Retirees take their own sweet time

Eileen Wallace: A flood of memories

Eileen Wallace has been with the University for the long haul. Although she had stints with the Department of Internal Medicine and the Iowa House, most of her time on campus was spent working at the Printing Department, where she started as a receptionist after her high school graduation in 1957 and retired in March as coordinator of the color copier service.

Wallace, who lives in Oxford, said her duties at the Printing Department changed as technology advanced. She enjoyed the variety of projects.

“I moved from one job to the next,” she explains. “For a while I was the supervisor of the mimeograph department and that was phased out, then I worked in composition entering keystrokes. Now everyone has a computer.”

Projects included posters for Hancher Auditorium and the Iowa Memorial Union. Perhaps the biggest shift for Wallace was during the flood of 1993, which ruined the department’s facility in Coralville and displaced its staff for nearly two years.

“That summer was crazy. I had to keep doing my job and was put in the Old Public Library to work,” she says. “It was hard because I was the only one there from my department, but it was nice to meet and work with the people there.”

Since retiring, she’s seen two of her four sons graduate—one with a master’s degree of business administration in Colorado and her youngest from Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin. She also volunteers at Mercy Hospital and works one afternoon a week at Four Seasons, a clothing store in the Coral Ridge Mall.

“It’s great to get out and know you have those commitments,” she says. “If I didn’t work at Four Seasons, I’d never get to the mall except for the occasional movie.”

Although Wallace has enjoyed doing some yard work, she and her husband Darrell planted perennials this spring so “we don’t have to keep planting every year.”

“The best thing about retirement is not having to get up by an alarm clock and being able to go out whenever I want,” she says. “I was just back at the Printing Department for [manager] Lin Hartman’s retirement party, and I got to see everyone.”

“While I certainly don’t miss work,” she laughs, “I do miss the people.”

She wants to travel in the fall but probably will keep her permanent residence in Iowa.

“My husband and I talked about moving south, but that’s all the further it’s gotten,” says Wallace, who has one grandchild living in Tiffin and another expected next month. “The big thing for us is staying near our grandchildren.”


Bill Matthes: Volunteering, relaxing, horsing around

Bill Matthes, associate professor emeritus of counselor education, also is enjoying the freedom of retirement.

“This is one of the nicest periods of my life,” says Matthes, who stopped teaching last August. “You lose the concept of weekends—the days all run together. It’s a little disconcerting, but we’ve had a ball.”

Matthes lives near the Coralville Dam with his wife, Alicia Brown, associate professor emeritus of dance.

“We’ve been able to take time for each other and time for family,” he says. “The other day Alicia mentioned an art exhibit, so we decided to go the next morning and then have a nice, quiet lunch at Devotay.”

Being out of the classroom has been an adjustment, Matthes adds.

“I’ve recognized the need to develop certain rhythms in life because the structure has evaporated,” he says. “It’s a big shift to retire because you’re no longer dependent on work life. But it’s not like putting yourself on an iceberg either.”

Matthes has found structure with regular volunteer work and his horse, El Capitan, whom he’s had for two years. Since retiring, he has spent time improving his riding skills and training El Capitan. Now Matthes is thinking about entering him in local competition.

“I want to be productive (in retirement), and now I can focus on what I really want to focus on,” he says. “Horses have been a passion since childhood. I have learned a lot about animal behavior, and, in turn, human behavior.”

While he doesn’t miss going to work, Matthes says he does miss the students.

“I had some of the brightest students you’ll ever get,” he says. “I recognize that need for contact. That’s why I volunteer now.”

During the school year, he counseled at-risk high school students several times a week in West Liberty and West Branch. He plans to continue at both schools this fall and expand his effort in West Liberty. He also volunteers with the Johnson County Historical Society, where he is working to help preserve the county’s first poor farm and asylum and to make better use of the Old Coralville School.

“I’ve been going to a lot of meetings,” he says. “You tend to think that in retirement, you’ll stop going to meetings. I haven’t.”

Matthes and Brown seriously considered relocating to New Mexico but decided to stay.

“We have lived a ‘charmed life’ in a university community surrounded by bright people who enjoyed examining significant questions in a systematic way,” he says. “Let’s face it—there is more happening in Iowa City than we can take advantage of. There is also good support here for senior citizens.”

“The only thing we need in Iowa is a little global warming in January and February.”


Beverly Bryant: 'Every day is a holiday'

Everyone has one. That list of things they’ve been meaning to do but just haven’t found the time. Beverly Bryant now has all the time in the world. Since retiring as a nurse clinician-specialist in February, she has been able to cross several items off her list.

“I had never cleaned out all the drawers in the house, so I’ve done that,” she says. “I also went through and cleaned the china cabinet, all the closets, and the kitchen.”

Bryant put in more than 36 years as a nurse at Iowa, most recently in the Urology Clinic. Her husband, Ray, who also retired this year, was an operator at Information Technology Services. The two have spent their free time making improvements to their Iowa City home.

“We’re painting and putting in new carpet,” she says. “We’ve lived in the same house since 1970, and every 15 years or so, we redecorate.”

To her surprise, she doesn’t miss work a bit. Bryant says she’s been enjoying her routine of sleeping in until 6 a.m.—she used to get up at 4:45 a.m.—and spending several hours leisurely reading the newspapers.

“I’ve worked all my life, since sixth grade,” she says. “If it wasn’t cleaning houses on Saturdays, it was working in an office. I’m surprised, though. I thought I would miss my job terribly, but I don’t miss it at all. I’ve only been back to the hospital once and that was during National Nurses Week. I took some treats over.”

Actually, Bryant returned for a week last month to train medical students to catheterize male patients. She’d heard that her colleagues were having trouble finding an available nurse, and she volunteered to do it.

“I had a pretty unique job,” says Bryant, who assisted in operations ranging from reverse vasectomies to stone surgeries. “Residents would call me with questions after they’d left. Some even made lists of instruments that they thought they’d need in their practice, and I’d suggest revisions.”

Bryant says she’s considering mission work, but for now she and Ray are making travel plans. In the fall, they’ll be driving to the West Coast in their Chevy Lumina. They’ve made the trip before, when their two sons were young, but this time will be different.

“We don’t have to ask anybody if we can go, and we don’t have to set a timetable,” she says with a smile. “As Ray says, ‘Every day is a holiday, and no day is a Monday.’”

Stories by Sara Epstein