March 31, 2009 - Recently, I had the opportunity to interview George Carmichael, 95, a resident of Vero Beach’s Regency Park senior living community.

Listening to a man tell the entire story of his life in a little under half an hour is a sobering experience. As a young man I found myself comparing and contrasting our stories, sizing myself up for the amount of time I’d been alive. It’s humbling to realize that, if you’re lucky, your entire life would be reduced to a few sound bites in a much longer, more interesting story.

Carmichael is a retired executive, who worked within the Bell telephone system in New York and New Jersey for most of his professional career, after serving in the Navy during World War II. He spends little time describing the details of his work, but, instead, focuses on his relationships, hobbies and passions.

GC: The thing I’m proudest of is that I worked for seven years on the school board in Manhasset and became president. Manhasset is a great community out on Long Island, in Nassau County, NY.

BW: Why are you most proud of that accomplishment?

CG: Because I was interested in children … learning … I worked for the state of New York once as chairman of the Cooperative Education Commission. That meant I got businesses that were able to train kids who weren’t going to stay in school ---who wanted to leave. Carmichael revealed that he had also spent time as the president of the Ridgewood, NJ Baseball Association, an organization that provided baseball equipment for more than 10,000 area Little Leaguers.

BW: What do you dislike the most about being retired?

GC: Well. I don’t have the responsibilities that I used to have. And you miss that. You’re working for 40 years and you’ve been in management all the time and have people that depend on you. That is gone when you retire. So…who do you boss around? (laughs)

GC: I used to be in a golf group, 32 of us-eight foursomes. Thirty-one of ‘em are dead or gone…someplace…

BW: You’re the last one.

GC: I’m the last one. I’m number 32. (laughs) So, you can see that I needed…well…I needed something to do.

Which led him to Regency Park. Carmichael said it best: “I lost my daughter several years ago, and then my wife died. I’d wake up in the morning and say, “What am I here for? Nobody needs me. Kids are doing all right.’ And it just so happened that a minister that week said the true test of a Christian is what you do when you find somebody who needs more help than you do yourself.”

A period of ennui and general dissatisfaction following his wife’s passing led him to begin living with and taking care of DeAnne Blanchard, a friend who had experienced a speech impediment due to a stroke.

“I’d been cooking and washing and drying and sewing and all of that for two years. (Regency Park) just seemed like the ideal place to live. Now I can concentrate on making a difference instead of spending so much time just taking care of the simple necessities of life.”

It seems that throughout his life he has made a major difference—probably more than he’ll ever know.

By Brent Williams