photo by Kaitlyn Murray
Ninety-three-year-old Robert Greathouse’s private graduation ceremony featured the pomp and circumstance of a traditional ceremony, along with a cap-and-gown-clad Zippy the kangaroo, the university’s mascot. Greathouse also donned a cap and gown, received a diploma and celebrated alongside university staff and his family and friends.
In August, the Green resident made history as the oldest person to earn a degree from The University of Akron — he graduated with an associate in technical studies, 65 years after enrolling in his first class there.
“That was remarkable,” says Greathouse, who grew up in East Akron and moved to Medina before graduating from Sharon Center High School. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over that.”
His lifelong learning journey began when he enlisted in the Air Force in 1950 and was taught an entirely new skill during the Korean War.
“I got put into aircraft mechanics, and I’ve been eternally grateful for that ever since,” Greathouse says. “I really enjoyed the work I did. I loved working on aircrafts.”
When he was discharged in 1954, he got a job as a Goodyear Aerospace Corp. electronic technician. He got married to Rose Marie, who he had known since he was around 8 years old.
“Halfway around the world, came back and married the girl around the corner,” Greathouse says, adding that they went on to have seven children. “In the meantime, I was working days and going to school at night.”
He enrolled at The University of Akron in 1958 on an engineering track. His goal wasn’t necessarily a degree — he hoped to gain the skills that would get him a position doing mechanical or electrical engineering at Goodyear Aerospace.
“For that, you need science, and you need physics, chemistry,” he says. “To get the physics and the chemistry, you have to have the math.”
He started with math courses, and he remembers taking algebra trigonometry, which he enrolled in 10 years after graduating from high school. He was worried about whether he’d remember what he learned previously, but he said much of it came back to him, and he had a great instructor. Another memorable math course was integral calculus.
“It really made a big difference,” he says. “It made it a lot easier once you had calculus.”
Many of his fellow students were around his age of 28 and came back from the Korean War, so he had a lot in common with them. He made friends and enjoyed his classes, which had a large age range of students.
His hard work paid off — he advanced his career, getting those engineering positions he was going for. Later when he was in his 30s, he found himself in a similar situation again, looking to gain skills to help him at work while Goodyear Aerospace was incorporating more technology.
“We started using computers in order to test company products,” he says. “Went back to Akron U[niversity] again.”
He took computer programming courses, which ended up being some of the most memorable of his 20-plus years of taking courses on and off. Those courses helped him later when he began working at Lucas Aerospace at age 35, training technicians on how to use the equipment. Later on, they wanted him to do computer programming, and because of the classes, he knew how.
“That was kind of addictive,” he says. “I enjoyed it.”
Although taking extra classes was helping him, there were moments when he struggled as an older student with a family, working to balance everything.
“There were challenges every day. Working, family life, student life, the amount of time you had to spend on each. That took a bit of doing some days,” he says. “But my wife and kids were really good, gave me all kinds of support.”
He adds that his wife was supportive even when he had to delay home improvement projects because he didn’t have time to take them on.
He continued to take classes into his 60s and married his second wife, Shirley, when he was 67, about seven years after Rose Marie died. In his 90s, he was surprised to learn from his daughter, Jane Rotsching, that all the credits he had from years of classes amounted to a degree. At the August graduation ceremony, he was joined by his children, grandchildren and second wife, Shirley, who died in September.
“There were speeches. The faculty were there with their robes,” Greathouse says. “I never expected to get something like that. The pageantry was really something else.”
Taking classes for all those years was worth it, as they helped him get the jobs he was aiming for. He recommends that anyone looking to advance their career consider getting higher education.
“If you want to get ahead, you have to learn what you’re going to need to get there,” he says. “If you want to qualify for it, you have to go somewhere and learn how. That’s true with everything in life.”
