Think technology business, and you'll likely imagine a company run by a 20-something or even younger upstart.
At RWD Technologies Inc., a Baltimore consulting and training company, the founder turned 84 in March.
But don't ask Robert W. Deutsch about his retirement plans. He doesn't have any.
Deutsch is just as active in the company today as when he founded it 20 years ago. Deutsch, who gave up his chief executive duties four years ago but remains the board chairman, oversees the private company's research and product development efforts.
"If I can't contribute, I will retire," Deutsch said recently from his office at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's research park. "I'm comfortable that I could make my contributions, even though I'm old. I'm a lousy golfer anyway."
The story of RWD's creation is company lore.
At 63, Deutsch was out of a job. As he tells it, he was fired by the company that bought a majority stake in his first business, General Physics Corp., which trained nuclear power plant operators. Deutsch, a physicist and nuclear engineer, founded the Columbia company in 1971 and built it into a $115 million business.
Not ready to give up, Deutsch sold his 24 percent ownership in General Physics and launched RWD in January 1988, a month after he was ousted. Last year, RWD reported $189 million in sales. It employs 1,200 people abroad and in the U.S., including 260 in Maryland. The average age of RWD's work force is mid- to late-30s.
Bill Thomas, a professor at UMBC's Erickson School, which focuses on aging issues, says Deutsch exemplifies a wave of older Americans forgoing retirement for second or third careers. Senior citizens now have more choices about how they want to live, whether it's running a company or pursuing some other interest, he says. Others are forced to work because of higher health care and other costs. "The old, traditional view of aging is looking at older people like machines on an assembly line and eventually you wear down and should be put down under the tarp," Thomas said.
"People say 60s is the new 40s, 50s is the new 30s," he added.
RWD Chief Executive Officer Laurens "Mac" MacLure Jr., who succeeded Deutsch in 2004, offers a theory about Deutsch's endurance: Retirement is boring."He knows by being engaged in the business, it's prolonging his longevity and keeping him sharper. And he loves what he does. The old expression 'If you love what you do, you'll never work another day in your life,' he believes that. That's 90 percent of it."
