The American Association of Retired Persons is the largest nonprofit group in the world with 38 million members. And it all began right here in Ojai in 1957 over dinner for six people at the Ojai Valley Inn. One of the persons was Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, a formidably tall redhead who changed the way the nation thought about aging.

Craig Walker joins the podcast to talk about his recently published book, "The Dignity They Deserve" which he co-authored with Mark Lewis. As the title explains, Dr. Andrus, perhaps the first female high school principal in California, grew up in Chicago during the height of the Progressive Era, where she volunteered at Jane Addams' Hull House, before embarking on a career in education. She retired to Ojai and bought the Grey Gables and converted it into a residential facility for retired teachers. Her mission was to show that retired people had much to contribute to their world and communities.

The lore is that she found a retired teacher living in abject poverty in a chicken coop. In her anger, she got organized. The AARP was founded to provide health insurance to retired teachers through the American Retired Teachers Association, which Dr. Andrus also established. It proved so wildly successful that the insurance broker, Leonard Davis, who helped set up the underwriting, soon became one of the 400 richest men in America. Dr. Andrus never personally profited off her organization.

We talked about the Dr. Andrus' background, and her illustrious career at Lincoln High School, where she revolutionized the way high school was taught. Walker, a retired teacher himself, also talked about his father, the famous architect Rodney Walker, builder of several of the Case Study homes that helped house millions of people.

We did not talk about Sumerian cuneiform, great Moghul empire warriors or the sketch comedy of Tim Robinson.