Pushing the Limit

This is a nice story from today's Boston.com about a man with roots in Napoli, Italia - just like us. He's still going strong at 94. Good for him. Although, if I should make it to 90, I hope that I've retired at least by the time I'm 85. ;)


Workers 90 and over are redefining what it means to grow old

By Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff July 13, 2006

One morning last month, Paul Fortunato was sitting in his office planning a client's will when he got hung up on an obscure point of estate law. So the 59-year-old lawyer turned to his father and asked what to do. Frank Fortunato didn't pause, he didn't hem and haw. He just tossed off the answer.

In the regular hurly-burly of a law office, the exchange was utterly unremarkable. But in this case it's worth noting that Frank Fortunato isn't your average lawyer. He's 94 years old. He's been practicing law since before World War II, and he's still at his desk nearly every morning by half past eight.

Retire? ``Why would I?" he asks. ``What am I going to do all day?"

Fortunato works six days a week in the firm he founded 67 years ago. He leaves for lunch about noon and is back at his desk by 2. Dressed in a gray suit with thick bifocals and Italian-made teal green socks -- a present from a sister -- Fortunato is in the avant-garde of the employed elderly whose numbers are quietly redefining what it means to age and to retire.

About 27,000 Americans 90 and older are still in the workforce, according to a rough estimate taken from the current population survey conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Centenarians, those who have lived to be 100 or older, are the fastest-growing segment of the US population. By 2050, their number is projected to increase ten fold. Some experts estimate that as many as one in 10 baby boomers now alive will live into their 100th year.

Fortunato is emblematic of how experts predict thousands of these elderly might be living in a few decades, as the boomers zoom past the traditional age of retirement and work into their 70s , 80s, and, like Fortunato, even 90s .

For Fortunato, it's all a matter of course. The oldest of nine, including six brothers who all served in World War II, Fortunato has longevity in his genes. His father, an immigrant from Naples, lived until he was 100 and took the bus from his home in Medford to bet on the horses at Suffolk Downs in Revere most days until the end of his life.

One story Frank Fortunato loves to tell about his father is how he was attacked by two muggers as he left the track with his winnings one day in his late 90s. As the story goes, he beat them off with his cane.

``And he was angry that he didn't catch them," Fortunato says, laughing.

Genetics are a critical part of healthy aging, said Tom Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at the Boston University School of Medicine, who has studied centenarians for more than a decade. Brothers of centenarians are 18 times more likely to reach 100 than others, and sisters are nearly nine times as likely. But genetics are just a part of the picture, Perls said. Medical science and lifestyle can make a tremendous difference.

``Ideally, what I'd love to be seeing is more people getting into their mid- and late-80 s in good health," Perls said.

That will mean more people like Fortunato. Already there are forces pushing seniors to stay at work longer.

``The longer you live, the more money you need to pay for it," said Dr. Richard Suzman, director of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging. The evaporation of defined pension plans and the projected shortage in the labor force will keep more people working longer. Increasing levels of education will also play into this trend. Studies show the more education people have the more likely they are to stay at work.

Indeed, of the nonagenarians in the workforce nationwide, 795 are physicians, according to the American Medical Association, and several hundred are lawyers. Fortunato isn't even the oldest lawyer in the state, according to the Board of Bar Overseers. There are 25 who are older, and 40 practicing lawyers who passed the bar before 1940.

Fortunato said he always knew he would stay young a long time because of his father. But he has also lived a clean life. He never smoked, and he frequently walked the 2 miles to work. And while he enjoyed a glass of wine now and again, he was never a big drinker, and he was always ready to go dancing.

Even today Fortunato moves easily around his office. He still bowls candlepins on Wednesday nights in the Medford Church and Knights of Columbus League, typically scoring in the 80 s.
And of course, a little luck has helped. All seven Fortunato brothers served in the armed services during World War II. During the war, Fortunato's mother and father hung a flag on their front door with seven stars, one for each of their sons enlisted. In the living room, near the radio they tuned in to each night to follow the progress of the war, they hung a map of the world with little pegs locating all of their boys around the globe.

Paul was in the Philippines, George was somewhere in the Pacific, Junior was in France, Billy and John were in England, Arthur was somewhere in the Atlantic, and Frank ended up in Belgium after taking part in the D-Day invasion . Remarkably, all of them returned from the war unscathed.

Fortunato lost his wife, Leonilda, last year. She was 92, and they had been married 64 years. And Fortunato has outlived many friends.

``I don't have the same ambitions that I did when I was in my 70s ," he said.
``Back then, we travel ed all over the place. Everywhere, and with kids, too."

Still, Fortunato, a father of two, is deeply rooted in the community, and his exceptional recall has made him a valuable professional asset -- especially to his son. Earlier this month Fortunato made a house call in Somerville to prepare two wills. He still occasionally represents clients in court. Among lawyers in the area, he is a living legend. Name a street in Medford and chances are Fortunato will have worked on a deed on the street and can still tell you who owns the house.

On a typical day around noon, Fortunato walks down a flight of stairs and climbs into his Buick Century, and with both hands on the steering wheel he drives the half-mile to his brother John's house for lunch.

Last month when he arrived, the Red Sox were playing a matinee against the Phillies. The brother s listened to the pregame show on the radio and discussed the relative merits of David Ortiz's clutch hitting as compared to Babe Ruth and Ted Williams -- both of whom Fortunato saw play.

``Ortiz is good, but he's no Williams," Fortunato said. ``With [Ortiz] you know he might get a hit, but you're not sure," he said. ``With Williams, you knew; that's the difference."
That Fortunato still drives doesn't strike him as a big deal. ``I need to get somewhere, I go," he says with a shrug.

Even in this Fortunato is not alone. There are a 17,183 people 90 and older with active driver's licenses in Massachusetts -- and 79 belonging to people 100 and over. But his son Paul is increasingly after him to cut out the night time errands.

Fortunato said he'll drive as long as he can.

``Why not?" he says. ``I'm fine."

The same, he said, goes for work. ``I'm good at it, I like it, I'll keep working," he said.

For how much longer?

Fortunato laughs.
``Forever," he says.
Douglas Belkin can be reached at dbelkin@globe.com.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.