At 71, Retired Doctor Reinvents Himself as Banana-Skewer Entrepreneur

Source: Fortune — September 20, 2026

At an age when many people are enjoying a quiet retirement, 71-year-old Richard Brown is taking a very different path. The former nuclear medicine physician and university professor has moved from medicine and academia into entrepreneurship, developing a simple product designed to make frozen fruit—particularly bananas—easier to eat.

Brown’s latest venture is called Poka Snack, a skewer-like product designed for freezing and eating fruit. According to Fortune, the idea came from Brown’s own experience with frozen bananas. Existing products, he said, could be difficult to insert into fruit, break easily and sometimes leave splinters behind.

Rather than accepting the problem, Brown decided to try to solve it himself.

He reportedly tested about 40 prototypes before settling on the current design, which uses a semi-helical structure. He is now working with a U.S. manufacturer while preparing the product and its packaging for the market. Earlier in 2026, Brown also launched a Kickstarter campaign for Poka Snack, raising more than 90% of its initial $4,000 goal, according to Fortune.

Brown’s career before entrepreneurship was considerably different. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1980 and spent about two decades in private medical practice. In 2004, he returned to the University of Michigan as a professor and became director of clinical nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.

He formally retired from the university in 2020. But retirement did not last long.

The following week, Brown began a new role at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he became vice chair of clinical operations in the Department of Radiology. After three years there, he joined Covera Health, a health-technology company, where he currently serves as chief health strategy officer.

For Brown, continuing to work is less about money or maintaining a title and more about learning.

“My hobbies tend to be learning something new,” he told Fortune. He also explained his attitude toward retirement, saying, “I think I never want to retire. Why would you do that?”

His entrepreneurial history also predates Poka Snack. During the internet boom of the late 1990s, Brown experimented with several online businesses, including websites connected to college textbooks, hotel bookings and cancer education.

His latest venture has also introduced him to artificial intelligence. Brown told Fortune that he used AI throughout the Poka Snack process, including product development, design, branding, marketing and business planning. He described the experience as similar to being a student again because of the challenge and excitement of learning something unfamiliar.

Brown's story illustrates a changing idea of what retirement can mean. Rather than seeing retirement as the complete end of professional activity, he appears to view it as an opportunity to explore something different.

My View

I find Richard Brown’s story interesting because it shows that age does not necessarily have to determine when a person stops learning, creating or experimenting. His journey from medicine and academia to a small consumer-product business is unusual, but the broader lesson is straightforward: curiosity can continue long after a traditional career has ended.

What stands out most to me is not the banana-skewer product itself, but Brown’s willingness to become a beginner again. After decades of professional experience, he was prepared to test prototypes, learn new technology and enter an unfamiliar market.

His approach also offers an important perspective on retirement. For some people, retirement may mean completely stepping away from work. For others, it may mean having the freedom to pursue projects they find interesting. Brown clearly belongs to the latter group.

His experience is a reminder that starting something new does not necessarily have an age limit. Sometimes, the next chapter of a career can begin precisely when the previous one ends.