Inspiring Life stories

Jennie Chin Hansen, born of Chinese immigrant parents, grew up with a strong sense of cultural values, such as respect, intergenerational awareness, responsibility, and interdependence. She attended Girl's Latin School, was the only Asian female in the 1970 graduating class of Boston College School of Nursing, and has since gone on from a research assistant at an unknown nonprofit to become the first nurse, the first Asian-American, and the first boomer to serve as president of the Board of AARP, the world's largest nonprofit membership organization. Her story of how she discharged her father from a Boston hospital "against medical advice" to bring him to her home in San Francisco and give him the dignity and respect she had provided for so many others in her career is truly inspiring. Read Jennie's life story.

James Birren has lived a remarkable life, from peddling handbills in high school, to leasing a gasoline station at age 20, to becoming a psychologist at the National Institutes of Health, to becoming known as "the father of gerontology" for his ecological or integrative approach to aging, to his pioneering work in guided autobiography at UCLA, and his current role of professor emeritus at the University of Southern California. Read James' life story.

Sophie Freud was born in Vienna, a granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the entire family emigrated, with Sophie and her mother making a series of harrowing escapes, first to France, then Casablanca, and finally to the United States. Still struggling to learn English, she attended Harvard College, went on to a distinguished career in social work, and is now professor emeritus at Simmons College, while continuing to teach at the Brandeis OLLI and write essays and books. Read Sophie's life story.