In midst of cancer fight, 71-year-old checks Baylor graduation off his bucket list
If you attended December’s commencement ceremony, you might remember the extended standing ovation given for one graduate in particular: a dimpled, white-haired, 71-year-old man. But why was this septuagenarian crossing the stage with a bunch of 22-year-olds?
Ted Carroll first came to Baylor from Dallas as a wide-eyed freshman in 1961. He had been working all summer to save money for his housing, then worked in Penland and a sporting goods store the rest of his years at Baylor to cover his meal costs. “I was an average student,” he recalls, “and my grades suffered some.” That unfortunate reality hit Carroll during what would have been his final semester at Baylor: he was nine grade points short of graduating.
Frustrated, newly wed, and with a job offer in hand, Carroll decided to go ahead and enter the work force. Then, life simply got in the way. “I had often thought about trying to finish my degree, but it didn’t seem feasible or practical to take off and move my family to Waco for a semester or year,” he says. “So I just let the idea pass.”
Carroll moved on. He traveled throughout Asia and the Middle East selling a plumbing system cleaner, worked for two entrepreneurial firms as a sales rep and manager, then ultimately ended up owning a memorial firm. But in 2005, he was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, and by the summer of 2014, with the cancer stronger than ever, Carroll became determined to finish what he’d started. “I guess it was sort of on my bucket list.”
Faculty members in the Hankamer School of Business helped Carroll navigate the steps needed to complete his degree. After registering for classes, he encountered one final hurdle: how to pay for tuition. Carroll hadn’t realized the cost of the two classes he’d enrolled in, and he and his wife simply couldn’t afford it on their fixed income. That’s when yet another member of the Baylor family — department chair Blaine McCormick — stepped up, working with Financial Aid staff to find scholarship assistance for Carroll.
This time around, Carroll proved to be a stellar student. But as the end of the fall semester approached, he and his family began to worry that the cancer would overtake him before graduation day. One day, the mail brought Carroll not only his diploma, but also a personal letter from President Ken Starr. “When Mr. Carroll and his wife found out what we had done, that made them all the more determined that he would make it to commencement,” says Lois Ferguson, BA ’68, MSED ’94, who oversees Baylor commencement. “The diploma was returned to us unopened so we would have it for the ceremony.”
Finally, graduation day came, and Carroll was surrounded with the people who had made his final journey possible. His course professor, Dr. Phil Van Auken, escorted him while he waited to cross the stage. President Starr gave him his diploma, a grin, and a bear hug. One by one, the Baylor Regents and deans on stage shook his hand. He walked to the end of the stage, down the steps, had his photo taken (like every other graduate), and met Leigh Ann Marshall, BBA ’81, assistant director of the Baylor Parents Network, who was waiting with his wheelchair.
He’d done it. Ted Carroll had finally achieved his dream.
“Through God’s grace, prayer, and a multitude of people working to make this happen, I now have my diploma hanging in my office,” he says.
Sic ’em, Ted!