Lynn and Lana Staheli: Not really retired

Lynn Staheli was hooked by photography when he was 12 years old. A few years later he took the photos for his high-school yearbook in Provo, Utah. He developed an early interest in writing and edited the 1955 school yearbook at Brigham Young University. While he was studying to be a physician at the University of Utah, Lynn edited the medical school yearbook.

Now 72 and "retired" after 40 years as a surgeon in pediatric orthopedics at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Dr. Lynn Staheli heads an international foundation and is churning out publications designed to improve medical care around the world.

His wife, Lana, 59, is a writer in her own right. She's the author of three books and a fourth that's nearing completion. A counselor for 30 years (she holds a Ph.D. in psychology), she still coaches clients on how to deal with life's problems.

She has no plans to quit working, but said: "I don't see people who can't get along without me because I'm gone about 12 weeks a year."

Those 12 weeks are for travel and keeping her commitments to Global-HELP, the foundation she and her husband co-founded in 2002, and her involvement with the International Women's Forum, a global organization dedicated to advancing women's leadership.

Through all the years he was a surgeon, Lynn never stopped writing and editing, producing three textbooks that have all gone into multiple editions. He was also the founding editor of the "Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics" in 1981.

Now he uses his photography, writing and editing skills as head of Global-HELP, which is devoted to making knowledge about health care accessible worldwide by offering publications at minimal cost. He volunteers 30 to 40 hours a week on the project and doesn't consider himself retired. He regards his life as an opportunity to do things he could not do while practicing medicine fulltime.

While he worked at Children's, Lynn traveled to more than 40 countries to lecture and teach. He found that developing nations have a shortage of textbooks and other medical publications because of their high cost.

In 1991, in his 15th year as head of orthopedics at Children's, he took a sabbatical and spent a year learning desktop publishing. Five years later, he gradually turned over his practice to younger doctors, stopped performing surgery and began spending more time on his textbooks.

Then came September 11, 2001 and a change of focus toward public health. "I remember walking around the park after 9-11 happened," he said. "I had just finished a textbook, and I had been thinking about doing a series of orthopedic textbooks.

"I remember thinking about how I could make a difference," he said. "I realized we should be helping people so they won't be so susceptible to fundamentalist and radical ideas," he said. "The way to deal with these problems is for us to help people have a better quality of life."

The next year, he and Lana started Global-HELP in their home. Now it's in a one-room office above the traffic noise of Seattle's Eastlake Avenue, crowded with computer equipment and bookshelves of medical texts.

A recent Global-HELP project took the Stahelis to Uganda, where Lynn shot more than 1,500 photographs in three weeks for a teaching manual on the treatment of club foot. Global-HELP already had three publications on its site on the topic, one of them available in seven languages.

The new manual will be tailored specifically to Uganda, where 10,000 copies will be distributed. It will also be available on the website, and Lynn hopes to use it as a prototype for other African nations.

Lana, meanwhile, is enjoying the process of creating a series of psychology publications that she calls "Bounce" books, stories of people who have bounced back from adversity. She hopes Global-HELP will play a role in collecting stories from people all over the world who have transformed themselves through their struggles.

"At this age, I think everything I do should be fun. If I'm not having any fun doing it, then I'm probably not doing a very good job of it either."

Lynn and Lana, Merriman clients and longtime friends of Paul Merriman, have sold their home in Seattle's Laurelhurst neighborhood and moved to an apartment near the Global-HELP office. Their place is within sight of their boats, one a Nordic tug and the other a cabana boat that Lana often uses as a writing sanctuary.

Though she holds a doctorate degree in psychology, Lana said she was a poor student who was regarded not as future college material but as someone who would be "a good little housewife. Now we all think that's funny, because I have no interest in housekeeping, cooking or anything like that," she said.

Despite their heavy commitments, the Stahelis have found time to trek in Chile, cruise around Vancouver Island by boat, explore Alaska with a friend and be involved with three grown children and seven grandchildren.

Lynn says he has no plans to slow down. He's still on the staff at Children's and consults on cases there.

"I didn't really give retirement much thought," he said. "I never thought I wanted to lounge around or play golf all the time. That never appealed to me. I think that would be boring as hell."

He believes people need to remain active and useful and offers his life as an example. "Older people have so much to contribute that it's a shame when they don't."