It had been 49 years since Charles L. "Chuck" McLafferty of Orangeburg set foot in a classroom as a student.
In May 2001, McLafferty chose to "take up a vice," as he described it to his children, attending classes through Clemson University with the aim of completing a doctorate in educational leadership.
Just five and a half years later -- on Dec. 21, 2006 -- he completed his dream, crossing the stage as a 79-year-old graduate, surely "the oldest one in the class," commented his sister, Lucy Schmudde of Illinois, at the ceremony.
A native of Alabama and Mississippi, McLafferty has called Orangeburg home for 34 years and was employed for two years as a controller at Utica Tool before being promoted to a corporate officer for Triangle Corp.
Triangle sold all its tool operations in 1993, and McLafferty said it was just a few years before the corporation dissolved and he retired.
Currently an accounting professor at Claflin University, a certified public accountant and a former Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College professor, McLafferty said he chose to go back to school because he felt it would help him further his career and allow him to teach accounting classes in the MBA program at Claflin.
"I've enjoyed it thoroughly," he said. "Here at Claflin, they have a high quality of students. They want to learn; they're here to learn."
McLafferty comes from -- and with his late wife, Dee, reared -- a family of scholars. Of those who attended his graduation, his brother, Dr. Fred McLafferty of New York, is a retired Cornell University professor; his oldest daughter, Ardy McLafferty of Texas, has a doctorate in clinical psychology from Ohio University; another daughter, Karen Foust of Louisiana, has a doctorate in accounting from Tulane University and serves as a professor there; and his son, Charles L. McLafferty Jr. of Alabama, received his doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Virginia and is a former professor. He lost his youngest son, Kevin, in 2001.
"They were very surprised. They said they were very proud of me on Dec. 21 as I started up the stage, and I know they were," McLafferty said. "Some of us are slow learners," he added, with a laugh, explaining why it took him so long to go back to school.
McLafferty received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Nebraska in 1949 and a bachelor's degree in higher accounting from Bowling Green Business University (now a part of Western Kentucky University) in 1950. He completed his MBA at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1952.
"When I started (working toward the doctorate), the classes were either by satellite, or I would go the Coastal Carolina University near Myrtle Beach and attend classes three or four weekends for a three-hour credit," he said. "Many of the classes were like that."
McLafferty commuted across the state to earn his doctorate, attended a few courses on the campus of Clemson University as well as a couple at the University of South Carolina and took part in several independent study courses and internships.
"Believe me, they were not easy," McLafferty said of his courses. "All I can say is the other students were very bright and I had to run hard to keep up."
But all his hard work paid off, as McLafferty managed to pull a 3.82 grade point average -- on a 4.0 scale -- to earn his doctorate. All that while working as a professor and accountant and taking a summer teaching assignment in Bangladesh in 2004.
That trip forced McLafferty to take an incomplete in one of his classes until he was able to return and finish the assignments.
"It was a very interesting trip, and I have no regrets about going," he said.
On Nov. 8, 2006, McLafferty defended his dissertation, taking the final step toward his doctorate.
"One of the committee members was very critical, but he congratulated me and told me I did a very good job," he said. "I guess it was just his job to be critical."
McLafferty partially attributes his success to a friendship he developed with fellow doctorate student Cheryl Davids, chairwoman of the mathematics department at Central Carolina Technical College in Sumter. Family and friends of the pair enjoyed a joint dinner the night before graduation to celebrate their accomplishments.
"One of the first pieces of advice they gave us was to find another student to commiserate with," he said. Davids just so happened to be the very first person he met in the very first class he attended in person while pursuing his degree.
"We have called back and forth over the years to support each other," McLafferty said. "It was the kind of thing where you would have to just keep going and support each other. But we managed to get through."
Now that school is over, McLafferty said he is in the process of booking a trip around the world, which he plans to take in 2008, and would like to become a certified fraud examiner, hoping to take the exam this year.
"There were some times I wondered," McLafferty said of his choice to go back to school. But he has simple advice to those wanting to go back to school but afraid to make the plunge.
"I would tell them to go ahead and do it," he said. "You're never too old."
T&D Staff Writer Wendy Jeffcoat Crider can be reached by e-mail at wjeffcoat@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5546. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.