W. Lee Hammond

W. Lee Hammond, M.Ed., of Salisbury, Md., is AARP's president and has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2002.

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Life Perspectives

"I was retired for about six weeks. As soon as you retire, and especially if you retire from education, people think you don't have anything to do. They're glad to try to fill your time. The volunteer opportunities were many!

"I was planning to get involved in some way in the community, anyway, because it had been good to me and I felt that I needed to give something back. My wife planned for me to get involved, too, so she wouldn't have to put up with me all day long!

"One of my first volunteer experiences was working with the Holly Foundation, which dealt with helping developmentally disabled individuals on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. That made me understand that there are many people out there who need help who can't get it any other way but through volunteers.

"Volunteers have a prominent place in helping to create AARP's mission and to achieve its vision. It's important that people see us not as individuals who are doing something for gain, but because we actually believe that this is better for our nation, and better for the constituency that we serve — 50-plus individuals. …

"I can think of one volunteer in particular who has stayed with me. I was visiting in Detroit to speak to a conference on re-careering. The AARP Michigan state staff took me to the information center in Detroit, which is a very small office.

"There I met a lady I won't forget. She was energetic; she was smiling, she was eager to come to work every day. She was a volunteer. She was 84 years old. She had been doing the same thing at that information office for the last 15 years and loved every minute of it, because she was helping people. 

"I'd like more people to know about our volunteers. I'd like more people to know about the AARP Foundation, which works with a population that really needs help. We try to give it to them. [For example], through the Foundation we help low- and middle-income taxpayers across the country — 2.2 million of them last year — to get their tax returns done for free. This saves a considerable amount of money for them, and it also gets them the full extent of the benefits allowed by the tax laws.

"I'd also like people to know that we're working for all generations. The things that we do obviously deal with 50-plus, but we hope that everybody is going to be 50-plus at some time. In addition to that, we're working with families. There are grandparents who are taking care of grandchildren. There are parents who are taking care of children and their own parents. We're working to help all of them.

"In health care reform, we were very insistent that the package include children staying on their parents' health insurance until age 26. We had kids getting out of college who didn't have jobs, and then they had no health insurance because they got taken off their parents' policies. To help protect them and their parents, who would probably have to foot the bill, we insisted that that clause get into the health care legislation. We were successful.

"There are a number of ways we're working with intergenerational activities — not only to help the 50 plus, but to help all Americans."

Education

M.Ed., geography, Salisbury State College; B.S., education, Towson State Teachers College; administrative certification from Towson State College, Salisbury State College, University of Tennessee and Maryland State Department of Education

Expertise

Classroom teaching, school administration, intergenerational issues, baseball

Experience

Now retired, he served for 30 years as a classroom teacher and as a school administrator in the Wicomico County, Md., public schools.

Volunteer Experience

Boards: Currently, ex officio member of AARP Board's Governance and Compensation Committee and the Compensation Subcommittee. Former member and chair of the board of directors, Holly Foundation. Formerly served on the Wor-Wic Community College Advisory Board.

Other: Former president of AARP Maryland, president of Maryland Retired Teachers Association, liaison of Maryland Retired Teachers Association, and member of AARP Maryland's State Legislative Committee. Currently serves on the U.S. Attorney's Health Care Fraud Task Force and is a member of the Maryland Commission on Aging and the Maryland Intergenerational Coalition. Former a member of the Task Force for School Planning, Wicomico County Board of Education.

Honors

Granted an honorary life membership to the Maryland Congress of Parents & Teachers. Was named a Hall of Fame Honoree by the Maryland State Citizens Hall of Fame. Received a Governors' Citation for Work in Education and the Governors' Salute to Excellence from the State of Maryland.

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