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Lois Stienike, executive director of Senior Citizens Industries Inc. at the Grand Generation Center, will retire from her post on Dec. 31. She has worked at the center for 41 years.
Stienike announced her resignation in a letter to the center's board of directors during its March 12 meeting.
While she had previously given some thought to retiring this year, Stienike said her decision came suddenly. She set the Dec. 31 date on her own in anticipation of the board asking her to set a retirement date. Had she not thought the board was going to ask her to set a date, she would've put it off, she said.
"I just hated to do it because it's been so much a part of my life," she said. "I'm very sad. I know I need to leave, but I've enjoyed every year of it."
Bob Sorensen, president of the nonprofit agency's board of directors, said the board wanted Stienike, who is 86, to decide on her own when she would retire. Last week's announcement was her own decision and idea, he said.
"I don't think anybody wanted to push her out of there," he said.
Stienike has had health problems and underwent heart surgery last fall, and people may have encouraged her to think about retiring this year, Sorensen said.
"She did a good job," he said. "It's just time for her to take it easy."
During the four decades she has spent at the Grand Generation Center, Stienike has helped the center secure its current facility and programming, which includes the Adult Day Care and Meals on Wheels, among many others.
While other senior centers across the country have lost funding and closed, Stienike has successfully kept Grand Island's Grand Generation Center up and running, said Ladonna Cords, the Foster Grandparent/RSVP director at the center.
"Lois has been able to keep the program going on a shoestring," Cords said. "It's sad seeing her go because she's been such an intricate part of this building."
Stienike said she's the type of person who needs to keep busy and will be looking for other projects, such as putting together a recipe book, during her retirement.
She said she wants to thank the people she has worked with for always being there for her.
"They've done a lot for me," she said.
The center's board of directors will spend the rest of the year looking for a new director, Sorensen said, and it hopes Stienike will be able to pass on some of her knowledge to the new director before leaving.
"I'll miss her," Sorensen said. "Everyone will miss her."
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