Choosing an Active Life

ChooseHome member: Richard Sklar

There’s no doubt about it. Retired Army Col. Richard Sklar, 75, lives an active life.

He fills his days serving as an Executive Partner at The College of William & Mary Mason School of Business, mentoring emerging business leaders; recording the oral histories of dozens of military veterans living at Patriots Colony at Williamsburg, a continuing care retirement community catering uniquely to retired senior military officers and equivalent federal civil employees and their spouses; and Skyping with his wife and daughter in Russia.

“I don’t need the help now,” Col. Sklar said about his need for assistance as an older adult choosing to age in place – he lives in the independent living villas at Patriots Colony. “But I’m sure someday I will.”

Which is why today, he chose ChooseHome.

Meet Col. Sklar

Despite having a football scholarship to attend the University of Missouri, after growing up in Kansas City, Col. Sklar chose to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1962. He went on to serve 22 years in the Army as a commissioned infantry officer, including spending 41 months in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division as an advisor to Vietnamese combat and Ranger units.

After retiring, he worked for some time in New York City as the vice president of a financial services company and then was recruited by U.S. West, now Quest, a telecommunications company, to start a business school in Russia, where he lived for nearly two decades.

Moving to Patriots Colony at Williamsburg

In 2014, Col. Sklar was contacted by a friend who already lived at Patriots Colony, who would be traveling to Russia to visit. The following summer, he returned the favor and visited them in Williamsburg.

“I immediately thought this would be a fantastic place to live,” he said of Williamsburg and Patriots Colony.

It was a place he could age on his own terms while also be surrounded by multiple fellow West Point graduates, including some from his own class of 1962.

Choosing ChooseHome

Col. Sklar quickly then signed up for the waiting list to move to Patriots Colony and then as one of the first members of the ChooseHome program.

“I was fascinated by the ChooseHome commitment to keeping people in independent living,” He said. “The idea of not having to move from independent living to assisted living…I liked that.”

He also liked having access to the Personal Services Coordinators.

“For me, it’s more like an insurance policy. I am more than capable of taking care of myself now. I play golf. I walk three to five miles a day. I get along in my car easily. I don’t need the help now. But I’m sure someday I will. And when I do need it, I am very comfortable with the services ChooseHome offers.”