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Faculty Spotlight
This month's spotlight is on AL CROWELL, OLLI Member, Strategic Advisory Group member, and OLLI Faculty for the courses: "Good and Loving Sex" (April) and "Know Your Personality Type and That of Your Family" (March). At the OLLI-JCC Annual Symposium on Global Governance, Al spoke about his social change project in Nicaragua. He was interviewed by Charles Francis in January.
Where are your roots?
My roots are in Southern California, Long Beach to be exact and all the beaches south where my teen years were spent surfing.
Briefly, what is your educational background and your career history?
I have an MA in Counseling, and an MA in Theology. I went to a boarding seminary during high school and then for eight years afterwards. After ordination, I was a parish priest for seven years and then left and spent seven transition years doing fine furniture restoration and refinishing.
Many volunteer positions were also sprinkled into those years including managing a political campaign for a woman friend of mine, (who lost by the way). I then returned to school for a counseling degree and practiced with a specialty in family work, which evolved into my longest specialty of working with couples, from which I retired in 2004.
Why are you drawn to teaching the two classes that you will be teaching in the March and April?
I am very interested in relationships of all kinds, starting with the personal and romantic but also the international. My fascination with how we humans differ has lead me to enjoy personality-type work; and teaching the Myers briggs and the Enneagram to many couples has been very rewarding. I also find sexuality to be fascinating in its power and omnipresent pull for all societies. It is still quite mysterious and hidden, endlessly titillating, confusing, and stimulating for most of us. I think in many ways sexuality is the foundation of nature, so teaching a small part of it is stimulating for me as well as for my students.
How did you happen to enroll at OLLI?
I received a brochure in the mail and took the time to look at it carefully. What I saw promised to fit some of my needs for social and brain stimulation.
What aspect of your membership in OLLI is most enjoyable?
The intelligent and brief classes concerning varied topics has been very brain stimulating as has been the discussions with knowledgeable people. And the fellowship with people with good humor and wide reading has also been wonderfully engaging.
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Member Spotlight
Charles Francis has been a member of OLLI since 2003. He represented OLLI in a panel of the American Society on Aging National Conference in 2004 in San Francisco. He serves as one of OLLI's in-house photographers and editors. A personal essay of his entitled, "Chiffon and Billy" is posted on the OLLI website under OLLI Community, Creative Work Gallery. He was interviewed in early January by Al Crowell.Editor: Charles, you seem to be one of the more accomplished seniors with the computer. How did that happen?
CF: The path that led me to my skill with personal computers was a long one. I was an early adopter. In my career as an educational media producer I had become involved with computer graphics. Although initially the process, (which required a large, refrigerator-size microcomputer,) was incredibly tedious, (everything was command line driven, no convenient graphic interface in those days,) I could see that the technology was going to revolutionize producing images. I was working at the V.A. Hospital in Puerto Rico around 1980 and I convinced my employer to purchase a new, expensive Apple "LISA", the first mass-produced computer to have a graphic user interface, and I began making charts and graphs with it. Shortly, Apple Computer invited me to a private showing in Cupertino of an innovative, small new (much less expensive) personal computer, the Macintosh. The abilities of that early model were rather limited and I wasn't sure that it would be useful in my work. But, I began hearing about another product, the now legendary Apple IIe. This was a dirt-cheap desktop model that enthusiasts were buying for home use. Here was a completely new concept. What the heck could you do with a computer at home? These were business machines, right? Wrong, I soon discovered that the little machine could do ever so many interesting things. Among which were, 1) learn programming and, 2) communicate online with other early adopters via DARPA's Usenet. Since Usenet's digerati were almost exclusively university and defense industry scientists and engineers, the level of expertise in the online community was very, very high. It was an extremely valuable resource for these early users. Eventually, the Macintosh's power was upgraded to the point where it became useful for work, and yet was priced low enough to be popular for in home use too. After I retired, I renewed my interest in amateur photography and was soon using my Macintosh and Photoshop software to produce digital inkjet prints.
Editor: What skills from career experiences do you bring to the table at Ollie meetings and classes?
CF:My career skills were in health care management, educational technology, visual communications and media.
Ed: What are the issues and causes you feel the most passionate about these days, Charles?
CF: I want very much to function effectively in my family, in my community, in my nation and as a human being. This requires me to try to stay healthy, keep myself informed enough to meet my responsibilities as a citizen, contribute something to my society and be emotionally available to my family and friends.
Ed: What would you say to other seniors about the OLLI program?
CF: OLLI provides an affordable way of maintaining one's interests in a wide variety of subjects, and through membership in a large group of widely-experienced, mature people offers an opportunity to exchange views and share ideas with curious, open-minded classmates.
