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PROVO -- BYU's August graduation offers a unique opportunity for a Pleasant Grove man and his granddaughter. They will walk together in the ceremony.
Mel Erickson has been a regular on BYU campus for the last year and a half, a regular student that is. At age 70, he is completing his final semester in a college career he started when he was 18.
"I don't want my children or grandchildren thinking, ‘Well, grandpa didn't ever finish college, so what's the big deal?' So, I decided to finish up," he said.
By the early 60s, he had completed nearly four years of study before getting an attractive offer at a credit union. He worked his way up to CEO.
He married and had eight children. Now he and his wife, Annette, have a large blended family.
He couldn't go back to school after retiring because liver disease almost killed him before a transplant.
"It's a miracle. Miracles happen every day; I just happen to have been one of them," he says.
Erickson's final class is Humanities 202, but his major is something he's loved doing for more than 30 years.
"Did you know we offer a degree in scouting? And I said, ‘You what?' BYU's the only university in the world that offers a scouting degree," he told us.
But he is more proud of his granddaughter, Ashton Hosford, a member of BYU's volleyball team. He agreed to graduate with her but then decided not to.
"You know, this is her graduation, she needs the honor, she needs this special day. So, I went back and said, 'No, I don't want to do it,'" he said.
While he was changing his graduation date so she could walk alone, she was changing hers to be with him.
She said, "This is the best part about my graduation. Whenever anyone asks me, 'So, you're walking in August?' I'm always like, 'Yeah, I'm walking with my grandpa.' That's always the first thing that I say."
So graduation for Mel Erickson, more than 50 years after starting, is now doubly sweet. The family is planning a very big celebration following graduation on Aug. 13.
E-mail: cmikita@ksl.com
