Where should you spend your retirement years if your idea of a good time is less likely to involve a game of golf than, say, a lively discussion of the periodic table of elements?
For George Anderson and his neighbors, the answer is 1666 Coffman (www.1666.coffman.com), an independent-living housing complex reserved for University of Minnesota faculty and staff, age 55 and up. At 1666, as it's commonly known, intellectual challenge is a favorite leisure activity (and for those who also enjoy golf, the university's course is right across the street).
The sprawling white 93-unit building is set on 6.5 acres of university-leased land in Falcon Heights. It opened in 1986, though the stately Palladian design suggests an older structure. Resident Bert Sundquist, 83, an agricultural economist who just retired in December, measured the commute to his office on the St. Paul campus as "a 12-minute walk from portal to portal."
Much of the small talk at 1666 Coffman probably resembles that in any retirement community: chitchat about the weather and current events, and what other tenants are up to. But in a complex whose residents have spent their lives immersed in physics, economics, chemistry, medicine, veterinary medicine, mathematics, English, history, archeology and other fields, conversations may get a bit more rarefied.
"People here are not stupid," the building's association president, Tom Arlander, said with characteristic understatement. "We've had a number of people here who have buildings named after them."
Anderson, a former physical chemistry professor (specialty: molecular spectroscopy) taught at the university as a visiting professor and then finished his career researching microwave heating for Pillsbury. Now 77, he plays squash several times a week and heads the technology and education committee at 1666.
"Academic topics seem to thrive here," Anderson said. "There's a cross-fertilization of ideas and interdisciplinary activities that enhances everyone."
In addition to the exercise classes, holiday celebrations and activities typically held in other independent-living complexes, a lecture series lets residents hold forth on their areas of expertise (Anderson presented one the periodic table, and another one on Shakespeare). Others stage plays, some of them written by residents themselves. Or they tend the gardens out back, which include a prairie restoration project and a rain garden with more than 2,000 native plants -- both, again, initiated by residents.
