A dean at UMN offered her the opportunity to become a senior fellow there, allowing her to pursue educational projects including service learning and internship initiatives.

Today, Hively continues to work at UMN, but her work focus has changed from K-12 education to the education of senior citizens.

As senior fellow and coordinator for the UMN Vital Aging Network, she spends her days connecting senior citizens to educational opportunities.

She says one of her jobs as a Radcliffe undergraduate led to her interest in the productivity of the aging population.

Hively says she spent time as a student reading to the blind 90-year-old mother-in-law of Harvard Admissions Director Richard M. Gummere.

“I was so touched by the humiliation she was suffering. She was so articulate, but there she was, not being cared for, and that moved me deeply,” Hively says. “I think that’s one of the reasons I’m in the field I’m in now.”

Barbara Muesing, dean of UMN’s College for Continuing Education, says Hively’s high-energy and visionary nature have contributed to her success with the Vital Aging Network.

“She imagines a different kind of future and can build strategies to get there,” Muesing says.

Muesing also attests to Hively’s unique ability to serve as a “broker.”

“She has a fabulous network,” Muesing says. “There’s hardly a subject that comes up where she can’t suggest a name and phone number of somebody who can help you.”

For the first time in her life, Hively has plans to slow down. Next year, a consulting firm will take over Hively’s duties for the Vital Aging Network, although she will continue to remain active as a senior adviser to the group.

“I avoid using the word retiring. It implies that you’re withdrawing,” Hively says.

‘Seeking the Everlasting’

Since her graduation from Radcliffe in 1954, Hively has not stopped learning.

In addition to her work at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Hively earned a master’s degree in organizational communications from UMN and a certificate in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government senior executives program.