88-year-old to get degree during UNG graduation

DAHLONEGA - An 88-year-old man, who will receive his bachelor's degree in English, will be among the graduates next week at the summer commencement at the University of North Georgia.<br /> <br /> Allen Fleming of Dahlonega, who will be joined by some three dozen of his family members at the ceremony, is a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, who, during his business career, owned advertising and public relations firms. He also has had careers as an insurance salesman and a mail carrier.<br /> <br /> Fleming attended several colleges and universities as part of his military training, but never completed a degree. After seeing all five of his children get through college and watching as their children attended college, in 2012, he decided to return to college and has attended UNG for the past two years.<br /> <br /> Fleming said graduating from college will be the "finalization of a goal that started quite some time ago." He attended the University of Georgia after World War II. However, his schooling was interrupted by marriage and the raising of a family.<br /> <br /> He said he's only be able to realize his dream of getting a degree "because I had retired and had some time on my hands."<br /> <br /> With his degree, Fleming said he has no plans, at 88, to jump back into the workplace, adding it just offers "a sense of accomplishment," besides, he said, "at my age, I can't do much jumping anyway, just a lot of 'leaning' on things."<br /> <br /> UNG's summer commencement, for graduates of all its campuses, will be held on the Dahlonega campus August 2 at 2:00. <br /> <br /> Tickets are required to attend each ceremony. Students who have applied for summer graduation can pick up graduation packets, which include their designated number of tickets, beginning Monday at the bookstore on their home campus.<br /> <br /> The university has selected Lynn Jackson, administrator of Northside Hospital-Forsyth, as commencement speaker.<br /> <br /> Jackson grew up in the metro Atlanta area and graduated from Shamrock High School in Decatur. She has more than 30 years of clinical and administrative healthcare experience. She is a registered nurse with a bachelor's degree in nursing from the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University and a master's degree in healthcare policy and administration from Mercer University in Atlanta. Jackson has held a number of healthcare leadership roles including vice president of nursing at Georgia Baptist Medical Center and administrator of Meriwether Hospital and Nursing Home.<br /> <br /> Jackson also is a member of the Lanier Technical College Board and the Forsyth County Development Authority. She is active in the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce and serves as the chairman of the Healthcare Association of Forsyth County, and is currently the chairman of the Board of Directors of Bald Ridge Lodge.<br /> <br /> Separate commissioning ceremonies will also be held Aug. 2 beginning at 9 a.m. for members of the UNG Corps of Cadets entering the armed forces as second lieutenants. The individual commissioning ceremonies will be held in the atrium of the Brooks Pennington Jr. Military Leadership Center. A reception for commissioning cadets will be held immediately before each ceremony in room 112 of the Military Leadership Center.<br /> <br /> For more information about spring commencement, including information and instructions for graduates, visit UNG's commencement website at www.ung.edu/commencement/index.php.

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