Retirement

On Sept. 30, G. David Shreeves of Martinsburg, W.Va., completed 62 years in church ministries, when he retired after nine years as minister of visitation at First Christian Church, Hagerstown. Beginning weekly preaching at age 19 in 1945, he served Virginia congregations in Crewe, Richmond and Virginia Beach, and Capitol area parishes in Arlington, Va., Washington, D.C., and Hagerstown. He and his wife Dale, who directed music and education in three congregations, retired in Martinsburg.

At the end of the month, Stan Stouffer will be able to wake up and start his day without worrying about spending the endless hours it takes to be a high school athletic director. Stouffer, who turns 66 in August, will spend a final month as Williamsport's A.D., starting a smooth transition of power to his unnamed predecessor before his retirement. With that, he will leave a job that he got just by writing a simple letter in 2007 after a stellar career as the Wildcats' boys varsity soccer coach.

WILLIAMSPORT -- Jeanne "Dusty" Graham joked that she's going out in a "blaze of glory. " Graham, one of four Williamsport High teachers retiring at the end of the school year, accidentally caused a fire on one of the stoves in her family consumer science class this school year. She left a box on top of a stove, the oven below which recently had been turned off. She turned the incident into a teaching moment, quizzing her students on what she did wrong and what she did right, which included her proper use of a fire extinguisher.

The retirement of five school principals and two teachers who have been honored as Berkeley County's best were among several personnel actions approved Tuesday night by the Berkeley County Board of Education. The retirement of principals Linda Ghion (Bedington Elementary), Paul Tyson (Hedgesville Elementary), Stephen Crowell (Potomack Intermediate), John Spataro (Tomahawk Intermediate) and Lawrence “Larry” Hitt (Tuscarora Elementary), will be effective June 30. Past Berkeley County Teacher of Year honorees V. Colleen Miller, a fourth-grade teacher at Orchard View Intermediate School, and Terry Lamp, a social studies teacher at Martinsburg South Middle School, also are retiring as of June 30. “Normally, we average about 50 (retirements)

The Berkeley County Board of Education Monday night reluctantly approved personnel actions that included the retirement of Deputy Superintendent Frank Aliveto. Aliveto declined to comment about his retirement, which is slated to take effect June 30, 2011. After not immediately hearing a motion to approve the personnel actions, Board President William F. "Bill" Queen suggested the board could "pull that one name (Aliveto's) and discuss it individually ... beat him up a little bit. " After the meeting, Berkeley County Superintendent Manny P. Arvon recalled looking for "a top notch" school administrator after he was appointed to run the school district in 1997.

A retirement celebration for retired Chief Warrant Officer Richard F. Jordan of Hagerstown was held Aug. 26 at American Legion Post 183 on Putty Hill Road in Parkville, Md. Jordan was recognized for more than 70 years of service to the state and nation. His military career began when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in April 1942. He served on cruisers, destroyers and at various Naval bases in Navy communications during World War II and the Korean War. In March 1951, he entered the Maryland Army National Guard, serving in many leadership positions.

Maryland Public Safety Secretary Mary Ann Saar announced her retirement Wednesday from an agency stung by the murders of two correctional officers this year. Read the full story in Thursday's Herald-Mail newspapers.

How far away is your retirement - 30 years? ... 20? ... 10? ... 5? Many people wonder what the future will hold for their retirement. The good news is healthier lifestyles and improved medicines have significantly lengthened life expectancies. The bad news is you'll need more money to support a longer, more active retirement. [cont. from lifestyle ] Whether your retirement is a few years away or a few decades away, estimating how much you should be saving for retirement will help you choose a plan for making retirement happen.

The Washington County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association asked the Washington County Commissioners Tuesday night to pay $225,000 for a retirement program for 25-year volunteers. The program, which the association had requested previously, would give monthly checks of up to $350 to volunteer firefighters with more than 25 years of active service after they reach age 65. Under the proposal, the retirement program would cost about $7.4 million over 20 years. Up to 15 years of service would be grandfathered in to existing firefighters, so the first payments would be at least 10 years away.

Jeanne Durrell isn't your stereotypical retiree. She doesn't own a rocking chair and she has no interest in moving to Florida. In fact, retiring to a sandy beach was never an option. Instead, she's heading to Africa in a few weeks to explore volunteer work with the Peace Corps. For Ron and Nancy Myers, Tuesdays begin as they have for the past 36 years - together. They have breakfast, catch up on the news, then it's out the door. But instead of heading to work, they head to REACH - a nonprofit organization - where they volunteer with a crisis intervention program.

