Local author, retired health care administrator reimagines aging, retirement

This story first appeared in Prestige - December 2025, a biannual special section distributed in The Gazette dedicated to Iowans 55+.

Tim Charles retired in 2022 after working for about 40 years in health care and hospital administration, most recently as the president/CEO of Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.

“I came into this transition thinking I had a clear understanding of what I was going to do next,” Charles said. “In fact, I would stand in front of various audiences and say, ‘I'm not retiring; I'm refiring,’ and that was the distinction that I used: that I was going to absolutely find that next thing. The simple truth was that when I stepped into that new reality on Jan. 1, 2023, what I began to appreciate was just how extraordinary a transition that is and how bewildering it can be.”

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His personal practice of journaling each morning he’d started back in 2019 became pivotal as part of this transition. He soon realized he’d created something of a memoir. “Aging Life Design: A Journey Captured in Morning Pages” started as a project that contained wisdom he wanted to pass along to his sons.

“But what I discovered was what started out as essentially my navigating that transition personally and wanting to do that in a way that was effective for myself has turned into a conversation that I'm finding is resonating to a much broader audience than I originally had even anticipated,” he said.

Charles noticed that particularly for those retiring from high powered positions, a state of confusion sets in.

“There's such a well-defined model as to what retirement is to be, but some find themselves wrestling with questions like ‘what it's about?’ and ‘is this all it is?’” Charles also noticed some friends become physically ill just three years into retirement. “It made me notice this evidence that maybe we’re not dealing with this transition in the best way possible.”

Charles also wondered at the fact that we are living longer, and today’s retirement could be an outdated model.

“Social constructs were set up to enable individuals to come to the conclusion that at this kind of magical year in their life, 65, they could walk away from what they've been doing and kind of walk into this whole new life and that that made sense,” he said. “But my conclusion was it didn't make sense for me personally because I wasn't going to sit on my hands for another 25 years … I think it's a travesty that we as a society discard so easily the extraordinary experience and potential contribution of individuals who have just kind of arrived at this magical date.”

Charles continues to read, research and discuss this notion and is now working on a guide that is a series of exercises and processes that individuals can use as a tool as they gear up for retirement and explore more deeply how they can make this phase of their life more meaningful.

“I am not blazing a trail that no one else has blazed, and in fact I am not coming up with conclusions that are at all original every step of the way,” Charles said. “But what I've discovered is that as I come to some insight, I discovered there are a myriad of other individuals that have come to the same conclusion, but even though all of that exists, we haven't changed the conversation, and we aren’t addressing it.”

This led to Charles creating a new venture, Aging Life Design, Inc., a company dedicated to exploring “five dimensions” and hosting conversations related to them, including:

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“ I've come to believe it is such a rich opportunity, and I'm not talking about dollars. I'm talking about talent. I'm talking about experience. I'm talking about the ability to actually impact what's going on if we can rethink collectively how we utilize this 20- to 25-year period that is retirement.”

“We're spending billions trying to fend off what is one of the most natural processes imaginable. We're actually wired to age, and we're actually wired to be mortal … the problem is it's developed an attitude that aging is synonymous with diminishing across so many different arenas. That's just profoundly impactful because if you buy into it, particularly as an individual, you begin to behave differently. You think differently.”

“I believe fundamentally that most people want to age in place. But the problem is we're not designed for it. Physically, most of our homes were designed with steep stairways and narrow doorways. Think about the typical farmhouse in rural Iowa. People may be living there, but it’s dangerous. And one of the single most impactful determinants of shortened life is a fall. So, we have to start having a conversation of ‘how do we help people age in place effectively, and not just in your living space but in your community?’”

“I think that's an understatement to say it’s a challenge that we have this vastly growing, expanding group of individuals who are moving into this kind of retirement zone who are prepared financially … but we are also going to be dealing with an awful lot of individuals who just don't have the resources they need to live out their lives. And we already see the disparities between health spans and life spans, but there’s also socioeconomic gaps. If you are poor and you are a person of color, the gaps are even bigger.”

“This is where I worked, so I saw the great things we do, but I also believe we don't serve our aging population as well as we could … A particular area that I'm committed to is understanding how we care and serve individuals with dementia, which again is a function of our longevity.

“What I've been digging into is how the arts intersect with improving our lives and how they can be impactful for individuals wanting to improve their brain health. It's actually unbelievable what an effective cocktail you can create in your brain by virtue of being in the space of art. I'm digging into this because it kind of links together my interest in medicine, my interest in dementia, my interest in art, my interest in aging as a way of potentially opening up a door to conversations around how we do more.”