Back to school.

• Author: Rock, Robert H.
• Position: LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN - Kristie, Jim

As JIM KRISTIE trumpeted in his April 11 blog posting (http://jameskristie.blogspot.com), I recently turned 60, "one of those seminal birthdays--the big 6-0." My wife Caro threw me a wonderful party where I was duly roasted for too much weight and too little hair. From my contemporaries I kept hearing that 60 was the new 50; with one friend referencing how the U.S. Senate now works, namely, where once it took 50 votes to get legislation passed, now it takes 60.

Nevertheless, the birthday cards I got typically showed an old dog trying to remember where he had buried his bone. Of course I got some sexist jokes, including "Can a 60-year-old man have a 30-year-old body?" (The answer is, "How much is he willing to pay her?") After all the toasts and roasts I was left with the feeling that though I don't feel old, perhaps I'm fooling myself.

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As publisher of Directors & Boards I always try to keep up-to-date on business issues; after all, we consider ourselves thought leaders in corporate governance, Jim, who has edited Directors & Boards for 30 years, has diligently worked to try to keep me current. In his blog post, Jim reminded me that my first "Publisher's Letter," in the Summer 1988 edition, had encouraged "aggressive investments in the corporation's human resources ... to marshal the best-trained and most highly motivated people, from the factory floor to the boardroom." Upon rereading my Letter, I asked myself whether I had been making sufficient investment in my own continuing education.

After graduating from Harvard in 1972, I had headed across the Charles River to Harvard Business...