She started her story with the night she was paralyzed - a then 18-year-old lying on the side of a European road, rain splashing on her face, a searing pain as she tried to stretch. “I can't stand to touch my body,” she said. “It feels like a stranger. I place my hands high on my chest where I can feel me.”  On her flight home from Spain, her gurney was situated over the airplane seats and she was concealed behind curtains. “Midway through the flight, a strange woman sticks her head between the curtains and asks me the question that I will hear for the rest of my life: 'We've all been wondering, what's wrong with you?

Retired NASA astronaut Don Thomas encouraged Western Heights Middle School eighth-graders to follow their dreams and to persevere, as he did. “If you forget everything else I told you here today, the one thing I want you to remember is to never give up on your dream,” Thomas told about 235 eighth-graders in the school's auditorium Tuesday. After spending more than nine years in college, taking additional training and submitting four applications to NASA, Thomas was accepted into the space agency's astronaut program.

Michael “Mike” Gouker of Hagerstown has known since his early years that art would be a part of his life. “Art was the thing growing up that I could do the best. It was my interest. I told my sixth-grade teacher I wanted to teach art,” Gouker said. The retired art teacher and professional artist has been honing his craft since childhood and keeps looking for new venues for exposure. About three years ago, Gouker submitted a drawing of a sunburst to CBS “Sunday Morning” hosted by Charles Osgood.

The three men running for judge in the 39th District of the Court of Common Pleas faced questioning Thursday night during a forum preceding the primary election. Attorneys Jeffrey Evans, Jerrold Sulcove and Jeremiah Zook are running for the open seat on the bench created by the retirement of Richard Walsh. The 39th District serves Franklin and Fulton counties. The Franklin County Democratic Committee held the event at the Shady Grove Community Center in cooperation with the Greencastle-Antrim Democratic Club.

Gone are the days of medical house calls and family physicians who deliver babies, just some of the changes in health care that Dr. Howard N. Weeks Sr. has seen in his 60-year career as a family practitioner. “We were called general practitioners back then. Everything from the cradle to the grave,” said Weeks, 86, who officially retired March 1. “Sixty years, that's about enough. I thought 50 would be a good cutoff. If my wife had lived, I might have retired earlier,” Weeks said.

Fred Raskind, rabbi for Congregation B'nai Abraham, is retiring this summer, he said Sunday. “I will have completed 10 years of service, and I'm actually retiring to a small, part-time congregation in Florida,” Raskind said. “I will miss Hagerstown and I will miss B'nai Abraham. It's been a lovely, lovely ministry and rabbinate for me,” he said. Leiba Cohen, the congregation's president, said Raskind “left us in a good place.” Raskind will retire in June and Rabbi Ari Plost will start July 1, Cohen said.

Communications Workers of America Local 2105 Retired Members quarterly meeting will be held on today at the American Legion home on Northern Avenue in Hagerstown. The business meeting will begin at 1 p.m. in the back dining room. Those coming for lunch should arrive between 11:30 and noon. The guest speaker will be Wallace Lee from the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. For more information, call Roger Grimes at 301 223-7982 or Vickie Layton at 301 791-1486.

A man who police said was driving a Berkeley County school bus when the bus struck a car last month retired after intoxication tests showed he had been drinking alcohol, according to court documents and school officials. Sam Lee Newton, 61, of 65 Quartz Drive in Martinsburg, was arraigned Saturday by Berkeley County Magistrate Betty Jo Hersh on one misdemeanor count of operating a commercial motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration of .04 or greater, according to court documents.

A 24-year-old Hagerstown man accused of several residential burglaries, including the homes of relatives and twice at the home of a retired judge, was sentenced Monday in Washington County Circuit Court to 15 years in state prison. Seth Allen Michael Gladhill, formerly of 926 Salem Ave., pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree burglary and one count of theft between $1,000 and $10,000. Judge Daniel P. Dwyer sentenced him to 20 years in prison with five years suspended, plus an additional 20-year suspended sentence.

A retirement incentive approved this week by the Waynesboro Area School Board was designed to seek early retirement notices from teachers and professional staff. The school district will pay $500 to people who submit written notices of their retirement by March 15, according to the motion passed Tuesday by the school board. Retirees shall withdraw from active service and the drawing of an annuity from the Pennsylvania School Employees' Retirement System, the motion stated. Early notifications of retirements allows the district to find candidates for openings prior to summer training workshops, Superintendent Sherian Diller said.