When North Bergen resident Bill Dorrity was living on the campus of Felician College in Rutherford last year, working toward a Bachelor of Arts degree in natural science and mathematics, he had to be the oldest undergraduate in the country residing in a college dormitory.
After all, Dorrity was 64 years old, having retired after 32 years working for the U.S. Postal Service. There aren’t many senior citizens in dorms these days.
When Dorrity finally graduated from Felician two weeks ago, it made his 85-year-old mother, Marie Leahy Dorrity, also a North Bergen resident, very proud.
“I’m very proud of him, but I’m proud of all my seven children, my 10 grandchildren and my 11 great-grandchildren,” said the spry Dorrity, who was a nurse for many years. “It took Bill a while, but he was finally being practical and getting his college degree.”
It was something that Marie Dorrity could definitely relate to, because in 1991, at the tender age of 71, she went back to college to receive her degree in nursing from Bergen County Community College.
Marie Dorrity grew up in upstate New York in a small town called Hornell outside of Binghamton. She moved to Manhattan when she was hired as a nurse in Bellevue Hospital in 1938, but never gained anything more than LPN (licensed practicing nurse) status.
“I got married and my husband was from Hoboken, so we moved there,” Dorrity recalled. “I just went to work to help raise the family.”
In 1948, Dorrity went to work at Pollock Hospital in Jersey City, then moved on to Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital, also in Jersey City. She had stints at the St. Joseph Home for the Blind in Jersey City and in 1974, she took a job as a nurse at Palisade General Hospital (now Palisades Medical Center), where she remained for 10 years.
In 1984, Dorrity decided that she wanted to pursue her education, after having retired from Palisades General.
“My father always wanted me to go school and I never finished,” Dorrity said. “He encouraged me and helped me pay for my tuition when I started. But I wanted my degree in honor of my father. So I went back to school.”
While still raising her family, Dorrity went back to school. She would take three buses to get to Paramus from North Bergen, but school was a priority for her.
“I knew it would take me a little time, but I had to go,” Dorrity said. “It was important for me to get my degree.”
It took Dorrity seven years of going to school part-time, but in 1991, she received her associate’s degree in science from Bergen County Community College. She was finally a registered nurse.
“I received my diploma from Sen. Bill Bradley,” Dorrity said. “I was very proud to get it.”
Once she had the sheepskin in hand, Dorrity went to an employment agency to see if she could get hired.
“But at 71, they all said I was too old,” Dorrity said. “I was able to do some private nursing for a while. I was just happy to have it.”
The Dorrity family has a habit of obtaining educations later in life. Marie Dorrity’s son John received his diploma from Fordham University when he was 40 years old. John Dorrity currently serves as the president for the National Vietnam Veterans Officers’ Service Organization.
Marie Dorrity said she doesn’t know what her eldest son, the new college graduate who will turn 65 in July, will do with his newfound education.
“I told him, ‘Bill, you better go out and find a good job,’ ” she laughed. “He’s still taking courses in computer science and natural science. When he was graduating, I went to it, not because I wanted to see Bill, but I wanted to see his diploma.”
Bill Dorrity, who was a member of the Dean’s List at Felician and was also appointed to the National Dean’s List, not only showed his mother the diploma, but he posed for pictures on Graduation Day. After all, it wasn’t that long ago when Marie Dorrity was doing the same thing.
“He said, ‘Mom, tell me what I should do,’ ” Marie Dorrity said. “I guess he knew I had been through this before.”
Bill Dorrity was unavailable for comment prior to press time.
So what is the moral of these senior citizens from the same family getting their college degrees late in life?
“There’s always a value in education,” Marie Dorrity said.