Full-time father, worker graduates from Penn State

Larry Wilson is a full-time father and helicopter pilot instructor, and now he can add college graduate to that list.

Wilson, a retired Marine, Army pilot and a civilian pilot instructor at Fort Rucker, has been taking online classes with Pennsylvania State University's World Campus since August 2012.

He never took summers off from classes, and he never took less than four classes a term.

"I'm not a young man anymore," Wilson said. "I didn't want to be 50 when I graduated."

With early working hours, Wilson said that online classes best fit his schedule.

"I wake up for work at 4 a.m.," Wilson said. "Every minute that I wasn't at work or sleeping, I was working on school."

After three years of school, he graduated with 4.0 GPA and a bachelor's in security and risk management from the College of Information Sciences and Technology.

He was also the student marshal for his college at the Penn State graduation ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 15.

"To me, that speaks very highly about the school," Wilson said. "I feel validated. I feel like I'm definitely part of the university; I feel included."

While he may have sacrificed a lot of time and energy studying for school, Wilson said that his family sacrificed more.

"They've had to sacrifice," Wilson said. "Their sacrifices have been because of me. We just took a vacation this summer, which was our first vacation since 2012."

Wilson said that he hopes his children can learn from his experience with school.

"My first message is, go to college at 20, not 40," Wilson said. "I would also say that anything you decide to do, if you make it a priority, then you can do it."

When asked if he would continue on with his education and possibly attend graduate school, Wilson said he will probably just spend time with his family and looking for jobs.

"I just went for three years nonstop," Wilson said. "I think I'll take a break. But, never say never."