Between TRYING to get my contacts from the Positive Aging Conference in some sort of sane order before heading back down to D.C. this weekend, printing & cutting out masks for a local elementary school creativity activity that's open to the entire school, getting ready to dive into my Cupcake Lady duties on Saturday then take off FROM THE FARM MARKET for the train to 30th Street to catch the train to Union Station, making sure everything is ready to pack, debating whether to get a BIGGER student-style backpack ~AND~ wanting to get four sets of my ValuesVisionDreams activity cards d-o-n-e by Thursday at the latest, decided it was wise to cancel a coffee & catch-up scheduled tonight with a friend I haven't seen in over a month.
So glad I did.
Among the original set of fifteen cards, three especially stand out:
Albert Lexie - turns out he's the half brother of a friend of mine!
Alex Scott - everything about Alex makes me turn to a puddle of inspired goopy love.
Nola Ochs - well, Nola is going to take more than a bullet point.
Nola, world's oldest MASTER's degree recipient!
I am using my favorite billboards for a special project. Today, I checked online to find out when Nola had passed. Much to my surprise, there was not mention of her death. But there was a link to "Nola Ochs - obit" inviting friends & loved ones to write an obituary. Turns out that she died TODAY, at 104 years old.
How she would have laughed over the description on the wikiobits site - "Nola Ochs was an Academic who was best known for something."
Putting it mildly.
I discovered Nola because she was featured on a Values.com billboard, exemplifying LIVE LIFE. And did she ever.
Maybe Nola is super dear to my heart because she was born just eighteen months after my own dear Mama - on November 22, 1911. She always loved learning & while she didn't graduate from college,she earned her teaching certificate & taught in county schools for four years, until marrying Vernon Ochs.
I am sure that Nola considered herself the quintessential Midwest success story,
living a rich, full life as a Kansas farmer's wife, raising four sons. But always at the back of her mind was a yeaning to learn more about what was out there.
When Vernon died in 1972, Nola - in what I now know to be the creatively rich 60s - decided to do something that would get her off of the farm.
In 1978, a kid of 67, she started by taking a tennis class at Dodge City Community College. She loved brushing shoulders with her younger classmates - many old enough to be her grandchildren, even great-grands - and the classes filled her up, socially emotionally intellectually. Her sense of humor & easy charm won her friends of all ages, professors students staff.
"The students on the campus accepted me. I enjoyed myself so much, that fall I enrolled in an agribusiness marketing class,” Nola said.
In 1978, a kid of 67, she started by taking a tennis class at Dodge City Community College. She loved brushing shoulders with her younger classmates - many old enough to be her grandchildren, even great-grands - and the classes filled her up, socially emotionally intellectually. Her sense of humor & easy charm won her friends of all ages, professors students staff.
"The students on the campus accepted me. I enjoyed myself so much, that fall I enrolled in an agribusiness marketing class,” Nola said.
"Really, I had no thought of ever graduating. For 10 years, I just took classes that were of interest to me, something that I would enjoy doing; mostly history and composition. And then one of the professors came to me and told me if I would take college algebra, I would have enough credit hours to graduate."
And she did! At 77, in 1988, Nola Ochs received her associate degree from the same school she took that first tennis class.
Nola was up for another goal.
“I still wanted to go to school. It was fun to go to classes. And if I had an assignment to do in the evening, that occupied my time in a pleasant way, you know.”
Dodge City Community College only offered associate degrees, but Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas...
When she applied to FHSU, she mentioned having attended back when it was called The Kansas State College. Her advisor dug through old files & actually came up with an index card indicating her student status - in 1930! She shot her an e-mail - - "Nola, how old are you?"
To begin with, Nola limited herself to long distance courses, but finally moved the 100 miles from farm to campus. Taking her degree in history, Nola was a living reference point for students & professors, winning their admiration & deep affection.
Nola Ochs graduated with a 3.7 GPA - she was 95. She graduated along side her granddaughter, Alexandria, age 21. Straight out of college, she was snapped up by the Princess Cruise Lines, who hired her as guest lecturer on a nine-day Caribbean cruise.
Nola hadn't begun to hit stride. She took time to help the family bring in the wheat crop, then started back at school in Fall 2007. In May 2010, she became the oldest person to receive a Master's degree. As she celebrated her 100th birthday, Nola continued pursuing master classes, had a job as a graduate teaching assistant & was deep into writing a book.
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Nola, with Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius
Nola was an inspiration to the at-risk high school kids I taught, she will be an inspiration to all the ages who use my ValuesVisionDreams cards, she will always be an inspiration - and remarkable role model - to me & to all who hear her story.
"Nola Ochs was an Academic who was best known for something." What a hoot! She's forever known around the globe for her full-throttle life, for living every moment, for embodying for her family, friends, fellow students, professors, staff - the world! - how to LIVE LIFE.
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