Staying Active

The Key to Successful Aging: Stay in Touch, Stay Healthy, Stay Active

Listen to Mr. Bynum's discussion

If the dictionary had a definition for the term "successful aging," there would probably be a picture of Robert Bynum alongside it.

Born June 13, 1921 in Oneonta, Alabama, Bynum worked for the Social Security Administration for 32 years, beginning as a field assistant trainee and ending his career as Deputy Commissioner of Programs in 1978 prior to his 1980 retirement.

Along the way he was a spokesperson for SSA with Congress and the White House, major public interest groups, the business community, the media, and domestic and foreign governments. In the fall of 1971, shortly before President Nixon's historic visit to Moscow, he served as leader of a delegation examining social security and health programs of the Soviet Union, and subsequently welcomed delegations from the USSR and other nations to the U.S. to review its systems.

Asked for his own definition of "successful aging," Bynum has these thoughts:

"One, keep in touch with those you love. Two, to the extent that we can control it, maintain a good, healthy lifestyle. Three, stay active. And it doesn't have to be in the mode that I've stayed active. Just stay active in your communication with people, your involvement with organizations, all those kinds of things. And most of all, with your family.

"If I've picked up any added wisdom at the age of 85, it would be 'Be true to yourself.' Be true to yourself and think lovingly, if you will, of others. I'm accused by friends, at times, of being too optimistic. Maybe too joyful in what I do. But man, what a great criticism that is to get, as far as I'm concerned.

"Because you need to continue to be active in life, be active in your thinking if you can. And active in your connections that you maintain, with other people and with new organizations as you go along.

"One of the greatest joys I've had, with both my current wife, Linda, and my first wife Norma, who died in 1995, is knowing people from all over this country and all around the world, visiting and maintaining connections with them. It broadens you. It keeps your perspective a bit different, I think, from what it otherwise would be.

"We just got a Christmas card from a lady in Tokyo. She was in one of the classes at UAB, at Elderhostel, nine years ago. Can you believe that? And we're still good close friends with her, in terms of connections."

A downloadable audio file of Mr. Bynum's article is also available.