New Beginnings
Photo courtesy of Jack Shinnock
©2018 George C. Anderson
While retirement is often a time for relaxation and travel, for 71-year-old Westerville resident Jack Shinnock, retirement would become a new beginning.
“I wanted to start a new life and get restructured,” Shinnock says. “I had been practicing law for 30 years and it was a great opportunity to restructure things.”
Shinnock worked with American Electric Power beginning in the 1970s and moved to Columbus after the company relocated its headquarters to the city in 1983. Fast forward to 2002, Shinnock would take an early retirement and journey out to Yellowstone National Park to work as a guest service agent at Old Faithful.
“That was six months of completely different work than being a lawyer as you can imagine,” Shinnock says. “I got to know Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons really well.”
Shinnock was always interested in visiting the U.S. national parks and aspired to visit all 59.
“I visited some national parks in the ’80s and ’90s,” Shinnock says. “After working at Yellowstone, I rededicated efforts to visit all of them.”
That dream was finally realized in summer 2016, when he visited Lassen National Park in northern California.
National Senior Games Association
Photo courtesy of Jack Shinnock
Shinnock enjoys being active. He is a volunteer for countless Westerville service groups including the Traffic Commission, serves on the advisory board to the Westerville Senior Center and is former president of the Westerville Parks and Recreation Department.
However, it would be an encounter with the National Senior Games Association that truly inspired his involvement.
“I was involved with the senior center here and president of the advisory board for several years,” Shinnock says. “I was looking for something to stay involved with fitness, health and wellness.”
The National Senior Games Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to motivating older adults to live a healthy lifestyle. All 50 states, as well as the Province of Québec, host qualifying games for participants to compete in the national event, which is held every two years.
“It encourages people to stay at a competitive level and to live a healthy lifestyle as you age,” Shinnock says. “And we all age, it’s something you cannot avoid.”
More than 10,000 athletes compete at the national level in events ranging from track and field, swimming, golf, pickleball and the newest event, power walking.
Power walking, not to be confused with race walking, is a non-qualifying event in which anyone is free to participate. The sport requires less technique than its counterpart.
“I did the power walking this year and I got two silver medals,” Shinnock says. “I didn’t have to qualify, but I did end up qualifying.”
It is the competitive nature and dedication to healthy lifestyles that Shinnock values so much in this organization, so much that he was elected to their board in December 2016 for a three-year term.
“There is lots of research on people as they age for what they can do to stay fit mentally and physically,” Shinnock says. “If you want to take the next step and compete with people your age, this is the opportunity to do it.”
Scuba Diving
Photo courtesy of Jack Shinnock
Apart from all of his volunteer work and involvement with the National Senior Games Association, Shinnock is a certified scuba diver since 1999. In 2005, he became an instructor at Aquatic Adventures in Westerville.
“I liked the continuing education part of it and when I decided not to practice law anymore, scuba diving fit my interests,” Shinnock says.
In keeping with his desire to travel, Shinnock has conducted dives all over the place. From Key Largo, the Galapagos Islands as well as his favorite dive location off the island of Kona in Hawai’i.
“It’s a sense of adventure and pretty much the only opportunity, at least on this earth, to be weightless,” Shinnock says. “The ocean is a different world and makes you appreciate a lot more.”
While traveling to exotic lands provides Shinnock gratification, the world of scuba diving has opened many doors for him locally as well. Shinnock is part of a small group of divers who volunteer at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to feed fish and periodically help clean up the reef.
He is also a certified docent, which allows him to be in animal contact areas and talk to guests about them. Don’t worry, Shinnock has never had any close confrontations with sharks or dangerous predators in his escapades at the zoo or in the wild.
“I’ve found most of them to be skittish and nervous so they just go away from you if you’re in their area,” Shinnock says.
Healthy Life
Photo courtesy of Jack Shinnock
Shinnock has remained active throughout his life and credits his lifestyle choices to keeping him going. He doesn’t drink or smoke, sticks to a good diet and works out regularly when he is not out on the golf course.
He coached his kids in basketball, baseball and soccer throughout their childhoods and has remained a Westerville-Columbus resident since 1986.
Though Shinnock may have not followed the traditional path one takes in retirement, he is enjoying every step along the way.
Most importantly, he is happy and living life to the fullest.
“I have a lot of activities going on that keeps me connected with people and getting out and doing things,” Shinnock says. “As you age, it is important to stay involved and do things.”
Rocco Falleti is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at rfalleti@cityscenecolumbus.com.
