The baby boomer generation — all 76 million of them — is beginning to reach retirement age.
Many of them will eventually need to move into assisted living facilities.
That’s creating a burgeoning industry to handle those seniors who will need options for places to live and be cared for during the remainder of their years.
Some of the top facilities of their kind already operate in the Puget Sound region, including Merrill Gardens, Emeritus Senior Living and Aegis Living.
Four years ago, those and other businesses partnered with Washington State University to create a Senior Living Management Program.
That program will be taught at WSU North Puget Sound at Everett starting in January.
The goal is to bring in a wave of people with new ideas and fresh energy into the industry, said Bill Pettit, president and chief operating officer at Merrill Gardens.
“As the industry really evolved over that 20-year period, all of us experienced concern about our ability to attract and engage bright, young management talent,” Pettit said.
“As all of the firms grew fairly significantly, we found ourselves rehiring from the same pool of talent.”
Pettit will serve as the executive-in-residence for the program, teaching upper level classes online to students in Everett and other WSU campuses.
Almost two dozen businesses, most with ties to the industry, put up $500,000 to fund the Senior Living Management program.
Pettit and other executives reached out four years ago to WSU, which has one of the top hospitality business management programs in the nation. Nancy Swanger, director of the hospitality program, saw the natural pairing and quickly tailored a program to meet the needs of the industry and the students.
Pettit said he was in awe of how quickly the idea became a reality.
“We went from first conversation in April four years ago to offering the first course that August,” Pettit said. “It was that quick.”
Pettit and other executives have been traveling to Pullman to teach
courses and have raised scholarship funds for students entering into the field.
Meanwhile, WSU this year took over administration of the University Center at Everett Community College. The university this year added electrical engineering, communications and hospitality programs in Everett.
It made sense to start teaching the Senior Living Program in Everett, because it’s so close to many of the top senior living communities in the state, said David Whidbee, interim dean of WSU’s School of Business.
“We elected to put the senior living resources in Everett because of the number of communities on the west side and the opportunities to offer professional development (and) certificate programs,” Whidbee said in an email.
Pettit has seen the industry surge in the past 20 years. He started his career in commercial banking and made a decision to switch careers.
“I woke up one day and decided I didn’t want to be a commercial banker,” Pettit said.
He joined in 1992 the R.D. Merrill Co., a timber company looking to diversify. Pettit helped the company buy its first senior living community in Seattle in 1993.
The company has 26 operating and development communities in four states.
As a career, Pettit said managing senior living communities is attractive.
“It’s always appealed to me a tremendous social responsibility and a great business to build,” Pettit said.
“You don’t often find in a career those kinds of high-touch, high-impact businesses that are attractive financially.”
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