David Bianco

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David Bianco (born July 25, 1939) is the co-founder of Elderhostel, a not-for-profit organization established in the United States in 1975, which offers adults lifelong learning opportunities across North America and throughout the world.

Biography

A former dean of Brandeis University and Boston University and director of residential life at the University of New Hampshire, David Bianco co-founded Elderhostel, Inc. in 1975 with Martin Knowlton.[1]

Elderhostel

In 1975, David Bianco was responsible for the management of the dormitory and dining programs at the University of New Hampshire.[2] Bianco hired Knowlton to run the youth hostel on campus. Seeing Knowlton, a self-described hippie with a white beard, sitting under a sign saying "Youth Hostel", Bianco declared: "This campus ought not to have a youth hostel; it ought to have an elder hostel."[3]

The two devised a program in which people over age 60 could take summer courses while staying on campus in student dormitories. The program started in 1975 with 220 students ages 60 and up on five college campuses in New Hampshire, with the support of Eugene S. Mills, president of the University of New Hampshire and a grant of $7,500 from the Spaulding Potter Charitable Trust.[4] Within five years it had grown to 20,000 students. The program was expanded internationally, to Mexico, Great Britain and Scandinavia in 1981.[5] By 2010 more than 4 million adults had taken Elderhostel programs, and in 2010 the organization changed the name of its programs to Road Scholar.[6]

Post-Elderhostel

After leaving Elderhostel, Bianco joined Knowlton to manage a new organization Knowlton had created, first called Gatekeepers to the Future. It was restructured and renamed the Center for the Study of the Future in the early 1990s. Bianco currently resides in Ventura, California.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Myerov-Brady, Monica. "Elderhostel Pioneer Knowlton Dies", NPR, March 20, 2009. Accessed August 19, 2011.
  2. ↑ Winslow, Rob. "Elderhostel- A Growing Chain", The New York Times, September 9, 1979. Accessed August 21, 2011.
  3. ↑ Spiers, Peter (2005). Elderhostel Odyssey. Boston, MA: Elderhostel, Inc. pp. xii. 
  4. ↑ Spiers, Peter (2005). Elderhostel Odyssey. Boston, MA: Elderhostel, Inc. pp. xiii. 
  5. ↑ Osborne, Lawrence. "Never Too Old to Learn", The New York Times, February 18, 2005. Accessed August 24, 2011.
  6. ↑ Nelson, Valerie J. "Martin P. 'Marty' Knowlton dies at 88; co-founder of Elderhostel", Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2009. Accessed August 25, 2011.
  7. ↑ Grimes, William. "Martin Knowlton, Co-Founder of Elderhostel, Is Dead at 88", The New York Times, March 17, 2009. Accessed August 23, 2011.
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