Laughter, Leadership, and a Life That Keeps Expanding
Some couples quietly settle into retirement. Bob and Alice are not that couple.
Within a month of moving to Sierra Winds, Alice was running activities, and Bob was convinced he would finally be able to relax. That lasted about thirty days.
Today, between the two of them, they chair committees, lead groups, help manage finances, organize social events, visit the health center to lift spirits, and somehow still find time to sit in the Bistro Café and laugh with friends. After nine and a half years, they are woven into the life of the community in ways that feel effortless, though nothing about their story has been ordinary.
A Montana Boy and a Chicago Girl
Bob was born in Billings, Montana, and grew up in a small town at the foot of the Beartooth Mountains near Yellowstone National Park. His childhood included weekends at a trading post just outside the park, spotting wildlife most people only see in documentaries. “We’d see a hundred bears in a weekend,” he recalls. Buffaloes were rare back then. Now they seem to be everywhere.
He earned an accounting degree in Missoula and went through Advanced ROTC before serving as a finance officer in Colorado. After leaving the military, he spent a month with his parents in Wyoming, and then it was on to Chicago with the Arthur Andersen CPA firm.
Alice’s world was very different. She grew up on the north side of Chicago in an apartment, far from Yellowstone’s wide-open spaces. The two met in the city one night. He was singing at a piano bar and asked for her phone number. He called a couple of days later and ended up talking to her mother for thirty minutes since Alice wasn’t home. Her mom invited him over for dinner without ever meeting him, and later for breakfast, where she served him a beer.
They had known each other for seven months when they married. After eight months of marriage, Bob announced they were moving to Arizona. It was January 1964. The snow in Chicago was up to Alice’s thigh the day they left. It was 72 degrees in Arizona. It wasn’t a hard sell.
They had barely had their first Christmas together. “We had our tree up for one week,” Alice laughs.
Careers That Took Unexpected Turns
Bob built a career as a CPA auditing corporate financial statements and eventually joined a small firm in Phoenix as the audit partner. Later, he became a partner in an international firm and eventually launched a practice of his own. His professional life was steady and driven, but outside of work, he was anything but predictable.
He sang at Carnegie Hall. He ran marathons. He spent over a hundred days hiking in the Grand Canyon. He spent 20 days climbing Mt. McKinley. He was part of the Arizona Mountaineering Club and Rescue Team before formal emergency rescue units existed in Phoenix. He mountain biked near their cabin in Munds Park until knee replacements convinced him otherwise. He continued hiking until the cabin was sold.
Alice’s path was just as layered. In college, she planned to become a buyer for women’s clothing. She worked in accounting for a steel company in Chicago, spent a short time working for a Las Vegas hotel reservation firm in Phoenix and later chose to stay home with their two daughters.
That’s when she began building communities of her own.
She attended and worked in a Bible study for 30 years. She became a Mary Kay representative with more than 400 customers. She launched a Red Hat group and still reigns as queen of it. She made miniature dollhouses. She traveled with Mary Kay and the Red Hatters. And when she looks back, she simply says, “Wow.”
They raised two daughters and now have six grandchildren — four girls and two boys — with weddings on the horizon and family scattered across states.
Finding Home in the West Valley
Although they had lived in Arizona since 1964, they had always been in central Phoenix. The move to the West Valley came after their pastor relocated to Grace Bible Church in Sun City, where they both sing in the choir, and Bob is on the finance team.
Bob had spent years in a singing group that visited retirement communities across the valley. He thought he had seen them all.
“The minute we walked in the door at Sierra Winds,” Bob says, “it felt like home.”
The friendships were immediate. The name tags helped. “That’s a nice touch,” Bob laughs. “I can remember everyone.” (Though he jokingly makes up different names for the Sierra Winds workers).
They have now lived at Sierra Winds for nine and a half years.
Jumping In Immediately
Within a month of arriving, someone asked Alice if she would be in charge of activities. She said yes. No one mentioned forming a committee. She learned quickly, though!
Since then, she has chaired the food committee, leads a monthly women’s social, serves on the council, and spent six years on the activity committee. She laughs about having learned to build teams instead of doing everything herself.
Bob, who thought he had nothing to contribute as a CPA, was treasurer of the council for two years and treasurer of the Sierra Winds Charitable Foundation for five and a half years, leader of a community singing group, and self-appointed chief troublemaker (he even has a name tag that says so!). He also enjoys visiting the health center, bringing humor and light to the residents who reside there.
“I find myself laughing more freely,” Bob says. “The friendships keep us lively.”
He even leads a Montana men’s group who share his roots.
Relationships First
Ask what they like most about living at Sierra Winds, and they answer without hesitation.
“The relationships,” they both say.
Alice appreciates the convenience — dining, activities, health services all under one roof. “If anything happens to one of us, the health center is right down the hall. We don’t have to drive anywhere.”
Bob appreciates the energy. The community keeps them active and connected.
They spend time in the bistro chatting with friends. They show up for activities. They stay involved.
“It’s truly family,” Bob says. “The problems, the joys, the physical challenges — we go through them together.”
Advice for Anyone Considering the Move
Bob doesn’t hesitate. “Absolutely,” he says when asked if someone should move here.
Alice says, “It’s important to have everything you need in one location. Your social spaces, dining, and health care. There are so many choices of activities. So much to do.”
After decades of adventure, leadership, and community-building, Bob and Alice have not slowed down. They have simply shifted locations.
And at Sierra Winds, they have found a place where hiking stories, singing voices, miniature dollhouses, and Montana memories all fit under one roof.