Flex Your Brain and Exercise
Your Curiosity with
Vistas Lifelong Learning
Santa Barbara Continuing Education Program
Offers Wide Variety of Courses, from Civil Rights to Pirates
By Callie Fausey | August 24, 2023
Find the rest of our 2023 Active Aging Guide here.
In a Tennessean accent he thought he’d lost but that came through the phone clear as day, Robert Benham explained how he “stumbled” upon Santa Barbara. Benham, president of Vistas Lifelong Learning, toured a property with his wife right above the Santa Barbara Bowl and “accidentally” bought the house.
“That is not characteristic of me, because I’ve got two vehicles — one’s 19 years old and the other’s 22 years old — so I don’t make decisions in a hurry,” he said. “But when I walked out on the deck, I just turned to my wife and said, ‘This is where I want to spend the rest of my life.’ ”
Soon after moving to Santa Barbara, Benham discovered Vistas, a continuing education nonprofit now celebrating its 24th year. Benham, like a majority of its 350-plus members, is a retiree. The program, he explained, is designed for those who want to continue seeking knowledge and learning new things in their later years. It’s self-governing, peer-led, and one of the few unaffiliated lifelong learning organizations in the United States.
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