Portland State Magazine Spring 2013

22 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2013 Alumni couple Keren Brown Wilson and Michael DeShane want to make sure that as we grow older we are valued by others and ourselves. NO ONE should look forward to retirement. At least that’s the way Keren Brown Wilson PhD ’83 and Michael DeShane MA ’71, PhD ’77 hope to shape the conversation as society grows proportionally older. “Meaningful and purposeful activity is critical to people’s sense of well-being,” says Wilson. “If you’re 65, you have a good 25 years ahead of you—more than one-quarter of your life. And the notion that you don’t have anything left to do and can’t be fully integrated into society is silly.” Wilson, 65, and DeShane, 71, have no plans to retire and much they want to accomplish. They funded the Aging Mat- ters: Locally and Globally Initiative at the PSU Institute on Aging with $1 million, and Wilson has also been instrumental in the institute’s evolution. The initiative seeks to broaden and change the way society views aging, and Wilson and DeShane have worked with the University to highlight challenges facing the most underserved elderly here and abroad. As true change agents for the elderly, Wilson, DeShane and a few other visionaries started the first assisted living residence in Oregon in 1983. It provided personal care services to residents in their private apartments—a radical departure from the nursing home model where residents had little independence or control. Wilson served as the residence’s first administrator and further delineated its model of care from those of nursing homes. Today, she is considered the architect of the Oregon model of assisted living, a model that has been copied across the country. DeShane is president of Concepts in Community Living Inc., headquartered in Clackamas, which operates 17 assisted living residences, mostly in rural communities. In June, the two will receive the College of Urban and Public Affairs’ Urban Pioneer Award—its most prestigious honor. “They’re thoughtful and very engaged in terms of thinking about the situation in our world today and trying to identify solutions to problems,” says Margaret Neal, director of the Institute on Aging. THE COUPLE have dedicated themselves to serious work, but weave humor into their interactions and outlook. With 7,000 to 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day for the next 18 years, they see a vital need for more policy discus- sions on how this demographic change will impact everything from housing to transportation to employment. “Aging is not sexy,“ says Wilson. “If we could just figure out how to make it sexy.” “That’s going to be difficult,” says DeShane. At least, says Wilson, we can make it interesting. That’s something both believe aging is, since older people have crucial skills, experience, and perspective—and often aren’t as worried about what other people think. “You should think of old age as the time to get political: ‘By God, let’s go out and get them,’” says DeShane. Or, says Wilson, simply “find something with meaning and attach yourself to it and have the same kind of fervor and passion we think is appropriate in very young people.” In changing how society thinks about aging, Wilson and DeShane say it’s important to scrap many “age appropriate” boundaries, especially in education. Instead of considering Aging with purpose WR I T T E N B Y CARR I E S TURROCK