Area's elder statesmen are STILL ON BOARD

Larry Stanley is 79 years old, "retired," and a self-proclaimed workaholic. He's also not alone.

Retired once-prominent executives here might not punch the clock anymore, but rather than spend their sunset years perfecting their golf swings, many have stayed engaged in the business community by serving on the boards of corporations and nonprofit organizations.

Such executives say they continue to serve on boards primarily so they can remain active, stay plugged into the business world, and enjoy camaraderie with other professionals. They also feel a keen sense of duty to keep contributing to the Spokane area. In turn, businesses say they gain from the wealth of knowledge and experience the executives gathered through decades spent sharpening their skills.

Stanley, who founded Spokane-based Empire Bolt & Screw Inc. in 1972 and retired from his position as CEO there about four years ago, has served on numerous boards here, including a stint as chairman of Spokane-based Avista Corp. He says he doesn't plan to slow his community involvement anytime soon.

"I thought I would retire a lot earlier, but it gets in your blood. I love business. I probably will never really get away from it," Stanley says. "I believe in lifelong learning, and I feel sorry for the fellow who thinks that when it's time to retire it's time to hang it up."

Stanley currently sits on the boards of Empire Bolt & Screw; The Coeur d'Alenes Co., which does business as Cd'A Metals; the Spokane Park Board; Cancer Patient Care; the Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America; and Greater Spokane Incorporated's military affairs committee, among others. In the past he has served on the boards of CXT Inc. and now-defunct Output Technology Corp. (OTC), and chaired both the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Washington Business.

Stanley says much of his motivation for service comes from his personality as a "people person," as well as a desire to impart his "street" experience to others, and in turn to learn from their experiences. He also feels compelled to give back to the Spokane community.

"I'm a strong believer that business folks and other professionals need to recognize where their so-called success came from," Stanley says. "No question that leadership is extremely important, but (their success) came from the community and their employees a lot more than their own leadership. Wendell Satre, 89, who has chaired the boards of three major Spokane companies and due to declining health only recently resigned from the last of his many posts, echoes the importance of retired execs' involvement on corporate and nonprofit boards.

"My reason for participating was to help a community that has been very good to me. I love Spokane and like to do whatever I can to help it," Satre says. "People who live in and derive their living out of an area should contribute to it as much as they can, and I did for as long as I could."

Satre retired from his post as chairmanand CEO of Washington Water Power Co., now called Avista Corp., 23 years ago. In the early 1990s, he was beckoned out of retirement to help save Spokane-based Key Tronic Corp. and Spokane Valley-based OTC. He resigned from the boards of OTC last fall and Key Tronic about a year ago.

Other corporate boards Satre has served on include those of The Coeur d'Alenes Co. and Itron Inc. Also, he chaired the board of Empire Health Services and served as president of the Twin Lakes Property Association, during which time he helped revive the struggling North Idaho resort.

Keeping busy

Art Brown, 67, who retired as CEO of Coeur d'Alene-based Hecla Mining Co. in 2003 and as chairman of its board in 2006, says he's up and running again after a hip replacement slowed him down for the past two years. He's a founding member of Coeur d'Alene-based Idaho Independent Bank's board, and also serves on the boards of Hayden-based Blue Water Technologies Inc. and Illinois-based Amcol International Corp., which provides specialty minerals and related products. His non-profit work includes serving on the advisory board of the Kroc Center project in Coeur d'Alene.

"When you retire you say, 'I'm going to do nothing,' and then you find yourself suddenly where there's not enough time to get everything done," Brown says.

Brown says that as a retired executive, he brings to the table more than 40 years of business experience in areas such as finance, corporate governance, and human-resource management. Executives, he says, can help one another by sharing their stories, because over time they encounter similar problems in the workplace, regardless of which industries they represent.

Brown says one of the lesser reasons he serves on corporate boards is the compensation involved. Directors are paid for corporate board work, though their work on nonprofits is done as volunteers. The current pay scale for rectors at Hecla, for in stance, ranges from $54,000 to $77,000 a year, excluding stock awards.

"Not that I need it to live, but certainly it's some additional compensation," Brown says, adding, "there's also quite a bit of work and some travel required, both for corporate functions and my activities with nonprofits."