Goodman had a crazy quilt of a resume even before donning her chef’s whites at age 60: She spent 18 years organizing special events for the Columbus Recreation and Parks and Development departments, and filling the role of secretary for the German Village, Italian Village and Victorian Village commissions.

She ran the Jewish Dating Service at the Leo Yassenoff Jewish Community Center and the kitchen at the Martin Janis Senior Center. Along the way, she had a job at The Limited and even conducted etiquette seminars for fraternity members and grooms-to-be.

Then there was her volunteer slate: the Columbus Arts Festival; Kobacker House; the Ohio Bicentennial Commission; the Ohio Historical Society; Red, White & Boom and others she has forgotten.

“When I finished the dating service (in 1992), I thought I was finished (working),” she said as she prepped for a recent cooking class. “But I can’t not be doing something.”

Goodman isn’t alone.

Almost 70 percent of the people surveyed last year by Roper ASW said they would work in their retirement years.

Commissioned by AARP, a public-interest group for people 50 and older, the poll also found:

- 34 percent of those ages 45 to 74 plan to work part time, for interest or enjoyment, during “retirement.”
- 19 percent expect to work part time for needed income.
- 10 percent want to go into business for themselves.
- 6 percent hope to work “full time doing something else.”
- 28 percent intend not to work at all.

“America is in the midst of a population sea change,” the survey concluded, “that over the next decade will give rise to a work force that is both older and more ethnically diverse.”

The number of workers 55 and older will swell from 13 percent today to 20 percent by 2015, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.

At the same time, the percentage of workers 25 to 44 is projected to drop.

Perpetual motion

Goodman is an elfin mother of four, including a state senator, as well as a 45-year sidekick to a politically powerful husband and a grandmother of three.

Yet the role of the demure matriarch of a prominent family doesn’t suit her.

“I don’t lunch with the girls,” she said. “I’ve always worked because I wanted an identity of my own. And in this family, if you don’t keep your identity, you get swallowed up.”

Her husband, Victor, is the lawyer and lobbyist for the Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, and former longtime chairman of the Rickenbacker Port Authority.

Their son, David, has represented Bexley in the General Assembly for five years, most recently in the Senate.

The couple, who moved from Bexley to New Albany nine years ago, also has a son in San Francisco (Jeff) and daughters in Atlanta and Bethesda, Md. (Julie and Arlyn).

Growing up, David became Mommy’s little helper.

“I was always hanging around the kitchen,” he said. “That inspired me. I love to cook, and I think I got that from her.”

The siblings never strayed too far from the apron strings: They were readily recruited when Goodman began organizing parties for senior citizens at the Janis center.

“David liked to cook,” she said. “Julie liked to help. Arlyn liked to clean up. And Jeff liked to eat.”

The senator is thrilled that his mother has developed her culinary bent into a golden-years career.

He can’t imagine her as a “retiree.”

“This has really taken off for her, and she has such a good time with it,” he said. “Seeing smiles on people’s faces gives her a real sense of satisfaction.”

That sense fueled her matchmaking for the Jewish Dating Service.

“That’s when I made my place in heaven,” Goodman said with a laugh. “But I like putting people together. When they need help, I can hook them up. I’m a facilitator. It’s genetic.”

The etiquette class for collegians gave her the warm and fuzzies, too: She dished out to the frat boys the finer points of dressing up, interviewing for a job and ordering at a restaurant.

“Now that was fun,” she said.

“They were so accepting. And it gives you a wonderful perspective on younger people.”

Gratifying role

On the sidelines, watching his wife assemble a frittata before the packed Lazarus kitchen, Victor Goodman played the role of dutiful husband - proud and - supportive.

Any plan to hang up her uniform and “retire” would be news to him.

“Oh, from time to time, she’ll complain, ‘Why am I doing this?’ “he said. “But it’s the satisfaction she gets from doing this.

“Just look at her!”