To say that retirees Jane and Ted Settle like to keep busy is a vast understatement.
Ted, whose last job involved doing research and budget analysis for the New Jersey Legislature, and Jane, a longtime high school biology and environmental sciences teacher in Middlesex, are devoted to volunteer work, specifically with the Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook.
“Our pastor’s motto is ‘love local,’” says Ted, who in cooperation with the Branchburg Rotary Club, makes trips to Costco every weekend to collect food for the pantry. Jane has led a Bible study group for working women at the church for over 30 years.
The couple—he’s 84, she’s 80 and they’re celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary in August—met at church at the beginning of summer in 1962 in Berkeley, California, when Ted was in the seminary.
“It was love at first sight for me,” Ted says. “When I proposed at the end of the summer, though, she said she had to think about it.”
Jane laughs, adding, “I was oblivious about all this, but said ‘yes’ the next morning.”
After marrying in Berkeley in 1963, they drove their VW Bug to Chicago, where Ted was enrolled in McCormick Seminary.
They moved to New Jersey in 1971 and bought a home in Bound Brook where they raised their daughter and three sons and continued to live until 2018 when they moved to Laurel Circle, a 28-acre life plan community in nearby Bridgewater. Their two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment has a porch with a balcony where they enjoy the sunsets.
Jane says Laurel Circle was ideal because they knew and had visited several people from the church who lived there.
They quickly immersed themselves in the community, which was established in 1996 and is undergoing an $8-million renovation. They particularly enjoy the communal evening meals in the dining room and the Sunday brunches at the so-called “Church Table,” where they sit with others who worship with them. “I found the stories of the lives of the people at Laurel Circle so amazing that I started an oral history project,” Ted says.
Ted and Jane, who are lifelong travelers and learners, are avid participants in Laurel Circle’s classes. Currently, Ted is taking creative writing and Jane participates in a short-story reading group. In addition, Ted staffs the center’s heirloom shop, which sells what he calls an “amazing assortment” of furnishings donated by residents, for a couple of hours each week.
Perhaps one of Laurel Circle’s greatest assets, Jane says, is its physical therapy department. She recently had knee replacement surgery and was delighted that she could have physical therapy at Laurel Circle instead of staying in an outside rehabilitation center.
The couple says that finding activities outside of work that they enjoy doing together are their key to a successful marriage. In their case, that has included making several trips to Brazil to explore the Amazon after Jane got her certificate in systematic botany from the New York Botanical Garden. They’ve also made trips to Syria, Australia, Costa Rica, the American Southwest and the Middle East.
In addition, they drive to Billings, Montana, to see their daughter and their two grandsons and are getting ready to head to St. Petersburg, Florida, for the wedding of their eldest granddaughter.
To document their travels, they took up photography, a hobby that has more than come in handy for Ted, who is working on a picture book of the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
As Jane’s knee is healing nicely, she’s eager to get back to her regular full-time routine of helping others.
Learn more about Laurel Circle at laurelcirclelcs.com.