Meet one of Australia’s most inspiring FiftyUps
This week, we came across one of Australia’s most inspiring FiftyUps and we thought you’d like to hear about her.
Elisabeth Kirkby was a star of the risque 1970s soapie Number 96, before becoming a politician and a radio presenter and receiving an Order of Australia Medal.
Now, aged 93, she has become Australia’s oldest PhD graduate, as the ABC’s 730 reported recently.
You can watch the full video here.
Her PhD thesis at the University of Sydney compared the Great Depression to the Global Financial Crisis. Kirkby lived through both!
She wrote the 100,000-word thesis, she says, partly because “I had been told as I was getting much older that you either use it or lose it”.
As a student, Kirkby says, “You’re not climbing Mount Everest or trying to go power walking. You are just reading books, reading documents, so it’s hardly hard physical exercise.”
“I always have fun times with computers. I came to computers very late. I mean, they didn’t even exist when I was being educated.”
And her advice to others nearing retirement?
“When you do get to retirement, have a holiday by all means, relax, but then find something interesting to do, something you’ve always wanted to do and maybe never have the opportunity because too many other things happened in your life. I think that that is what is really important.”
What a legend. We salute you, Elisabeth Kirkby!
