The Stories of Workers in Their 80s Who Died on the Job | Invesloan.com

Ralph Scott was walking to his office at East Carolina University when he fell. He was shaken, and a groundsman helped him up. He had scrapes on his knee and elbow, but no obvious head injury. The next morning, he felt stiff and achy. His headaches worsened over the next few days.

Ralph drove himself to the hospital, where his condition slowly worsened. He died two weeks after his fall. Doctors said he had congestive heart failure, blood clots, and various hemorrhages and hematomas. He was 80.

Before the fall in 2022, Ralph had seemed healthy and full of energy, his wife, Nancy, recalled. The couple, who married in 1988, spent their free time on wine tours, obsessing over maps, and relaxing. He had long-term cardiac problems and a pacemaker, but he kept his diet in check and often walked five miles a day.

“He was a wonderful and interesting man,” Nancy said. “The only problem he had was that he had so many interests he couldn’t do everything he wanted to do.”

Ralph enjoyed taking strolls with his camera, playing the double bass, and digging into a research project on World War II. He had just celebrated 52 years at the university, where he had long worked as a rare books curator.

“Ralph was doing what he loved,” Nancy said. “If he were still here today and was healthy, I’m sure he would still be going over to his office every day.”

Nearly three years after his death, and after a complicated legal process, Nancy said she received a payout of workers’ compensation. An OSHA filing after his death revealed ECU was initially fined $8,000. ECU did not respond to a request for comment.

While workplace fatalities overall have declined over the last decade, the share of those involving older workers has increased. Safety and management researchers said this could be because Americans are working later in life, while the workforce is also aging. Within a decade, the US’s over-65 population is expected to be larger than the under-18 cohort.

Business Insider has spent the past year reporting on the experiences of Americans over the age of 80 who work. Census Bureau data show that there are about 550,000 of them in the US. We spoke to nearly 200 and heard stories of financial regret, work passions, and desires to stay active. For this story, Business Insider spoke with a dozen family members, friends, and colleagues of eight workers over 80 who died doing what they loved — or trying to pay the bills.

Reported workplace fatalities are rare for those over 80. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has records of 67 workers in that age group who have died since 2020 from an injury or illness traced to their workplace. In the previous decade, OSHA reported 40. The OSHA database includes only fatalities that were reported within 30 days of the incident, but it does not track incidents that occurred en route to work or happened at a workplace and are not linked to hazards.

Expanding the age range shows that in 2003, 9.4% of those who died at work were 65 or older; two decades later, the share rose to 14.3%, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows.

The CDC notes that older workers are less likely to be injured compared to younger workers, but older workers’ injuries tend to be more severe.

Most families of deceased workers told Business Insider that age wasn’t necessarily the main factor. Still, with age, the stakes of an injury — particularly from falls — are often higher, and injuries are more likely to occur to those with physically active jobs.

Geoffrey Hoffman, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing who studies injury among older adults, said he doesn’t want slip-and-fall stats to discourage older folks from working.

“You do want people still to be active when they’re older and do the things they love doing,” Hoffman said. “If the only goal is to prevent falls, you might have people getting out of sort of independence-enhancing or quality of life-enhancing activities.”

Work-related deaths are on the rise for America’s oldest workers

Shawn Galloway, CEO of the safety consulting firm ProAct Safety, works with companies to prevent employee harm. He said there hasn’t been enough done to address workplace fatalities, especially among older workers.

Galloway said older workers may be more susceptible to injury from repetitive tasks, such as lifting or driving, or fall victim to the “success trap,” in which someone working for 60 years without an injury mistakenly thinks they are safe.

“We have been calling out the need for a focus on serious injury and fatality prevention for over a decade. Yet, if you look at the overall fatality rates on the job in America, they flatlined, and in some years, have actually gone up,” Galloway said. He said it’s concerning that more organizations haven’t embraced possible solutions, such as retraining leadership to oversee workforce safety measures.

Construction, maintenance, and medicine were common fields for the 67 workers in their 80s and 90s whose job-related deaths have been reported to OSHA since 2020. The incidents often resulted in employer fines of a few thousand dollars. Many died from falls — from ladders, stairs, or a loading dock — or after slipping on black ice. In some cases, injuries were made worse by other health conditions. Eleven were struck by vehicles, including trucks and forklifts.

Some deaths were particularly gruesome. One 87-year-old man in Colorado was killed in a trench wall collapse. An 86-year-old woman in Tennessee was crushed by a dolly at a transportation company. An 86-year-old man in Texas died from blunt trauma when he was pinned between a rack and an oven door. An 84-year-old in Florida was ejected from and run over by a bulldozer. An 81-year-old man in Florida was stabbed at a front desk while working as a security guard.

In January 2024, 80-year-old Richard “Dickie” Gadbois died after his ATV fell through ice in Minnesota while he was checking conditions for the safety of lakegoers. He couldn’t climb back onto the surface and drowned. Gadbois owned and operated a year-round fishing business for over 40 years, his obituary reads. He led ice fishing trips throughout his life and owned a sewer business, a fencing company, and a resort.

