In "retirement," Glenn, besides having served as Vice Provost of Corporate Research and Technology Transfer at Case Western Reserve University, Science and Technology Advisor to Governors Voinovich and Taft, been a member of the board for 7 Fortune 500 corporations, and serving on the boards of almost a dozen local non-profit organizations, is president of The Generation Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the economy of Northeast Ohio.

The Chagrin Falls couple-both "second-time-arounders"-celebrated their 16th anniversary this year. In the cozy window-walled den of their Chagrin Falls home, they shared their views on everything from growing up poor during the Depression to what it takes to age successfully in the 21st Century.

Tell me about your "growing up" years.

Jeanette: I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, on Buckeye Road [and E. 132nd St.] My parents were Hungarian immigrants, and it was a very ethnic community with strong cultural roots and lots of customs and traditions.

We were poor-I was born in 1928, just before the Depression started-but I had a wonderful childhood and I went to Cleveland Public Schools-all the way through: Harvey Rice, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams. In the 3rd grade I tested significantly gifted, so I was placed in the Major Works Program.

I loved school, there was never a day that I didn't look forward to going to school, because of the environment and the teachers and the wonderful courses I could take. And every school I went to was wonderfully diverse...yet everyone had the same goal and ambition, and that was to go to college...because it was the way to opportunities.

Glenn: I was born in Pennsylvania [in 1930], and raised in a town called Jeannette...

Jeanette: ...and he's always telling me I spell my name wrong.

Glenn: ...which was a glass manufacturing town. No one was rich where I lived. My parents were much the same as Jeanette's-didn't have much education but had good values-and wanted us [six] children to get a good education.

I did well academically and in high school I took the college prep classes...and I knew early on I wanted to be a chemical engineer. But I wasn't just good academically, I was on the basketball and baseball teams, too.

After high school I got recruited [by a minor league baseball team], and played in the same league with Whitey Ford [New York Yankees pitcher and Baseball Hall of Fame inductee] for a year. I made $892. That's how I paid for college. Tuition at Penn State was $64 a semester.

You are both well-respected community leaders. Was there anything special in how you were raised that made you the people you are today?

Jeanette: Definitely. My parents were so proud of being American [because] in America we have the great privilege of living in a democracy, but that carries with it a responsibility to give back to our communities and to society in ways that we can, and to work to keep our country fair and great.

It's that idea-that you help others, that you give them opportunities-that motivates me most now that I'm in retirement. [Glenn laughs at her use of this word.]

From both parents, but especially my father, I got the message: Cultivate your curiosity and do your best and good things, good opportunities, will happen to you. From my mother I got, along with my appreciation of learning, an appreciation for art and music.

Glenn: I'd say that what makes me the person I am today isn't much different from what Jeanette said. But it was my mother-my father worked nights, so I didn't see him much-who was the one who was the major [influence] in my family. She came from a highly Protestant, religious family and taught us that you were kind and courteous to everyone and that you helped others and that you should always do the right thing. She was a very powerful role model.

Both of you chose careers in chemistry. What lead each of you to do so?

Glenn: In my case, it was the fact that mathematics and chemistry and physics were things that I liked in school...and were easy for me. I decided that the whole field of engineering and chemistry was what I wanted to go into.

Jeanette: For me, it was a high school chemistry teacher-Mr. Schaal. I was taking his course in the 10th grade...and I loved it. Also, I was very good at math and science.

Both of you rose through the ranks at Standard Oil Company (later BP America). How were your careers there "similar" and how were they "different?"

Jeanette: We knew each other from early on: I came in 1950 and he came in 1952. Our careers began quite similarly in the fact that we both started out in research, but they quickly diverged.

I stayed in research. As a woman moving [up] through the ranks of research at Standard Oil, I saw needs and policies that I thought would help us acquire better young women as we went recruiting, especially the need for comparable pay scales for women and flextime...

Glenn: And this was in the early '60s.

Jeanette: ...that would take their needs into consideration and draw them to the company. When I finished my career there I was director of Corporate Research and Analytical and Environmental Science...[and] there were 890 people in the laboratory and I was managing a $100 million budget.

