90-year-old College Grad Shows Seniors the Way to Retire
Joyce DeFauw started college in 1951, and finally earned a degree 71 years later.
Nearly two million students earned bachelor’s degrees from colleges in 2022, but none waited longer than 90-year-old Joyce DeFauw, who finally earned a degree from Northern Illinois University on Dec. 11, 2022.
Joyce waited seven decades to complete her schooling.
“Keep learning” was her motto, she told USA Today columnist Rex Huppke. “We don’t even use a fraction of our brain, so it’s there if we only take advantage of it and use it. Keep going.”
I think Joyce is a great role model for the many, many retirees who have unfinished business they can finish now that they have more freedom to do what they want. Her faith—in God, and in herself—helped keep her going when things grew difficult.
Joyce started college in 1951, but then life intervened, as it often does for so many of us, scuttling our youthful plans for our lives.
She grew up in rural Illinois, literally walking two miles each way to attend a simple one-room schoolhouse. She worked hard at her studies, earning a scholarship to attend college, the first person in her family to do so.
But after completing only three years of her studies, Joyce got married. Soon she and her husband had three children.
After her husband died young, she remarried and had six more children. She now has 17 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
It was her own children who first challenged Joyce to finally finish her degree. She re-enrolled at NIU in 2019. Her kids helped her acclimate her and fixed her up with a new computer.
Some classes were harder than she had bargained for, but she kept at it. And now that’s she’s got her degree, she’s ready to put it to work in God’s service.
“Who has been given much, much will be required, so I don’t know what He’s got in mind,” she said. “I hope I fulfill the expectations.
Joyce can be an inspiration to many seniors who could follow her example. Many of us have options today that we didn’t have when we were raising families or pursuing careers.
During our most demanding working and parenting years, many of us created lists of things we would like to do once we have the time and freedom.
For many of us, that future time is now. Joyce’s journey shows us that there can be more to retirement than rest and recreation. People like her are reforming retirement and showing the rest of us how much we can do in our senior years if we try.
