When it comes to retirement, the old adage is true: ‘attitude is everything.’ Of course, good health and financial resources don’t hurt, either. Active seniors Nancy Pritchard and Richard Spener, though, are an inspiration to St. Louisans of any age. They’ve already accomplished a lot, but far from resting on their laurels, they’re busy planning future adventures.
[creative spirit]
In the fall of 2012, Nancy Pritchard perched atop a vehicle in Kenya. Mt. Kilimanjaro rose majestically in the distance, and thousands of animals roam
ed within eyesight. She thought to herself, You don’t know when the bus is coming around the corner, and there are so many things I haven’t done. Within a year, she retired.
During her working life, Pritchard has owned a catering company, taught at Logos School and been a journalist. She ended her career at Moneta Group, after developing the firm’s communications department. In the middle of it all, she received her undergraduate degree from Webster University at the age of 48, later earning a master of fine arts and creative writing with an emphasis in poetry from University of Missouri-St. Louis.
A lifelong poet, Pritchard now has more time and creative energy for writing. She writes contemporary American free verse, drawing inspiration from her own life and travels, and her poems have been published in a variety of publications. She also uses her writing to help others. “I teach poetry to middle-schoolers for Springboard, which places teaching artists into public schools, mostly in the city, to bring hands-on enrichment programs to students,” she says.
Retirement also has meant more freedom to travel. Last fall, Pritchard drove with her husband to California to visit family. “One of the things I wanted to do was go on a long road trip,” she says. “It’s the craziest, most fun thing to do, because you see things you wouldn’t otherwise. We hiked Arches National Park, drove on the blue highways through central Colorado over the Monarch Pass, stayed at a crazy hotel in Arco, Nev., and spent a few days hiking in Death Valley.” Future travel plans include trips to visit her children, a road trip through the Badlands and a 2015 return to Africa, to safari in Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Although Pritchard enjoys what she calls a more peaceful life, retirement hasn’t meant entirely bowing out of the workforce. “I started my own consulting firm, and I’m doing some contract work,” she says. “I still like working, but now I can work when I want to work. It’s a mistake to think you don’t need a plan when you retire. You have to think about what you’re going to do with your days.”
[at home in the wild]
Nature photographer Richard Spener never believed in waiting until retirement to follow his passion. “I made a decision early on that I never wanted to look back and wish I had done something,” he says. “When many people retire, their health is already fading and plans end up not panning out. I never wanted to look back with regret.” After owning a manufacturers 
food equipment firm for decades, Spener retired in 2012, at the age of 74. “I enjoyed what I was doing, which is why I worked as long as I did, but it was time,” he says.
Photography has always been a hobby for him and his wife, Toni Armstrong, but it was born out of another passion. “We are adventurers first and photographers second,” he says. Spener has traveled to Alaska to paddle, hike and sea kayak more than a dozen times, and he serves as treasurer on the board of the Alaska Wilderness League. “We record our experiences with photography,” Spener says. “The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the greatest places you can go. I’ve been there five times, paddling the Arctic Ocean. I’ve been in the middle of 180,000 caribou, caribou as far as you can see. It’s incredible.”
Spener and Armstrong often act as their own guides. “When we go to Alaska, a pilot drops us off and picks us back up 100 miles down the river,” Spener says. The couple has gone on paddling expeditions around the U.S. and in Costa Rica, Belize, Panama, France and Mexico. “We’ve paddled in Mexico with the great whales and camped on barrier islands,” Spener says. “A lot of people have fears about Mexico, but we camp on islands and have never had a bad experience.”
Spener’s photographic images have been widely published, including by the National Wildlife Federation and Audubon Society of Missouri. Earlier this year, the Missouri History Museum exhibit “50 Years of Wilderness: Through the Lens of Missouri’s Eight Wilderness Areas” exclusively featured Spener and Armstrong’s photos. “We spent two years photographing the state’s wilderness areas, and we did it in part because this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act,” he says. For the remainder of the year will travel throughout Missouri.
Spener’s retirement activities—traveling, photography and paddling—are the things he’s always made time for. Closer to home, he paddles the St. Francis River, meets with the St. Louis Canoe and Kayak Club, and leads trips in the area for the Sierra Club. What he’s doing now is just icing on the cake, he says. “I’m so busy, I wonder how I ever had time to work before.”
Photos by Bill Barrett
