Al and Jo Horvath were high school sweethearts and married after graduating from college. They are still going strong 58 years later and are now looking forward to celebrating their next anniversary in August at The Woodlands.

“Peggy Cooper gave us a tour and was just wonderful,” Al said.

“The minute we walked on campus we knew this was the place,” Jo said.

Al was born in Schenectady, NY, but has lived in many places in the country and travelled the world with his career as an engineer with General Electric. When he was just starting out Al was involved with the Apollo space program to help put the first man on the moon and throughout his career he worked on radar, sonar and satellite systems for the military and several commercial satellite projects.

Jo is from New Hartford, New York and earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New York before obtaining a master’s degree in healthcare administration. Most of her career was dedicated to working with non-profits, primarily hospice and a nursing home in Syracuse, NY that took in indigent people.

Al and Jo have two sons and four grandchildren that they visit a lot. Before moving to The Woodlands 10 months ago, they enjoyed spending time at their home near Oneida Lake boating and fishing for bass and wall-eyed pike with their sons and grandchildren. Now they stay busy with community activities. Jo uses the gym several days a week and plays in a Mahjong group.

“Mahjong is complicated but good for the brain,” Jo says.

Al’s hobby for 30 years was woodworking, making gifts for friends and family and now he enjoys the community woodworking shop. Both he and Jo are on the Wii Bowling team, which he describes as, “a lot of laughs.”

Al and Jo says what they like most about living at The Woodlands is everyone is welcoming and friendly. They also like that the Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital is nearby on the campus and the great food served in the dining room where they enjoy socializing with the many new friends they have made since moving in.

“We knew right away we made the right decision coming here,” Jo said.

Bill and Lois first met as students at Tufts University and fell in love, but their lives would take them on very different paths. Their alma mater brought them together again over four decades later and now they are enjoying an active retirement at The Woodlands.

Bill was a chemistry major at Tufts University but was unsure of his career path. With the draft looming, he decided to leave college and enlist in the Army to have some say in the line of duty he was to perform.  He served with an army intelligence unit known as the Army Security Agency and after basic training, he was sent to a military language school and served in West Germany as a German linguist. After serving his three years of active duty, Bill returned to Tufts to major in German language and literature with a minor in European History. That is when he met Lois.

Lois and Bill dated in college but took separate life paths, married other people, and had families.

 Lois got an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and worked for the Kennedy Administration finding volunteers for the Peace Corps. She later worked for the United States Information Agency and met her first husband, Matt Lorimer, in a State Department class. She was assigned to Berlin, Germany and he to Kampala, Uganda, where they married a year later. They had two daughters and a life of travel with assignments in Germany, Zambia, Finland, and Copenhagen, Denmark where Lois was a photo researcher for Time/Life Books. They also worked in Jamaica, Boston, and Washington, D.C. before retiring to Woodstock, Vermont.

After Matt passed away Lois decided to simplify life by saying “yes” to any suggestion, and as a result, she ended up working in both the clinic and the gift store of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, helping a childhood friend drive a moving van across Canada, and writing short stories, a few of which have been published.  She also said “yes” when Bill called to ask her out to lunch, after not having heard a word from him in 43 years.

Bill’s professional career was in the field of U.S. intelligence, principally with the National Security Agency, rising to the level of a senior executive. He and his first wife Barbara had four children. The family lived in Munich, West Germany for four years then returned to the U.S.  and settled in Laurel, Maryland where after a long illness, Barbara succumbed to a brain tumor.

Following retirement, Bill was recruited to serve on the professional staff of a congressional commission focusing on the role of US intelligence after the end of the cold war. He eventually started his own consulting firm, Strategies for Intelligence, working with AT&T, Raytheon, and the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

When Bill saw Lois’s phone number in a Tufts University alumni catalog. He decided to call her and the rest, as they say, is history.

When it came time to downsize their home of 17 years in Woodstock, VT, the search brought them to The Woodlands.

“The Woodlands attracted us because of its reputation and moderate size. Most of the other communities we visited were much larger and felt more institutional than comfortable. The community is very professionally run too, so we knew this is where we wanted to be. We have a beautiful apartment with wonderful views of the mountains and sunsets every evening,” Bill said.

Lois and Bill enjoy an active retirement with Lois attending exercise classes several times a week while Bill enjoys the treadmill and weights in the fitness room. He also anticipates working in the community woodshop. The couple has always enjoyed the outdoors and often hike the many wooded trails near The Woodlands.

“There are more activities here than anyone has time for and we are always discovering new ones. The Woodlands offers wonderful independent adult living where we have met so many friendly, interesting people that we enjoy spending time with,” Bill said.

When they are not engaged in community activities both Lois and Bill are involved with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Lebanon. Lois has taken several courses there and Bill lends his years of experience and expertise as a teacher at Osher with classes like, “Understanding the Middle East, “ “The Road to Iraq” and “The History of US intelligence from George Washington to the Present Day.”

Bill and Lois are able to enjoy a carefree retirement without household maintenance worries, and access to amenities like the fitness center and woodshop while spending time with other retired adults also pursuing their passions in a safe and supported community. The Woodlands team is thrilled to be a part of Bill and Lois’s happily-ever-after love story.

Fran has lived a very colorful life having entered a convent at the age of 17, served in the United States Air Force, and enjoyed a successful career as an editor for publications in Alaska where she lived for 55 years.

While a nun, Fran taught in parochial elementary schools in Ohio and Minnesota until she left the convent when she was 25. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, she enlisted in the Air Force where she was sent to Washington State University to earn a degree in journalism.

Fran took her journalism degree to the University of Alaska after being discharged from service.  There she worked as an editor for the “Alaska Sea Grant,” a publication funded by the federal government to encourage research in various aspects of the sea for the commercial fishing industry. She used her teaching experience as the editor of “Tide Lines” a publication for junior high schools in the state.

Fran also worked in marketing before becoming the editor of the “Alaska Geological and Geophysical Survey” magazine until she retired.

It was in academia at the University of Alaska where Fran met her husband Neal and they raised a blended family of five children. For many years, she and Neal traveled to the area near The Woodlands to visit a daughter and grandchildren in nearby Vermont and their daughter at Dartmouth College. They became familiar with what the community and the area had to offer.

“Our must-haves for a retirement community were that it be pet-friendly for our dog Molly and have a pool and hot tub. In Alaska, I had to drive ten miles in each direction to use a pool. At The Woodlands I just walk down the hall!” Fran says.

Fran also likes the fact that most of the activities at The Woodlands are resident-driven.  She is joining the library committee to get more involved. She takes Molly for several walks a day on the beautifully maintained campus and nearby nature trails, and she enjoys playing board games and singing with the community choir. To relax she swims and soaks in the hot tub a few times a week and spends time with the close friends she has made in the community.

“The Woodlands has such a family-like culture and everyone here is so friendly and caring. It’s a wonderful place to retire,” Fran says.