An increasingly used buzzword in higher education policy circles these days is “lifelong learning.” It can mean many different things: from the accumulation of stackable practical skills over the duration of a career, as in somebody starting as an apprentice machinist and, by combining work and school, finishing as a professor of engineering, to the pursuit of more enriching artistic and intellectual pursuits once the problem of making a comfortable living has been solved and as one matures through age and experience.

Then there’s Bill Smith. Bill was an all-but-dissertation Ph.D. candidate back in 1987 when “life” drew him away from academia and into the busy worlds of politics and private industry. A couple of years ago, after a quarter-century absence, he re-started his Ph.D. program in order to live his dream of a life in the realm of ideas. Here’s his story in his own words.