While some people wonder what they’ll do for their second act, Bill Kennedy says the “R” word itself brought new-found bliss.
While some people wonder what they’ll do for their second act, Bill Kennedy says the “R” word itself brought new-found bliss.
When Bill Kennedy jokes that retirement is his new love, he’s not really jesting. “I read in all my alumni magazines about people who flunked retirement three times,” he says. “Not me! I’m off the hamster wheel. I found my passion in retirement itself.”
Bill grew up in Boston but spent most of his adult life in Chicago, nose to the grindstone. After working in banking, then at a health care startup for 18 years (the original plan was for two), he helped sell the business, moved to Atlanta and got into consulting. There, he’d expected an elder statesman’s life of dining and sharing ideas. Instead, he discovered that consulting was non-stop travel with too many messes to unravel. It was time to wind down, but where?
Despite the fact his real-estate broker wife Colette’s family is fourth generation Palm Beach, he found himself seeking something different. “There just wasn’t anywhere in Palm Beach County that delivered on what we were looking for,” says Bill. “You have to join three to four clubs to do everything you want.” What he wanted: one happy, peaceful place where he could do it all with a single club membership. One day, Colette and her father took a casual ride to Vero Beach, and that’s how they discovered Orchid Island and a community that was not too big and not too small, which offered it all.
“On Orchid Island, I noticed an attitude of assuming you are a nice person, and I want to know you,” recalls Bill. “It was in contrast to many communities, where it’s more like, who are you, and I don’t care.”
“On Orchid Island, I noticed an attitude of assuming you are a nice person, and I want to know you.”
Second time around.
Now, it’s no more planes and trains and automobiles—no more intensely high-pressure living. Just one of Bill’s favorite things these days: taking the time to watch osprey do all the serious competing, using their powerful talons to snag fish from the golf-course ponds.
Despite the fact he’s on the Board of Governors and is head of fitness and tennis, Bill enjoys cycling the most—tennis and pickleball are too hard on his knees, he says. “I tried pickleball twice and pulled a hamstring...twice. I prefer to keep a little cartilage. Cycling is easier on knees and good for the joints.”
Once an amateur bicycle racer, now he’s part of a stress-free group that cycles together on Sunday mornings, following wherever the wind takes them. “If the wind is north, we go north; if the wind comes out of the south, we go south,” says Bill. “We go about 25 miles—we make it so you can eat more.”
A whole new game.
Bill also took up golf at Orchid Island, and he’s enjoying it as part of a unique group of high handicappers, which allows him to play against himself instead of reentering yet another competitive arena. “If I shoot 95, I’m happy,” he laughs. “Anybody can play in our group; our motto is no one cares how badly you play, just how fast. We tell the pros if there are new people at this level, send them our way.”
“It makes everybody feel comfortable,” he continues. “We even play a game that essentially gives the bad golfer an advantage. It's where you can only get points by doing something good; if you do something really bad, it doesn't count against the good. So, you can get a 10 on one hole and a three on the next, and the three counts but the 10 doesn't. This favors the erratic-handicap golfer, which annoys a lot of the stronger players because they never win. Instead, some guy who has a 30 handicap wins all the time.”
Another thing Bill “never had the time to do” was tackle his stack of books. An avid reader and a history buff, Bill’s “must-reads” include Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. “I’ve been active all my life, but I’ve always been interested in reading, too” he says, noting that the community has several book clubs.
New balance.
Bill usually divides his day into two parts—the morning is for something athletic like swimming, and the afternoons are for more intellectual pursuits. In his role on the Board of Governors, he strives for a similar balance. Currently, he’s assessing space and equipment in the health club because Pilates is hot, spin cycling is not, and the newer members want space for CrossFit training while long-time residents still favor their Nautilus machines. (Bill himself is a huge fan of the rowing machines.)
“The key to achieving balance between the different interests is repurposing space,” notes Bill. “We recently purchased seven acres of land, and what we do with it is open to discussion. I am on the planning committee, and we’re developing it one part at a time, exploring what we can do with what we have and determining priorities. Whatever we do will be nice but not over-the-top.”
“I still like doing business-related things and being community-involved, not just acting like a taker,” he continues. “But the best part of retirement in general is not having to plan much. Some days I think of something I haven’t done in a while and say, ‘Why not do that today?’ It’s not like I’m waking up to eight conference calls anymore.”
