The founders of Austin Groups for the Elderly, Bert Kruger Smith and Willie Kocurek, illustrate how a few pivotal persons and events in our lives can propel us toward good works.

Bert Kruger Smith is a remarkable woman who has worn many hats, including that of author, educator, and consultant on aging. She worked for over 50 years with the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, published books on mental health issues affecting children and the elderly, respectively, and raised her own family while creating Austin Groups for the Elderly. Her serenity and compassion have guided all of her projects from the beginning. 

Willie Kocurek, the epitome of vital aging and good humor himself, endured the distraction of becoming a successful businessman and family man before fulfilling his lifelong dream of attending law school, in his sixties. Mr. Kocurek practiced law for over twenty years. Mr. Kocurek, whom some describe as the sparkle beneath Austin Groups for the Elderly, collaborated and co-founded the organization with Bert Kruger Smith.

The goal was to provide a one-stop information center for older people and caretakers, a holistic center where people could go to find out what type of help was available to them. Also, for agencies doing good work for the elderly (but perhaps lacking many funds), the Austin Groups for the Elderly founders wished to provide shared resources and ideas. The building now offers support and office space for over 20 not-for-profit groups addressing senior and social issues.

The original building structure of the Austin Groups for the Elderly was born to address a group of seniors’ needs: women of the Confederacy. The building became the Confederate Woman’s Home. Dedicated in 1908, the building was built for $10,985. By 1918, the superintendent of the Home added a hospital and an annex onto the original building. In 1964, the last three confederate women moved out of the Home. In local lore, however, the confederate women live on. The building’s tenants claim that ghosts of these women haunt the building.

Regardless of the lore, the Austin Groups for the Elderly building has existed primarily as a lively home. When the building needed new tenants, nurses moved into the site, their new living quarters on Cedar Street when they weren’t working at the Austin State Hospital. Later, in 1975, twenty-four sight impaired and hearing-impaired children moved into a newly renovated version of the facility, costing  $90,100. In 1982, this entire new “Annex” operation was moved to the School for the Blind’s main campus, leaving the Cedar Street building vacant once again.

A very pragmatic, neighborly concern about parking spaces set off this chain of events. Mr. Kocurek remembers that he received a phone call from a woman associated with the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, explaining that the historic building on Cedar Street was for sale. Mr. Kocurek called Bert Kruger Smith. The two talked about uses for the building, about a home for some larger, more ambitious version of their Adult Services Council. So Bert Kruger Smith and Willie Kocurek began a series of early morning breakfast meetings, including early supporters Ed O’Rourke and Jackie LeLong (the founder of Family Eldercare), brainstorming ways to buy the building and move forward with a new kind of elder services, Austin Groups for the Elderly.

“We had no money,” Kocurek observes, “but a lot of power.” Willie Kocurek and Bert Kruger Smith signed a 1.2 million-dollar mortgage on the AGE building. Kocurek remembers it as $400,000 they put down in cash, plus a note for $860,000.  The two were personally responsible for the bank note, and neither had told his or her spouse about the debt.

Because Bert knew foundations, she began calling and writing for funds. Once they had raised all of the funds they were ready to be mortgage free. In court, held at the old courthouse on 9th and Congress Streets, with the remaining payment money in hand, all figures balancing, all systems go, another problem arose. While the building might be available for buying, the actual ownership of the land (known as Lot 17) under the building was in question. The judge finally declared, “No problem,” pounding the gavel. The building, once a home to Confederate women, now belonged to Bert Kruger Smith and Willie Kocurek and their new baby, Austin Groups for the Elderly. The two founders, with a group of about thirty supporters, met on the lawn behind the Austin Groups for the Elderly building and quite ceremoniously set fire to the building’s mortgage.

The building renovation, Bert Kruger Smith says, was formidable, inspiring, and very shirt-sleeves-rolled-up and hands-on. Kocurek claims that the Austin Groups for the Elderly workers were resourceful, scrounging for everything. Even the carpets were cast-offs from a hotel. While the renovation materials may not have been remarkable, the hopeful spirit behind the renovation certainly was remarkable.

What challenges and hopes do these two colorful founders see for senior issues in the future? “In older services,” Mr. Kocurek observes, “the majority of the work is done by older people. To change their way of thinking is not easy.” As far as the Austin Groups for the Elderly organization goes, Mr. Kocurek suggests that, “Somewhere down the road, I would like to see us expand.” He envisions Austin Groups for the Elderly assisting in offering comparable services in other cities.

Ms. Kruger Smith contends that the Cedar Street building itself presents a challenge. Like any aging individual, the aging building requires lots of care, often expensive. Also, the very issue that prompted a Cedar Street neighbor to call Mr. Kocurek, leading him to consider the historic building as a home for Austin Groups for the Elderly remains a problem: limited parking in the neighborhood.

For Bert Kruger Smith and Willie Kocurek, their greatest pride in their savory creation, Austin Groups for the Elderly, comes when they see the elderly faces at Elderhaven, the on-site adult day care facility. The faces of the elderly can be seen as the older people are exercising, making crafts, talking with each other, sharing a meal, and more. All these activities mean that these older folks are brought together, continuing to relate with each other in a space that exhibits the best sense of community and collaboration.  The AGE building, now home to over 20 non profits services all aspects of the Austin Community, would not have been possible without the dedication of Bert Kruger Smith and Willie Kocurek.

Note: Bert Kruger Smith passed away on July 26, 2004.  Austin Groups for the Elderly continues the good work which Ms. Smith’s life, work and spirit embodied.