Other articles by Becky Pallack:

Injuries put stress on two schools this week Without a coach, diver numbers in TUSD plummet Foothills girls, boys solid in tuneup for state competition Your donation can put TUSD students back in the game Cienega cross country team to share football spotlight Sunnyside, I-Ridge volleyball to raise funds vs. cancer Volleyball has an infusion of coaching talent this year Local girls golf going through an up-and-down game TUSD athletes pay more to play this fall Football season start pushed back by new national schedule

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LPN, RN, MA

This is probably Jim Murphy's third career.

Or fourth. Or fifth.

Murphy, the new CEO of the Pima Council on Aging, also has been an employee of Mountain Bell Telephone Co., a politician, an assistant county manager and the director of Pima County's health-care system.

Now he's preparing to expand the 41-year-old non-profit agency with a strategic plan that includes evidence-based health-care programs and satellite offices — all while continuing to focus on award-winning services such as the volunteer Ambassador Program and Mature Worker Connection.

In a recent interview, Murphy talked about the changing landscape of retirement, the marketing challenges of a non-profit agency and how businesses should think about the aging work force. Here are excerpts:

A: I don't know how far back to start! I used to shine shoes at the corner of Stone and Broadway. That was many years ago, when I was just a little guy.

I've pretty well been involved in community sorts of things in one way or another. I had 13 years with Mountain Bell (a telephone company that used to serve Tucson) and became involved in politics. It eventually led me to being a precinct committeeman, and I ran for the City Council. Then I served on the Board of Supervisors.

I became involved in a lot of health-care issues as a supervisor, and then I went over on the management side and was responsible for forming the first county long-term-care program, and that led me in this direction. In fact, I served on one of the first Council on Aging boards.

A: I somewhat retired prematurely (in 1997). I really wasn't ready financially or emotionally, so I was looking to do something. I don't know that I will ever truly "retire."

Many people are not looking at retirement like they used to. People are living longer, living healthier on average, and they want to continue to do something. That could be in volunteering or maybe work.

Many individuals are in the same situation I'm in. They're going to continue to be active until they no longer can.

A: One challenge is (marketing). A lot of people don't know we're here, but we're not the best-kept secret in town.

We've done a number of things recently (such as newsletters and a redesigned Web site), because we don't have dollars to market.

We don't have "Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?" or, God bless him, Jim Click's money, where the more you market, the more money you get.

Unfortunately, that's not true with us. The more we market, the more clients we get, but we don't have the dollars necessarily to support it. So we're in kind of a fix.

We (also) need to do a better job in diversifying our funding stream. We've recently created a development, or fundraising, department to help us compete for some of those dollars.

A: Business is facing diversity in the work force that hasn't been there before. There are now four generations in the workplace, and there are not enough individuals in the employment age coming up to fill all the jobs.

We created a program called Mature Worker Connection, which focuses solely on the 50-plus job seeker. It's also trying to educate employers. We've got to dispel those myths about the older workers, and we've got to educate businesses that it makes good sense to hire experienced workers.

And we've got to talk about that diversity in the workplace. How do you take the 20-, 30-year-old more techy-type person and integrate them with the 60-, 70-year-olds who bring a lot? That's a challenge. They don't understand each other's values; they don't necessarily have the same work ethics.

Every Monday, catch an interview here with a Tucson business leader.