by Keith Gamboa

It’s obvious that the concept of an easy-going, “kick back and smell the roses” type of retirement and how Eric Lange likes to spend his time are really not very similar—in fact, just the opposite.

Eric, who lives at Henry Ford Village,  has found a way not just to keep busy, but actually works longer hours than many “full-time” folks in the world beyond the community.

For the past eight years, Eric has been working more than 40 hours a week at ASC, Inc. (American Specialty Cars). Located just a few minutes drive from the campus, ASC does subcontracted engineering and design work for a host of leading automobile manufactures, including Daimler Chrysler, Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi.

Eric’s current assignment is with ASC’s manufacturing division, working with advanced Computer Aided Design software to engineer tools to assemble the next generation of convertible tops for Mitsubishi.

Why work so hard? Besides simply wanting to put his wide experience to work, Eric is also motivated by something his wife, Billie, says: “Retirement is half the income and twice the husband. And I don’t know which is worse.”

No wonder Eric jokes, “She sent me back to work.”

A car guy all his life

Eric and cars began their longtime relationship when he enrolled in the General Motors Institute (GMI) fresh out of high school. After a stint in the Air Force during WWII, he finished up at GMI, worked for awhile at GM, than settled in at Ford for a long —and very productive—run.

Starting as a mechanical engineer and working his way up to executive engineer at Ford’s body engineering group, Eric’s skills took him to Australia for eight years at Ford Australia and to England for two years, with a one-year academic break at MIT earning a company-sponsored master’s degree in industrial management.