Torgerson will be 68 years old when he retires. He didn’t step down sooner because it wasn’t an option. "I had a specific assignment to take the university through a major fund-raising program, which we concluded a year ago," he says. "So I was obligated to stay through last year and persuaded to stay another year by the board of visitors."

Now he’s in transition while the search is on for a replacement. Even so, he’s active in planning for the university’s future. "I can’t say, ‘That’s next year; that’s not my problem.’ In terms of distancing myself from the position, I’ve promised myself that when the new person arrives, I’ll be nowhere in sight."

As retirement approaches, he’ll be able to focus more on outside interests — golf, tennis, other organizations and his new home, still in Blacksburg. Moving to Florida or a resort town somewhere was never much of a consideration. "We have a lot of friends here, and a university community is a rich resource in terms of things to do. We’re finding more people who are coming here to retire."

Plus, Blacksburg is a good place to continue teaching — without pay, just for the joy of it. "I would dread the thought of walking out of the office and having nothing to do other than help my wife shop. I think she’d dread that even more," he says.

Torgersen is among retirees who have followed the experts’ advice. He thought through the options, found diversions and did the hard math on family finances. "I’ve seen older men in Florida bagging groceries," he says. He doubts they were doing it for pure pleasure. "You have to think about your financial security well in advance."

*  *  *

Phyllis Cothran was standing on the trading floor of the Florida stock exchange on Jan. 31, 1997, the day Richmond-based Trigon went public, when it hit her. It happened to be her 25th anniversary with the company. She suddenly knew she should either retire right away as chief operating officer or put in another five or 10 years. Yet she was only 50 — and a woman. Would retiring send the wrong signal? Would she be disappointing other women in the work force, who already have too few role models in the executive ranks? "Are people going to see me as a dropout?" she wondered.

Cothran finally decided to put personal desires above public perceptions — and she has been delighted with the outcome. Men and women alike have told her that her early retirement gave them permission to do the same. Rather than feel she somehow weakened women’s corporate standing, she now feels she has empowered business leaders of both genders to make the choices that best suit them.

Cothran still keeps a helter-skelter schedule. But instead of spending 80 hours a week at the office, she spends that time gardening, serving on corporate boards, doing work in the community and spending time with her husband and his two sons. "I’m just about as busy, but I have so much more freedom of choice in how I spend my time."

Even though her announcement was sudden, her decision was not guided by whim. "I knew what my investments were, and I thought it through financially. Before you get emotionally attached to the idea of retirement, you need to use the analytical side of your brain to make sure you can do it," she says.

Once she made the decision, everything moved fast. She announced her retirement three weeks after the IPO and cleared out her desk about six weeks later. "It’s best for the individual and for the people who remain with the company that the new order be put in place as soon as possible," she says. In fact, she says she began feeling retired once the transition started. "It was a major lifting of this sense of responsibility I had carried with me for 24 hours a day," she says.

When others ask if it was difficult to move from a high-profile position to retirement, she tells them: "I had great enthusiasm for it. I was totally clear with myself that this was the right thing to do."

*  *  *

John R. Turbyfill didn’t wonder when he would retire. The vice chairman of Norfolk Southern Corp. knew he faced mandatory retirement at age 65. The question was whether to wait until his September birthday or start retirement at the beginning of the summer of 1996. He chose to take the summer off.

In his more than 30 years with the company, he climbed from "very near the bottom in the law department" through management. What he likes about mandatory retirement is that "you don’t have to agonize over it." In fact, he agonized over very few decisions related to his retirement.

About 18 months before retiring, he and his wife started looking for a new house. Their downtown Norfolk townhouse had been convenient to the office, but "it was too small to be in seven days a week, 24 hours a day," he says. After a year of searching, they found a home in Virginia Beach. "We never for a moment considered moving out of the area. We didn’t want to have to start over somewhere else," he says.

Nor were they interested in a second home. "A second home is an anchor. You worry about it, you have to protect, maintain and use it," he says. He applies that same pragmatic approach to the financial aspects of retirement. "I had a good career, and now I have plenty to retire on. I did go through a planning stage with professionals to create some trusts and do sensible things for my children and grandchildren to minimize the estate tax bite, which is severe."

It was not a quick process. Turbyfill says it took about three years from the time he started thinking about it to getting it done. Financial and estate planning doesn’t end with a letter of resignation, however. "I’ll probably go through it again in another few years, but it should be a little easier because I know the process," he says.

Beginning fully five years before retirement, Turbyfill regularly assessed savings and investments so he could gauge retirement income. "You adjust your pattern to fit your cloth. Fortunately, my cloth was big enough."

*  *  *

Charles Rowe reads the newspaper every morning, just as he has for most of his life. The big difference is that the company that puts out the newspaper is no longer his. The former publisher of the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg retired from the family-owned newspaper in 1997 at age 72.

"I was enjoying the work and the people I worked with. I enjoyed my connections in the industry around the country. Journalists are a fascinating group of people," Rowe says. "But by the time I had put in 42 years in essentially the same job, I thought it was time for a change."

Rowe took over the business after his father died, and brother Josiah joined him as co-publisher soon after. The award-winning 45,000-circulation daily newspaper has more than a 100-year history in the community. "In some respects, the newspaper was an extension of my family," he says. So leaving wasn’t easy. "To give up work and the daily association with those people overnight was a bit of a wrenching change."

For Rowe, it was an all-to-nothing transition by design. Free of the stress of deadlines, Rowe says he didn’t want even a part-time career. While the change was difficult, it was worthwhile. "I’m far more relaxed than I was. I don’t wake up at 5:30 a.m. worrying about this and that. I’m more calm and getting a lot more out of life than I would have if I had continued working."

There was no one moment when he knew it was time to retire. Instead, it was more like a quiet voice that got louder. "I wanted to retire while I still felt mentally and physically alert. I didn’t want to ... get to the point where I had to retire because of physical disability and then find I couldn’t enjoy the rest of my life," he says.

He is enjoying it. He’s officially a Florida resident, although he’s in his hometown of Fredericksburg often. Finally, he’s getting to spend time in the Florida house he’d owned for years but rarely had a chance to visit. In June, he was planning a two-week cruise through the Greek Isles with some of his children and grandchildren, something that would have been impossible several years ago.

At last, he can read the paper the way everyone else does — almost. "I’m less concerned now about stories that I didn’t feel we explored well," he says. We? Shortly after retiring, Rowe sold his interest in the paper to his brother’s family. He laughs. "There’s a lot of ‘we’ involved still. I’m trying to get away from that because I have nothing to do with the paper, so I’m not part of any ‘we.’"

Still, it’s hard to walk away from a 42-year habit.

*  *  *

Nearly five years after his retirement, Robert H. Zalokar is still easing into a slower pace. While he retired as chairman and CEO of First Virginia Banks in 1994, he remains on the board of directors of the holding company and its lead bank. And he serves as chairman of the executive committee for both organizations.

Zalokar still has a corner office at the Falls Church headquarters. He has kept his house in Oakton to make it easier to come to board meetings, but he also spends time at a home in Urbanna he bought 10 years ago. And he wanted to see how he would like living in Florida.

The answer? Very well, thank you. He’s having a house built there now near the condo he purchased to "try it out." Having three homes does provide some maintenance challenges, yet he likes the flexibility and the opportunity to welcome his children and grandchildren to several different settings.