Ed: What issues do you think are the hardest for people transitioning into retirement, and do you have any suggestions (I know you do)?
CF: Two things I missed when I retired were; the ego gratification of being frequently consulted about things of which I was knowledgeable, and the physical exercise daily that working a job demands. Being a member of OLLI has provided me with much of the former gratification of being consulted, but I have not found a way of meeting the need for sufficient exercise to keep me healthy.
Spring Course Line-Up & Registration Information
DO YOU HAVE A SPRING CALENDAR? Call us if you have not received a calendar yet or visit our website. Courses are filling, Writing & Performing with Anne Galjour is full and closed; others are reaching capacity. But contact us soon with your choices for February, March, and April.
February
- Radical Theatre Workshop - DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO FEB. 10
- Shamanic Journeys
- A History of Conspiracy Theory
- Creating an Anthology Chapbook
- Exercising Our Brains
- The Well-Made Story - A SIX-WEEK COURSE
- Winetasting: Taking the Pain out of Wine
- Global Lens: Current Events
- Invest Like a Pro
- Retirement Options
- Photographing Your Best Friend
- E-mail & Internet Basics
March
- International Human Rights Law
- San Francisco, 1906
- Global Lens: Historical
- Behind the Scenes: Conversations with Arts Leaders
- Politics of the Supreme Court
- Turning Points: Navigating Transitions
- Conversations with Philanthropists: How they do what they do?
- The Writers Circle
- Know Your Personality Type
- Introduction to Photoshop
- Creating 1-Page Plans for Retirement
- Maintaining Mobility
April
- Walking in San Francisco, 1906
- Presidential Campaigns & Elections
- Global Lens: Experiments in Form
- Improving Your Memory
- Writing & Performing Monologues
- Good & Loving Sex
- Digital Photography Basics
- Eating with the Seasons
OLLI Community
World Affairs Discussion Group
"Wow, what a world affairs discussion we had on the 17th of January. We discussed the world energy situation partly through the lens of the Geni project, which is Buckminster Fuller's concept of a high voltage electrical grid all around the planet. The discussion was both lively, informative, and fun. For more info on the topic, see www.geni.org. Our next World Affairs Discussion will be on Monday, the 27th of Feb at Downtown Center ( Street), and will feature a report on her Saudi Arabia trip by Gloria Neumeier. Title is "Saudi Arabia: reform, energy, and Islam." All are welcome and it is free." -Al Crowell
Fiction You Wish You Had Read: A new book discussion group
On Tuesday, March 21, 2006, at the Mechanics' Institute, we will launch a new book discussion group in collaboration with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute-SFSU. Focusing on works of fiction selected by the participants, the group will meet monthly at the Mechanics' Institute on the third Tuesday of each month at 3pm. The selection for the first meeting is Philip Roth's American Pastoral.
To participate you must be a member of either the Mechanics' Institute or OLLI. For more information and to reserve a space for March 21, 2006, please call Sharon Miller at 415.393.0113.
Thanks
Thanks to OLLI members Mary Hegwood and Judy Goddess who have launched both the Group and OLLI's partnership with the Mechanics' Institute Library.
Thanks to Bob Yoder for his excellent project-based planning which is helping to steer the committee work; Debra Varner and Sandra Sutherland for their playwriting for Geezer Theater; Debra as well for her development of our Media List; Ann Peden for her recruitment of Mary Burrell as our Membership Outreach Co-Ordinator; Scarlett Manning for her always outstanding graphic design of OLLI materials; and a HUGE note of appreciation to Judith Sandoval, who organized a phone bank of these committed folks: Polly Babcock, Mary Nemetz, Judy Goddess, Patricia Kerman, Margaret Liddel, Michele Praeger, Aida Cervantes, Al Crowell, and Mary Burrell who called over 600 OLLI members to make sure they had the OLLI spring calendar.
Opportunities
We are looking for volunteers to help with the new liaison network to build OLLI's presence in SF's neighborhoods. Contact ollipr@sfsu.edu for more information.
An intern is needed for the June 16 Symposium on the Older Worker: To Work or Not To Work? Contact Susan Hoffman at hoffman@sfsu.edu for more information.
Benefit of Using your OLLI Student Card
As we were going to press, I received this e-mail from Al Crowell:
"Hey, I just had a nice or an economically nice experience at the new De Young. Because of my student card, I got a family membership rate $25 less than the normal. Such a deal."
Editors: Polly Babcock, Al Crowell, Charles Francis, and Susan Hoffman
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