Monday 22nd December 2014 - Towards retirement

Impressions often count more than reality.  A consequence of my blog on 4 December, when I pointed out that the advertisement for my successor as Deputy Vice-Chancellor had now been published, was that many people have assumed that I am retiring and leaving the University.  Re-reading that blog, I found I never used the word 'retiring' or 'retirement' in it.  I talked about a chapter towards ending my academic career, but not to an actual date.

So in the period since 4 December I have been explaining to a lot of people that what I will be doing will be stepping down from the University's Executive Board, 'retiring' from it, but not 'retiring' completely.  There are still research papers to be completed, a possible textbook to be written, a research student to see through to completion, a number of national level committees to attend, various other projects to maintain, and perhaps (who knows) even some more teaching to do.  In other words, I expect still to be active within the university once my successor is in post.  BUT, I intend to leave it to him or her to get on with their new job, rather than carping from the sidelines or continuously meddling in their activities.

I am in the first recent generation not to be given a fixed retirement age.  But the period when that applied was actually quite short.  Both my grandfathers worked well beyond the age of 65.  One was a printer doing night shifts who kept them up until he was 70; the other was a shipyard inspector of rivets who was forced to retire short before his 70th birthday as a result of the bronchitis he had developed through working in very poor conditions on Tyneside.  On the other hand, my father 'was retired' at the age of 60 from his then job in human resources at the BBC - although he was relieved to get out of the hour-long commute from our house in West London to an office close to Broadcasting House.

So, to repeat, I will not be retiring from the University later this spring, but stepping down from the Executive Board (after what will by then be at least 11 years on it or its predecessor).  What am I looking forward to most?  Not having to oversee the major admissions decisions in the middle of August; catching up with academic reading in my field; and spending more time in Coffee Revolution.