Since recording and writing the life of former USC President Norman Topping, I have assisted 39 others in the preparation and publication of their autobiographies for distribution to children, grandchildren, friends, and associates. My 39th client, a Los Angeles native now 87 years of age, has published his story of service in the only Negro infantry unit to fight in Europe when the U.S. military was segregated: Black Warriors: The Buffalo Soldiers of World War II. The book is selling nicely. My most recent client was a 1972 USC alum who continues to operate a Santa Ana travel agency his father, also an alum, established in 1939.
This unexpected second life has filled with satisfaction and gratitude the 20 years since my retirement from the university. It continues to be a life-sustaining labor of love.

Gordon Cohn
Long Beach

LESSONS LEARNED: Lifelong learning, exercise, and travel are the great energizers. More good literature is published each year than any human being can hope to read. Friendships made in youth are seldom, if ever, duplicated in later life. Courtesy and civility are vanishing from American life. USC is totally different from the institution I joined 51 years go, and while the intimacy of those long-ago days is gone, the university’s stature has grown in ways that are thrilling and apparently never-ending.

The USC Emeriti Center, in response to a USC Retired Faculty Association (RFA) request, has launched an initiative that will significantly increase the ability of individuals with hearing loss to participate in events and to more fully enjoy programs at the University Club.

John Orr, Past President of the Retired Faculty Association, and Bob Scales, retired Dean of USC’s School of Theater, researched inductive wire (“hearing loop”) technology and engaged experts to learn more about how to use and install the technology on campus.  This technology allows persons to use their own individually-configured hearing aids to listen to a program’s words and music at an extraordinarily high level of sound quality.

Hearing loop technology is not new. It has enjoyed widespread, successful use in northern Europe, in the United Kingdom, and in many regions of the United States. What is new is the rapidly growing availability in American hearing aids of telecoil programs, often marketed as “telephone boosters,” which allow hard-of-hearing persons to use loop technology. Currently, about two-thirds of American hearing aids contain telecoils. The American Academy of Audiology predicts that, in the relatively near future, telecoils will be installed in almost all hearing aids.

Bob Scales and John Orr are leading the initiative with the Emeriti Center. Orr, who has himself experienced hearing loss, has installed hearing loop technology in his own home, and he speaks enthusiastically about its current use in a variety of Los Angeles venues. Scales keeps abreast of advances in assisted hearing systems that are employed by theaters and auditoriums. He is applying this knowledge to the design of systems that will be adopted by the Emeriti Center. At present, the Emeriti Center has purchased a portable hearing loop system that can be taken to any USC retiree events that need additional hearing assistance support.

The Emeriti Center, with endorsement from the Provost’s Office, the Staff Retirement Association and the Retired Faculty Association, is taking steps to assure that hearing loop technology will be available in the new University Club. “The University Club is an important gathering place for current and retired members of USC’s faculty and staff,” says Janette Brown, Executive Director of the Emeriti Center. “We want to make sure that this space adequately serves all members of the USC community who have experienced hearing loss.”

Click here to REGISTER online. Please note the dates of the workshops. You may register separately any remaining workshops.

For information call (213) 740-7121 or email emeriti@usc.edu

This five-part workshop series is sponsored by the USC Emeriti Center’s Trojan Encore Program.

Sessions 1 & 2
Finding Your Purpose – $20.00 for materials
Thursdays: May 10 & 17 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM)

Sessions 3 & 4
Strategies for Competing in the New Workplace – $20.00 for materials
Thursdays: May 24 & 31 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM)

Session 5
Navigating Change – $10.00 for materials
Thursday: June 7 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM)

Register early as seating is limited!

Please bring your own lunch

The workshops are conducted by Pearl Hilliard and Joyce Fernandez, former professional and organizational development specialists at USC.  Dr. Hilliard has over twenty years of experience and is a leadership, organizational development and talent management consultant/coach.  Ms. Fernandez is a training and development professional with over 10 years’ experience in facilitation, performance improvement consulting, leadership development and coaching.

USC’s winning strategies were posted on the AARP site: “The University of Southern California (USC) Emeriti Center is dedicated to supporting USC retirees and pre-retirees in living healthy and purposeful lives by providing opportunities for continued service and learning. The center offers email and newsletter communications, enrichment courses, a speaker’s bureau, extensive online retirement planning materials, educational sessions and workshops on retirement planning, socials, and two formal retirement luncheons each year with awards and gifts. In addition, its Trojan ENCORE program brings retirees back to campus for short-term and part-time volunteer and paid positions.”

Upon receiving the award, USC  Senior Vice President Todd Dickey sent the trophy to the Emeriti Center with his congratulations.

In retirement Bob is Past-president of the Palos Verdes Sunset Rotary Club, a board member of the Peninsula Symphony Association, Past-president of the USC Retired Faculty Association, and a member of two men’s breakfast clubs. He actively participates in Emeriti Center and Retired Faculty Association activities.

