THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
About 12 years ago, Fort Smith's Richard Daitch retired, but that doesn't mean he stopped working.
Richard Daitch does much of his work for Daitch & Associates at his kitchen table in Fort Smith. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
Daitch and his wife, Mary Pat Short, retired about the same time and he said they went back to work almost immediately.
"Our daughter Sarah says we're retirement dropouts," he noted with a chuckle.
Daitch was a full-time instructor at Aurora College for the five years before his retirement, primarily as an English instructor in the Teacher Education Program.
Upon his retirement, he formed Daitch & Associates.
"Most of the time, it's just me," he responded when asked about the "associates" in the name of his part-time business.
Daitch & Associates covers a number of things, mainly adjudication and education, and occasionally research and writing.
The 70-year-old said his current work is roughly half educational and half adjudication.
His role as an adjudicator involves work for the GNWT hearing and ruling on appeals involving employment standards, social assistance and staffing.
"I originally got into it 12 years ago," recalled Daitch. "A friend of mine was doing a lot of this work. He was a lawyer and he said, 'Oh, you'd be perfect for it.' And I said, 'Well, I don't know anything about law.' He said, 'What they really need is somebody that can think, analyze and write so people can understand it.'"
In the role, he reads the file on a dispute and can either request more written information from the parties involved or a hearing.
"So it's quite interesting and once I got into it, I really liked it," he said.
As for the educational aspect of Daitch & Associates, that involves some tutorial work, usually involving English and occasionally presenting a workshop at Aurora College for a class or group of people.
"During the academic year, I do a fair bit of educational work," Daitch said. "I work with students at the college that need help, generally in research methods, writing and studying literature in various departments."
The occasional research aspect of Daitch & Associates has included a project about a decade ago for a Toronto organization on volunteerism in small NWT communities, along with policy and procedure work for other organizations.
As for writing, Daitch said, "That's happened in the past. I've edited quite a lot of stuff."
When asked if there is a single way to describe all of the activities, Daitch said they all involve solving problems.
"If a student doesn't know how to write an essay, that's a problem for them. That's a big problem," he explained. "If there's a dispute that's unresolved and there are two sides to it, there needs to be a solution one way or the other."
Daitch, a native of Detroit, has lived in Fort Smith for about 25 years, and before that was a teacher, vice-principal and principal in a number of locations going back into the 1960s, including on Baffin Island and in Newfoundland.
Up to two years ago,
he was president of Sport North for four years and on the federation's board
for about 20 years.
"I thought it was time to pass the torch to a younger generation," he said.
However, he remains on the board of the territorial sports organizations for cross-country skiing and tennis.
Daitch said he never imagined not having a project or something to do in retirement.
"You want to feel validated and that you have something to contribute, and it keeps you connected. And, I meet a lot of interesting people with both kinds of work I do. So that's a plus," he explained. "The other thing is I'm always learning new things."
Daitch has found the North to be a particularly good place to retire and still keep busy, noting, "Really, in the NWT, if you're willing to work hard, treat people fairly and meet deadlines, it's a fortunate place to be because there's work to be found."
