For males the average life expectancy is now 75.1 years and for females, 80.5 years. This means that several of our most important national leaders (President Joe Biden, 78; U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80; and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 79) are past their life expectancies. For most of the rest of us the approach of our eightieth birthday is a time of retreat, not a time for taking on challenging new ventures. Not so for an 80-year-old North Carolina native who recently became the founding dean of a new medical school in the planning stages. The school is a joint venture between Belmont University and Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), both based in Nashville.