On behalf of Civic Ventures’ staff and board, I want to express deep sadness over the death of 2009 Purpose Prize winner Henry Liu, who was killed in a car accident on Tuesday. Our condolences go out to Professor Liu’s family and to his colleagues.

It is especially sad to lose an extraordinary person, at the peak of his creative powers, in the midst of making some of his greatest contributions to humanity. As his son Jerry commented recently, his father was working harder today that at any point in his life: “He’s always wanted to change the world. Success to my dad isn’t about making money. It’s about leaving the world a better place.” Teacher, mentor, inventor and social entrepreneur Henry Liu has left the world a better place at many levels and in so many ways.

Marc Freedman, Founder/CEO, Civic Ventures

Editor’s note: This column appeared in BusinessWeek’s special report, “The Case Against Retirement.”

After 25 years of climbing her first ladder at Hewlett-Packard, Gina Cassinelli knew it was time for a change. “All of a sudden, you wake up and you say…I can’t believe I’ve been here 20 or 25 years,” she recalls. “I loved what I did, but I don’t want to do it for 20 more.”

Cassinelli took early retirement, then tried to open a new career door with few guides and little help. “You get to a point in your life where you have to feel like what you’re doing matters,” Cassinelli says. “But how to do it? That’s hard.”

The road used to be much easier. For 50 years, the average fiftysomething American was headed inexorably toward a clear-cut career and life transition: the transition to a leisure-based retirement.

Last week I spent the evening at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, listening to Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter talk about her new book, SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, and field questions from a packed audience.

People who come to Civic Ventures’ events or read about Encore Careers in the media often ask for a way to take the next step. This online course is designed to be that next step, regardless of where you are located.

Together with The New York Times and Washington University in St. Louis, we will host four one-hour sessions aimed at helping individuals interested in Encore Careers go from Then to Now.

“An Introduction to Encore Careers” will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Central Time on Wednesdays from October 7 to 28. You can sign up here. The cost is $125.

Sarah Kershaw of The New York Times called me recently to ask about the impact on the psyche of baby boomers of all the celebrity deaths of the past few months. From Michael Jackson (50) and Farah Fawcett (62), through Patrick Swayze (56) and Mary Travers (of Peter, Paul, and Mary, 72), to icons of our boomer childhoods like Walter Cronkite (92) and Edward M. Kennedy (77) – where have all the flowers gone?

The past year has been one of exceptional progress and growth for Civic Ventures and Encore and we want to express our appreciation for your participation and support.

Encore.org is the place to plug into the movement for work that matters in the second half of life. The growing community that you’re part of will help define a new stage of life and of work, challenging an entire generation to put their time, talent and experience to work for the common good.

Civic Ventures and Encore.org have a full set of activities planned for 2008. But the real key to realizing the enormous potential of our aging society is you. We’ll try to help supply some tools and resources to enable you to work together to realize your ambitions and tackle the big issues facing our communities, our country and the world.