Some execs prefer work to retirement

There can be an active business life for those over the age of 65, according to two Long Island executives who said they couldn't stand long days on the golf course and leisurely lunches.

Are they nuts? Not at all.

"I'm working 11 hours a day now," said John Harrison, 66, of Woodmere. "I'm a 13 handicap golfer. I love to work out. I play tennis. But none of that can bring me the daily fulfillment I need, the fulfillment of working."

Last October, Harrison started a new marketing firm, The Brand Compound, in his Woodmere home. He has a partner, Deborah Darnulc-Warrack, and they now have seven clients. This comes after a four-decade work life for Harrison that included establishing in 1986 one of Long Island's better-known marketing and PR firms, Harrison Leifer DiMarco, in Rockville Centre. Harrison left that firm, which is still in business, in 2006 and worked in mergers and acquisitions for a few years before starting his own business.

Ron Greenstone, 71, started Greenstone Marketing in Melville in late 2009. His first marketing/PR firm, once known as Greenstone Rabasca Roberts, was Long Island's largest for years. He started it in 1972 and retired in 2000, but five years later he was regretting it.

"I played tennis every morning," Greenstone said. "I came home, showered, shaved, called a friend and went out to lunch. I was tired of being retired."

But there are challenges. The business world has become much more dollar-hungry, Greenstone said. "When I came back I found a lot of people were doing more of their own work in-house," he said. "They were more interested in price than value."

Harrison and Greenstone are not alone. More and more retired executives are finding retirement dull, or unaffordable, and want or need to go back to work, said Kate Wendleton, president of the Five O'Clock Club, a Manhattan-based career-management and outplacement firm.

"Companies are getting rid of people sooner, but some people can't afford to retire," said Wendleton. Even for people who can retire, living longer means finding more meaning. For many people, she said, that means coming back to business.

"People who can envision a future for themselves are happier," Wendleton said.

Darnulc-Warrack is 47 and had worked with Harrison at Harrison Leifer DiMarco. What will she do when she reaches his age? "I can see myself doing the same thing," she said. "When you love what you do, you should never stop."