After earning a master’s degree in sociology from Georgia State University at age 70, Annemarie Eaton began writing books on aging. Her advice must be golden, as Mrs. Eaton, a former student at Georgia Tech, died April 3 at age 102.
Mrs. Eaton’s central belief was to live a full life, and hers certainly qualified. She was born and raised in Mannheim, Germany, which was the frequent target of bombings during World War I. Her father was called to service, and her mother died during the war.
She married Paul Eaton in 1929. She had earned a bachelor’s degree before the couple, fearing the ascent of the Nazi party, immigrated to the United States with only $200 in their pockets. They settled in Atlanta in 1938.
Then 31, Mrs. Eaton and her husband enrolled in Tech’s evening school to study industrial engineering. She did not graduate before leaving to work for Sears. Later, she worked for J.P. Allen, Lockheed and Rich’s.
In 1948, Paul Eaton joined Tech’s faculty. He went on to be a Fulbright professor in industrial engineering before retiring in 1972. He passed away in 1987.
It was 1968 when Mrs. Eaton began volunteering at a nursing home, which sparked her interest in gerontology. She retired in 1972, though that was only the beginning of her second career as a researcher and writer.
Her minor at Georgia State was in gerontology, the first such degree the school had awarded. Mrs. Eaton then started the nonprofit Life Enrichment Services, providing recreation, nursing care and other services to seniors around Atlanta.
In the late 1980s, the Georgia State Institute on Aging established a scholarship in Mrs. Eaton’s name. In 1999, she was named Distinguished Senior Georgian by the state Senate. She is a Tech Woman of Distinction.
On her 100th birthday, Georgia Tech and Georgia State threw Mrs. Eaton a party to celebrate her as both institutions’ oldest alumna.
Of her life philosophy, Mrs. Eaton said in an interview with the Alumni Association’s Living History program that “you must replace anything you lose with something else.”
“She felt that everyone’s job as a human being was to live, and she lived that philosophy every day,” granddaughter Catherine Neiner told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She felt it was really important that, as people age, they stay intellectually, physically and socially engaged so that they can age gracefully.”
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