Wisdom of the EldersUS Airways pilot “Sully” Sullenberger isn’t the only person whose years of experience saved the day. Meet some other Americans who have profoundly changed people’s lives...forever
/ PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROB HOWARD BY BILL NEWCOTT
AFTER CAPTAIN CHESLEY “Sully” Sullenberger III,
58, skillfully splashed US Airways Flight 1549 into the
Hudson River on January 15—saving all 155 passengers
and crew in the process—he had a simple, yet compelling,
explanation. “One way of looking at this,” he told CBS
news anchor Katie Couric, “might be that, for 42 years,
I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of
experience: education and training. And on Janu-
ary 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could
make a very large withdrawal.”
Well, we decided to visit that bank of
experience and find some other customers
making deposits and withdrawals. Turns
out that business is booming. Wherever
we looked we found people 50-plus drawing
upon their accumulated wisdom—from years of
learning, living, and giving—to dramatically impact the
lives of others. Here, some of these people share their
extraordinary stories.
Who’s the wisest
person you know?
Tell us at
aarpmagazine
.org/people.
THE GRANDFATHER FIGURE
Andrew Evans
Don’t even ask how many “grandchildren”
Evanshas. Asheadofthe Urban League
Grandfathers Group in Alexandria, Virginia,
the 62-year-old former schoolteacher, along
with his team of male colleagues aged 50-plus,
“adopts”African American boys with no father
figures. He takes them on outings; counsels
them about homework, manners, and girls;
and, most important, simply listens.
“I don’t claim to have all the answers,”
says Evans. “I’ve made lots of my own mis-
takes. But you have to move on and try to do
better next time.”
These days Evans—who has six grandchil-
dren of his own—is pouring his lifetime of
experience into 12-year-old Brandon Gray-
son. “If something’s bothering him, I just
tell him to vent,” says Evans. “If his mother
says he’s not cleaning up his room, I’ll say,
‘C’mon, Brandon!’ I can tell when I’ve made
a breakthrough when kids start asking me
questions. If they’re open with me, they’ll be
open with their parents and teachers.”
