Dr. Peter von Hippel earned his first of several degrees from MIT in 1952, His retirement date was March 1, 1999, after nearly 32 years of service, according to the PERS database, which would be at about age 68 or 69.

A 2011 article in The Oregonian, when he was then the ninth-highest PERS beneficiary at $19,677.95 per month (he's at $21,319 now), said he was still working full-time as an American Cancer Society researcher with post-doctorate students and others as a professor of chemistry. "I'm not getting paid; I'm doing this because I like to," he said. "I put in a lot of 12-hour days."

As for his PERS pension, he said university researchers in Oregon have historically been paid less than their counterparts in other states. "Several times while we were working they asked us to take an increase in our pension rather than salary. That's one of the reasons why our pensions are high," he said.