It's never too late to learn

Former mechanic finds satisfaction in grad school

Keith Morris, 48, never had one of those “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” moments.

At the time when most people graduate from college and start looking for a job, Morris already was a business owner.

“All I ever wanted to do was to be an automotive mechanic,” Morris says. “By the time I was 23, I owned my own place, the Morris Exxon Service Center in High Point, N.C.” A shining example of the American Dream, that was Keith Morris.

But somewhere along the way, Morris' American Dream began to sputter and lurch. It wasn't running on all cylinders.

“The hours were too long. It seemed like I was there all the time. It just wasn't fun anymore. I needed something different,” he says.

But with just high school and community college diplomas, Morris found his options were limited.

So he sold the business and moved back to his wife's family farm in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn. For nine years, Morris tilled the same ground his wife's great-grandfather had homesteaded. He worked in the nearby post office to supplement the income generated by the 200-acre farm.

“I loved farming, but I didn't feel like it was mentally challenging enough for my personality,” he says. “I told my wife I felt like I was slowly going numb from the neck up.”

He enrolled at Tennessee Tech University, about 40 miles away in Cookeville. At the age of 36, when most people are trying to figure out how to get their kids to soccer practice from work, Morris was juggling the farm, the post office, an 80-mile round trip to campus and freshman agricultural engineering coursework.

“That was tough,” Morris recalls. “There were kids there with all the time in the world to study and not doing it, and there I was, trying to work, farm and study all at the same time.”

Morris not only stuck with it, he thrived. He earned his degree in agricultural engineering and set his sights on graduate school.

“Purdue was one of only two schools in the country (Florida being the other) that offered a graduate degree in agricultural systems management,” he says.

His Tennessee farm was a closer weekend retreat from West Lafayette than from Gainesville, Fla., so in 1995 he became a Boilermaker.

And Whittaker, for one, says Morris is a better man for it.

“Certainly, the need for learning can be satisfied in many different ways,” Whittaker says, “although I believe being a full-time student on a university campus is the ultimate learning experience. You are surrounded by people who want to learn, explore, discover, experience, share and challenge themselves and others. The entire university environment is focused on learning.”

Morris became the first Agricultural and Biological Engineering/Ag Systems Management graduate student at Purdue working in precision agriculture, helping to develop a liquid manure applicator that uses computer-directed equipment and satellite-oriented Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.

Agronomy professor Chris Johannsen understands why more and more people of Morris' age are returning to college.

“A lot of people in their 30s and even up into their 40s suddenly realize they are being over-looked for promotion within their companies for one of two reasons,” he says.

“Either it is because of a lack of experience or a lack of advanced degrees. Well, it's difficult to gain experience, so they start looking at getting advanced degrees.”

Johannsen speaks from experience. A regional agronomist for Chevron Chemical, he was a victim of corporate downsizing in 1963.

“People with master's degrees were being let go. I was one of them,” he says.

Johannsen started working on his PhD in 1965. Until his retirement in August, Johannsen was a tireless cheerleader for students of all ages.

“The younger students don't know for sure what they want, yet,” he says. “But the older students realize just exactly what they need in an advanced education in order to advance their careers. They are focused on what they want to do.”

Contact Morris at Dennis.Morris@scc.nasa.gov