They’ve lived in a retirement community for the past decade, but George and Marilyn Barlow are too busy to be bored. The couple from Tiffin, Ohio, moved into Friendship Village of Dublin in 1998. Since then they’ve been among the most-active members of the 300-resident community. George Barlow, 82, a retired biology professor, often organizes field trips and gives lectures to fellow residents. His wife, Marilyn, 79, takes lines-dancing classes and serves on a number of retirement community committees.

George and Marilyn also are a two-team welcome wagon, often having dinner with new residents.

“It’s stimulating,” Marilyn said. “It makes you physically and mentally healthier to keep thinking about things and planning and figuring out ways of doing things.”

The Barlows’ proactive lifestyle typifies many people who move into retirement communities while they’re still healthy. As more baby boomers enter their retirement years, more people like the Barlows will be moving to these communities, often in new cities where their children live.

The Barlows spent 35 years in Tiffin, raising two daughters. They retired from teaching jobs in July 1987. George is a professor emeritus of biology at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, and Marilyn earned a master’s in elementary education from Bowling Green State University. She then taught first grade for 21 years.

As the Barlows grew older and their two daughters, Debbie and Suzy, moved away from Tiffin to start their own families, the Barlows’ familiar surroundings changed. Good friends and colleagues moved away to be near their children. Friends their age passed away, leaving behind loved ones. George’s sister got Alzheimer’s, and he witnessed the difficulties her family had to go through to care for her.

“We got to thinking, ‘Gee whiz, that could happen to anybody,’ ” Marilyn said. “What do you do if that happens? How do you manage?”

During trips to the Columbus area to visit daughter Suzy, who lives in Hilliard with her husband and four children, the Barlows decided to relocate.

They sought out a retirement community because it gave them the ability to live independently in an apartment with around-the-clock, available nursing care. Plus, if they were no longer able to live on their own, they could move into an assisted-living residence.

“The advantage is that we’ve decided where we want to live and our two daughters won’t be saddled with our expenses,” Marilyn said. “They also don’t have to say, ‘Oh glory, now she’s had a stroke, what are we going to do?’ ”

The Barlows selected Friendship Village after visiting four other communities.

“Some people thought we were crazy to move,” George said. “Others said, ‘Good for you.’ We moved there because it was the best place for us to be.”

Five years later they downsized into a cozy 800-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment. They converted a half-bath into a study where the couple now stores a computer, printer and scanner. George used the workspace to co-author a book about the teaching of natural sciences at Heidelburg College with Ronald L. Stuckey, a professor emeritus of botany at the Ohio State University. George gathered information and photographs, and laid out the pages on his computer, using skills he learned in a computer class offered at the retirement community. “Teaching the Natural Sciences at Heidelberg College: 150 Years of Biology and Geology” was published in 2005.

The couple now is working on their memoirs to pass on to their six grandchildren.

“We’ve been very happy here,” Marilyn said.

“It’s home,” George said.

George is resident director on the executive council at Friendship Village. Marilyn is on the community’s health committee. She spearheaded a project to assemble important information about residents in envelopes that could be stored in a similar room location. The packets can be quickly found by emergency personnel.

“I guess that’s part of being proactive,” George said. “You have a different way of putting things into perspective. Retirement communities aren’t for everybody. But we’ve always been the kind of people to ask, ‘What if?’ ”