Staff photo / Dan Pompili Jim Henshaw, director of the Austintown Senior Center, stands outside with his prized Leonberger dog, Fluffy, who has become almost an official mascot for the center and is beloved by its members. Henshaw will retire at the end of November, and Austintown Township trustees have posted the position on the township’s website and also have commissioned a consulting firm to analyze the senior center and propose where the township might take it from what Henshaw has built.

AUSTINTOWN — Jim Henshaw says he’s retiring. But he’s done that before. At 84, he hopes this time it might take, but time will tell.

Henshaw has been at the helm of the Austintown Senior Center since it opened in October 2010. It’s only a part-time job, but it’s been good enough to scratch his itch for keeping busy, and by all accounts, he’s been good enough for Austintown.

“I greatly appreciate his long service and dedication to our senior center and our seniors, and we wish him nothing but the best,” said Trustee Rob Santos. “The next individual who takes the position has some pretty big shoes to fill.”

That position has been posted on the township’s website. Trustees said Henshaw informed them of his decision to retire at the July staff meeting.

“Jim has been with us since the very beginning and has played a major role in shaping what we are today,” said Trustee Bruce Shepas. “I’m confident we’ll still be seeing him often as a valued member of our senior center.”

To hear Henshaw tell it, though, he doesn’t expect he’ll be any more valuable than any other member there.

“We’re probably more member-driven,” he said. “That’s the strength of our senior center. The members tell us what they want to do and we do the best we can to make it happen.”

And that they have.

When they began, Henshaw said the center had about 400 members and they’ve now grown to more than 1,400, with more than 500 of those attending and participating regularly, showing up at least twice a month.

They started out with just bingo nights, but the activities available have expanded quickly and broadly since then. They still have bingo, sure. But members sit and play mahjong, and they have a sewing and quilting group. There are musical instruments to learn and play, and a small gym area. And there are always movies to watch — film noir classics and modern hits alike.

“We give them a very good alternative to sitting at home, watching TV, and vegetating into nothingness,” Henshaw said.

On Monday, Henshaw taught a cooking class, making a standard Kosher meal featuring Matzo ball soup with blintzes for dessert. They do vegetarian meals sometimes too. There are shooting classes, yoga classes and on Wednesday there is a ukulele group. There are classes for gardening, tai chi, fencing, painting, woodcarving, and wine making, which has seen great success. Two years ago, the senior center’s wine entry won best in show at the Canfield Fair.

Many members also are on their way to becoming bilingual or even multi-lingual.

“We just finished Spanish and now we’re starting German. I think we also might try French and we have a man who said he can teach us Arabic too,” Henshaw said.

They even have their own official mascots, rather large and hairy ones named Fluffy and Bob, two Leonberger dogs. Think “Saint Bernard meets German Shepherd,” but bigger.

Fluffy, a show dog with multiple state and national awards to his credit — all proudly displayed along a wall in one room — serves as a therapy dog and they make “destressing with Fluffy” a part of the regular calendar of activities. Bob shows up for the Audubon Society meetings, and if he doesn’t, Henshaw has to answer for it, he said.

He and his assistant director Jessica Ricker both raise, care for, and show the dogs, and their successes are always celebrated at the senior center. On Sept. 11, they’ll throw a party for Fluffy’s 11th birthday, complete with a breakfast and cake for humans and dogs.

DUTY AND BOREDOM

Henshaw came into the job not by accident but just on a whim, because he was bored after his last retirement — he’s had a few and they never seem to last long.

He spent most of his career, for 35 to 40 years, in hospital administration, working in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Montana.

He started as the CFO at the former Youngstown Osteopathic hospital by Wick Park, and from there he went to Warren General in Pennsylvania. From Warren, Pa, it was off to Gooding, Idaho, and then he retired after five years.

But boredom took over and so it was on to Superior, Montana, where Henshaw spent another six years. He retired again, and came back to Ohio.

“I’ve retired three times, and it’s never lasted more than a year,” he said. “I got bored silly and had to go back to work again.”

When he returned to Ohio, it was just about the time Austintown’s new senior center needed a part-time director.

“I saw the ad for the senior center and went and got the job, and the rest is history,” he said. “And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that this is all really because of one person, and that was Lisa Oles.”

Former trustee Lisa Oles spearheaded the project and is widely credited with ensuring its completion. Oles died in March after a 12-year battle with cancer.

Henshaw seems to feel a sense of responsibility to make sure her legacy is honored by making the senior center the best it can be, and he said he’s glad he can trust both the staff and the members to help make that a reality.

“I’ve had a great team of employees, so I can’t take total credit,” he said. “They put a lot of work and blood, sweat and tears into getting it where it is today.”

Where it is today is one of eight senior centers in the state of Ohio accredited by the Ohio Association of Senior Centers, and a Senior Center of Excellence affiliated with the National Institute of Senior Centers.

Henshaw credits Ricker with completing all the necessary work to qualify for these honors, but he said the staff all do what needs to be done to make the center the great place it is.

“There’s only me and two full-time staff, but each of us can do the other’s job with great skill and transparency,” he said. “If one’s off, the other can just pick it up.”

The members care for the building, too. Henshaw said one of his exercise groups took it upon themselves to make sure the kitchen is fully cleaned on a weekly basis.

Henshaw said he’s not exactly sure where the senior center will go from here.

“A lot depends upon what direction the trustees want it to go,” he said.

Trustees recently commissioned an outside agency, KL Consultants LLC, to complete an assessment of the senior center and propose possibilities for how it can grow and continue to best serve the community.

But Henshaw said he wants to see it continue to be driven by what the members want and need from it.

Trustee Monica Deavers echoed that sentiment in her praise of Henshaw.

“Jim Henshaw has been an integral part of the Austintown Senior Center. He has consistently listened to members and remained committed to the belief that the center is member-driven,” she said. “We truly appreciate the dedication and hard work Jim has put into helping the Senior Center grow and thrive. We congratulate him on a job well done and wish him all the best in his well-earned retirement.”

As for how long that retirement will last, it’s anyone’s guess. Even Henshaw is not sure.

“I’ll probably get bored after a year and go flip burgers,” he said.