Retirement just isn’t in their vocabulary

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This article was published 16/08/2010 (5555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When asked about his fitness regime that enables him to not only come into the office every day at the age of 96, but run a company, Albert Cohen was only too happy to step out from behind his desk and demonstrate.

"Sometimes I do a dozen, sometimes less and sometimes more," he said, as he put his hands above his head and bent down to touch his toes a few times. "It’s something I’ve done all my life in the morning and in the evening."

But that’s not all. The co-CEO of Gendis Inc. usually golfs about twice a week — he pulls his own cart, thank you, and occasionally breaks his age — and likes to skate laps in his leather speedskates at the Susan Auch Oval on Sargent Avenue if it’s not too cold outside.

At work, where he shares the top job with his son, James, Cohen is old school — he doesn’t carry a cell phone and his office is noticeably free of any computers.

At an age when most of his colleagues have long since retired or moved on to the great golf course in the sky, Cohen is very happy to come into the office every day.

But Cohen’s position is far from ceremonial. He was instrumental in Gendis acquiring the downtown block of land now occupied by the new Manitoba Hydro building and negotiating its sale to Hydro CEO Bob Brennan.

"I told him I thought it would be the best location and it would help Portage Avenue. Having been born in Winnipeg, I always remembered how important Portage was before it started falling apart," Cohen said.

Cohen has some select company in his non-retirement club. Harry Walsh celebrated his 97th birthday on Saturday and this year marked his 73rd as a criminal lawyer. He was called to the bar in 1937 following the five-year articling period which was required at the time.

"I am the longest practising lawyer in Canada," he said with pride.

The one-time paperboy for both the Free Press and the Winnipeg Tribune is the first person to arrive every morning at the downtown offices of Walsh & Co. and he doesn’t plan on changing his routine. Ever.

"I shall never retire. I shall go out with my boots on," he said. "I love the profession that I’m in and I’ve loved every minute of every day that I’ve been in it."

Arguably his proudest moment came in 1976 when capital punishment was abolished in Canada. "I was responsible for that and I want to take the credit for that… I never had a hanging in any case where I was the senior lawyer," he said.

Dr. Maurice Shnider has been giving advice of a different kind — medical — for nearly 60 years. The 87-year-old graduated from medical school in 1951 and he never gets tired of putting a stethoscope around his neck over top of his omnipresent neck tie.

He has been saying he’s going to retire in two years for a number of years now but his patients will believe it when they see it.

"I’m a people person. I’ve got to get feedback from people," he said, noting that he doesn’t receive his Old Age Pension while he’s still on the job. "I’m proud of being old-school. I don’t take any short cuts."

Shnider only stopped working out of the Victoria Hospital, where he performed surgeries such as tubal ligations and tonsillectomies, four years ago.

"I think (leaving the Vic) lengthened my career a little bit. The last (general practitioner) who opened an abdomen at the Vic was me," he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca