The lure of retirement is often the freedom that comes along with it. Retirees are free to take up long sought-after hobbies, free to travel, free to do just about anything they please.
Grandview residents David and Dorothy Pritchard exercised this freedom by involving themselves with the central Ohio chapter of Engineers Without Borders, an organization built on the idea that engineering skills not be confined to only those places with the best trained and educated engineers.
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Photos courtesy of the Pritchards
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Their story began when David, from Circleville, and Dorothy, from northern Michigan, met while participating in a car pool as students at The Ohio State University. They married after college and spent time in Iran as part of the Peace Corps, helping to alleviate contaminated water concerns by installing water pipes.
Upon returning to Columbus, Dorothy got a master’s degree in city regional planning and a job at the city of Bexley, where she would go on to work as service director for 22 years. David took a job with engineering firm Burgess & Niple and worked as a project manager there for 36 years.
The skills the Pritchards used and learned in these positions and during their time in the Peace Corps are the same traits valued by Engineers Without Borders: David with engineering and Dorothy with grant writing and communication.
Engineers Without Borders receives project submissions from community organizations worldwide. The submissions are evaluated by local chapters of Engineers Without Borders to determine if they have the ability and expertise required by the project. Once the chapter accepts a project, the national Engineers Without Borders board must approve, and a five-year commitment is required.
David and Dorothy’s five-year commitment began in 2008, when the central Ohio chapter was accepted to help the neighborhood of Las Pilitas in San Pedro Puxtla, El Salvador deal with contaminated creek water.
The Pritchards were made for this type of project.
“We spend more time at dinner talking about sewers than the average couple,” says David,
Photo courtesy of the Pritchards
while Dorothy quickly adds, “We’re both very interested in sustainability.”
The only way for Las Pilitas residents to get to their houses was to cross the water. After the Pritchards arrived in El Salvador and assessed the neighborhood’s situation, it was clear that the scope of the project was a little different than they anticipated.
“We thought we were building a bridge, but it turned out that we were building a street,” David says. “You weren’t going over the creek; you had to use the creek as the street for them to find some way to make it work as a creek and a street.”
In order for any Engineers Without Borders project to work, the community in need must agree to supply the labor.
“It has to be a partnership with the community,” Dorothy says. “If there isn’t a partnership, Engineers Without Borders won’t accept the project.”
In San Pedro Puxtla, that was never an issue.
“The community really put a huge effort into this project,” Dorothy says.
While the new street and drainage solutions helped improve water quality and sanitary conditions, there was an equally impactful result that the Engineers Without Borders crew hadn’t anticipated.
“The social difference it made for these folks was pretty incredible,” Dorothy says.
The residents of Las Pilitas had previously lived in a village that was destroyed by an earthquake. They relocated to the bigger city of San Pedro Puxtla, but the established residents didn’t immediately accept them. One of the things that came out of having a street was an improvement to their status in the community.
Kids’ bikes and tricycles appeared because the street provided the freedom to ride where they weren’t able to before. Additionally, the street construction required retaining walls that resembled a large curb, similar to a stoop, and people would come out and sit in the evenings to socialize with their neighbors.
Though their five-year commitment was over in 2013, the Pritchards still check in with members of their Engineers Without Borders team, and word is that the street and drainage system in San Pedro Puxtla are working well.
The Pritchards believe strongly in thinking globally and about the impact projects like theirs can have.
“We need to understand different nations; we need to understand different cultures for all of us to get along,” Dorothy says. “Other cultures are just so rich, and we need to think beyond what our culture is. We have so much to learn, and there’s so much delight in other cultures.”
They also believe that it’s important for central Ohioans and Americans in general to understand the world beyond the place in which they live.
“It used to be that every country was pretty much isolated, but it isn’t that way anymore,” Dorothy says. “The world has become so small.”
To that end, the Pritchards are involved in the Columbus Council on World Affairs. They meet every other week as part of a discussion group called Great Decisions to examine a pertinent international topic.
“I think we all have a responsibility to know what’s going on in the world,” Dorothy says.
This isn’t to say the Pritchards don’t involve themselves deeply in Columbus and the Tri-Village area.
“We bought this house (41 years ago) with the idea that we’d move out to someplace nicer someday, but to give up the convenience … you can walk to the grocery store, you can walk to the drug store or, if you drive, it’s three minutes,” David says. “You don’t have to drive kids all around because they can walk. There is no nicer place.”
For her part, Dorothy appreciates the diversity in housing, food, people and activities.
“There’s just about anything you could possibly want in this area,” Dorothy says.
While the Pritchards are involved in group activities, they form quite a formidable team themselves.
“Each of us is the other’s hero,” David says.
Their companionship can be seen in their favorite leisure activity: riding one of their half-dozen motorcycles or scooters, a quintessential example of freedom. To them, the Tri-Village area’s best-kept secret takes place every second and fourth Tuesday night from April through September: Grandview Euro Bike Night.
The Pritchards’ community involvement extends to education.
David also cites his high school physics teacher, Richard Beadle, as one of his heroes. As a result, David presents a scholarship every year at Grandview Heights High School in Beadle’s name to a student interested in science.
“We founded the Beadle Scholarship at Grandview Heights High School to encourage students, but more importantly as an example of how teachers can both mold students and encourage students to do more than might be expected of them,” David says.
Bob Valasek is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
