When Bill Flesher was 15 years old he dropped out of high school in his hometown of Parkersburg, W.Va. His mother, who was widowed nine years earlier, tried to talk him out of quitting school and warned him that he would live to regret that decision. Flesher took up with a tough crowd and gave his mother fits for...
Bill Flesher, who will graduate from Cayuga Community College’s Fulton Campus with a 3.933 average Sunday, will be one of two students to address to the graduating class. He poses in the college’s science lab with Biology Department assistant professor Joel Humphrey. He took Humphrey’s anatomy and physiology 1 and 2 courses.
When Bill Flesher was 15 years old he dropped out of high school in his hometown of Parkersburg, W.Va. His mother, who was widowed nine years earlier, tried to talk him out of quitting school and warned him that he would live to regret that decision.
Flesher took up with a tough crowd and gave his mother fits for two years until he enlisted in the Navy. He hoped to see the world — as the Navy used to promise — and he set sail on what would become a decorated military career that lasted for nearly 24 years.
On his journey, he chased Russian submarines in the Mediterranean Sea, served five tours in the Persian Gulf, sailed most of the world’s oceans and trained some 30,000 Navy recruits. He earned the Navy Achievement Award.
But after he retired from the Navy in September 2004 and bounced around in the job market for a couple of years, Flesher decided to right a personal wrong. He enrolled at Cayuga Community College’s Fulton campus and today the former high school dropout will give one of two commencement speeches to his fellow graduates.
“I always felt like I disappointed my mom and my family by dropping out of high school. I almost feel like this is a chance for me to right a wrong — an educational redemption, if you will. I will be the first person in my family to graduate from college,” said Flesher, 46.
Flesher, who lives in Liverpool, was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, which is SUNY’s highest academic honor. He and Auburn’s Kelly Shafer, who also received the chancellor’s award, will each address CCC’s 56th graduating class in a ceremony that starts at 1 p.m. at Spartan Hall at the college’s Auburn campus.
Flesher said he plans to tell his life story in hopes that he might inspire others who are struggling. He was accepted at Upstate Medical University, in Syracuse, where he plans to study radiography in hopes of becoming an MRI technologist.
“I’m going to speak from my heart. You can’t go wrong with that,” said Flesher, a divorced father of two teenage daughters. His oldest daughter will graduate from high school next month.
CCC President Daniel Larson said Flesher’s success story offers a couple of valuable lessons.
“Bill is proof that it is possible for people to achieve their goals and that age really doesn’t matter,” Larson said.
Joel Humphrey, an anatomy and physiology professor at CCC’s Fulton campus, said Flesher ranks as one of the most exceptional students she has ever taught.
“He’s an impressive student not because he got the best grades — which he did — but because he really is curious and inquisitive, and you don’t see that a lot. To say Bill thought outside the box would be an egregious understatement,” Humphrey said.
The teacher also spoke of Flesher’s selflessness. He spent hours each week tutoring other students even when school was on spring break, Humphrey said.
“He wants everyone to do well. He really is a humble guy and I feel fortunate to have him as a student,” Humphrey said.
Flesher said he took it upon himself to help his much-younger peers in several classes because he was excelling while many of them were struggling.
“I think it was the father in me coming out. They reminded me of my daughters,” Flesher said.
Flesher earned his high school GED a couple of years after enlisting in the Navy. He served as a quartermaster, or navigator, on four combat ships that saw time in the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea and off the coasts of Central South America and Somalia. He ended his active duty career as the command chief and training officer at the Naval Reserve Center in Mattydale.
He tried driving a truck and selling furniture before going back to school on the GI Bill. He lives on his Navy pension.
“His life story is pretty amazing,” Larson said. “He could have settled back and done something really not too challenging, like play golf the rest of his life. He’s not doing that. Bill will really help that group of nontraditional students.”
Flesher said he succeeded in college because he applied the disciplined work ethic he developed in the Navy to pursuing his associate’s degree in science. He also wanted to make amends to his mother, who raised Flesher and three sisters on her own while working minimum-wage jobs. She never remarried and also provided a strong role model for him.
“I’ve apologized to my mom more than once for the way I acted as a teenager,” Flesher said.
Apologies, though, were never necessary, said his 78-year-old mother, Freda, who still lives in Parkersburg.
“He didn’t let me down. I understood him. I tried to teach him right from wrong, and I hoped everything would turn out right for him — and it did,” she said. “I’m very proud of him.”
You can reach Scott Rapp at srapp@syracuse.com or 289-4839.