Oldest graduate, WWII veteran to receive Ph.D.
When Richard Smith was born, Calvin Coolidge was president and the foxtrot was king. No Great Depression – yet.
On Saturday, the 87 year old, World War II veteran will be the oldest person ever to graduate from FIU – with a doctorate in history.
Smith, who will be among more than 3,400 students receiving their degrees this summer, will participate in one of three commencement ceremonies on Saturday, Aug. 13, at the U.S. Century Bank Arena, located on FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus, 11200 S.W. 8th St. in southwest Miami-Dade County.
“Completing this Ph.D. is one of my proudest moments,” said Smith, who enrolled in the program when he was already in his 80s, and completed his dissertation on John Sherman, the lesser known brother of Civil War General William Sherman. “Anyone out there who thinks it is too late to go back to school, I’m here to tell them it’s not and it’s worth it.”
Smith had finished his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania before he was called into the Air Corps and sent to fight in Europe. There, the Boston native was on the crew of a B-24 that bombed Germany and also dropped supplies and spies over Norway, Denmark and Sweden. For his service, Smith received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal, among other recognitions.
After the war, Smith finished his bachelor’s degree, married, had three children and ran a successful women’s clothing company founded by his father.
He will graduate during the 7:30 p.m. ceremony.
“Each commencement brings new stories of Panthers turning the impossible into the inevitable,” said FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg. “To have a member of the Greatest Generation with us on Saturday fills us with pride and admiration for a man whose courage and passion for learning led him to this tremendous achievement.”
This will be FIU’s first summer commencement. The ceremonies have been added to accommodate the growing number of students graduating, which is up to nearly 10,000 graduates this year compared to 7,200 five years ago.
Other Worlds Ahead graduates whose accomplishments will be recognized during the three ceremonies include an engineering student whose research looks to improve orthopedic implants, a nursing student who is going back to the classroom as a professor and students who distinguished themselves in business.
The full commencement schedule is as follows:
Ceremony 1: 10:00 a.m.
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
College of Education
College of Nursing and Health Sciences
College of Architecture + The Arts
College of Engineering and Computing
Ceremony 2: 3:00 p.m.
College of Business Administration
Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work
Ceremony 3: 7:30 p.m.
For more details about FIU’s summer commencement, please visit commencement.fiu.edu.
Congratulations to all the grads!
Congratulations to all the graduates! All of those late night studies sure paid off! Go Panthers!!!
Dear Dr. Smith:
Through the years, I have always admired men and women whose contributions to society evidently began with the personal establishment of a solid conviction. For instance, we are privileged with Henry Ford and Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Moltancini. Levi-Moltancini fought against the oppression of being Jewish in Italy and with an insensitive father, even still, co-discovered the Nerve Growth factor. Ford, posited the assembly line in manufaturing and stated that “one can be old at 20, or young at 80, it all depends when one stops learning” during a commencement address. All three of you share a solid conviction whose virtue serves as example to us all! For that, be so kind to accept my gratitude with my congratulations!