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10 Decades of Success

From child prodigies to late bloomers, we highlight 10 individuals who found success at different stages of their lives.

60-Something: Adele Douglass
Born: Dec. 9, 1946

As a congressional staffer, Adele Douglass toured a farm and was horrified by the crowded and unsanitary conditions of the animals being raised for food. If average shoppers knew, she thought, they would be horrified and outraged. The experience lingered with her and prompted her to cash in her 401(k) — about $80,000 at the time — and launch a campaign to certify humane treatment of farm animals.

For years, she worked seven days a week, 18 hours a day as executive director of the nonprofit organization she founded in 2003, Humane Farm Animal Care. The group sets standards for treatment, feeding, and other practices on farms that want to be labeled Certified Humane®. Humane standards go beyond organic standards, which do nothing to ensure the animals’ comfort or treatment but merely limit antibiotics and the kind of feed that can be given to animals.

In 2007, she won the Purpose Prize for social entrepreneurs who are 60 or older, and in 2008, she was elected an Ashoka fellow. The recognition brought much-needed publicity to her cause and gave her a community of other like-minded campaigners. But the milestone she values most is in the numbers: 76.8 million animals raised under the Certified Humane® program last year, up from the 143,000 animals certified in the organization’s first year of existence.

“That’s what I consider success. I created a market for this type of product to show producers and suppliers that consumers want it. They individually can help make change,” she says.

Full Story: http://money.cnn.com/gallery/leadership/2013/06/13/10-success-stories-10-decades.fortune/7.html