The Best Is yet to Be: A Study of the Culture of Friendship Village Tempe

By Paul F. McCleary

One of the most important questions in selecting a retirement community is:

Will I be happy here? Can I make friends easily here? One's sense of personal comfort is as important as costs and attractive environment. This is a study of the culture of Friendship Village Tempe. The same approach could be applied to any retirement community

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796066142

Paul F. McCleary

Paul F. McCleary shares how the trajectory of life was changed by a single encounter and the ramifications that were produced. The author assumed when he enrolled in seminary his future would probably involve being a pastor of a church in rural downstate Illinois. A visit to the seminary by a Methodist bishop from Latin America became an encounter that changed entirely the direction of his career from that of a local church pastor to a missionary. The McCleary family arrived in Bolivia in the last decade before Methodism transitioned from being a mission to becoming a national autonomous church. The author shares the challenges of contributing to the formation of a new church in a developing country struggling to find its new identity. The view of open country churches visible over the cornfields of Central Illinois, where he served as a student pastor, stands in sharp contrast to living in the poorest country in South America—a country second only to Haiti as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Methodism’s footing in Bolivia came through the fact that at the turn of the century, the Bolivian president had a daughter who was sent to Santiago, Chile, to gain a high school education not yet available to girls in Bolivia. The author’s real education, even after a degree from college and seminary, came from Bolivia. Living among the poor and ministering to families with children is a quick course in understanding how conditions of absolute poverty shape the world in which many people live. As incongruous as it may seem, the country was rich in natural resources whose benefit failed to trickle down to improve the daily lives of the indigenous majority of society. As the author quickly learned, as insignificant as Bolivia appeared, it was an attractive pawn in the larger context of global politics. The expansion of Nazism took easy roots in the Bolivian quest for an alternative social order different from the past. The end of World War II in Europe only served to scatter the seed to other corners of the world. There were attempts to continue it in countries such as Bolivia. Klaus Barbie was a resident in Bolivia under protective cover offered by lenient military administrations. The emergence of a Cuban presence led by Che Guevarra was an effort to establish a colony in the more isolated Eastern area of Bolivia and was another political influence. The author shares how new theological currents were also influencing the Christian faith as an outgrowth of conditions in Latin America. These new challenges came in the form of liberation theology articulated by Gustavo Gutierrez, and identification with the poor by Paulo Freire was also gaining wider acceptance. The author was so influenced by these ten years in Bolivia that he went on to direct three different international nonprofit organizations that focus on combating the conditions of absolute poverty on children and families. In so doing, he served as staff of the National Council of Churches, on commissions of the World Council of Churches, as president of the Non-Governmental Organizations Committee to UNICEF, and as a member of the Bishops’ Task Force on Children and Poverty of the United Methodist Church.

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Copyright © 2019 by Paul F. McCleary.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

All cover and interior images were taken by Jean Higgins.

Rev. date: 12/04/2019

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Cast of Fictious Characters

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Illustrations

Chapter One Mary Scott Becomes a FVT Resident

Chapter Two Buying Into More Than One Thinks: A Community and Its Culture

Chapter Three Friendship Village Pioneers

Chapter Four The Two-Thirds Impact

Chapter Five FVT Heroes

Chapter Six How Do We Stack Up With Others?

Chapter Seven Characteristics of the Culture of Friendship Village Tempe

Chapter Eight The Way Ahead

Bibliography

Appendix I The Length of Stay At Friendship Village

Appendix II Administrators of Friendship Village Tempe

Appendix III Categories of the Age Well Study

About the Author

DEDICATION

"We dedicate this retirement residence

To the glory of God and the good of man.

We dedicate this village of friendship

To the glory of God and the good of man.

We dedicate this community of care

To the glory of God and the good of man.

We dedicate this arena of activity and enrichment

To the glory of God and the good of man.

We dedicate this restorative health center

To the glory of God and the good of man.

We dedicate this complex for total maturity

With the hope and expectation of adding life to years

And years to life.

