Its Never Too Late - Keep Moving Forward - World's Oldest College Graduate

Hello everyone,

One thing I do is I have ChatGPT send me themed articles on a regular basis and I am often inspired by them.

Here is one I recently received:

This Week’s 80+ Inspiration: At 95, She Moved Back to College

Mel, this week I’m giving the mountains a rest. This one is about proving that your mind can still have unfinished business very late in life.

Nola Ochs was born on a Kansas farm in 1911 and first took a college course in 1930. Then life intervened. She married, raised four sons with her husband Vernon, and spent decades on the family farm. After Vernon died in 1972, she gradually began taking college classes again

By her 90s, Nola had accumulated a surprising number of credits. An adviser at Fort Hays State University eventually discovered that she needed only about 30 more credit hours to earn a bachelor’s degree.

So at an age when almost everyone would have forgiven her for saying, Well, that was something I meant to do once, Nola made a different decision.

At 95 years old, she moved roughly 100 miles from her farm to Hays, Kansas, got an apartment near campus, enrolled full time, and took upper-level university courses alongside students young enough to be her great-grandchildren.

She wasn't being humored by the professors, either. She researched papers, studied for exams and did serious academic work. One professor described her as highly engaged and serious about her education.

Nola had her own description of exam season:

"I work like a beaver.”

Then she added that during finals, she worked like two beavers. 😂

On May 14, 2007, at age 95, Nola received her bachelor’s degree from Fort Hays State University. Guinness recognized her at the time as the world's oldest college graduate.

But there was something even better happening on that commencement stage.

Her 21-year-old granddaughter Alexandra was graduating with her.

Grandmother and granddaughter received university degrees together—separated by nearly three-quarters of a century in age.

That would have been a magnificent ending.

Nola apparently didn't think so.

She enrolled in graduate school.

Three years later, in May 2010, she earned a Master of Liberal Studies with a concentration in history at age 98.

And then?

She kept taking classes because she wanted to continue studying until she turned 100. She loved history, remained involved with the university, and worked on writing the story of her life.

She lived to 105.

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All I can say is WOW. Inspiring indeed!

To Our Success

Mel Waller