Our Mission

AARP was founded in 1958 by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, a retired public-school teacher and principal in California. In 1944, Andrus went to check on a former teacher who was ill and found her living in a chicken coop. It was all the retired teacher could afford on her pension. Before Medicare was enacted in 1965, the United States lacked a national program to provide health insurance to people 65 and older. And mandatory retirement was commonplace, usually at 65.

Shocked by the teacher in the chicken coop, Andrus formed the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) in 1947 to use the collective power of retired teachers to secure affordable group health coverage. After 42 insurance companies turned her down, Andrus persuaded a New York insurance broker to partner with her organization on a pilot program for retired New York teachers. The experiment was a success, and Andrus and the broker established a national version of the insurance plan in 1955.

Three years later, Andrus created the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) as a sister organization to NRTA. With membership in AARP — $2 per household annually — all Americans 55 and older gained access to its insurance benefits. In that same year, 1958, AARP began publishing Modern Maturity, a magazine that challenged stereotypes of older adults and presented aging as an opportunity and older people as a valuable resource.

Today we're known simply as AARP and we invite Americans to join once they turn 50. Our mission remains “empowering people to choose how they live as they age”, through a broad variety of programs, advocacy and media. Members of AARP span four generations and reflect a wide range of attitudes, cultures and lifestyles. Approximately one-third of AARP members work full or part-time, while most of the remainder are retired.