at Becoming Independent and the Council on Aging, and they both volunteer for various projects including SRJC-sponsored dental clinics at local elementary schools. Their interest in sharing knowledge and serving others spans the generations!

Still Running at 84...an Interview with Bill Evans

In more ways than one, Bill Evans of Santa Rosa is a distance runner. He started running at age 40, and still runs an average of 15 miles per week (=780 miles/yr), not to mention his golf addiction (yes, he’s the man you see regularly on the Bennett Valley golf course, running between holes).

Naturally athletic, Bill has always been physically active and played just about every sport imaginable in his youth. He took up tennis and golf in college at the University of Toledo, but it wasn’t until he turned 40 that he really started paying attention to his health. Perhaps the magic 4-0 was a wake-up call, since his own father died at age 48 of a heart attack.

Bill was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1926. His father was an aspiring performer who had difficulty finding work during the depression, but his mother found steady employment as a secretary for the local newspaper to keep food on the table and provide shelter for their family of four. From an early age, he learned to truly appreciate the sacrifices of working women of that generation, as he witnessed his mother coming home after work to cook and clean. Growing up in Ohio was a far cry from Northern California: he recalled the winters being so cold and coal so hard to come by that his father nailed the front door closed during the winter so they’d preserve the heat!

The single life event which left the longest lasting impression on Bill happened during his service in the US Navy, which he entered in 1944 at age 18. He was in the Battle of Okinawa toward the end of WWII and the Japanese were dropping bombs all around them. While some other soldiers seemed to panic, Bill suddenly realized he wasn’t afraid; he was prepared to accept the situation, not worry about what he had no control over, and do what he could within his control. Since that snapshot in time, he has lived his lived his life with acceptance; beyond fear.

After the War, Bill became somewhat of a self-described “playboy,” enjoying the single life through college and a career in newspaper reporting, writing and sports editing in Indiana and Texas, and then back in Toledo with Dun & Bradstreet as a financial reporter before taking advantage of a transfer opportunity to their San Francisco office in 1961 (where he could golf year-round). Once in San Francisco, Bill experienced a longing he had never felt before: he was ready to settle down and start a family. Within a year, he met Diane, a local nurse, who’s been his wife since 1963. They’ve raised “four wonderful kids,” whom he considers his single greatest accomplishment in life.

One’s heroes say much about a person and what’s important to them. When asked if he had any personal heroes, Bill was quick to name three, all of whom he admires for the courage they demonstrated by speaking out: Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers); Mahatma Gandhi (India civil rights and independence); and Daniel Berrigan (anti-war protester). His own greatest concern is the growing gap between rich and poor in this country, and the trillions of dollars we spend on foreign wars vs. direct aid to people both locally and globally.

And now, for the $100,000 question: what is Bill’s secret to living a long, healthy life? While I admittedly expected him to say “exercise,” he actually surprised me when he said he discovered the secret rather recently: “It’s FUN to do more than you have to” for others, as demonstrated these days by the many things Bill does around his community to help neighbors and keep it clean and beautiful. He takes pleasure in the appreciation he receives, and also enjoys random “anonymous” acts. His volunteer work beyond neighborhood beautification has ranged from volunteering to help immigrant adults improve their English skills, to driving neighborhood children to/from school and appointments, Forgotten Felines volunteer work, and many other contributions, large and small. Reflecting on the marathon of his life, Bill shared only one regret: spending much of his youth and young adulthood engaged in activities for his own pleasure rather than doing for others, which he finds much more gratifying. I personally think he’s done more than his fair share already, but know he’ll always go the extra mile.

Run on, Bill!