Director retiring after 27 years

"It's time to start the next stage of my life, though I have certainly enjoyed this stage of my life," Gadway, 63, said during a sit-down interview with The Enterprise inside Senior Services' Pioneer Center office.

The native of Portland, Ore., hired on with Senior Services in July 1980 as assistant to Olen Monroe, the agency's first director. Following Monroe's death in April 1985, and acting on the recommendation of their senior adivsory council, county commissioners promoted Gadway from acting director to full-time director of one of the county's largest departments.

His association with Senior Services began all those years ago because he needed a job.

Gadway and his wife, Diane, moved to the White Salmon area in 1975, "basically to get out of Portland and into the country, but without any idea of how we were going to support ourselves."

When he learned Senior Services was looking for an assistant director to oversee the west-end office, Gadway applied for the position--and got it.

"When I look back, I was just a kid when I started here," he said.

So, too, was the department he took charge of--created in 1974 by Klickitat County. By the time Gadway joined the staff, Senior Services had a $300,000 annual budget and provided such core services as transportation, information and assistance, nutrition and in-home care.

Today Senior Services has a budget of $1.8 million and 50 employees, 32 of whom are considered full time, spread over five programs.

"In-home services is an area where we have seen a lot of growth," Gadway noted. "The norm has become to allow people to stay in their own homes. When the program began the alternative was to put people in nursing homes, because there was limited in-home care going on."

Gadway described Senior Services' mission as one of "getting the seniors out of the rocking chair and off the porch, and active in the community." By providing programs and activities that keep seniors engaged, he added, the department has been "successful" in meeting its mission.

"The vision was there when I took over. We've expanded on it some and made it work for the best interests of Klickitat County seniors," Gadway said. "The agency has adapted to a new generation of seniors where nobody thinks about sitting in the rocking chair and waiting out their time."

West-end seniors certainly embody the spirit of the new generation. Gadway said it was through their persistent efforts that they got the west-end senior center they had always wanted.

When Klickitat County's Pioneer Center opened in October 2005, Senior Services occupied more than 4,000 square feet of the building's first floor; nobody cried over the loss of the decrepit module that had been the agency's west-end office since the late 1980s.

"One of the things I feel I've accomplished is that we have this space in the Pioneer Center that's working very well," Gadway said. "It had been a longstanding goal for west-end seniors and I think it's exceeded expectations. And it works because the staff is real accessible to seniors, yet there's space for the seniors to socialize."

The success of the senior center drive followed by more than a decade Gadway's push to create a countywide transportation system that served all county residents. His vision became a reality in the 1990s when county commissioners authorized the start-up of Mt. Adams Transportation.

"Transportation is half our budget now," Gadway said. "It's a far cry from the early days when we used to run one van out of each office two to three times a week."

Now the award-winning Mt. Adams Transportation runs five days a week, with three to four buses operating daily out of both Goldendale and White Salmon. (Gadway recently received the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Community Transportation Association of the Northwest.)

"I'm proud of the improvements we've made to the transportation system, to where it's now serving the whole community," said Gadway. "I think that's because it's become accepted as part of the community."

Becoming accepted by the public as something necessary is a process Gadway has observed first-hand: Seniors who initially scoffed at the need for Senior Services as a government intrusion into people's private lives who eventually came around to see the value in having such a department.

Gadway's influence in that process can be seen in Senior Services' reach into the communities it serves.

"I feel good about where I'm leaving the department, both in terms of its development and the hands I'm leaving it into," Gadway said. "And I'm real happy with the staff we have on board. They know their jobs, are dedicated and don't need a lot of oversight."

Senior Services' incoming director is Carson resident Sharon Carter. "The county commissioners interviewed three finalists for the position and she definitely stood out among the others," Gadway said.

Carter, who started her new job Monday, will work with Gadway until he takes his final leave on Sept. 28 with no regrets but lots of great memories.

"I'll miss the place and the people, but the time is right," Gadway said. "I want to get a good start on the third stage of my life. I want to do some traveling and play more music than I've been able to. You won't find me sitting in a rocking chair, that's for sure."