Retiree Pursues Lifelong Learning
You’re never too old to stop learning—at least not according to Dr. Oak DeBerg ’11, who, as a retiree and veteran, received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Texas A&M.
DeBerg began his higher education journey in the 1960s at the University of California-Berkeley, where he received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He then went on to earn his master’s in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.
After spending three decades in the U.S. Air Force and retiring in 1995, he began taking classes at different colleges as he moved around with his wife, Joellen, while she was still on active duty with the Air Force. When Joellen retired in 2004, the DeBergs decided to stay in Texas.
While in the military, Oak served as an engineer, an arms control negotiator with the Soviet Union and a congressional liaison. His first two assignments involved nuclear weapons and prompted him to start asking the “big questions.” This, combined with memories of a philosophy class at Berkeley, inspired him to pursue his studies in philosophy.
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This article originally appeared in the College of Liberal Arts website.
