Fred and Carolyn Eichelman taught school for four decades each and discovered science fiction was a good teaching tool. They’re still collecting evidence.
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One of the major concerns for many as they approach retirement is just how they will use that time that they’ve spent so many years working toward, in hopes they will be “golden.” Fred and Carolyn Eichelman have never been especially concerned.
They are both 81 now and Fred has been retired 26 years, Carolyn 20 years from teaching in the Roanoke Valley public school system. The teaching and what went with it has continued to provide not only a hobby but a near obsession.
Fred, who has a PhD, taught “as many as 11 different subjects” in his career, which spanned more than 40 years, mostly teaching juniors and seniors in high school. “I could have taught college, but the money wasn’t nearly as good,” he says, smiling. Carolyn taught elementary and kindergarten kids for four decades, as well.
Fred’s hobby, begun when he was 10, was collecting autographs. He has about 10,000 now. The collection blossomed until it became a teaching tool, one where Fred brought in famous people to talk to his classes and he and Carolyn put their heads together to help found RoVaCon, the Roanoke Valley science fiction convention, with a bunch of science students. It had a long run.
They have both been movie and TV buffs all their lives and Fred, especially, used the movies to help teach several subjects. Fred’s interest in entertainment came naturally: his father was with the Paul Whiteman orchestra, a trend-setting big band in the 1920s and 1930s. Their home these days in Salem (where it has been for 52 years) is all but paved with memorabilia, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, but in such logical order that it could be a library. “We need to work on the house to make it friendlier,” says Fred.
It is easy to get lost in a series of “Oh, wow!” observations as you tour the two primary floors of their home, never moving your eyes more than a few inches at a time from display to display. One of the keepers is a 1943 No. 4 edition of the “Wonder Woman” comic book series, one where she is predicted to become president in 1,000 years.
Both have written extensively in retirement, Fred putting together three books to go with the three text books he wrote while he was teaching. One of those was a film memoir and another was about their rescued cat, the proceeds going to animal rescue groups. Carolyn’s impressive piece on melanoma has been published in health magazines.
They have made a number of good friends in the entertainment business, primary among them the red-haired beauty Rhonda Fleming, a 1950s star, and Deanna Lund of the TV series “Land of the Giants,” who appeared at RoVaCon one year. Fred has interviewed people like Jayne Russell and Pat Boone for fan magazines. He continues to review science fiction writing and film.
Their lives are so full these days, says Carolyn, that “I don’t know how we managed to do some of the things we did while we were still teaching” and raising their two children. Carolyn is even considering jump-starting her long dormant interest in art.
It’s all part of avoiding retirement.
