June-July 2005

Keeping Up with the Times

Zetta Hatch

Zetta Hatch, CAS/BA ’61, CAS/MED ’65, reads the newspaper every day, always roots for the Baltimore Orioles if she happens to have the television on, and loves to talk about traveling. Sounds pretty normal for many AU alumni, right? Except Hatch is an extraordinary, vibrant young 101 years old.

“My 102nd birthday will be October 7th,” says Hatch. "I was born in 1903.”

Although Hatch has lived in a retirement community in Florida for about eight years now, the longtime Maryland resident is quick to point out that her days are always busy, and she handles all her own affairs. “I take care of all my own business – health care, and financial… I have a two-bedroom apartment. There’s plenty to do. I wouldn’t be without a newspaper… or magazines.” Her favorites: Time and Money. Nope, there’s no time for crosswords, she notes.

The former elementary school teacher found her way to AU as a nontraditional student after she had been teaching for several years. “I started teaching in Ohio – first in Canton then Columbus, then I went to Washington, D.C., then California for two years, then back to Montgomery County (Maryland) for 18 years. I taught mostly third grade,” she remembers.

“The children were very interesting. At third grade they begin to challenge things. You know - they grow up a little bit at 9 years old,” she reflects, acknowledging the irony of such statements coming from someone her age.

A true lover of education, Hatch took classes herself at various universities while teaching elementary school. She attended Kent State, GW, UCLA, and the University of Maryland before she enrolled at AU. “I was late getting my two degrees because I was traveling and taking classes I wanted. When I came back, I knew it was to my advantage to get my degrees because Montgomery County Schools paid more.”

Of all the things she’s done in her life, Hatch looks back most fondly on traveling extensively with her husband before he died in 1968. “Oh we went about every place except Asia,” she says. “Europe, South America... We took so many trips. We traveled across the United States and saw every state in the union, including Alaska and Hawaii.” The best trip was on a freighter from New York to Panama, she says. “We spent two weeks there. I can’t remember what year. But it was a very interesting place. We had to go out into the middle of the canal to board the freighter. When we went down, there were other passengers with us, but when we came back through the canal, we were the only passengers on the ship!”

Her birthday wish for October? “I just want to keep active. I’m lucky enough to still have my mind. That’s the most important part. I see so many forms of dementia here, and a lot of the residents can’t see, either. It’s sad. And they’re much younger than I am.”

Hatch calls her arthritis and recent bouts with vertigo “annoying to say the least.” But at the end of the day – and of more than a century – she attributes her longevity to keeping busy, preventive medicine, and a little luck. “I believe in preventive medicine,” she notes. “You know, if you can do something to prevent it, do it.”

“Keep busy, keep up with the times. You have to change. When the world changes, you change – whether you want to or not,” says Hatch.

-Melissa Reichley