Glenn: I was getting married [in June of 1952] and was getting my Masters Degree at Case [Institute of Technology] and was looking for a summer job. My fiancé suggested I go look for a job at a chemical company at E. 86th and Chester. When I was walking down Cornell Rd. to the school that day I saw a sign, right across the street from the school, that said: Standard Oil Research. I walked in the door and applied for a job-and got it.

Jeanette: [laughing] He's always looking for ways to be more efficient, and our research lab was a lot closer than 86th and Chester.

Glenn: But the chemical side was not the highlight for me. My Ph.D. thesis led me into information theory and work with computers. When I was getting it, I'd work during the day at the research lab, and then, two or three nights a week, I'd go down town to the company's computer lab and work there...because late at night was when the fastest computer in Cleveland was available...and it was doing 250 operations a second.

Not long after I started doing that I got a call asking if I wanted to be the manager of the information group-the information systems department...[From there] I "evolved" into management.

What's the most important life-lesson you learned at BP?

Jeanette: That people will perform to their maximum if you give them the opportunity and believe in them.

Glenn: That you have to know how everyone feels they fit into the organization. But that's just another way of saying the same thing Jeanette said.

You both have been successful advocates-for women, for minorities, for the City of Cleveland, for CWRU, etc. What is it about you, personally, that makes you so good at going to bat for others?

Glenn: When you see the opportunity to put your knowledge and insight and background into organizations that help to improve the quality of life throughout the region you do it. That's why I went to Case Institute and Western Reserve University after retiring from Standard Oil, and, after retiring from that job [in 1993], that's why I became the science adviser to the governor-first Voinovich and then Taft.

That same thrust-raising quality of life for Ohioans-is the goal of the Generation Foundation, the non-profit organization I've been working with the most lately.

Jeanette: Similar things to what Glenn said. I can see that I can give others opportunity to change and improve, especially through education. I firmly believe that education is the first step in economic development and in raising the quality of life... If we are better educated, there will be better jobs in this region. If we have better jobs in the region society as a whole benefits.

What I'm striving to achieve with the things I do has the same end-goal-to make Cleveland a better place to live and work-as what Glenn's doing. It's just that I'm approaching it with specific ways to do it-specifically through education-and Glenn is approaching it on the macro-level.

He tends to be the planner and the visioner in the family and work on the big picture and I tend to work on specifics.

Glenn: Definitely. I tend to think in very broad terms. She tends to look at very specific things. But we are both always headed in the same direction.

Sounds like you work as a team. Do you?

Jeanette: More and more. We didn't used to...especially at Standard Oil, because we were in different parts of the company, but...

Glenn: ...now any information we get, we share it back and forth.

Jeanette: This isn't the same thing as talking "work" at home, because it's not work for either of us. This is what we are doing now in our "retirement." [laughs]

It's our pleasure, it's what motivates us. It's energizing...and it's especially energizing because we are doing more and more of it together.

Glenn: And everything seems to come together. For instance, the kinds of things Jeanette works on in education are reflected in what's happening in terms of the area's economic development. And that's good because economic development does not start in the factories, it starts in the home, in the school, in the neighborhood.

Jeanette: That's why I focus so much on the economically disadvantaged in the community. That's why the Cleveland Scholarship Program-working with students who aren't at the academic top of their class, but who have potential for success-is something I'm committed to.

Both of you have accomplished so much and received so many awards and honors that I suspect even you have lost track of them, yet it's Jeanette who seems to get all the "ink." How do you deal with that, Glenn?

Glenn. I don't have any problem with it. She's the most effective human being I have ever known, and I'm probably her best press agent. I'm always telling people what she's accomplishing.

Jeanette: This is Glenn's style. He's always been the kind of person who is working behind the scenes.

Glenn: [laughs] She's right. I'm more comfortable not being the person in the spotlight, or the person who gets the press.

Jeanette: And that should tell you something about our relationship. Some men-especially men who have been in very powerful positions, like Glenn has-would find all the attention I get difficult. He doesn't, he's totally supportive because he sees that what I'm doing is being a role model for other women-showing that it's important to be on boards, to make donations, to chair committees. That's one reason we work as hard as we do...in our retirement.

You knew each other for a long time as co-workers at Standard Oil Company. When did you realize that your feelings for each other might be the basis for a good marriage?

