Charles Jeffers dreams were shattered when his high school scholarship was withdrawn.

He was 16 and earning only passing grades at Berkeley Institute. He wanted to become a lawyer.

His widowed mother was struggling to provide for him and his three siblings. She couldn’t afford school fees.

He had to drop out of school.

“We were barely existing,” said Mr Jeffers.

He vowed that things would be different should he ever have children.

Mr Jeffers put his three sons through university and helped hundreds of other young Bermudians save for their education through his business, Heritage Educational Funds International.

“The other day this lady came in to set up a college savings plan for her grandson,” said Mr Jeffers. “Her name sounded familiar. Eventually, it came out that her own mother had signed her up for a plan with me when she was seven-years-old.

“This was the third generation signing on. That was a wonderful, wonderful feeling.”

Mr Jeffers was born on Parsons Road in Devonshire in 1941. He was eight when his father, Hubert, died from a massive stroke at 43.

“The men in my family suffered from high blood pressure and heart disease,” he said. “I’ve been on medication for about 40 years.”

He decided he wasn’t going to suffer the same fate without a fight. He follows a healthy diet, exercises, tries to keep his mind active and stays positive.

One of his favourite activities is thrashing his younger friends on the squash court.

“I love to make younger men sweat,” he said.

He plays four mornings a week before work. He sold Heritage a few years ago, but still works with the company as a sales representative.

“It keeps my mind active and gives me a little extra income,” said Mr Jeffers.

It’s a far cry from his first job packing up for the British military when they left Bermuda in 1957. He got £10, five shillings a week for the work — an amount that staggered him.

“That was more than what my mother made,” he said.

At 17, he completed his high school education through the Adult Education School but it was many years before he got his university degree.

“When my oldest son entered university I signed up for Queen’s University courses that were taught in Bermuda in the summer,” he said.

After a few years he went to Canada to work with the Canadian Scholarship Trust, Heritage’s predecessor. The job required a lot of world travel, so he was often forced to find the nearest library and madly copy material for his courses. Assignments had to be faxed back to Queen’s University.

It was 14 years before he got his bachelor’s degree in political science.

“My oldest grandchild was 11 months old and came to my graduation,” said Mr Jeffers.

“My oldest, son Charles II, had a bachelor’s and a master’s and a family of his own by that point.”

He’d been interested in political science since 1967 when he helped to found the brief-lived Bermuda Democratic Party.

“Charles Mayne of Mayne’s Furniture was the chairman of the party,” Mr Jeffers said. “I ran with [the late] Arnold Francis.

“We didn’t win because people were getting very polarised at the time. People liked Arnold Francis but he was with the wrong party. That is what party politics does, it throws away good people and takes the people wearing the right colours.”

In 2004 he received the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour for his service to business, churches and sport.

“They forgot to put community,” he said. “That was my biggest thing.

“I have been a youth leader and counsellor at Church of God on Angle Street since I was 16. I am also an original member of the Bermuda Regiment. In fact, I was in the band with the Bermuda Militia Artillery.

“I moved over to St John Ambulance. When I left I was a divisional officer. When the Bermuda Regiment formed I moved over there.”

He still plays trombone with the North Village Band.

The 73-year-old doesn’t hold with the idea that his best years are behind him.

One of his favourite sayings is: “Make your olden years your golden years.”

“Life is for the living,” he said. “I’m the techie in [my] office. When my little grandson has his tablet and he’s swiping away, I’m right there with him. Technology isn’t for the young, it’s for people, and I’m people.

“Life can be wonderful when you’re older. When you’re younger you are worried about finishing university, and then about getting the right job and moving up the ladder.

“And then you have small children to raise and put through school. When you’re older, all that is behind you and all you have left is living your life. Wow.”

He and his wife Juneia have been married for 37 years. He has three sons, Charles II, DeVon and Jermaine, and seven grandchildren.