David Bianco (July 25, 1939 – January 11, 2016) was the co-founder of Elderhostel, a

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organization established in the

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in 1975, which offers adults

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opportunities across

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and throughout the world. A former dean of

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and director of residential life at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

, Bianco co-founded Elderhostel, Inc. in 1975 with Martin Knowlton.

Elderhostel

In 1975, Bianco was responsible for the management of the dormitory and dining programs at the University of New Hampshire. Bianco hired Knowlton to run the youth hostel on campus. As Knowlton was a self-described aging

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with a white beard, the idea was born to have instead of a "Youth Hostel", an "Elder Hostel". The two devised a program in which people over age 60 could take summer courses while staying on campus in student dormitories. The program started in 1975 with 220 students ages 60 and up on five college campuses in

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, with the support of

Eugene S. Mills Eugene Sumner Mills (September 13, 1924 – August 18, 2020) was an American academic. He was the thirteenth President of the University of New Hampshire from 1974 to 1979. Mills attended Earlham College and Claremont Graduate University, earnin ...

, president of the University of New Hampshire and a grant of $7,500 from the Spaulding Potter Charitable Trust. Within five years it had grown to 20,000 students. The program was expanded internationally, to

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and

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in 1981. By 2010 more than 4 million adults had taken Elderhostel programs, and in 2010 the organization changed the name of its programs to Road Scholar.

After Elderhostel

After leaving Elderhostel, Bianco joined Knowlton to manage a new organization Knowlton had created, first called Gatekeepers to the Future. It was restructured and renamed the Center for the Study of the Future in the early 1990s. Bianco resided in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. It is a coastal city located northwest of Los Angeles. The population was 110,763 at the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bianco, David 1939 births Adult education leaders Brandeis University faculty Boston University faculty 2016 deaths