Before he retired, Kevin Cloonan began looking for the interests and connections that might fulfill him during retirement, and what he found was SOAR LLI.

In 2021, Cloonan retired from the Ford Motor Company where he worked in IT program management and architect roles. He became a SOAR member in 2022, a SOAR Ambassador in 2023, and head of the SOAR Ambassadors in 2025. A few months ago, he became a member of the Winter Curriculum Committee, and this July Cloonan became a SOAR Board Member as a Member-at-Large.

“I was aware of SOAR before I retired,” said Cloonan. “I saw it — maybe in an advertisement somewhere. I guess I like learning – learning is a good thing. And I was looking for something like SOAR.”

Another interest that Cloonan discovered after he retired is gardening. Through Michigan State University Extension, he became a Master Gardner and now heads the volunteer gardeners at Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington.

“I can’t say I’m a lifelong gardener,” Cloonan said. “I was looking for something in retirement, and to help out at church. A year ago, through the MSU Extension I took ‘Foundations of Gardening.’ It is a 10-week online class for two hours one night a week, and 40 hours of volunteer work. And now I’m a Master Gardener.”

Cloonan enjoys reading and one book he is reading right now is The Snowman (2017) by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. The Snowman is number seven in a series of 14 crime fiction novels whose main character is Norwegian police inspector Harry Hole. The Snowman takes place in Oslo, Norway and is about Hole investigating the murders of married women in which a snowman appears at the murder scene.

Travelling is another one of Cloonan’s interests and he has been to the Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean, Baltic Seas, Alaska, and Ireland. Cloonan is Irish and has been to Galway County in Ireland twice, where he visits his two aunts and cousins.

Cloonan’s paternal and maternal grandparents immigrated from Ireland, and his father was born in the United States. However, when his father was four years old, he and his parents returned to Ireland. At the age of 19, his father served in WWII and when discharged in 1949 at the age of 24, he went back to the United States.

Cloonan was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where he received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a Masters in E-commerce. Cloonan received his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. Being from Pittsburgh, Cloonan said that he is “more of a Steelers fan, but I do root for the Lions.” As Cloonan said, “They have been better than the Steelers the past couple years.”

Cloonan has lived in Michigan for 25 years and currently lives in the city of Farmington. Cloonan has two sons Brendan and Mathew, and he enjoys watching his grandchildren Ryleigh and Jameson.

SOAR is glad that Cloonan went looking for his life after retirement and we are grateful that he found us!