An Illinois Man Waits 80 Years To Graduate From College Bill Gossett, 97, left college to serve in WWII. He didn't go back until his 90s. In 2020 he finished an Associate of Arts degree, but had to wait a year for the ceremony because of the pandemic.

An Illinois Man Waits 80 Years To Graduate From College

An Illinois Man Waits 80 Years To Graduate From College

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1001823414/1001823415" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Bill Gossett, 97, left college to serve in WWII. He didn't go back until his 90s. In 2020 he finished an Associate of Arts degree, but had to wait a year for the ceremony because of the pandemic.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Bill Gossett left college to serve in World War II. After the war, he ran a family business and didn't make it back to college until his 90s. In 2020, he completed an associate of arts degree - had to wait a year for graduation because of the pandemic, but what's an extra year when you've waited almost 80? At age 97, he attended the ceremony at Lincoln College in Illinois, where the college president threw in an honorary doctorate as well. It's MORNING EDITION.

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.