The Collegian

Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Howard The Howard family poses for a large family portrait.

The last time Hillsdale student Arthur Thomas was in a college environment, Harry Truman was President of the United States, Joe DiMaggio became the first baseball player to earn over $100,000, and New Milford, Conn. featured the first automatic stoplight. Fifty-nine years later, Thomas, 88, continues to nurture his passion for learning by taking classes on Hillsdale's campus, with no plan to stop in the near future.

In the fall of 1972, Thomas moved to the Hillsdale area from Detroit, where he had enrolled in liberal arts classes at the University of Detroit in 1949 and 1950. Thomas mainly took night classes because he was also working at a factory. When his father became ill in 1950, he was forced to quit school and work full time. His father died later that year.

It was not until February of 2002 when Thomas attended a CCA and struck up a conversation with President Larry Arnn, that the idea of becoming a student again become a possibility.

"Dr. Arnn said, 'If you don't have anything to do with yourself, how about you come and take some classes,'" Thomas said. "I really didn't need to think about it, I thought it would just be really interesting to do."

Today, Thomas audits classes and does all the assigned reading and homework. This semester, he is auditing Assistant Professor of Music Renee Clark's History of Opera course. Thomas searches for courses that interest him, especially in history and economics, and says he receives a world-class education from world-class professors.

"Learning the various things that come up in my interests and having the best professors anyone could hope for is the best part," Thomas said. "They really know what they're doing. I've worked for a lot of people that didn't know what they were doing, or what I was doing, for that fact. It's something special to be in conversation with someone as knowledgeable as a Kalthoff or a Whalen. It's a real dream."

Along with study, Thomas also helps out Director of Music, James Holleman, setting up the sound system and recording concerts.

In the History of Opera class, Clark says Thomas does not actively participate in the class, allowing just the students to speak, but he does watch the assigned operas and does the reading.

Continued...

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