ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260021
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 18 EDITION: METRO
When a company announces job buyouts, the news generally strikes fear and confusion in its most senior workers.
After years of service, they may have vague plans for retirement, but generally they're unprepared to make sudden and unexpected decisions about how they'll spend time and what's likely to be reduced income.
But several Roanoke area residents who've recently accepted those early retirement offers say there's plenty of life after work.
They were not fired or laid off. After weighing their options, they voluntarily left long careers they had enjoyed.
"I'm having a blast," said Wilson Potts, who took early retirement at age 57 from his job as director of computer support services for Norfolk Southern Corp. "I'm taking advantage of this one."
Potts said, in fact, that he is so busy he doesn't see how people hold a job and get everything else done, too.
He's active in the Roanoke chapter of the American Red Cross, serving on its local board and on the board of its blood donor program. Potts also is a director of the Marrow Donor Center of Virginia and the N&W Credit Union.
Every morning he gets up early and fixes breakfast for his wife, who still is employed. Then Potts sets about one of his many interests such as woodworking, golfing or skiing. He's also trying to learn to cook.
"I'm just on the go constantly. I'm just loving it," Potts said.
Sallie Cundiff left Roanoke Gas Co. on May 1 at age 58, determined to do something about her health. At work, she said, it's easy to sit all day and not be particular about what you eat.
Since leaving her 25-year career in the utility's customer service department, Cundiff has started walking eight miles a week and watching what she eats. She has lost 30 pounds and has reduced her cholesterol count to fitness levels.
"I loved my job," Cundiff said. And Roanoke Gas "was a great company to work for."
But she accepted the buyout because it added five years to her retirement and guaranteed health insurance. It was a good package, she said, and she made the difficult decision after talking it over with her husband and children.
Retirement is not like having a full salary, however. "You learn not to spend like you did before," Cundiff said. And she also has had to manage a payout she received from the company's retirement plan to make sure the money stretches until Social Security benefits begin at age 62.
After retirement, Cundiff worked as a Roanoke Gas volunteer for United Way of Roanoke Valley. She even went back to work part time during the utility's busy season.
Now that those jobs are over, Cundiff is considering serving as a volunteer at the Children's Oncology Center at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.
A third early retiree, Eva Longworth, left NS on Nov. 1, shortly after her 60th birthday. She said she had planned to retire within the next year anyway, so a buyout offer merely changed the timing slightly.
Longworth liked her job as casualty claims administrator, she said, but her husband already had retired and they wanted to do things together.
They have planned a cruise in March and a trip to Florida in April.
Longworth has spent her early months of retirement catching up on things around their house, the chores that a working woman has no time to accomplish. She's also active in the Eastern Star organization.
When she gets settled, she plans to put her casualty claims experience to use in part-time work for local attorneys. Longworth said she has worked since age 14, and "I have to do something to keep occupied."
Ralph Fuller left NS in 1987 at age 54 after 30 years of service. He worked in the company's railcar shops, went on trains as a fireman and spent 22 years in the office. For 20 of those last years he was a manager.
He liked the work, and "the railroad was very good to me."
But the retirement offer, Fuller said, guaranteed him virtually full salary to age 62 when he will get Social Security. "When you get an offer like that, you take it."
He said Norfolk Southern wanted to get rid of its older workers. It was cutting staff and, in some cases, bringing in younger people.
Fuller said he's had no trouble keeping busy. "I recommend it to everybody," he said.
Jack Gaking, a former photographer for The Roanoke Times, took a Times-World Corp. buyout offer in 1993, when he was 60.
He said the offer was too good to turn down because the newspaper's owner, Landmark Communications Inc., added five years to his retirement age under its pension plan. That meant he had nothing to gain in a pension by working another five years.
On top of that, Gaking said, the company made up the difference between his pension and his salary until the age of 62, when he qualified for Social Security.
Gaking plays a lot of golf, and he enjoys baby-sitting his grandson. He and his wife recently returned from a nine-day trip to Hawaii.
After working as a special agent for NS for 29 years, Fred Moorman decided to take early retirement if a buyout offer came for which he qualified. "I had already made up my mind."
The opportunity came in the fall, and Moorman left NS Nov. 1 at age 55.
His only regret is missing his co-workers - "some of the best people in the world"
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: KEITH GRAHAM/Staff. After leaving Roanoke Gas in May,by CNBSallie Cundiff began exercising. She's lost 30 pounds.
MAG POFF STAFF WRITER