PROOF IT’S A GREAT CAREER AT ANY AGE. UNLESS YOU’RE MY MOM WHO SAY’S, “WHY WOULD I DO THAT WHEN I FLY FREE WITH YOUR BENEFITS?” GOOD POINT MOM!

“I wish I would have done it sooner,” said Ray Hope, 79, of his job as a Continental Airlines flight attendant.

June 29, 2008, 11:08PM
Taxiing toward his second retirement
After 40 years in photography, he spent 16 more as flight attendant

photographer in his native Connecticut.

But an article in an AARP magazine that proclaimed “You’re never too old to be a flight attendant” planted the seed, he said.

His daughter, who was a Continental flight attendant, gave him that final push with an application.

“I’ll try anything once,” he remembers telling her at the time.

But would Continental let a man in his 60s join the crew?

Age is not a factor for flight attendants, according to airline spokeswoman Julie King.

“Providing that they can pass recurrent training, which occurs annually, and they are in good standing, they can fly as long as they want,” she said.

Once he successfully completed a series of interviews, Hope was hired and began six weeks of training.

“I had 118 kids in my class,” he said. “I call them kids because I was the oldest one. They could have all been my grandkids.”

As a flight attendant, Hope said his duties were “90 percent safety, 10 percent service.”

He had to know how to operate the plane’s doors, know certain commands and how to get everyone off the plane safely.

Hope said he had “some good days and some bad days.” But the experience taught him patience, he said.

“It’s just a good experience of meeting people and communicating with them,” Hope said. “I think it’s the best choice I’ve ever made in my entire life. I wish I would have done it sooner.”

Commercial photographers aren’t the only ones making the switch after retirement, Hope said. There are a lot of older people becoming flight attendants, including former police officers, firefighters and teachers, he said.

Rosie Barrera, associate state director for communications at AARP-Texas, is noticing a surge in professional retirees who pursue other vocations.

A recent survey for the MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures found that 10 percent of Americans between 44 and 70 were pursing a second career and an additional 45 percent said they were interested.

“We are finding that there are a growing number of older Americans returning to the workplace,” Barrera said. “More older workers are being employed full time.”

Now that Hope is in his golden years, he plans to spend time with friends at the Eagle’s Trace retirement community, making wooden toys for children in Child Protective Services. That’ll leave little time for a third career, but he did joke about becoming a Wal-Mart greeter.

“He’s not one to relax very easily,” said his daughter, Diane Peckham, who has been a flight attendant for 22 years. “He’s always one to do something.”

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