Some Pott County Residents Enjoying 2nd-Act Careers After Reirement

Some Pott County Residents Enjoying 2nd-Act Careers After Reirement by Jamie Bergsten

For many in the workforce, retirement seems like a distant but longed-for dream. Visions of rest, travel and free time loom large on the horizon as a career nears a close.

However, for some ambitious “retirees,” one career simply wasn’t enough, and before their days of relaxation ever began, they’d moved on to another place in the working world. Such is the case with these longtime Shawnee residents who’ve found themselves still on the job – just in a new field.

Brooks Malone graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1984 ready to begin a job in education. He worked construction for a while “until the right job came along” and accepted a position at South Rock Creek School.

“Thank the Lord it was the best place to land,” Malone said. “I can’t imagine anywhere else.”

Malone spent 27 years there in various roles, including middle school science teacher, girls coach, dean of students, archery coach, hunter education instructor and bus driver. Upon his retirement from South Rock Creek in 2016, he waited just three months before beginning a new job with Langley Management at age 55.

“I’d known I was going to work for them for some time before retirement,” he said. “The strangest thing about it is being out and about during the day and realizing there’s a world going on. Being at school was like a micro-environment, with little contact to the outside world. Your whole focus there is confined to the school building.

“Teaching and coaching was more of a routine for me, and the job I have now consists of so many different types of work. There really isn’t a ‘typical’ day, and that’s part of the enjoyment.”

Malone’s new duties include doing carpentry, plumbing, electrical, tile, tree pruning and fence building among other things.

“I never know for sure what it’s going to be, but most of it is in this area,” he said. “It’s pretty much an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. thing. Teaching school taught me a lot about establishing relationships on the job, showing up and being dependable.”

Coincidentally, one of those work relationships he’s been able to foster is with a former South Rock Creek student and longtime friend, Carey Barron, who went to work with Malone about three months ago.

“Since I’ve known Brooks for more than 30 years, it’s been fun to now work with someone who’s been my buddy for so long,” Barron said. “He’s a great guy to be on the jobsite with. That’s the thing about working with someone a little older; he knows what to do and does it better than many younger workers would.”

An avid outdoorsman, Malone said, “A guy can only afford to fish and hunt so much.”

Beth Hatley, another retired educator, also began her career at South Rock Creek as a teacher’s aide in 1990. She continued working but returned to college part-time the next year to begin the path toward obtaining her certification, graduating in 1995 from East Central University. She was hired at Grove School the next year and remained there for the duration of her 22 year teaching career, retiring in 2018.

Beth and her husband V.A. Hatley along with her sister-in-law Mary Ruth opened an art studio in downtown Shawnee in 2015.

“Anytime I wasn’t at school, I was there, fulltime all summer and after school each day,” Hatley said. “I’ve been there full-time since I retired.”

She now opens the business each day, cleans, assists customers, schedules art classes, takes print orders, updates the studio’s social media accounts, arranges for new art to be displayed, plans the third Friday Block pARTy each month and makes sure artists receive their checks for things they’ve sold.

“Being there ready to go when we open is like being at school on time and ready for the day,” she said. “There’s a certain amount of preparation that goes into both. However, I don’t have to spend hours each night grading now like I did when I was teaching. There are no lesson plans to prepare at the studio.”

Lessons from her days as an educator, however, do inform her new career.

“A person learns so many life lessons while teaching that are good for any profession,” Hatley said. “Treat others with respect. Be honest and trustworthy. Work hard. Be responsible and dependable. I’ve been in the public all my life from the time I started washing dishes at the (Benton’s Café downtown that her parents owned)at five years old. Staying home is something one doesn’t do when involved with a family business. You get up and go to work whether you ‘feel’ like it or not. I’m not one who can just stay home; I have to be going somewhere. And I need a purpose. Running the studio gives me a purpose to get up in the morning and carry on.

“I loved my time in the classroom … but I felt as if it was time to move on. I’ve done several different things in my life, from café work to a job in a grocery store, being a preschool teacher, substituting, getting my degree and teaching, starting an online skincare business and running the studio. All of these things have allowed me to grow as a person as well as affording me the opportunity to learn new things, and I’m grateful for all of those experiences.”

Will Arnett, a Tecumseh High School graduate, recently retired after a 20-year career with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

“I initially was hired at the Capitol Patrol in April 2000 and entered the OHP Academy in June of the next year,” Arnett said.

Arnett served in several capacities with the patrol, beginning his career as a trooper and spending multiple years as the armorer and firearms instructor in the firearms division. He taught in four OHP academies, served as the Highway Safety Liaison and ultimately retired working the road in Pottawatomie and Lincoln counties in September 2020.

“I believe there’s a reason why there’s a 20-year pension in law enforcement,” he said. “It’s a hard job, and it’s hard on your family. In the current

After 20 years with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Will Arnett has joined other Pottawatomie County residents enjoying their retirement years in new careers.

Photo by Jessie Newell

climate of our country, it’s become increasingly challenging to keep positive morale in departments, and sometimes you just know it’s the right time to walk away.”

Arnett didn’t stay retired for long though. As one who’s always enjoyed the outdoors and working in the yard, the next natural step was to open his own business, Okie Lawn Patrol.

“I used to spend a lot of time alone in my patrol car, and now I spend a lot of time on my mower,” Arnett said. “I really enjoy the finished product of making someone’s lawn look nice for them.

“My years as a trooper had many gratifying moments of being able to help people, but they also came with a lot of traumatic times, hard conversations about losing loved ones in accidents and situations that aren’t nearly as pleasant as hopping on my mower and doing what I do now.”

After years behind the wheel of cars capable of high speed pursuit, Arnett has enjoyed bringing it down a gear in his new job.

“What I’m enjoying most is the slow pace, the ability to set my own schedule and not missing my kids’ activities anymore,” Arnett said. “I’m also really getting used to a good night’s sleep. We spent most nights on-call before, and 20 years of that gets old fast.

“I’m a natural-born worker. I’m just hardwired to it and will probably always be that way. When my wife and I first married, I started ‘moonlighting,’ as police call it. You have to have another income to survive. I started picking up mowing jobs, side security jobs and anything that would help my family, even back then. We have kids still at home now, one headed to college in the fall and one in middle school.”

Arnett likes that even with the pace of his new line of work comes with a lot of variety to keep things interesting.

“Honestly, every day is a new one,” Arnett said. “Before I retired, I would’ve worked sometimes two or more hours before daylight. Now, I spend a few days mowing lawns and a few days helping my wife with her insurance business.”

For those willing to re-invent themselves in the work world, there’s never a shortage of opportunities. These and many other retirees now in their second careers are proof that those who want to work will find a way, even if it’s in a completely different field.

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