BEND, Ore. — He’s 85 years old and fulfilling a lifelong goal — to finish college.
Bend resident Robert Weed recently finished his final courses for a bachelor of science in liberal studies from Oregon State University-Cascades, nearly 70 years after he took his first stab at higher education at Oregon State in the 1950s. He is the college’s oldest graduate this year, according to a university spokesperson.
“I decided, if I’m ever going to do it, this is it,” Weed said. “So I did.”
Weed’s first try at college ended due to multiple factors. For one, he said he was too “weak in math” to finish Oregon State’s engineering program back then. In addition, he was laid off from a job driving trucks for a lumber company as the industry tanked and mills shut down. So he traveled to Hollywood to get a certificate to become a radio engineer, working at a gas station to get by and leaving his college career behind.
But in January 2020, after a 35-year career in radio and 20 years in computer supplies, Weed enrolled at OSU-Cascades. Coming from a family full of graduates, Weed had always felt jealous of them and wanted to fulfill his “burning desire to have a degree.” He also wanted to become more engaged and “keep up with what’s new.”
Weed is the first to tell you that he’s interested in just about everything. His career in radio took him across Oregon and the country, meeting interesting people along the way, and helped encourage his lifelong curiosities.
But even at 85, Weed says his college experience has been full of revelations. He used his history classes to learn more about his own family, including his great grandfather, a pioneer from Ohio who homesteaded 160 acres on Native American land in Central Oregon. He was among the many settlers contributing to the mass displacement of Indigenous people across the American West, moving them off their land onto reservation land and giving that land to other settlers, Weed said.
“They didn’t know any better,” he said. “The government said, ‘Come over here, we have free land for you.’ ” One of the things I’ve learned at Oregon State is how shabbily we’ve treated the Native Americans.”
College hasn’t come easy for Weed. At first, he was overwhelmed by the technology that students have to navigate to get through college, including calculators he didn’t know how to use. Soon, he was so hard at work that “people wondered what happened to me,” he said. On Tuesday, he was quick to describe the looming presentations and papers he had yet to complete before graduating. Even at the end of college, “They don’t give you a break,” he said.
But Weed said he found ample support through his professors and tutors. He would chat over coffee with the professor of his Native American history class, Neil Browne, the college’s interim dean of academic affairs. Weed said they became good friends.
Browne inspired him enough that he often stayed after class, talking to other students about the course subject. Browne said Weed was a “steady presence” for students needing community during the pandemic’s isolation.
“His presence, I think, inspired students to work harder,” Browne said.
Another major help was his statistics tutor, Keera Puett, a 20-year-old biology and kinesiology major at OSU-Cascades. Puett knew Weed would likely struggle in the course. It seemed to her that he hadn’t stepped foot in a math classroom for 50 years. But she was also struck by his perseverance. The two worked six hours per week for 11 weeks straight and Puett watched Weed take hundreds of pages of notes.
“I knew he could do it,” she said, adding: “I appreciated the fact that he wasn’t willing to give up.”
But his biggest supporter, Weed said, is his wife of 40 years, Nora Weed. At 74, she has edited his papers and helped him prepare presentations for class. He said she is a blunt but supportive editor, saying, “You missed the mark on this, Bob.”
Weed said he would encourage younger generations to pursue higher education however they can, despite how expensive college can be. But, he said: “If you don’t know what you want to do, go do some things and go to college later.”
“You’re never too old to learn,” he said. “I’m proof of that.”
Now at the end of his college career, Weed said he feels both “exhilarated” and “relieved.” He plans to attend the college’s graduation ceremony on Sunday. His wife, brother, three children and stepson all plan to attend.
But Weed isn’t done. He said he’s now considering auditing college courses in his free time.
