Didion completes journey as oldest UAFS graduate

story and photo submitted by the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith

If there is a challenge to be found, Maureen Didion of Fort Smith will seek it out and plow through with both style and grace. The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith graduate walked across the stage on May 7 at the age of 72, making her one of the University’s oldest graduates since UAFS became a four-year institution.

Didion smiled as she accepted her diploma. With her husband of 50 years and two of her three daughters and 11 grandchildren cheering her on from the stands, she completed a journey she had begun in 1956 when she signed up for her first college class.

“I wasn’t a good student when I was young,” she said laughing. “I lacked motivation, and I think I even flunked P.E.”

Her parents wanted her to get an education but it wasn’t that important to her at the time. She came home and told her father that college wasn’t for her.

“He didn’t say anything to me that night,” she recalls, “but the next morning he woke me up early and said, ‘time to get up and go out and don’t come back until you’ve got a job.’”

That’s when Didion’s “life education,” as she calls it, started.

What happened next was five decades of tackling challenges as a bank employee dealing in the stock market, a professional swimming instructor, a political campaign manager, an administrative director of Montessori schools, a volunteer for the Red Cross, and one of the founders of the We Care Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to enriching the lives of children with cancer and related blood-forming diseases.

She married, had a family, took up wildlife photography and, as a result, has taken 20 tips to Alaska and five trips to the Arctic photographing polar bears with their cubs. Her last Arctic adventure was just prior to graduation, and she firmly said they won’t be her last.

Even with all of those varied and amazing accomplishments that many who know her would find to be a fantastic legacy, there was one goal that remained in front of Didion — a college education and degree.

“I am proud of my accomplishments, but each of our lives change … or we need to make changes,” she said. “I went back to college for myself. I didn’t plan to get a different job. I’m in the last position I plan to have, but this was something just for me.”

So in 2007 at the age of 68, Didion entered UAFS, surprised to find a couple of her previous class credits transferred from her first college attempt so many years ago.

“I’ve found out I love to go to school, and age isn’t a barrier to learning. I was however the oldest person in every one of my classes,” she said, smiling.

Didion said one of the remarkable things about UAFS is the wealth of experience returning students like herself bring to campus.

“We have the life experiences already that the younger people have yet in front of them,” she said. “Your education doesn’t always take place in the classroom, but it’s your life experiences that can bring a lot to your education.”

Anyone who spends a mere few minutes with Didion quickly finds out she is a fountain of wisdom. However, she said she doesn’t see herself as anything special even though she has worn many hats — she’s just someone who has taken advantage of every opportunity that’s been presented to her.

“I keep a copy of a quote by Henry David Thoreau framed on my desk,” she said.

It reads, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

“Anytime I was having to struggle with a class, I would read it and then push forward because I had a goal, and this is it.” she recalled.

She said her decision to acquire her goal at the Fort Smith campus was based on her observation that UAFS is a very forward-looking university.

“First of all, the university here is an unsung, well-kept secret,” Didion said, “because I don’t know if the community as a whole really appreciates what they have here and the quality of the programs and the instructors. I have had a blast. I have just thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Accomplishing her goal at long last, Didion has earned a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership with a minor in Psychology.

“I have been really fortunate that there have been so many people throughout my life that have supported me,” she shared, “my husband, and my family especially, for all the times I haven’t been home or couldn’t be with them, they understood.”

Once an extremely quiet and shy child, Didion even fainted during her high school graduation. She has come a long way in confidence from then to now.

“It’s come from learning the person most critical of you is you, and that people should not be so critical of themselves, especially when so many people are willing to help you if you let them,” she said. “It’s all about lifelong learning.”

Didion used to tease her fellow students at UAFS that she’d be doing cartwheels across the stage at graduation, but she now said it turned out to be a more somber occasion.

“It’s a milestone, a feeling of great satisfaction,” she said. “I hope my parents were looking down and said, ‘you finally did it, kid.’”