Del Webb has always said, “Retire from Work, not Life,” in its promotion of a retirement lifestyle in Sun City.
If it ever needs a spokesman and role model to personalize that philosophy, it ought to call on Nick Koplos of Sun City-Huntley.
There’s no exhausting Sun City resident Nick Koplos. At 73 he runs, swims, hikes, skis, and rollerblades and says retirement is one big physical exercise session, race, or game. And he loves every minute of it. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
Take one look at Nick and you assume, reasonably, that he’s middle-aged. If you know the culture of Sun City, however, you won’t be surprised to learn that he’s 73. Then you say to yourself, “Yeah, 73 going on 50.”
Nick fills his life to the brim, then overflows it with challenging physical activity. He’s a “busy guy.” He knows little about rocking chairs, couches, TV sets, and naps. He loves running, rollerblading, skiing, swimming, exercising, playing softball, river-rafting, and hiking. He defines retirement as one big physical exercise session, race, or game.
If he isn’t “doing” sports or exercising, he’s talking about them. His two-hour discussion with me last week turned into a fascinating presentation on how to grow old gracefully.
“I have this addiction to physical activity, games, and fitness,” he says. “I constantly go for the ‘runner’s high.’ When I run or hike or ski or rollerblade, I feel the oxygen filling my brain, and I feel like I’m 35.” He isn’t joking. He’s making a serious statement about how he lives and plays. He doesn’t just live life, he attacks it, in a friendly but incredibly enthusiastic and robust way.
One of four children born to Greek immigrants in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1936, he grew up working seasonally for his parents on their vegetable truck farm. His upbringing gave him a strong work ethic and a love of physical activity, but deprived him of the opportunity to pursue sports and games. He excelled at the few intramural activities he was able to pursue in junior high and high school. This made him unique. He doesn’t pursue sports and exercise today because he was nurtured into them by parents, mentors, or peers. He does them because he never had a chance to engage in them when he was young. The spunk, zeal, and thoroughness that he gave to hard labor in business, he now gives to sporting endeavors, physical activity, and travel.
The only thing he has “retired” from is employment. Three years ago, at age 69, he left the excavating company he started 43 years ago. He now skis and river-rafts while at his condo in Vail, Colorado, and swims and hikes at a second vacation home in Punta Gorda, Florida. In Sun City-Huntley, he can often be seen rollerblading or running along Cold Springs Drive and adjacent streets. He ran three Chicago marathons in the early ‘80s, averaging 3 hours 20 minutes. He has won countless age-group 5k and 10k races all over the nation, and he always tries to participate in charity fund-raising races whenever he can.
He plays softball on three teams in the Sun City-Huntley slow-pitch softball league. He became a certified ski instructor and taught for years at Mt. Fuji and Wilmot ski areas in Wisconsin. “He has played catch-up on physical exercise throughout his mature years,” says his wife, Joanie, herself a ski instructor. In fact, she and Nick met at Skunk Hollow Ski Club when he was President of that organization 44 years ago. “He has worked hard in life, and now he’s playing healthily hard in life,” she adds. “His motto is, ‘You are as young as you feel, keep exercising!’”
His advice on eating and dieting? “Just don’t over-indulge,” he says. “Consume less sugar and drink water.”
He runs on Cold Springs twice a week, swims in the Prairie Lodge lap pool or with the Sting Rays Club four times a week, and runs four times a week. He has no idea how many miles he has run, hiked, rollerbladed, skied, or swam.
He just keeps doing all these things because they are the right way to retire.
Rollerblading, anyone?
