A health promotion and education program for elderly people was based in the academic Department of Geriatric Medicine of the University of Auckland for four and a half years. Its major objectives were to undertake health education and promotion research, develop community‐based initiatives in health education, produce educational resources relevant to older adults and train other personnel to lead health education programs. Considerable progress was made in meeting these objectives. Formal evaluation of the long term impact of programs, whose results may not be evident until after many years, is difficult. However, despite the fact that the program was terminated sooner man had been anticipated because of loss of funding, there was evidence that it had been successful The achievements of the program were not only of value to the community of older people but to the Department itself. It is concluded that health promotion and education programs are worthwhile activities to be included within university departments of geriatric medicin