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>> Joan: I'd like to thank you for coming to talk about
your experience with your transition into retirement. So could you tell us your name,
your department, your years of service to the University, and for example if you were
retired as an emeritus professor and went into the FERP program? Could you describe
your career at the University? >> Pat:
OK. My name is Patrick Hamill and I'm in the Physics Department, and I've been at the University
for about 30 years, and I retired about 4 or 5 years ago. I did not go into the FERP
program, I just retired straight out-and-out and now I've remained at the University as
a volunteer. I'm professor Emeritus now but I'm still teaching in the Physics Department,
and next semester I'll also be teaching a course in the Meteorology Department.
>> Joan: The University is lucky to have you continuing
to do your service. Well, can you tell us some of the important considerations that
guided your decision to retire when you did that about 4 or 5 years ago?
>> Pat: Well, the main reason that I retired was kind
of a mistake. >> Joan:
Oh dear! Ok. (Laughter) >> Pat:
Well because what I wanted to do was to cut back. I didn't want to be teaching, you know,
the 15 unit load. It was just I felt I wasn't doing a really good job that way. And I wanted
to cut back to teaching maybe half load, 2 class courses a semester and so I said well,
one way to do it would be to retire and just do it, and I'd have the freedom either to
teach or to teach 2 course or 1 course or no courses or whatever. I didn't realize at
the time, this is why I say why this was maybe a mistake, I didn't realize at the time that
I could have gone onto a half-time load, and I don't know exactly what the situation is
for doing that, I don't know all the details, but I could have done that and I probably
would have done that if I had I known about it. But, as it was, it worked out OK.
>> Joan: Uhum, uhum. I should have probably sent you
over to Faculty Affairs to figure out what, how you could have done that because there
are ways of lightening your load. >> Pat:
Right. I didn't know that. >> Joan:
Although that's not the full retirement, though. >> Pat:
I understand that and didn't necessarily want to completely retire in the sense I wanted
to continue teaching some classes and so I just, on my own, kind of figured out, oh well,
if I retire I cans still do it and, indeed, it's worked out fine. I mean, it's not a problem.
>> Joan: So can you describe for us then your transition
when you first started thinking about retirement until you actually retired? And even some
of the steps about, you know, did you begin thinking about retirement, you know, 5 years
ago or 10 years earlier, or did you talk to family members, colleagues, HR, CalPERS? What
were the steps that you went through? >> Pat:
Well, I can't remember exactly all of the steps, but, basically, of course you know,
you talk to colleagues and people who are near retirement.
>> Joan: Yes.
>> Pat: Oh, you know, I'm going to retire and visit
Benefits and so forth. And I thought, well maybe I'll do this, and I don't remember exactly
when I decided to do it. I started looking into it and I went to some of these retirement
workshops that CalPERS has. >> Joan:
Right, CalPERS has these. >> Pat:
Yes, it was a CalPERS one. And they answered some of the questions that I had, which I
don't even remember what they were now. But at the time I thought it was very good, very
useful to get that information. And then I talked to the people in HR.
>> Joan: Right. Benefits.
>> Pat: And they explained, you know, what the mechanism
was for retiring. And so then I first, just kind of arbitrarily, picked a date and said
OK, I'll retire at the end of the semester and I did.
>> Joan: OK. And was the actual experience of retirement
different than your pre-retirement idea of what it would be like?
>> Pat: Well, no since I really don't feel like I've
retired very much since I'm still teaching and doing all the things I was doing. Ah,
the only thing I would say is kind of different is that fact that once you're retired you
kind of get cut out of some aspects of the University and of departments and so forth,
although my department's very supportive of me. And you know they asked me to go to the
faculty meetings and so forth. I don't know exactly what the rules and regulations are,
but I decided that I would not vote, and so I just don't vote when the votes come up.
And I don't even know if that's right or wrong or how it is. I think the FERP people do vote
in those meetings, but I thought, well, I'm probably setting kind of a precedent here
and so I don't think anyone's done this in my department, so I just said, well, I just
won't vote. And then there are certain committees and things like that that require full-time
tenured people on them and so, so I'm missing out on a few of those things, not entirely
though like for example, one semester I was on the Academic Senate. I was just named by
the Dean to replace somebody. And so that seemed to be something that I could still
do. But, yeah, you do miss out on a few of the things that you might or might not enjoy
in the university when you're a retired person rather than a full-time faculty member.
>> Joan: Right. Right. And can you describe what has
been easy about your transition into this, and again you're very involved in your department,
but the transition from that kind of full-time status...
>> Pat: Yeah.
>> Joan: ... to the status that you are in now. What's
been easy about that? >> Pat:
Well, everything has been easy about it. There's been no difficulties, no problems at all,
that I can think of, off the top of my head anyway. If I can think of something bad, I'll
let you know. If I can't think of something not easy, I'll let you know. But I can't think
of anything like that. >> Joan:
OK. And what do you wish that you had known earlier before you did that transition through
CalPERS and what do you think other faculty need to know about this transition to be better
prepared? What kind of wisdom would you like to share?
>> Pat: Well, the only thing is what I mentioned a
minute ago is that I wish I'd known that you don't have to retire in order to get more
free time, and that would have been useful to me because I probably would have said,
oh well, I'll just stay on, you know. It's in my situation it was kind of everything
was very easy. My income, I guess, went down. But, you know, our retirement is so good anyway,
and I haven't really suffered financially at all. And so, but it's, it's been no problem
whatsoever. >> Joan:
And it sounds like it's been enjoyable, the difference between the 15 unit load and then
doing the courses that you really enjoy. >> Pat:
Yeah, right, right. >> Joan:
That's a nice change. >> Pat:
Oh, yes, yes. One of the things that happens in my department is that we teach a lot of
laboratories. And laboratories, I find, A. boring, and B. tiring because you're running
from one end of the lab to the other, answering the same question for 15 people that have
the same problem. And I just never enjoyed doing that and so now I just don't do it.
And so that's kind of nice. >> Joan:
So you get to do what you really like (Laughter). >> Pat:
I get to do what I like to do. Right. >> Joan:
And so my final question is what keeps you busy and active now? And certainly the description
that you have of your course work is very engaging for you. Are there other things that
you find, that you know, this more time that you have available that you're doing as well?
>> Pat: Well, actually, I don't think that I have
more time available . >> Joan::
Oh. >> Pat:
Because I'm doing pretty much the same thing I had been doing. But I've been working, you
know, at NASA for the last 40 years or so and so I keep going up there a day or 2 a
week and working with people there on research projects. And then I have the teaching here
and then I've managed to write and publish a book just this last year. And so it's a
book; it's a "Student's Guide To," and then. >> Joan:
But that's wonderful. >> Pat:
So, those things I guess maybe I might not have had as much time to do them as I would
have if I were still teaching all those labs and everything. But no, it's not been really
different. >> Joan:
It seems like it's been a transition that's allowed you to have time to do more of what
you like to do and to eliminate some of the things you found not as enjoyable.
>> Pat: Yeah, yeah. Well, in my case the transition
has been super smooth. I've not had any problems that I can think of.
>> Joan: Well, I want to thank you very much Dr. Pat
Hamill, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, in the College of Science at San
José State University. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us.
>> Pat: You're welcome.