Richard Grace

Richard E. Grace

Faculty Emeritus

Contact Information

Phone: +1 765 49-67384
FAX: +1 765 494 1204
School of Materials Engineering
Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering
701 West Stadium Avenue
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2045

Education

  • B.S. Met. E., 1951, Purdue University
  • Ph.D., 1954, Carnegie-Mellon University

Research Interests

Selected Publications

  • Richard E. Grace Interview (by Katherine Markee), Oral History Program, Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries, pp. 1-28 (video with transcription), 2008
  • R. E. Grace, When Every Day Is Saturday, The Retirement Guide for Boomers, Second, Revised Edition, 140 pp., Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, 2010
  • R. E. Grace (with Connie F. Grace), YouTube – Tour de West Lafayette Mid-Century Modern, pt. 1v2.mov, 2010
  • R. E. Grace, Freshman Engineering at Purdue University: A Memoir, School of Engineering Education, Purdue University, 9 pp., Spring 2011 https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/AboutUs/History/GraceMemoir
  • R. E. Grace, When To Take the Car Keys…and Other Things Caregivers Should Know. 45 pp., Kindle e-book, Amazon.com, 2012
  • R. E. Grace and C. F. Grace, Grace Family Tree 1825-2014, 150 pp., Kindle e-book, Amazon.com 2015
  • R. E. Grace and C. F. Grace, Road to the National Register 40 pp., Kindle e-book, Amazon.com, 2015
  • R. E. Grace and C. F. Grace, Robert J. Smith, Architect, 60 pp., Kindle e-book, Amazon.com, 2016

Research Summary

I have been studying senior caregiving with particular emphasis on caregivers in the workforce.  I have developed the Grace Senior Inventory (GSI) so that caregivers may determine their loved ones’ most immediate needs.  These usually center around transportation, grocery shopping, housework, taking meds, and money handling.  Special topics include when to take the car keys and restrict check writing.

I have studied attitudes about retirement and the accompanying transitions which occur around the time of retirement.  Seven hundred retirees helped me define the Grace Retirement Inventory (GRI).  The inventory explores six domains which determine eventual happiness in retirement:  freedom and leisure, financial independence, separation from work, family and friends, health, and helping others.

In recent years my wife, Connie, and I have added our chapter to our family genealogy. For sixty years we have been the scribes of all family births, deaths and everything in between. In 2015 we published Grace Family Tree 1825-2014.  This Amazon e-book documents the birth of our first great grandchild, Regan Louise Zielke, in 2014.  In 2016 we continued our research into Mid-Century Modern American Architecture.  

We published an archival biography, Robert J. Smith, Architect, the architect who designed twenty residences in West Lafayette, Indiana between 1955 and 1972.