50+ Lifestyles

PUBLISHER’S CORNER

By Eloise Graham

A Few Memories of Russ Myers

Russ was not yet 50 when he had a vision for a publication geared to the senior population. His aim was to provide knowledge about medical, legal, financial and senior housing. The year was 1986, and at that time there was no other publication of its kind. I don’t know if he envisioned this solely as a career opportunity with an increasing market or if he had elderly loved ones that were facing many decisions but couldn’t find the answers, but he saw the niche for this publication. Whatever the reason, the first issue of 50+ Lifestyles was published in April of 1987.

In October of 1961, Russ enlisted in the army. He did his tour of duty and then came back to civilian life where he tried his hand at many things, all the time his mind was working on entrepreneurial ideas. [Editor’s note: If you want to read about Russ’ army days, go to www.50pluslife.com and type in Russ Myers in the search engine. His article is the Publisher’s Corner, November 2009]

Russ loved meeting people and making new friends. He loved adventure, fishing and life!  I met Russ in the early months of 2008. My husband, Jim had met him years earlier and saw him almost monthly when Russ delivered the 50+ Lifestyles publication throughout the community. Russ had decided it was time to sell this business, and Jim was looking for a business to buy for us to do in our retirement years. Russ was elated that we were considering purchasing his “baby.” Since that was in 2008, most of the business was conducted online. I had never been on a computer before, so Russ gave me a crash course in setting up the wordgame, the recipe page, editing and proofreading, as well as how to contact clients, do the billing, and do delivery. While he was teaching me all of this, he told me many stories of the “early days” when he did typesetting, ink changes, and printing it out. But in the early 2000s, he outsourced the printing.

So for three or four months, Jim and I went over to Russ and Donna’s at least four times a week to learn the trade. That was when I got to know Russ and his wife Donna quite well. Probably half of the time was business and half was social, hearing exciting stories over root beer or iced tea. Russ just had a way about him to make people feel comfortable and confident. He also had a way of getting people to say “yes,” sometimes when they didn’t even realize they had been asked.

Marilyn Hackett is a great example of Russ’ persuasiveness. She went to lunch with her daughter and ended up writing on article about pets for 50+ Lifestyles. She recalls the story: “I was working for the Bettendorf Police as an Animal Control Officer and went to lunch with my daughter. She introduced me to Russ, whom she had met when she was involved in Media work in College. We talked awhile and Russ, who could sell ice cubes to Eskimos, convinced me to write a column. From that, he taught me to sell ads and end up editing the paper each month.” A great friendship blossomed between Marilyn, her husband Charlie and Donna and Russ. They did many things together, including traveling. Marilyn also tells the story of an incident that happened on one of their trips: ”One year, Donna, Russ, Charlie and I took a cruise to Alaska and across the country and through the Wilderness. At breakfast in Fairbanks, Russ reached into his pocket for his pills. He tossed them in his mouth and swallowed them. Suddenly he realized he had taken his new hearing aid! We all talked to his stomach that day. Then the next day, we told him to bend over so we could tell him something.”

Russ had a vision for this publication. Nowadays there are many publications out there about senior services, health
and families. You, our readers, have kept Russ’ vision alive! Thank you.