Ruth Fendt Behnke '51 dwells in a community based on education as part of everyday life.

by H. Deon Holt

Behnke chats with University of Arizona graduate student David Buck after his classical guitar concert at Academy Village

Ruth Fendt Behnke '51 is back in the classroom these days, continuing a love of learning that began during her undergraduate years at Ithaca College more than half a century ago. She and her husband, Donald, recently began a new adventure in the Sonoran Desert as pioneers at Academy Village, a unique "55 or better" community on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, where residents retire neither their minds nor their bodies.

"We looked at many retirement communities," says the former music major. "Most of them emphasized golf and card playing, which did not appeal to us. We loved the idea of a community focused on educational and cultural pursuits."

During a typical week, without leaving the village, the couple might attend a class on the geology of the Southwest, a lecture on Islam, and a classical guitar concert presented by University of Arizona faculty and graduate students, plus an Oscar-winning art film and several aqua-aerobics sessions. They share these pursuits with neighbors from many backgrounds, including emeritus professors (one a Nobel laureate physicist), retired executives, musicians, artists, physicians, and a former juvenile court judge.

Ruth Behnke credits Ithaca College with inspiring her love of learning. She recalls with nostalgia the small-college atmosphere she enjoyed at Ithaca in its downtown location. "I had mixed feelings when I visited the new campus while it was under construction," she says.

While loving new hallenges, Behnke retains her lifelong passion for music.

Life at Academy Village is almost like living on a new campus for Behnke. It's like a third career as well. Her first spanned 14 years, during which she taught kindergarten in the New York towns of Apalachin, Washingtonville, and Mechanicville while earning her master's degree in early education at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. In Apalachin she also taught elementary and middle school music for a time.

Behnke remembers the excitement shared with her pupils in Washingtonville Central School when astronaut Alan Shepard flew the nation's first manned space mission. The children, many from military families at nearby Stewart Air Force Base, made and launched model rockets as they lived the event vicariously. "They even learned to count backward while watching the space launch blastoff sequence," she says.

Behnke left the classroom and began her "second career" --- volunteer community service --- in the mid-1960s when her husband's career as a school superintendent took the couple first to suburban Chicago and later to Long Island. With the moves, she became a fund-raiser for community groups and a "friend-raiser" in support of her husband's career. Donald describes her as "my secret weapon" during his years as a school superintendent.

Nonprofit groups that benefited from her fund-raising skills include the Friends of the Library of Lombard, Illinois, the Ravina Festival in suburban Chicago (the Chicago Symphony's "summer in the park" program), and the East Hampton (Long Island) Community Players. Behnke brought cultural programming to the Women's Club in Amityville, New York, where she also founded and served as charter president of the Friends of the Library. And she worked on fund-raising events held at Carnegie Hall for the Boys Towns of Italy on Long Island. "I've seen her come off the floor of Carnegie Hall after a concert with two shopping bags full of money," Donald recalls.

Native plants in her desert garden are a bonus.

Now in her "third career" Ruth Behnke enjoys the variety of educational and cultural activities offered at her new home. Among recent programs have been a lecture series on Islam, a talk by an expert on bees, a lecture series by six astronomers who live in the village, and visits by specialists from the University of Arizona College of Medicine talking about advances in their fields. The village has a minibus and provides transportation to events such as opera, symphony, and theatrical performances. There are occasional one-days excursions to locales of interest (for example, the art community of Tubac, the old mining town of Bisbee, and Kitt Peak Observatory). Benhke says she is especially interested in Native American culture, the natural history of the Southwest, and advances in medicine, and she looks forward to a conversational Spanish class that will be offered in the spring. She also plans to join the monthly book-discussion group already in place. She is already a member of the dining committee, which plans Friday evening dinner gatherings, which might be catered, pot luck, or at a restaurant.

The Behnkes also enjoy their new community's natural surroundings. Their home affords them protected views of desert flora and picturesque mountains in nearby Saguaro National Park. "Life here has turned out to be a wonderful experience for us," says Ruth. "Every day is a new adventure."