Jeanette: Glenn was widowed and we'd always been good family friends. When I became divorced he became someone I could talk to, go to dinner with, do interesting things with.

He says he knew very soon after the divorce that we were a good match, that we had so many things in common.

Glenn: When I found out she was single again, I decided to develop a strategic plan...From our first "date" [1986] till we married, it was about a year and a half.

Jeanette: I was still working at BP after we got married [1987], and everyone at the laboratory said: Well, it took you long enough.

You are both in your mid-70s and you are both active, involved individuals. How do you do it? In other words, what's your definition of, and criteria for, successful aging?

Glenn: First of all, we stay active. We aren't just doing things to occupy our time. And we aren't on any of the boards we are on so that we can get our names down the left side of the stationary.

We also set aside time that's remote from the pressures we are working under. For instance, we have a time-share down in the Cayman Islands, and we always spend two weeks down there.

Jeanette: It's like Glenn said, we plan time away for us. And not always away, either. I include time here at the house...so we can have time for ourselves.

Glenn had a bout with cancer-over five years ago-and that was a wake-up call. All of a sudden we realized we'd better live every day.

You both look to be in very good physical shape. What do you do to keep fit?

Jeanette: We don't diet, but we do eat healthy-a good breakfast, light lunch, light dinner-and we don't eat desserts. I'm not fanatical, but I'm careful about the things we eat, especially because we eat out so much because we go to so many events. We eat everything we want...

Glenn: ...but in moderation.

Jeanette: Neither one of us have ever had an exercise regime-though we did do a lot of walking-till about six months ago when we hired a physical trainer. They come to the house once a week now.

Glenn: And we use weights and we have a treadmill downstairs that we use, too.

Jeanette: And we walk a lot more...We have a mile loop and a two mile loop. And when we are really feeling ambitious, we walk up our hill.

The research shows-and being a scientist I read the research-that there are health benefits as you age when you keep your body fit, when you keep your mind active, when you eat a good diet. We are doing what we can to extend our healthy years.

This is a second marriage for both of you. What's your recipe for a successful second marriage?

Glenn: Shared values and shared experiences and commonalties-honestly communicated.

Jeanette: Yes. We feel the same way about philanthropy and family and responsibilities and attachments to family. When you feel the same about things, they become non-entities, parts of a relationship that defines you as a couple.

And also, love that implies respect for the other person's personal strengths. That's support, and the support I've gotten from Glenn has made me evolve into the person I am today. I know I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today without his support.

In your mid-70s are you doing what you thought you'd be doing when you both retired in your late 50s?

Glenn: No. But I didn't look that far ahead, either. I probably thought we'd be spending more time at home with family and friends. But we don't. We travel a lot, and we are involved in many things outside the home.

A lot of that involvement comes because we talk about things-especially social issues-and because our values are so similar.

Jeanette: I don't think I ever thought about retirement per se. It was never a goal, and I was never sitting there thinking: Boy, I can't wait to retire.

When I retired, the thing I found wonderful was that I could control my own time. The ability to say no, to have control over what I did, that I enjoyed. But I have a very strong need to be active and busy and to feel I'm accomplishing something.

You're extremely active now. What do you hope to be doing when you hit your mid-'80s?

Glenn: I hope that we have a bit more free time; in other words that we aren't quite as scheduled as we are now. But that doesn't mean less involved.

Jeanette: Like Glenn, I'm hoping we'll be less scheduled, too, but I don't really see much of a change in what we are doing with regard to our involvement in the community because the things we are doing are all things that we want to be doing.

If you were going to be written up in the Guinness Book of Records for just one accomplishment, what would you want that to be...and why?

Jeanette. That's a hard question. Before I retired, I was 100% into being a scientist-and promoting my passions, chemistry and science. Now I'm 100% into volunteer work-and promoting my passions, education, women's issues, economic security. But I think I'd want something that acknowledged the fact that in the area of education or helping Cleveland become the community we'd like to see it become, that I'd made a difference, that my presence had left something of value.
Glenn: I'd say the same thing. I'd want to be remembered for having done something that personally left an imprint on the community, that made a difference in people's lives.