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Friday, May 24, 2002
Contact: Alison McGaughey
news@knox.edu
309-341-7650
Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., will award a bachelor's degree on June 8 to a Freeport, Illinois, woman who, according to college officials, barely missed completing graduation requirements 75 years ago.
Ninety-six-year-old Jean Hillmer Kahl will go through Knox College's commencement to receive a degree in music, something she intended to do in 1927. That year, she completed requirements for a diploma from the Knox Conservatory, a music school operated by the College. She was pursuing a formal bachelor's degree from Knox College, which required additional coursework, but had to leave Knox just six credits short of earning the degreeś the equivalent of about one courseś to care for her ailing mother.
Last year, Kahl received a copy of the Knox Alumni Directory, which listed her as a member of the Class of 1927 but not as a graduate of the College. Her daughter, Susan Kahl Funkhouser of Mahomet, Ill., decided then to contact Knox to ask if her mother's life experiences after college could be counted toward completion of the degree.
"Once we looked into Mrs. Kahl's story, our faculty determined that her work as a church organist at the Embury Methodist Church in Freeport satisfied the remaining course requirement for the baccalaureate degree," said Roger Taylor, president of Knox College. "I look forward to officially adding her to our ranks of accomplished alumni on commencement day, which is three weeks before Mrs. Kahl's 97th birthday. Both of these achievements are well worth applauding."
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