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Blog archive

November 2024

Event of Remembrance
11/22/2024

Phishing Scams: What You Need to Know
11/22/2024

Pupusas Family Style: Another Adventurous Dining Winner
11/22/2024

Celebrating the Holidays
11/21/2024

Genealogy Group: Discovering Our Pasts
11/21/2024

Nathan Wolford – From Tragedy to Ministry
11/21/2024

Pasadena Village Board of Directors: A Brief Overview
11/21/2024

President's Message
11/21/2024

The Day of the Dead (Dia de muertos)/ Mexican Culture/Community
11/21/2024

Vintage Celebration: Aging Like a Fine Wine
11/21/2024

Review of Racism in Our Local Past
11/20/2024

Creative Juices Flow in The Village
11/19/2024

Checking In by Ed Rinderle
11/15/2024

Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo
11/15/2024

I Shall Forget You Presently, My Dear (Sonnet IV) by Edna St. Vincent Millay
11/15/2024

Pictures From Brueghel by William Carlos Williams
11/15/2024

October 2024

ARBORIST WALK: NOT FOR TREE HUGGERS ONLY!
10/29/2024

Bill Wishner: Visual Hunter
10/29/2024

Can a Village Group Fix Our Healthcare System?
10/29/2024

Community Board Directors Strengthen Village Board
10/29/2024

Connecting with Village Connections: The A, B, C, & D’s of Medicare @ 65+
10/29/2024

Grief is a Journey: Two Paths Taken
10/29/2024

Message from the President
10/29/2024

Promoting Informed & Involved Voters
10/29/2024

What Will Be Your Legacy?
10/29/2024

1619, Approaching the Election...
10/27/2024

Beyond and Within the Village - A Star is Born
10/17/2024

Happiness by Priscilla Leonard
10/11/2024

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
10/11/2024

Unpainted Door by Louise Gluck
10/11/2024

In the Evening by Billy Collins
10/10/2024

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
10/10/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

September 2024

August 2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

First Anniversary
08/19/2024

Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen
08/16/2024

Muse des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
08/16/2024

The God Abandons Antony by Constantinos P. Cavafy
08/16/2024

Ch – Ch – Ch –Changes
08/15/2024

Cultural Activities Team offers an ‘embarrassment of riches’
08/15/2024

Engaging in Pasadena Village
08/15/2024

Future Housing Options
08/15/2024

Message from the President
08/15/2024

There Are Authors Among Us
08/15/2024

Villagers Welcome New Members at the Tournament Park Picnic
08/15/2024

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
08/14/2024

A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
08/13/2024

Haikus
08/13/2024

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
08/13/2024

Poem 20 by Pablo Neruda
08/13/2024

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
08/13/2024

Trees by Joyce Kilmer
08/13/2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024

Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024

Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024

Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024

Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024

Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024

Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024

Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024

Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024

Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024

Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024

No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024

An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024

Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024

Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024

The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024

Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

ED RINDERLE - Beyond the Village

By Blog Master
Posted: 12/05/2021
Tags: bios

VILLAGE MEMBER ED RINDERLE 

 

Village member Ed Rinderle was born and raised in New Orleans, graduating from the University of New Orleans with a degree in Mathematics. A Woodrow Wilson fellowship brought him west to Pasadena where he entered Caltech as a graduate student in Applied Mathematics. Recalls Ed, “I knew right away I was in over my head. The culture here was so different from New Orleans. I was really a bit lost.” And yet, good came out of his relocation: he met his first wife, Jane, and they settled in Altadena where they raised their three children and lived until her death in 1999.

 

Armed with a Master’s Degree in Applied Mathematics from Caltech, Ed was soon interviewed for a position at the Jet Propulsion Lab in the 1960's. During his interview, Ed confessed that he knew very little about computers. His interviewer replied “No problem. We'll teach you what you need to know.” So Ed began his career designing, coding, and documenting computer code for many of JPL's space missions. He loved the work and the people he worked with. Along the way he met fellow JPLer, Jean. They were married in 2003 and have been married ever since. He retired from JPL in 2008 after 40 years at the Lab.  

 

Jane's death left a hole in Ed's life that he set out to fill. Guided by a counselor at JPL, he decided to interview for a position at Pasadena City College. Much to his surprise, he was offered a job as a part-time math teacher. “My dream job since high school was to teach calculus at a junior college.” At PCC Ed fulfilled his dream. He taught whatever math courses were assigned to him, but his favorite was calculus.

 

Around the same time, Ed met coworker Jean. They dated for about a year, then married in 2003. This marriage together with his teaching job, went a long way toward filling the hole left by Jane's death.

 

When the COVID pandemic put an end to in-person classes at PCC, Ed reluctantly made the switch to on-line Zoom classes. That change, together with declining enrollment in math, led Ed to decide to retire from teaching. He taught one class per semester at PCC for 19 years.  

Even though Ed was oriented toward math and science from early on, he also always enjoyed writing. While some of his coworkers at JPL dreaded documenting their code, Ed relished it. He worked hard to make his user's guides clear and readable. He credits his enjoyment of writing to the insights and challenges of his High School and College English teachers.  “I learned so much in my English classes that I have found useful throughout my life, including a love for reading and writing lesson plans.”  

 

Retirement from JPL left another hole in Ed's life. This time he decided to fill it by writing. For starters, he began his autobiography. His purpose was to give his children some knowledge of his life growing up in New Orleans and his days as an engineer at JPL. He enjoyed the experience so much that he branched out into writing fiction, often based on real life experiences. He enjoyed exercising his creativity like never before.  

 

Eventually, Ed found that writing didn't completely fill that hole left by retirement. The fellowship he enjoyed with his coworkers at JPL and PCC was lost.  He doesn't remember how he first heard about the Village, but he saw it as an opportunity to make new friends. He and Jean joined and are now exploring the many activities available at the Village. “Now that I am retired I don’t have to worry about doing things that are expected of me. I can focus on things to do for fun and things that I can do for others.”

 

One opportunity the Village presented to Ed came through fellow Village member and Communications Chair, Dick Myers. Dick encouraged Ed to post some of his stories on the Village website under the “Meanderings” Blog. You can read some of Ed’s work by going to  the Meandering Blog on the Pasadena Village website.

 

One thing Ed has done since joining Pasadena Village is to become a participant in the Pasadena Unified School District’s “Senior to Senior” program. Ed is paired up with a high school senior and they talk remotely once a week. “At first it seemed that we didn't have much in common to talk about. But now we read articles, watch short films, or listen to music. Then we discuss them. It is working well.”  

 

Being retired, leaving his teaching position, the isolation brought on by COVID, and some health issues have been hard on Ed. He admits to feeling depressed at times and has appreciated the support groups he has attended at the Village. For years he thought of himself as a loner, but he has had to look more carefully since the day that one of his daughters called him “a closet extrovert.” Without the structure of work he realizes that he needs to make more of an effort to create new friends. He has made a truce with Zoom, but he still prefers to interact with people face-to-face. “It doesn’t matter what we do, just sitting around and talking is great.”

 

Ed’s story is familiar to many of us who find ourselves un-moored by retirement, health challenges, and now the darn pandemic. The Pasadena Village exists to bring people together, to build community, so that Ed and others just like him can find their best selves – for their benefit and for the benefit of others beyond the Village.

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