[yodsanklai]

This happened to me too after a "world-class researcher" from my lab retired. We received an email from the lab director telling us that everybody was invited to go pick up books in his former office. Everything left behind would be thrown away.

As expected, there were nothing of interest there. Old books and articles (I assume the best stuff was taken by other people already!). Not much to talk about really. Not different from any other researcher's office.

Actually, maybe this was the only really thing noticeable. Despite being extremely famous, his office was similar to anyone else's office.

Unlike the person mentioned in the article, he was very active and passionate research-wise until his retirement. That being said, not being active research wise doesn't mean being idle! there are lot of useful and interesting things to do for an academic that don't involve research.