THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Talk about good timing: As baby-boomers begin to turn 50 at the rate of one every seven minutes, up steps Virginia Glennan Ferguson of Virginia Beach to bestow $2 million to establish the Glennan Center for Geriatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
No generation - not even the Gertrude Stein-labeled ``Lost Generation'' of young men and women disillusioned by World War I carnage - has commanded as much media attention or gained so much notoriety as the baby boomers.
The boomers were born - in rapidly increasing numbers- as World War II wound down and armies of young U.S. military personnel returned home to go to work or get a college education and to start families. Birth rates had dropped during the Great Depression in the 1930s, a reflection of Americans' diminished economic prospects. Some people thought the decline permanent, but birth rates skyrocketed after the war. And the baby boom coincided with one of the great economic booms of history.
No one was ready for the boomers. Schools didn't have enough classroom space for them when they showed up and public-education costs soared. They later flooded colleges, becoming simultaneously a bonanza and migraine for higher education.
As they traversed adulthood, they created a baby boomlet of their own and bulges in homebuilding and sales of furniture, cars and entertainment products. Now, the boomer cohort can see retirement on the horizon and is causing a boom in financial services as it accelerates saving and investment.
Next stop, senior citizenship. That means we'll soon hear a lot more about the boomers' old age. Thanks to continuing improvements in living standards and advances in medicine, public health and safety, Americans generally are living longer - and longer.
Fifty isn't ``old,'' as it was at the start of the century. But the demands on geriatric medicine have been multiplying as America has grayed. The demands will explode shortly. Mrs. Ferguson's gift to EVMS will equip tomorrow's physicians with the skills and insights to improve the lives of the elderly. And there are going to be a lot of them.
The Glennan Center for Geriatrics honors Mrs. Glennan's grandfather, Michael Glennan, owner and editor of The Virginian, a predessor of The Virginian-Pilot, and her father, Edward Keville Glennan, a long-time editor of The Virginian-Pilot. and the Ledger-Dispatch.
Mrs. Ferguson, who has aided other philanthropic causes, says she is proud of her forebears' contributions to Hampton Roads. They would have cause to be proud of her. Her gift will make Hampton Roads a better place to live, and not just for senior citizens. by CNB