A colonel’s new mission

Not only does she run one of the major social service providers in Central Massachusetts - Rehabilitative Resources Inc. known as RRI - she retired this month as a full colonel in the US Army Reserve, wrapping up a military career spanning 33 years.

Her worlds came together a couple of weekends ago at the Elm Hill Farm in Brookfield. RRI took over the historic farm this year with plans to turn it into a one-of-a-kind sanctuary for people with autism. An unlikely mix of military officers, social service providers, and curious town residents came out for a combination retirement party/fund-raiser, drawn by the unique figure that is Keefe-Layden.

Elm Hill Center, a 40-acre chuck of the farm, was turned over to RRI by the Blanchard Means Foundation, established by the family that long owned it. A surviving Means heir is autistic, and has long received aid from the agency, whose services range from running residential facilities to home health care.

“The mission is to maintain the history of the family farm and to give support to people with disabilities,’’ Keefe-Layden said. It draws on a growing belief that therapies centered on work can be valuable in dealing with autism.

Keefe-Layden believes the farm - whose amenities include horses, goats, a frog pond, and a swimming pool - can offer something unique for people with autism. “The families believe people with autism need meaningful activities, and not just to sit in a training program all day,’’ she said.

In the army, Colonel Keefe-Layden was the equivalent of a hospital administrator. “I just turned 60, which is why I was retired,’’ she said. “It’s hard to retire. You get very attached to your unit and the people you’re with. I see some of them more than I see my family. It was hard to say goodbye to all that.’’

Keefe-Layden joined the military as a young recruit from upstate New York with a two-year college degree. She rose through the ranks, earning two degrees and raising a family along the way. She finally saw action in Kuwait in 2003.

“It was pretty intimidating to land in a war zone while the Scuds were still going off,’’ she said. “Our mission was to set up medical evacuation for all coalition troops and any civilians who were injured.

“It was rewarding because I’d been in the military for 25 years and I was doing what I was trained to do,’’ she continued. “We got most of the military personnel out within three days and worked to get the civilians out.’’

Keefe-Layden laughs at the notion that reservists work one weekend a month, and not very hard at that. For anyone with a specialty, the commitment is at least two or three times that. For her, it was literally a second career. When she returned home, she says, she saw a bumper sticker she loved. It said, “One weekend a month my ass.’’

Military officers are practically unheard of in the kind and gentle world of human services, and some say she is a bit of a curiosity. “She’s very wise and very insightful, and she blends several different worlds together that you wouldn’t expect to be together,’’ said Gary Blumenthal, head of the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers. “She’s just a unique character with a real passion of the work she’s involved in, whether it’s the military or human services.’’

Blumenthal said her military background reflects the way she runs the agency. “She had very good training, which is reflected in her management style,’’ he said. “Her sense of responsibility, her sense that tasks are done until they’re completed, her sense of the chain of command - it all starts to make sense when you see how well her organization functions.’’

The farm is a work in progress - in effect, a new mission. But compared to the ones she has taken on before, it sounds like a vacation.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. he can be reached at walker@globe.com.