What really sparked her determination to form an activist organization was when she found herself a victim of the lack of rights for older persons in 1970, forced to retire from a job she loved in the Presbyterian Church. Instead of passively accepting retirement, Kuhn decided to band together with other people she knew who were also forced to retire. The lack of accepting the status quo would not just form the Gray Panther organization, but also the Gray Panther name--“It’s a fun name. There’s a certain militancy, rather than just a docile acceptance of what our country’s doing.”