Oldest Western University grad now four degrees into retirement

Article content

For a guy who went straight to work without completing his post-secondary studies, Paul Hansen has more than made up for it in retirement.

The former London business executive on Friday will receive his fourth degree – a PhD in law, no less – since he left the work world.

At 77, Hansen is the oldest of more than 8,500 students graduating from Western University this spring, the school said.

Article content

Take it from Hansen, who so wanted to learn he just started picking courses in alphabetical order, “it’s never too late” for older adults to start a new chapter in life.

“Age should not be a barrier to continued learning and expanding their abilities and their mindset,” he said.

After his decades-long career in business, from which he retired as president of an IBM affiliate, Hansen enrolled in university for the first time in 2007. He said it was a decision encouraged by his two children and influenced by being “a little bit bored” in retirement.

Not sure of what he wanted to study, he worked his way through course subjects alphabetically before choosing political science as his focus, he said.

In his early 60s at the time, Hansen said walking into his first class, where the average age was 18, was “a little bit scary.” But he was welcomed by the younger students from whom he says he “learned a lot.

“They have a newer, more modern point of view on various issues,” he said.

Article content

Article content

Hansen completed a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2011, followed by a master’s in political science in 2013 and then a master’s of studies in law in 2017.

On Friday, Hansen will receive his doctorate in law, the culmination of five years of research, he said. His dissertation examines the relationship between Ontario’s legal system and Indigenous traditions, something he said he knew little about before he got started.

But Hansen is no stranger to diving head-first into new endeavours.

Frustrated with the commute between downtown Toronto and Mississauga, Hansen moved his family to a farm in Dutton, about 50 kilometres southwest of London, in 1983. There, they spent 12 years raising sheep, chickens and horses, with no prior farming experience, he said.

“It was a classic Green Acres type of scenario,” Hansen said, referring to the 1960s TV sitcom about a New York City banker who moves his family to a farm, not knowing anything about farming.

“One day I was wearing a $1,000 custom-made suit and the next day I was in overalls and rubber boots, driving a tractor,” he said. “It was a great learning experience.”

Article content

Hansen cut his teeth in business in computer programming. He eventually started his own management consulting firm, a successful company later acquired by Peat Marwick, which later became part of global accounting giant KPMG.

As Hansen prepares to cap one more learning experience, he says he’s proud of what he’s been able to accomplish in his retirement years.

“How many 77-year-olds get PhDs, particularly in a complex area like law?” he said.

While he’s thinking about yet another degree, Hansen says he’s “probably had enough of classroom and research education.” But that doesn’t mean he isn’t game to try something else new.

“There’s a whole lot of things that can be done,” he said.

nbrennan@postmedia.com

Article content