Andrus is described by Cecilia Rasmussen, writer for the Los Angeles Times: “In an era of hard-nosed, gruff male principals, she might have passed for Marian the Librarian. She was a red-haired, bespectacled, soft-spoken educator whose mission was to spare the rod and work with children and parents.” No one in those earlier years would have suspected that this mild manner but thoroughly dedicated educator would found not one but two nationally recognized organizations.
Abraham Lincoln High Principal
Ethel Percy Andrus was born in San Francisco in 1884 and moved early in life to Chicago. Graduating from the University of Chicago in 1903, she returned to her birth state of California in 1910. She taught for a number of years as a high school teacher. Andrus, at age 32, became the principal of Abraham Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights. These were years of guided discipline mixed with motivation, the push for excellence from her students while maintaining a close relationship with families through home visits. To parents and students of Lincoln High, Andrus personified both a zeal for life and great opportunity. Robert Preston, student and actor spoke during her memorial service, calling Andrus the “Opportunity had red hair."
NRTA and AARP Founder
She left her position as principal of Lincoln High in 1944. She was 60 years old and took an early retirement to care for her ailing mother. Her mother would recover and live another seven years but it was during this period that she found a new calling in life. While working as the California Retired Teachers Association Welfare Director, she was stunned by the sparse benefits granted to retirees. She organized retired teachers and went before the California State Legislature. So moving was her message that donations arrived from around the country. In 1947, Andrus’ efforts birthed the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA). She was both founder and first president of the association.
In 1958, AARP, first known the American Association for Retired Persons, was a natural extension of the NRTA. The name was truncated to the four letters in 1999 because membership was open to those 50 years and older, many of which are not retired. Times have changed and even those of retirement age are remaining in the workforce. Today, AARP is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over in the United States. Figures (as of 2003) indicate a membership of 39 million with an office in every state, as well as the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, and over 2,500 local chapters. AARP serves as an education tool, an advocate on legislative, consumer and legal issues and offers an array of benefits, products and services to their members. Many attribute the work of thousands of volunteers both on a local, state and national level in making AARP, the success it is today.
Women's Hall of Fame
Andrus' vision and work have provided opportunities for thousands of Americans throughout her life in the form of students, retired teachers and people over 50 who are AARP members. Her name too will not soon be forgotten. Two years before her death in 1965, the University of Southern California (USC) named the Andrus Gerontology Center, research arm of the Davis School in her honor. Ethel Percy Andrus was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. She joins the ranks of such visionaries and social activists as Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony and many others.
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