Never Too Late: A Glimpse Into the Life and Legacy of Ethel Percy Andrus

Andrus was born in San Francisco but spent her early life in Chicago. After earning an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1903, Andrus began teaching. Her father, whom she once described as “a man who believed everyone should do good somewhere,” had instilled that credo in his daughter as well, and so the young woman ventured out of her upscale Chicago neighborhood in search of a suitable mission.

Among Andrus' many accomplishments was a stint as a faculty member at Chicago's Lewis Institute, a predecessor of Illinois Institute of Technology and the first woman high school principal in the state of California. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

In those days, Chicago was a prime destination for impoverished, uneducated immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe, who came in search of jobs in the city’s meatpacking plants, steel mills and railroads. These newcomers often were cruelly exploited, forced to work long hours for low wages and to live in crowded, unsanitary slums — a plight vividly depicted in Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle.

In an effort to improve conditions for that underclass, progressive activists such as Jane Addams founded Hull House, where immigrant families could obtain social services and education. The idealistic Andrus joined that movement, teaching school during the day and spending her evenings and weekends working at Addams’ famous Hull House and the Chicago Commons.

Andrus also found time to worry about the plight of some of her retired faculty, who were penniless and struggling to make ends meet. In 1927, Andrus organized the Foundation to Assist California Teachers, and raised funds to start a retirement home in Inglewood and another in Pasadena.

Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus founded AARP in 1958. AARP evolved from the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA), which Andrus had established in 1947 to promote her philosophy of productive aging, and in response to the need of health insurance for retired teachers. After ten years, Andrus opened the organization to all Americans over 50, creating AARP. Today, the NRTA is a division within AARP.

Dr. Andrus founded AARP while living in Ojai, California, where she had established an innovative new retirement home named Grey Gables. Ojai served as national headquarters for AARP from 1958 until the mid-1960s. Honors to Dr. Andrus include National Teacher of the Year in 1954, induction into the Women's Hall of Fame and, more recently, a medallion placed on the Points of Light Institute's "Extra Mile Pathway" in downtown Washington, D.C.