Never too Old to Learn
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: 77-year-old Edward Guest may look like a professor, but the Navy veteran and cancer survivor is actually a student.
EDWARD GUEST, STUDENT: This is one for tonight.
WOLF: English comp.
GUEST: English comp.
WOLF: Guest is attending Strayer University in North Charleston, South Carolina, working toward a degree in Marketing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What fuels your passion? What motivates you? What drives you?
WOLF: For Guest, that question is like fuel stoking fires of a dream that began more than a generation ago. Married with four sons, Guest retired from the Navy after 21 years of service and started college at the age of 42. He reached his junior year, but had to stop taking classes.
GUEST: I've always wanted to finish out what I started several, about 25, 26 years ago. And I decided now is the time.
WOLF: So in December of 2011, at the ripe age of 80, Guest will obtain his degree. That decision has made him a source of inspiration.
You're a father. You're a grandfather. You're a great-grandfather. And that, you're also a role model for all these people in your family.
GUEST: I sure hope so.
WOLF: Well, especially the younger ones. What do you hope they can take from your experience?
GUEST: That it is possible to obtain a college degree if you want to.
WOLF: His wife of 57 years agrees.
JOAN GUEST, EDWARD'S WIFE: I thought it was a great idea, because if he's doing something, he's not driving me crazy.
WOLF: But Ed isn't driving his schoolmates and teachers nuts. In fact, he's the big man on campus. And he's the oldest among Strayer's 50,000 students nationwide.
Is it kind of an inspirational thing to see someone who's 77 years old, who some people would say should be fishing, maybe on the golf course, maybe doing something else besides being in school?
RON SILBERBERG, STRAYER UNIVERSITY: It's incredibly inspirational. In classes that I have taught, I've had students in their late 50s. I haven't had anyone as old as Ed. But it's, it is just a very exciting aspect of what we do to realize that we're that relevant to people throughout their whole lives.
WOLF: Proving that you are never too old to learn.
What do you hope to achieve long-term?
GUEST: I hope to be alive to get my degree.
WOLF: Reynolds Wolf, CNN, Charleston, South Carolina.