Andy Petro, 86, is stopped by neighbors a half-dozen times a day at his senior housing complex in Roseville, California. One neighbor can’t get through his messages. Another can’t adjust the brightness, and one woman wants to learn how to send happy birthday balloons to her grandson through the screen.
“It was like I opened a candy store and all the candy was free,” says Petro, who modestly admits that he solves 90% of the Apple-related problems he encounters.
Just recently, a woman stopped Peter while he was sitting at dinner because she couldn’t get through on the phone. Peter was at her door an hour later. “It just saves them from having to go to the Apple Store,” Petro says. Luck. “Now she can make phone calls. This is cute.”
Although he is known to his family as Andy, to his fellow students at Sonrisa Senior Living he is the savvy Mr. Apple.
In addition to tapping him on the shoulder asking for last-minute help, people take the time to listen to Peter’s technical talks. As president of the senior center’s Apple Club, an organization for people who want to get the most out of their iPhone, Peter conducts one-hour monthly community theater sessions with 20 to 25 neighbors ages 75 to 95. He answers questions. , explains new features or updates and gives tips on how best to communicate (he himself probably has the latest versions). As a longtime technician and educator, he loves helping people feel confident in new forms of communication as they age.
“Since my brain is still working, I applied all my knowledge and became Mr. iPhone,” he says.
After Peter joined the Marine Corps in the late 1950s, he was encouraged to study electronics before being transferred to a base in Japan. After returning from service, he took a job in the airline industry in Southern California. Over the next few decades, between work and startups, he also taught technology and business systems. When the first Apple device came out in the 1970s, he was one of the most eager buyers.
“I fell in love with Apple products when the first one came out,” he says, after purchasing an Apple II Plus computer system. He immediately saw the impact it had on his son, who struggled with dyslexia and struggled in school.
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“A miracle happened,” he says. “Now he could type, and when he typed, he didn’t have the same dyslexic problems that occur when he writes with a pencil in his hand.”
While new technology has impacted his family, it has also motivated him to continue learning and teaching others throughout his career. So teaching at his nursing home was close to his old favorite haunts.
After retiring at the age of 70, Peter and his wife moved to a separate home in a retirement village close to their family. There he met his first Apple Club and joined the board of directors for 15 years. When he got old and moved into a nursing home, he started his own tech club for the residents.
Although some of what he teaches is relatively new, he puts his ego aside and helps his neighbors find an Apple store or the location of their phone carrier when a problem gets out of his wheelhouse.
“When people come to my classes, they get really excited about learning something new and then feel good about it and feel good about themselves,” he says, taking photos and texting family, for example. “This is really something that will allow them to connect with their grandchildren and their children a little better.”
Andy Petro
Petro points out that people underestimate older people and assume they don’t want to hear the latest news. However, he said, many are eager to find ways to make communication easier and use new features, especially for those who may have Parkinson’s disease and need to learn how to use voice recognition, for example, to limit on-screen typing. “Every new version that comes out really has a number of things that are good for people who are 85 or 90 years old,” Petro says.
It doesn’t hurt that Peter will have to interact with countless new faces, since he will likely be stopped dozens of times before his next official class.
“When I came here, I said, ‘Anyone who’s interested in Apple, come see me,'” he says.
If you have personal stories about seniors over 80 sharing their life lessons, finding new hobbies, skills, and empowering aging adults, email [email protected].