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      Elders at present find few opportunities in industry. Professional men are about the only ones who can ease off in later years. It is odd but true that those whose job has been manual make the adjustment of retirement more smoothly than those whose work has been mental. Given a small pension, manual workers are content to putter around the house, do a little gardening and live from day to day with no thought of the future. Those higher up in the educational scale, however, are terribly bored with nothing to do. The day laborer can keep busy with his puttering and gardening, but to most white collar pensioners this would be deadly and lead almost certainly to some physical or mental disaster. To the white collar worker, puttering and gardening are too lonesome and aimless. Every healthy elder needs an outlet in order to round out a full, contented life, and this outlet not only must be of interest but must at least appear to be worthwhile. If gardening is of value and the elder likes to garden, then it will be a proper outlet.
      Why the present concern? it may be asked.

—

Frank Hinman, “The Dawn of Gerontology,” in Journal of Gerontology 1:4 (part 1) (October 1946) : 411-417 (411)
via archive.org : link

—

abstract / introduction —
Population experts say that by tuen turn of the century the median age in the United States will be close to 50 years instead of the present 30. Man has defied nature's doctrine of the survival of the fittest and yet has done nothing about improving the race through eugenics. Man's hope for surviving such infringement of biological rules lies in his brain. Since mental ability reaches its peak around the age of 60, the increase in the number of older people can aid fundamentally in saving the race from extinction. Till now, little has been done to use or to improve the intellect and mature judgment of elders. The scientific study of all phases of aging — gerolontology — has only begun, and has the important task of salvaging intellect at a time when society needs it most.
 

on Dr. Frank Hinman, Sr. (1880-1960)
see this profile by Maurice M. Garcia, M.D., MAS, “The History of the Department of Urology, UCSF” —

                        ...he retired at age 70.
      Because Dr. Hinman had been accustomed to operating two mornings a week and working in the office the alternate three afternoons, this schedule had allowed him time to pursue his other interests throughout his career and made the shift into retirement relatively easy. He and his wife (the former Mittie Fitzpatrick) had a country home in Woodside, near Stanford, 40 minutes south of San Francisco, where he raised horses and rode the country trails. Before retirement, he had become interested in methods of keeping older people active and had worked with Stanford to establish the field of gerontology. However, after retirement, when he found he had plenty to occupy him, he lost all interest in the field. Instead, with the aid of his many professorial friends at Stanford, he wrote and published The Impact of the New Physics.
source : link
 

15 July 2026