This 100-Year-Old Man Was Forced to Retire, But Is Living His Life to The Fullest

Retirement Written by: Carol Richards September 3, 2019

There are some people who actually foresee or basically just imagine themselves when they retire. Most of them wishes to save enough money so they could travel, live in a nice peaceful home, have family get together, and basically have a peaceful and comfortable life after working hard for decades.

Then again, this would of course only be possible if you make sure you have enough saved for your retirement because if you don’t, all of these may stay in your imagination instead of becoming reality.

Does money have to be the only thing you have once you retire? According to this man who is now retired for 40 years, money is indeed very important but it is just like a ticket on letting yourself do the things you enjoy, especially after you retire.

The usual age of retirement is around 60-65 years, but it always depends on the kind of profession a person has hence some people might retire earlier or later

Enjoying Life

A 100-year-old man from Dallas, Texas named Orville Rogers, was actually forced to retire after his company did a mandatory retirement. He worked as a pilot for years and had to retire at the age of 60. What makes this man’s story truly inspiring is that the retirement didn’t actually stop him from doing the things he love. One of them is flying so he continued to fly three planes of his own until he wasn’t able to anymore because of his age.

He stopped flying them at the age of 79 and in an interview with Money magazine, he revealed that he truly enjoyed every single minute he spent on a plane. Of course, as a man who loves to fly, that also means Rogers loves to travel.

What surprises people is when they find out that he may be done flying an airplane. He is still strong enough to join track meets! A few years ago, the 100-year-old retired pilot managed to break the world record in his age group by the shortest time. This made him win not just one but multiple media over the years. As time goes by, it is perfectly normal for the body to slow down, but this doesn’t mean that he has already stopped. He runs about five to six miles every week, and is currently getting better to train again to join a competition.

At the age of 60, Orville Rogers was forced to retire but have been living the best retirement life in the last 40 years by continuing to do what he loves

When asked how he managed to actually enjoy his life after retirement, he said that he knew life goes on no matter what. When his wife died in 2008, Rogers had to move to a retirement community to make more friends. Since he is already a centenarian, he outlived most of his friends.

Mandatory Retirement Explained

Some people believe that it is actually illegal to have a mandatory retirement, technically that is true under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. However, what is stopping this is the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification, which basically states that they are already of age for retirement and that the duties that the employees over a certain age could no longer be met in the standards their company requires or that they are already at risk of safety.

There are still some companies that are indirectly pushing some older employees to retirement, which is of course not fair. This then pushes some organizations and groups to fight for employees rights when it comes to age discrimination.

Retirement isn’t always a bad thing since it is literally a path every worker has to take eventually. Rogers even said that in order to be prepared, saving up for it as well as you can would be the most ideal option and that is exactly what he did.