Retirement . . .
The possibilities are endless!
After 36 years in radiology, Dr. Harry Agress Jr. discovered something most professionals are never taught: how to build a life after achievement that still feels meaningful, energizing, and fully alive.
Dr. Harry Agress Jr. built a remarkable career as a radiologist, educator, and lecturer at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical Centers. By every traditional measure, he had already achieved extraordinary success.
Then he retired at 68 — and started learning all over again.
Over the next decade, Harry immersed himself in journaling, research, experimentation, and real-life reinvention. What he discovered was simple but powerful: retirement doesn’t have to feel like a slow fade. It can be a season of growth, contribution, joy, and renewed purpose.
Today, Harry speaks and writes about what it really means to create your next best years. He is the author of Next Years Best Years, a practical and encouraging guide filled with ideas, insights, and resources for building a more vibrant life — in retirement and beyond.
Dr. Agress has appeared in over 40 speaking engagements, interviews and articles, including AARP, The New York Times, 92NY, The American Medical Association, Neuberger Berman Private Wealth Management, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and leading podcasts such as Retirement Wisdom, SiriusXM’s The Doctor Channel, Lustre, and Prime Life.
His journey has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and on NBC’s Today Show, and numerous published articles.
What makes Harry different is that he doesn’t speak about retirement as an abstract concept. He speaks from lived experience. He knows what it means to step away from a career, ask big questions, and build a life that still stretches you, fulfills you, and gives something back.
That spirit also shows up in his photography. Harry donates his artwork to healthcare facilities across the country, helping create spaces that feel warmer, more human, and more healing for patients, families, and staff.
If retirement can be 25% of your life, why not make it extraordinary?
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Harry Agress Jr., MD
Following a 36-year medical career in the field of Radiology, Dr. Harry Agress Jr retired at age 68. In the following 10 years of journaling, researching and experimenting he has discovered an entire new life filled with joy, purpose, and fulfillment.
A nationally recognized lecturer and teacher at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical Centers, he is now the author of the new book, “Next Years Best Years: Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level / A Resource for Personal and Emotional Well-Being.” Packed with 100+ engagement ideas and 60 best-practice references, it is a guide to a vibrant and exciting life in general and retirement in particular.
In an encouraging and life-affirming manner, Dr. Agress shows his audiences the full potential of a stage that can become 25% of a lifetime.
His journey has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and on NBC’s Today Show.
With his experience in over 30 interactive speaking and podcast engagements on creating your own best retirement and more than 100 career medical lectures, he takes great joy in helping others embrace what he and others have learned as they evolved after their career days.
Combining his passions for medicine and photography, Dr. Agress donates his artwork (harryagressphotography.com) to healthcare facilities around the country, creating a more welcoming and caring environment for patients, their families and staff.
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