“Retirement is an individual thing. There are some commonalities, but there are no cookie cutter rules. My suggestion is to start thinking early how you want to live life after retiring. Some enjoy continuing their chosen career activities, but others choose to do entirely new things. Both can be satisfying. Personally, I have found participating as a volunteer in service organizations to be fulfilling.” Robert E. Coffey, 2012

John E. Wills, Jr, “Jack” to all his friends and colleagues, is Professor Emeritus of History at USC. He continues scholarly activity, with two important edited volumes published since retirement, and scholarly papers given from Barbados to Tuebingen to Athens to Hong Kong. He is especially proud of having instigated through the Emeriti College the Intergenerational Forum, in which retirees and current undergraduates discuss the big issues of the present-day world, and a parallel forum at the Neighborhood Unitarian-Universalist Church in Pasadena.

Lessons learned: “You can wish you’d figured something out sooner, but later is better than never. You’re hostage to your health, and four cheers for modern medicine when it gives it back to you.”

Helena Chui, M.D., a director from the USC Memory and Aging Center, Elizabeth Zelinski, Ph.D., Rita and Edward Polusky Chair in Education and Aging, Professor of Gerontology and Psychology, USC Davis School of Gerontology, and Kathy Martelli, M.S., Coordinator for the USC Memory and Aging Center’s new study, “The Aging Brain – A Study for 70+ Seniors” funded by the National Institute on Aging will be presenting.

USC’s Memory and Aging Center (MAC) is a university-based research center that provides state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment services. “The March Colloquium will include academic and practical information about keeping the brain healthy,” said Janette C. Brown, Executive Director of the Emeriti Center.

According to Dr. Chui, “The best defense, is a good offense,” so knowledge and prevention can be powerful keys to brain health.

Join us as we explore best practices and techniques for keeping our brains healthy.

RSVP and Program Schedule

The J. Tillman Hall Staff Award for Service to USC is presented to Mitzi M. Tsujimoto posthumously who we sadly lost in January 2012. Mitzi worked at USC for 24 years, and retired as Director of Admission, Financial Aid and Student Affairs at the USC School of Pharmacy in January 1998. Upon retirement, Mitzi continued her long service to USC by volunteering in a number of capacities.

Mitzi served as the Associate Director, Staff Liaison, and Volunteer Coordinator at the USC Emeriti Center. As a volunteer in all these roles, Mitzi provided outstanding leadership, organization, and dependability as though she were a staff member. As Volunteer Coordinator, she maintained a supportive workforce of retirees, who would otherwise have remained unavailable to the USC Emeriti Center, the USC Emeriti Center College and to the University. As the volunteer Emeriti Center Associate Director and Staff Liaison, Mitzi constantly represented the interests of the Emeriti Center staff and advocated on behalf of USC retirees.  She also provided invaluable knowledge and referrals to her associations on the Health Sciences Campus, which enhanced collaborations with the University Park Campus. As one of the first coordinators of the H. Dale Hilton Living History Video Tape Project, she continued to maintain records for this project; organized and preserved records for the Emeriti Center’s Annual Fundraising Campaign and the USC Directory; and cultivated frequent contact with key USC retirees who volunteered to staff these projects.

She served on the Board of Directors of the USC Staff Retirement Association (SRA), devoting her time and sharing her expertise with Emeriti Center advancement efforts; was an integral part of the original planning committee for the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE) and an active member on the Retired Faculty/Staff Benefits and Resource Committee. Her resourcefulness, graciousness, and experience were indispensable assets to the vision of the USC Emeriti Center’s mission to provide service and learning opportunities to retired USC faculty and staff.

In addition to her volunteer services to the Emeriti Center, Mitzi actively volunteered at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, serving as President of the USC Norris Cancer Hospital Auxiliary from 2001 to 2004 and serving on the Board of the Edmondson Faculty Center on the Health Sciences Campus. For over ten years, she volunteered at least one day a week at the Norris Cancer Hospital’s Gift Shop. A dedicated member of the hospital’s volunteer team, Mitzi greatly enhanced the quality of service to the patients, visitors, and staff at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Hospital.

Through her dedication, commitment, and Trojan spirit, Mitzi made significant contributions to the USC community even after her retirement. Her generous nature and outstanding service have served to benefit, both directly and indirectly, all the retirees of the USC community and the University at large.  Mitzi’s energy and selfless commitment to serving others was truly exemplary.

Award presented to Tsujimoto family on March 15, 2012.

Janette C. Brown, in her capacity as the Executive Director of the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE), presented survey data in Albany, NY at The SUNY Retirees Service Corps Second Biannual Conference in November. Brown was invited and sponsored by Curtis Lloyd, Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, SUNY System Administration. The AROHE survey studied campus retirement organizations at more than 100 institutions in the United States and Canada.

Qualitative data derived from the survey will be the topic of Brown’s next presentation in April for the College and University Retiree Associations of Canada (CURAC) in Victoria, Canada.

Above from the left, Bobbie Boyd Lubker (AROHE President, UNC-Chapel Hill), John Meyer (CURAC Past President, University of Windsor), Curtis Lloyd, Ram Chugh (Executive Director, SUNY Retirees Service Corps), and Janette Brown.