We do now dedicate this facility

To the glory of God and the good of man.

Friendship Village Dedication Ceremonies, January 24, 1981

INTRODUCTION

The fastest growing segment of the U.S. population is those who are 85 and older. The second fastest is those over 100. In 2018 the US Census Bureau projected over 82,000 centenarians in the U.S. The number is up from around 50,000 in 2002, less than twenty years earlier. In the next decade the number of persons over 100 is expected to reach 140,000. At present, the average life span for a man is 76 and for a woman it is 81. A Harris Poll conducted on behalf of the University of Phoenix found that 59% of the American adults say living to 100 has too many risks to be worthwhile. The incidence of diseases also grows. The number of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases has grown from 4.7 million in 2010 to 5.8 million in 2019. For many, longer life has to be matched by improved quality of life. The purpose of this study is to examine life in a life care retirement community.

A hundred years ago the elderly were typically cared for within the context of the extended family. In the last fifty years the phenomenon of retirement communities has blossomed. Some of these communities are simply towns dedicated to those over 65 years of age with some form of recreation such as a golf course. Others take on a much more complex mission and provide varying forms of assisted living facilities. The most complex facilities offer the Life Care approach which assumes a responsibility for caring for the health needs of individuals as they move from one stage of life to another. Much attention has been given to the field of geriatrics with more focused responses to the needs of the elderly. Several novels such as the one by James Michener, Recessional provide popularized stories about life in a life care retirement community.

This book is not a novel although it may be classified as fictionalized history to protect the privacy of individuals. More precisely, it is a study of the culture that exists within a retirement village. Specifically, it is the study of the retirement community known as Friendship Village Tempe (FVT). At least two histories of FVT have been written so that background is already available and not covered in this book.¹

This is an examination of the culture in a community of unrelated persons over 62 years of age most of whom were unknown to each other, who have come together to form a community. It will examine the elements which are signs and symbols of a culture. The study will identify what makes the Friendship Village culture different from that which might be found in other retirement communities and, specifically, life care communities.

Friendship Village has developed a reputation for being different. This study is an exploration into the answers to: Is the FVT culture truly different? How did this distinctive culture develop? What are the characteristics of the FVT culture?

For purposes of this study the word community will sometimes be interchangeable with the full title Friendship Village Tempe. The FVT community refers to a social unit where the residents share some common elements, such as: an identity due to interests and shared values, or some expectations or desired outcomes expressed in shared norms of conduct and speech. Also community implies sharing a common geographical area, which is also true in this study. Friendship Village Tempe is a forty-six acre area located in the City of Tempe, Arizona.

A traditional definition would be: Friendship Village Tempe is composed of individuals who have intentionally and voluntarily come together to form a community to meet social objectives with formal and informal external relationships.²

Chapter two defines what a community culture is. While communities may look alike there are ways in which they may vary significantly. For purposes of this study, we will be examining ways in which the FVT community is different and the causes of these differences. Chapter Three focuses on a few of the early residents identified by the Residents Council as the Pioneers of Friendship Village who moved into FVT during the first year of the FVT community’s existence. These, the Pioneers, were forgers of the culture of the Village. They were among those who set the course for the development of the culture of Friendship Village.

Of value is a brief exploration into the types of vocational backgrounds in which many FVT residents spent their professional lives. Chapter Four studies the roots of the culture of Friendship Village by examining the types of corporate cultures from which the residents of the Village came. Three vocational areas are reviewed.

It has been suggested that one of the symbols of a culture is those residents whom the community respects and honors. Chapter Five turns to a brief study of those who are being remembered through memorializations on the campus of the Village.

The early chapters explore why a unique FVT culture has evolved. It is important to move the study to a point of comparison with other retirement communities to confirm or refute any uniqueness. Two studies have become available to make this comparison possible. In Chapter Six, Mather Lifeways Institute, in coordination with nine major universities has completed the first year of a five year study on Senior Living and the resident communities in which retirees live. The second study is conducted approximately every three years by SENSIGHT, an