After first enrolling at UCA in 1965, Dennis Knox, 76, is graduating in December with a bachelor’s degree in general studies.
Knox said he was enrolled on and off from 1965 to 1994, making fall 2023 his first semester back after 29 years.
He said his fondest memories involved his roommate John Sanders, who died in 2003.
“He ended up being my best friend down here. When it comes right down to it, it boils down to the friends that you make and the friends you keep throughout the years,” Knox said. “He was quite a character. A very intelligent man and a little bit of a blowhard, but that was fine, you just took him with a grain of salt.”
Knox and Sanders worked at the radio station in the basement of Old Main. This is also where Knox met his wife, Lynn.
“John came over to me one day and said ‘There’s a girl you need to meet. She’s doing a program over at KUCA,’” Knox said. “I didn’t try to meet anybody. I was painfully shy. But, I walked over, leaned up against the rail next to where she was working and said, ‘Hi, I’m the radio station’s only hippie.’”
Knox and his wife got married a few years later in 1969.
Knox said he attended college on and off because he also had a job at Snap-On Equipment to support his wife through college.
“My wife’s father said, ‘You have to guarantee that she’s going to graduate,’” Knox said. “So I went to work and I was trying to go to school at the same time, doing a few classes here and there.”
He said an essay he wrote in his business class aided in his advancing to a higher position at work.
“The paper was to discuss different ways that a business in the area could improve itself,” Knox said. “So, I wrote my paper based on what I would do to straighten FMC,” a food machinery and chemical manufacturing company.
Knox said the essay he wrote got him promoted from a machinist to a technical writer when FMC was acquired by Snap-On.
“It was not a lateral move and I never was disappointed,” he said. “That’s what I ended up doing for the rest of my life.”
Knox and his wife have two sons, Christopher and Aaron.
Knox reflected on a note he got from Christopher.
“He said, ‘You taught me a work ethic that I don’t see very often. That work ethic has taken me from a very basic employee to being a district manager,’” Knox said. “I guess something rubbed off on him.”
Knox said that during his time at UCA, he tried everything from mathematics to psychology. Currently, he has 160 credit hours.
“It’s been fun. I made so many missteps,” Knox said. “I’ve gone so many directions. I have dabbled in six or maybe seven different disciplines. That’s why in 2023, I’m finally taking the degree I started in 1965. That’s 58 years.”
Adriian Gardner, Knox’s academic adviser, said he was proud of Knox for committing to getting his degree.
“I admire Dennis Knox for his perseverance and stick-to-it-ness,” he said. “Mission accomplished, promise kept and degree earned.”
After all the classes he has taken, Knox said his favorite subject is history.
“I found out that I have a real love for history. If I did ever finish up a degree to teach, it would be in history because it fascinates me,” he said. “We need good history teachers. We need teachers who will teach honest history.”
Knox said his best advice to college students is to stay on top of things.
“Check your progress toward your chosen degree and don’t be afraid to change,” he said. “But don’t be a gadfly. Don’t hop from one discipline to another and another, unless you want a degree in general studies.”
