An Indiana state employee is retiring at 102. Here’s his explanation: “Your body tells you when it’s time to go.”
Bob Vollmer enlisted in the Navy after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. After the war, he graduated from Purdue University with a degree in biological and agricultural engineering. He worked on reservoir and flood control projects before coming to work for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 1962.
He travels across the state collecting technical field data and confirming boundary lines for DNR-managed properties, but he is finally retiring after nearly six decades on the job.
Mr. Vollmer is not planning to slow down much, however. He will devote himself to reading and farming and will take trips to some of the South Pacific islands where he served during the war.
In a culture that seems obsessed with youth, Bob Vollmer reminds me of Caleb, who testified at the age of eighty-five: “I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming” (Joshua 14:11).
Every day on this planet is another opportunity to love God and love others. Every day is another opportunity to fulfill our purpose and glorify our Lord.
Then one day we can say with Paul, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
Run well today.
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