Who is Robin Korth and What is "Insights On Aging"

By Ron Beasley

Robin Korth, BA, MSN, was born in Miami, Florida on January 15, 1955. She is the fourth of seven children. Being part of this rough and tumble, very close-knit group gives her a deep love of family and a huge respect for parenting.

"Growing up in my house was like being part of a litter of puppies," says Korth. "There were just so darned many of us."

To this day, she calls her four brothers and sister her best friends, confidants, and champions. One sister died of a chronic illness four years ago. Her father, James E. Korth, owned and operated AAXICO SALES, a pioneer aircraft support and supply company that is still a successful part of the worldwide aviation industry.

"Owning and operating a business was just part of what our family was all about," says Korth. "I have always loved airplanes! Nothing makes my heart soar like watching one of those beautiful machines thunder down a runway and hitting that magical point where the wheels separate from the earth."

Hard work, education, and aiming to always leave things "better than you found them" were the watch words of her youth. Living life to its fullest with laughter, honesty, and commitment were always part of the rambling Korth household set in a then-quiet Miami neighborhood of scrub-pine woods and farmers’ fields of the 1960s and 1970s.

"Heck, I thought everyone lived in a family where you could choose your friend for the day—whichever brother or sister was doing what looked like fun," Korth recalls.

Korth attended Catholic elementary school and an all-girls Catholic high school. "I have always been a student and a scholar. It just comes naturally to me. I love to learn. My brothers and sisters finally took me out of the ‘report-card grade’ contest at home because I always got A’s. They said it wasn’t fair!" Korth also studied music and has played the piano from the time she was six years old.

Graduating from high school in 1972, she went on to attend what was then Webster College in St. Louis as a music major, concentrating on classical compositions. The regimen of two-hour-a-day sessions in a small practice room soon caused her to change her studies to English and history.

"I have always loved the English language," says Korth. "I delight in its rhythms, nuances and power to convey information, thoughts, and feelings."

Korth discovered her love of printing, publishing, writing and editing during a summer job with a small pictorial history book publisher, E. A. Seemann Publishing in 1973. She began as a type-setter. "This still makes me laugh! I never learned to type by any method. I cannot type fast, but, boy did I learn to become accurate." Eventually Korth was designing photo book pages and doing the paste-up and layout copy boards to go to camera for printing.

"I loved that summer job so much— creating the pages that would become a book, the pounding of printing presses making the floor vibrate and big binding lines moving books through a building—that I never returned to St. Louis. I finally did get my BA in English with a history minor from Florida International University years later in 1989."

When the publishing company closed in 1978, Korth merged her passion for printing and knowledge of the aviation industry to create The Korth Company. This company specialized in advertising and marketing for the aircraft support industry in Miami.

As the creative force behind this company, Korth began writing ad copy, designing corporate brochures, and writing business profile articles for aviation companies. She also edited, produced and published three books for private authors during this time. Between 1979 and 1984, Korth saw this small business become a successful aviation marketing concern with more than 40 steady clients.

Korth sold the company in 1984 and moved to New York with her husband. From 1984 to 1988, she sold real estate in Manhattan and concentrated on the early years of her first-born daughter.

"Living in New York was one of the greatest experiences of my life," she says. "I was terrified of big-city living before we got there. Then I came to love the endless variety and wonderful mélange that the city offers."

In 1985 Korth experienced the loss of her second daughter at the age of one month. "You never imagine that you are going to lose a child. That kind of thing happens to other people. What should have been a period of joy and welcoming of a new life became a time of grief and anguish. I had to confront the ‘why me?’ question. Time does heal, but that little girl still greets me on quiet evenings. She is a still and gentle part of who I am."

Korth returned to Miami in 1989. Shortly after the birth of her son in 1994, Korth turned her attention to getting a Masters degree in nursing. "My son was delivered by a nurse-midwife. It was a remarkable experience. The health-wellness paradigm that nursing as a discipline embraces spoke to me. As I have always been a scholar, I was eager to go back to the books and embrace a new knowledge base."

At the University of Miami School of Nursing, Korth saw the research and always- expanding science of nursing as just another challenge. Choosing a research-based program that concentrated on the health and wellness of the aging adult, Korth received her MSN in nursing after four years of intense study and training in 1999.

"Even then, I realized that we are an aging population and that ‘persons of age’ would play an integral part in the future," says Korth. The period from 2000 to 2006 was a time of struggle and change for Korth. "I realized that my marriage had been in terrible shape for years and I had just been ignoring the problem. I was terrified to look at it and terrified not to look at it." This was a time of huge challenges for Korth — emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

"I was 45 years old and realized that I had hit a wall. I had no clue who I was, what was important to me nor where I was going." There was a lot of work to be done. Korth reached out for help and finally came through the other side. It was a six-year journey of often one step forward and two steps back. In 2006, with a divorce pending, Korth joined a group of 13 community-based newspapers in Miami as an advertising salesperson. "This felt great and really scary at the same time," she says. "I was back in advertising and there was a printing press thumping just down the hall! I began to get my feet under myself and became comfortable with the selling, creating, and scheduling of ads and articles for clients. Working at the newspapers allowed me to grow; gave me lots of opportunities to create and present interesting ideas for stories and special sections.

"The idea or seed for Insights On Aging was born over the last years as I have moved well into my 50s and have my 60th year in my sights. I don’t feel old. I feel more alive and energetic than ever. I have come through many adventures, sorrows, joys, and defeats. There is some history now. There is also the humility of having failed. And, the inner strength of having picked myself up and moved on.

"I discovered that being more-than-middle-aged is a great place to be! I have no desire to pretend that I am 40-something, to buy into the ‘age is just a number’ blather. I find it sad and empty that so many people seem to want to run from their age; to cover up or fix up; to nip and tuck. Why? Can we not celebrate who we are at every stage of our lives? Should we not be taking care of and treasuring this beautiful creation of life — our bodies and minds?

"Age is so much more than just a number! It is wisdom and joy; self-realization and laughter; a heart-stopping appreciation for life; a looking for the miracles in the mundane events of each day. Insights On Aging is about sharing the adventure with one another; empowering and encouraging us all to be more."