At 80, Mary Gottschalk is vibrant, energetic, and unapologetically engaged with the world around her — traits that make her seem decades younger than her chronological age.
She lives at Wesley on Grand, WesleyLife’s flagship community for healthy living in Des Moines, where she continues to explore new ideas, build new connections, and inspire others to pursue their joy. Recently, Mary was honored as the 2025 “Women Helping Women” award winner by the Des Moines-based Mind & Spirit Counseling Center, recognized for her meaningful impact on the lives of others.
Her journey has been anything but conventional. As Mary puts it, "People who age well are generally people who have also lived well.” And she certainly has.
Over a career that spanned three continents and nearly three decades in the financial markets, Mary worked with major corporations in New York, New Zealand, Australia, Central America, and Europe. But her life took a dramatic and soul-shifting turn when she and her first husband left their corporate lives behind to sail around the world—a multi-year voyage she chronicled in her memoir Sailing Down the Moonbeam.
“I was always looking for something new,” Mary says. “We were doing well in New York but working far too hard to enjoy our success. We wanted to travel before we were too old to enjoy it. Buying the sailboat was the best decision we ever made.”
The experience, she says, was transformative. “In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the odds of a serious accident are very small, but if something does go wrong, the odds of rescue are even smaller,” Mary says. “It made me realize how fragile life is. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing things that mattered to me as well as to other people.”
It’s a philosophy that’s shaped her life ever since.
"Not something to fight against"
Mary moved to Wesley on Grand in July 2021, shortly before the health of her second husband, Kent Zimmerman, began to decline. ("The first husband was a 'practice' husband," she explains with a laugh. "Kent was the real deal.") Kent passed away earlier this year, and Mary is adjusting to her changed life. Even in grief, though, she remains resolute.
"I guess I see aging as not as something to fight against, but as a time to focus on what truly matters," Mary says. "I track that back to the time after I came back from sailing. I stopped wasting energy, and I focused on what I thought could contribute to the well-being of the world.”
That focus has continued through her writing. In addition to her memoir, Mary authored a novel, A Fitting Place, and has contributed to numerous other books, anthologies and publications. Her third act — as an author, speaker, storyteller and storytelling facilitator, and community leader — arguably has been her most impactful.
“I think people assume that going out and doing things is what 'healthy aging' is about, but I'm more inclined to say it's more about curiosity," Mary says. "I’m curious about almost anything—glass exhibits, interstellar art, anything new. And I don't imagine that will change."
At WesleyLife, our vision is to be the most dynamic and inclusive champion to revolutionize the experience of aging — and Mary embodies that revolution. She doesn’t allow age to define her or limit her potential. Instead, she embraces change, challenges assumptions, and continues to grow. She is, in every sense, a model for what it means to age with strength, purpose, and grace.