At an age when many are well into retirement, David Jackson is walking across the graduation stage at Calgary’s Mount Royal University – and he’s already planning his next degree. Jackson, 76, received his Bachelor of Arts in History on Friday, an accomplishment nearly two decades in the making. “I always loved learning,” Jackson said. “In high school, I taught myself calculus so I could do physics.” Originally earning a degree in mathematics from the University of Regina in 1975, Jackson’s career took him from Gulf Oil in Calgary to contracts in British Columbia and Dallas, Texas. But after retiring, his curiosity led him to the MRU campus – initially for a math course. “I thought, ‘This is hopelessly boring. I’m going to take something fun and interesting.’ So, I landed on history,” he said. That decision – all the way back in 2007 – then sparked an 18-year odyssey of part-time study. “My first class was with Scott Murray, and he got me hooked,” Jackson recalled. “He went from one end of the classroom to the next for an hour and a half without consulting notes. I was enthralled.” Scott Murray, associate professor of history, remembers Jackson’s impact. “He was a terrific student, always full of questions and never afraid to ask hard questions. That’s one of the things that really made him stand out,” Murray said. “His enthusiasm for the things that he was learning was remarkable.” Murray says Jackson’s presence in class was a lesson in itself. “Students are so worried today about getting called out, about saying the wrong thing. David is not afraid to say the wrong thing because he knows that the way that you’re going to learn best is by making a mistake and working through it.” For Jackson, the joy of learning went far beyond textbooks. “I use the atmosphere,” he said. “I don’t think I could do it online. There wouldn’t be the people, the students, the profs, the coffee shop.” Classmate Simon Weintz, 50 years younger, says Jackson brought wisdom and humility to every interaction. “He was always willing to admit when he was wrong and he was always willing to learn new things,” Weintz said. After Friday’s ceremony, Jackson won’t be leaving MRU for long. He’s already enrolled for the fall semester. “It means so much,” Jackson said of graduating. “I was getting a little impatient because I wanted to study something else… so I did, and now I’m registered in the fall for an anthropology degree.” Jacson plans to take one class per semester over the next eight years. “So, in 2033, we’ll be up here again,” he said with a chuckle and a big smile.
