In My Third Act: Denise St Pierre on Finding the Sweet Spot in her Third Act

In this edition of In My Third Act, Denise St. Pierre speaks with Jen Nielsen about her ambitious ride along the East Coast Greenway to highlight the power of community and climate action. A lifelong athlete and longtime Penn State golf coach, she’s turning her retirement into a chance to connect people across states and invite more of them into the growing Third Act movement.

You may have already seen Denise St Pierre on Third Act Pennsylvania’s news page. She’s the one demonstrating that the way to enter retirement is to cycle up the East Coast Greenway and draw attention to just how much enjoying nature – and fighting to protect it – is vital to our humanity.

OK, maybe we can’t all start our retirement that way. But we can all cheer her on and many of us can be lucky enough to meet her along the way. Indeed, one of her goals – like that of the Greenway – is to connect people. And that includes those of us already involved with Third Act with those who share our aspirations but haven’t yet discovered our movement.

Linking the Greenway and Third Act is a stroke of brilliance. Consider the vision of the team that has devoted 35 years to building and strengthening the Greenway: “…[A] national connected, locally rooted trail system linking 15 states and more than 450 communities [that] strengthens local economies and transforms daily mobility and outdoor recreation by promoting healthy, sustainable transportation and deeper connections to community and nature…” That sure sounds like a Third Act goal.

Denise has been an athlete all her life, as has her younger sister Barb, who will be riding with her. Although both her parents nurtured and shaped her, it was dad who drew her into all things sports. As the fourth of five girls in a family with no boys, she was the one who decided to follow in his footsteps, falling in love with golf and eventually playing it in college, like he did. Unlike him, she made golf her lifetime career, eventually becoming a beloved coach at Penn State.Growing up around the passage of Title IX, the Congressional legislation of yesteryear that guaranteed girls equal access to all the athletic and academic opportunities afforded to boys, Denise joined every sports team she could find. She remains deeply grateful for the privilege and good fortune to enjoy so many opportunities and develop her skills.

With so many siblings pursuing different extracurricular activities, Denise discovered the freedom that her bicycle gave her. As fearless back then as she is now, she would ride her bike 15 miles one way to get to the golf course for practice. “Now I look back and think, wow, that was kind of dangerous! But you didn’t really think that way back then. I was [also] that kid who struck out on my own and just did it. And then I asked for permission.”

She adds, “I don’t think anyone who knew me in grade school or high school would be surprised by who I am now or by this ride.”

When Denise started visiting colleges, Penn State was the first and last stop. She took one look at the campus they call “Happy Valley,” fell head over heels, and canceled the rest of the trips. And although she did leave for two years after graduating, she was soon drawn back to an assistant coaching position and has been there ever since. “I feel so blessed to have been able to do a job that was really a passion of mine all growing up. We call it the sweet spot.” 

The Penn State website makes it clear the feeling was mutual. The announcement of her retirement hails her “legendary career” and notes that the students she mentored earned academic as well as athletic distinctions.

To be clear, coaching collegiate golf is not all triumph and glory. It is an all-consuming commitment, entailing identifying the tournaments that will help the team advance, planning the logistics of equipment, supplies, travel and lodging, chaperoning and encouraging the team through it all, managing a budget, spending many hours counseling students on challenges often only tangentially related to golf, and recruiting new players to replace those graduating. “You’re like the CEO of your little company, which is the team.” 

And don’t assume she fully retired. “Once you’ve coached, I don’t think it ever leaves your blood,” she admits. She still teaches and advises aspiring golfers, including both adults in the community and high school athletes.

Her passion for golf leads back to her Cycle-Hope project. “Being outdoors has been a huge part of my life for so long, so anything that’s happening right now with our planet is meaningful to me.” She followed the great advice of a friend who exhorted her not to say yes to anything for the first year of her (official) retirement. Then one day, searching for an activist community, she stumbled on Third Act. 

Another eureka moment. 

“This is it; these are my people!” she realized. She attended some meetings and got even more excited. “I told my partner, Julie, ‘These people are organized. This isn’t a volunteer organization where people are sitting on their hands. These people have already done it, and now they’re out there doing it again in another life chapter.”

She adds another reason she loves working with Third Actors: “They’re great coaches!” 

Once you’ve coached, I don’t think it ever leaves your blood.

While her home working group is Pennsylvania, where her idea of promoting awareness of Third Act on her bike adventure was immediately embraced, she is reaching out to all the other working groups along her itinerary: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. 

The bike ride is a personal challenge for Denise and Barb, but it’s also the work of an activist. “I feel that if we can continue to build community around the things we feel are important, that’s what is really going to move the needle. And we need to hear from each other, even people who might not be exactly on the same page, because that’s good too. We’re not going to learn anything and we’re not going to come to the middle ground until we cross the bridges.” 

She continues, “I think people want to be involved, I think they want to feel that they are making a difference. I think the hurdle is, they just don’t know how.”

Denise is studying hard, attending all the Third Act meetings she can until the journey starts on April 10, so that she can bring good suggestions to whomever she and her sister meet along the way. 

Jennifer Nielsen

Jennifer Nielsen is a member of the Third Act NJ Coordinating and Communications Committees. Her career in the prevention and treatment of malnutrition among the world’s most vulnerable mothers and children was unceremoniously ended with the DOGE-led dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, but she’s grateful now to be devoting her passions full time to climate and democracy activism.