Now 81, Mickey Douglas earns CSC degree

The academy provided high school and college training for the sons and daughters of many pioneer families a couple of decades before CSC opened in 1911. Mickey’s grandmother, Nellie Lockett Jones, was a student there.

Mickey’s personal association with Chadron State began in the fall of 1961 when Coach Bill Baker recruited her husband, George Douglas, to play football for the Eagles. She had grown up at Newcastle, Wyoming, and he was from nearby Upton. Since funds were limited, only George enrolled at the college while Mickey took a job working at the Bump Law firm. However, she took a few courses from CSC before George earned his bachelor’s degree in 1965 and began his long career as a teacher, coach and school administrator. She also took a few more CSC courses in 1976, when the family returned to the college while George earned a master’s degree and they also served as the High Rise Dormitory parents.

Now, nearly a half century later, at age 81, Mickey, whose first name is actually Doris, will fulfill a long-time dream and receive a bachelor’s degree on Saturday, May 6 in interdisciplinary studies. She’s proud it’s going to happen. So is her family. All three of her children are CSC graduates and they and their families will be in attendance. It will be the first time they’ve been together since George died in April 2010.

Mickey explains that she always wanted a college degree. Whenever possible while also caring for their children and working to supplement the family’s income, she took a few courses. Therefore, her transcript includes credits from the University of Wyoming, Murray State in Oklahoma, the National College of Business in Rapid City and both Western Wyoming and Central Wyoming Colleges.

It was in the spring of 2021, when the pandemic was still causing havoc, that Mickey decided to find out if she could finally earn a degree. Then as now, she was living in Sheridan, Wyo., with her daughter Bridget and son-in-law Alan Dubberley when she made the decision. 

“I couldn’t see wasting the pandemic in front of the TV,” she said. “I contacted Chadron State to find out what I needed to do to finally graduate. I wanted my degree to come from Chadron State because of all of our family’s connections there. It was quite a process to locate all of my transcripts and figure out what I still needed. I have to credit my ex-daughter-in-law, Sherry Douglas (a long-time CSC employee), and Jacqueline Buhr (a CSC advisor) for helping do that.

“I took two online courses each semester, including summers, and am finishing the last one this spring,” Mickey said. “I would have finished sooner, but had some health problems in the fall of 2022 that set me back. That included a heart attack, but with four stents, I’m as good as new. I’ll be a first-generation graduate in my family of Joneses.”

While completing her degree, Mickey has taken 11 courses from Chadron State, a bulk of them in English literature taught by Dr. Matt Evertson and Dr. Kimberly Cox, whose support she greatly appreciates.

“I wanted to earn my degree a long time ago, but life always got in the way,” she said. “It’s going to be a thrill to receive it. The main reason I am coming to Chadron for commencement and walking to get my degree is because all my family members said they would attend if I did that.”