67-Year-Old Surgeon Gets Bachelor's Degree
By STACY MORROW
Updated 8:07 PM CST, Wed, Jun 3, 2009
A Fort Worth surgeon can finally add a bachelor's degree to his résumé after gaining 43 years of real-world experience, the Star-Telegram reported.
It should be icing on a well-layered cake. Dr. David Lichtman, chairman of the orthopedics department at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and the JPS Health Network, is a specialized surgeon, retired U.S. Navy rear admiral and a former
commander of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
"I didn’t think I needed a bachelor’s degree because I figured I was going to graduate from medical school," he told the Star-Telegram. "But because it went unfinished, I used to have dreams that I went back to Tufts."
Now he now longer has to dream.
Thanks to the generosity of Tufts University, he has additional paper to back up his credentials.
Lichtman attended Tufts in 1959, where he was in a program that would have awarded him with a bachelor's degree after he completed medical school. But while he was a medical student, he transferred to the State University of New York and from there he joined the Navy, which eventually put him through medical school.
Tufts University decided to award him a four-year degree after learning about his life achievements through letters of recommendation. A university spokeswoman called it a rare move -- in a very unusual case -- for a deserving individual.
First Published: Jun 3, 2009 7:33 PM CST
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