Octogenarian graduates Saturday decades after college start

CINCINNATI (AP) — Clell Elliott knows what he’s talking about when he tells anyone wanting a college degree to never give up.

The 89-year-old Ohio man will graduate Saturday from a university in in southern Ohio where he began as a freshman more than 50 years ago.

The Sandy Hook, Ky., native, who now lives in the Ohio River town of Franklin Furnace, said he encountered many roadblocks on his journey to a degree but followed his own advice and “just refused to give up.”

An adult studies program at the University of Rio Grande, about 120 miles east of Cincinnati, has allowed him to combine previous college credits with seven decades of work experience and realize his lifelong ambition with a bachelor of science degree in business management.