Messenger - Vol. 1, No. 2, Page 24
Winter 1992
It's never too late
     William Ward Sr. is believed to be the University's oldest
recipient of a baccalaureate degree. The co-founder of a
marketing/speciality advertising firm in Claymont, Del., Ward
graduated last June at age 80. He started at Delaware 60 years earlier
but financial hardship forced him to leave during his junior year.
More recently, a friend convinced him to enroll in the University's
Academy of Lifelong Learning, a model educational cooperative for
persons of retirement age. A "little nagging thing" in Ward's head
told him that while he was back in school, he should get his degree.
How did he fare this time? "If you look at your brain as a computer, I
don't think it flashes quite as fast as when you're younger," Ward
says. A philosophy major, he accumulated the needed 25 credits for
graduation over three semesters and winter and summer sessions. Ward
isn't finished with school. He'll start this spring in the
University's master of arts in liberal studies (MALS) program.