His friend Karina Johnson, who runs the nonprofit Wheel House Warriors for owners of houses on wheels, told Business Insider that she founded the nonprofit because she wanted to help business owners like Gadbois, as well as veterans, active military members, and first responders.

“Since his passing, I have struggled emotionally to keep going,” Johnson said, adding that ice conditions have also been riskier than in previous years, slowing down business.

Johnson said Gadbois “was like a papa” to her children and carried photos of them in his wallet. She hopes he is remembered for his selfless acts — he did not have much, but he would give whatever he had.

“He was a funny guy, and his laugh reminded me of Santa Claus, just jolly with a giggle,” Johnson said, adding that she hasn’t been on the ice since his death.

The wrong place at the wrong time

Jack Hohwald, who was 85 when he died, worked as a bus driver for the Maple Shade School District in New Jersey for 23 years.

In January 2025, Hohwald was fatally struck by another bus driver backing into a parking space. The school district canceled classes, and students honored his life with signs and bouquets.

His daughter, Diane Gumpper, 59, said Hohwald was a hard worker and lived a healthy lifestyle until his death. She said he kept working because it made him feel fulfilled to give back to the community, adding that he “didn’t want to die in his rocking chair.” She said that a few lawyers have rejected the case.

“He was a little kid at heart,” Gumpper said, adding that her father had stuffed animals in his bus. “He always had a smile on his face.”

Jay Renwick, 55, has many memories from Hohwald’s three decades working for the local police department and planning Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies with him.

“He was very well-liked by all the students, and everybody knew him as Mr. Jack,” Renwick said. “My kids knew him. He didn’t have to work. He just wanted to.”

“It was a very tragic way to die,” Renwick added.

Natalie Schwatka is an associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health and has researched the Total Worker Health approach, which was developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It encourages employers to think more holistically about why injuries occur instead of blaming the worker or focusing on a Band-Aid-like solution to the most immediate cause, she said. Prevention efforts should also encompass mental health and compensation, and consider risk factors like cardiovascular disease and sleep disorders that don’t arise from work but are affected by it.

Some examples might include posting traffic guards on job sites that employ drivers or conducting ergonomic assessments at factories to redesign workstations.

Thurmon Lockhart, a professor of biomedical engineering at Arizona State University, developed the Slip Simulator, in which people are trained to walk on a slippery surface and fall while wearing a harness, which allows them to experience realistic tumbles and react safely to them. He also created a monitor that assesses gait and posture stability.

Lockhart said there is much to be done to protect older adults; most safety data is based on younger workers. Companies can provide appropriate training for individuals with impairments, he said. They can implement flexible scheduling, job assignments tailored to physical abilities, and other adjustments based on each worker’s unique circumstances.

A June report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2003 and 2023, the rate of deaths from falls in and out of work rose by over 75% among people aged 75 to 84 and more than doubled for those aged 85 and older. Some researchers suspect that this is partly due to improved ability to pinpoint the cause of a death or serious injury. People living longer and leading more independent lives could be driving the rate up.

Regardless, the University of Michigan’s Hoffman said this uptick comes despite federal and state-level campaigns to raise awareness and education about fall prevention. He said some companies have started to integrate physical and occupational therapy into workflows or provide more benefits to those seeking health resources.

Managing, three years later

Three years later, Nancy Scott is still processing what had happened after her husband, Ralph, died.

She spent the first year grieving the loss of her husband. Then came the legal fight to prove she was eligible for Ralph’s workers’ compensation.

“It prolonged the grieving process considerably, and I sometimes look at it and wonder whether the value of the suit was worth it,” Nancy said. “Ralph was a rabble-rouser. He would have been pleased to sue them.”

Jonathan Dembo, 77, who was previously ECU’s head of manuscripts and archives, worked with Ralph for 22 years and considered him his “closest friend in the department.” He said they would often walk across campus and have lunch together. Outside of his job, Ralph helped dozens of faculty members who were embroiled in internal university disputes.

“He was a very gregarious, friendly, and outgoing person. He knew everybody on campus and knew their histories,” Dembo said.

Ralph was also not afraid to showcase his vibrant personality, Dembo said. He loved to “make fun of himself” at Christmas parties, wearing a hat with antlers and displaying a Big Mouth Billy Bass plaque that sang Christmas carols. He wore bow ties and said they made people more approachable — though Nancy had to tie them.

“I told him we were both lifers, that one day, they would find us slumped over our desk the next morning, or the housekeeper would find us at our desks dead in the middle of the night, and we would get hauled out on gurneys,” Dembo said.

At 74, Nancy said she’s tired of taking care of the house alone, so she plans to move into a retirement community. She’s still active in her church and has friends nearby, but she said she’s “too darned old to deal with some of the basics.”

“We spent so much time together that in some ways, I’m still not adjusted to the idea that he is gone,” Nancy said.