Arthur Greene
A 97-year-old American man has completed his degree after he left university nearly 80 years ago to fight in World War II.
Bill Gossett was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but he ended up joining the US Army Air Corps before he finished his degree.
He was stationed in both the US and Europe during the heights of the Second World War, from 1943-1946.
After returning home, Bill entered into the family business, Gossett’s Cleaners. He later started Gossett’s Decorator Studio and ran both businesses until retiring in 2001.
“There was always a void there but I was busy learning to run a business. Time went by and I finally decided to finish my degree. It was a goal of self-fulfillment,” Bill told Cision Newswire.
“In 2019, Mr. Gossett came to me and said he wanted to finish his associate’s degree at Lincoln College,” recalled Lincoln College President David Gerlach.
“We were inspired by his desire to obtain a degree 80 years after his education began.”
Bill already had valid credits from his previous spell at university, so he only had to turn in some additional papers when he returned to school.
On Saturday, 8 May in Lincoln, Illinois, Gossett was honoured with an Associate of Arts degree at the age of 97.
Image source: @MarcellaBaietto
