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And they both understood that Nancy, who was working her way through a string of teaching jobs with her master's degree in reading, had finally found a way to channel her inner scientist. It happened when Pitt County schools sent her to a science workshop.

"In science, you can teach the same thing 1,000 different ways," Nancy says. "No child should ever be bored by science."

Her proclamation is a bit of mantra, one that serves her well as she devotes hours and hours of her time to regional and statewide science fairs.

But after 16 years at ECU, John was restless. He wanted to start a company from scratch.

The result was Metrics Inc., a firm that provides drug development and analytical services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. A gregarious man with a salesman's touch, John found that it pushed the envelope of his abilities.

"He was the co-founder, but he was also the guy who painted the bathrooms, ran the jackhammer and scraped the ice from the sidewalk before employees came to work," says Phil Hodges, who started Metrics with John in 1994.

Metrics now employs about 200 people, a company that succeeded at times on the sheer will of its founders. "We were just not going to let it fail," John says. "But there were times where we had to use our credit cards to meet payroll."

When the company turned the corner financially, John -- once again -- got antsy. He retains important ties to Metrics, but employees already threw the going-away party about 18 months ago.

They bought him a tractor.

Walk in the woods

Standing in the heat of the early afternoon sun, two little drops of sweat form at the top of Nancy's cheeks. A small bit of blood pools on the top of John's right wrist where a walk in the woods meant a chance meeting with some brambles. They seem oblivious to this as they stand among 100 acres of pine, river birch, lakes and the shoreline of Contentnea Creek.

The land, combined with an adjoining 50 acres purchased by Pitt County, is the site of a nature center they hope to open within the next year or two. It contains a wide variety of habitats where they have seen turkey, deer, bear, countless butterflies and a few longleaf pines.

It was the horrendous flooding of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 that made this land available when more than 25 homes were lost. With money from Metrics, John and Nancy are slowly collecting parcel after parcel and combining it with adjoining properties to leave undeveloped.

They are both worried that if someone doesn't set aside a nature center now for school kids and researchers, the development that is creeping out from nearby Greenville will ensure it never happens.

"It's a commitment to nature and education that you hardly ever see," says Bryan Evans of the Pitt Soil and Water Conservation District. "They really have a vision and a passion for the project."

The project has admittedly spread them thin. Even before they left their full-time jobs, they got involved in the Eastern North Carolina Regional Science Center, a program that is expected to work in concert with area schools and ECU as a magnet for teachers and students.

That's the center that will provide a home for the Challenger Learning Center, where visitors can participate in simulated shuttle missions. And it will offer a place for the portable planetarium that Nancy and John now haul around Eastern North Carolina -- a trip they have made more than two dozen times since December to an audience of more than 2,000 kids.

So John, at age 63, and Nancy, at age 64, are looking for some help in getting the nature center ready.

"We're not as fast as we used to be," said Nancy as her walking poles softly brush against the flowers and grasses of the rutted pathways.

But the couple do enjoy one advantage they never had before -- a little bit of extra time.

After all, they're retired now.

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