GENE RICHGRUBER
› AGE: 85
› OCCUPATION: Since 1991, full-time facilities maintenance employee for New York City– based American Business Maintenance, stationed since 1997 at Imagine! Print Solutions in Shakopee.
› WORK HISTORY: “I earned the equivalent of an aeronautical engineering degree at Southwestern College in Memphis. I was a B-25 Silver Wings bomber pilot in World War II and still have my commercial multi-engine rating. After the war, I worked for the Jewel Tea Company for 35 years in sales and management.”
› WHY I’M STILL WORKING: “I had retired at age 67. My wife and I took long cross-country trips, I fixed my cars and my kids’ cars. Then I ran out of things to do. I enjoy this job. My domain is the whole upper floor of a 434,000-square-foot building, and I know every one of the 250 people on that floor by name. It’s really healthy work, too—I walk about a mile and a half and climb a lot of steps every night.”
› WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT WORKING AT 85 INSTEAD OF 55: “I have no obligations at this point in my life, whereas at 55, I was still paying off the mortgage and supporting a family. Because of the exercise I get at work, I’m at a lighter weight than I was 30 years ago, so physically I’m better off now.
› WHAT I’D BE DOING IF I WASN’T WORKING: “I’d probably travel. I’ve got a nice boat and a van to pull it with.”
› REFLECTIONS ON RETIREMENT: “I’m thinking of working a couple more years if my health continues to be good. . . I lost my wife in December, which was a very traumatic experience. I need to do something instead of sitting around the house, and the work here is very healing.”
