Roctogenarians: Late-in-Life Triumphs

Mo Rocca, well-known humorist, journalist, history buff and New York Times bestselling author, has trained his focus on recognizing the great work of older adults who make incredible contributions late in life.

In his latest book, Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs, he introduces readers to people past and present who continue to peak as they grow older, breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed records—and in the case of one ninety-year-old tortoise, becoming a first-time father. 

 

"Eighty has been the new sixty for about twenty years now," Mo Rocca tells us. In fact, there have always been late-in-life achievers, those who declined to go into decline only because they were eligible for social security. "Older people just have better stories," he adds.

The inspiration for the book came in the summer of 2015 when Mo Rocca was in Chicago taping an appearance of NPR's comedy quiz show, Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me! A chance comment by their guest, superstar Chance the Rapper, had him rethinking his premise that fewer and fewer avenues would be open to him as he grew older, that aging was a process of diminishing capacities.  

That conversation had him rethinking everything. He concluded that he still had plenty of time to continue making his mark on the world. "Don't take my word for it," writes Mo. "According to renowned geriatrician Louise Aronson, author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life, 'We've added a couple of decades, essentially an entire generation, onto our lives, and we haven't kind of socio-culturally figured out how to handle that.' Today turning one hundred is no big deal. The big question is what to do with all that extra time," writes the fifty-five-year-old Mo Rocca.

In the vein of Mobituaries, Roctogenarians (co-authored with Jonathan Greenberg) is a collection of entertaining and unexpected profiles of these unretired titans—some long gone (a cancer-stricken Henri Matisse, who began work on his celebrated cut-outs when he could no longer paint), some very much still living, like the amazing Mel Brooks or the equally amazing Rita Moreno, both still going strong in their 90s.

Others in the cast of characters include Mary Church Terrell, born to parents who had been enslaved. She founded the NAACP in middle age and in the 1950s came out of retirement at eighty-six to lead sit-ins at a Washington DC lunch counter, which resulted in legal desegregation of our nation's capital. Harland Sanders was 66 and living off Social Security when he hit to road with his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices... By the time he was 74, his Kentucky Fried Chicken was a worldwide phenomenon. Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first "Little House" book at sixty-five. Then there are people like Carol Channing, who married the love of her life (her junior high school sweetheart) at eighty-two, and Peter Mark Roget, who began working on his thesaurus in his twenties but didn't complete it until seventy-three (because, as Mo Rocca tells us, sometimes finding the right word takes time). So many others are featured in the book, such as international bestselling writer, Frank McCourt, who was 66 when his memoir, Angela's Ashes, became a literary sensation and Norman Lear, who kept going strong in show business until age 101.

In a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, Mo Rocca tells us that for some roctogenarians, dying without regrets means taking care of unfinished business. For example, you may know Brian May as rock group Queen's guitarist, but he was an aspiring astrophysicist before he became a superstar with Queen. He never forgot his first ambition and went back to school to finish his PhD in astrophysics at age 60. "It's all about intuition and passion and determination," May told Mo Rocca. And then there is Diana Nyad who first attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida at age 28. After trying over and over, she finally finished the task at 64. Abstract expressionist artist Carmen Herrera was 101 when she had her first solo exhibition at a major museum. 

Mo Rocca adds that roctogenarians don't rest on their laurels. Take 75-year-old celebrated architect IM Pei, who created an instant classic by placing a glass pyramid right over Paris' Louvre Museum. "Nothing retiring about that move," says Mo. Then there is Frank Lloyd Wright, who submitted his design for the Guggenheim at eighty-four 

He ended his Sunday Morning segment with ninety-three-year-old Rita Moreno. When asked if she gets tired of people pointing out her age, she responds with, "No. I think it's good. I think it's important that they be aware that there are old people who are energetic. I feel so fortunate to be at the place where I am right now. I mean, I really, sometimes, wake up singing!"

Rita Moreno demonstrating dance steps from "West Side Story" while Mo Rocca looks on, image courtesy of CBS "Sunday Morning"

 

Mo Rocca hopes readers will be inspired by the stories, amused, moved. "Late life is no time to surrender!" Roctogenarians tells us that you are never too old to chase your dreams. 

MORE INFORMATION

Mo Rocca is a correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, host of the hit Mobituaries podcast and The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation. He’s also a frequent panelist on NPR’s hit weekly quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and host and creator of Cooking Channel’s My Grandmother’s Ravioli. Mo Rocca is coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving and author of All the Presidents’ Pets: The Story of One Reporter Who Refused to Roll Over.

Co-author Jonathan Greenberg is a professor of English at Montclair State University and the author of two books of literary criticism along with many articles and essays. He is also an Emmy Award–winning screenwriter who has written for children’s shows including Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, and Arthur. In addition to coauthoring Roctogenarians, he is the coauthor of Mobituaries.

Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks and Triumphs by Mo Rocca and Jonathan Greenberg" (Simon & Schuster) is available in hardcover, eBook and audio formats.