“We always told our kids, ‘Finish what you start.’ And that’s really why I went back.”

Nancy (McCoskey) Thoms ’75, MA ’24 began her Butler journey as a freshman out of Seymour Senior High School in Seymour, Indiana, in the fall semester 1961. On a scholarship that covered half of the $250/semester tuition, Thoms remembers fondly times spent drinking Cokes in the C-Club, made possible by the $2 a week her grandmother would send. “It was a different world,” she says.

Thoms, a History and Political Science undergraduate, spent three years as a typical Schwitzer coed of the early ’60s, abiding by the strict curfew rules and Sunday dinner dress codes in the all-girls dorm. “I don’t even remember wearing slacks to class,” she says. But a part-time job at the IU Law Library that began in her sophomore year added a detour on her road to a degree. It was at the Law Library that she met her future husband. Thoms continued with her Butler coursework, moving out of Schwitzer into an apartment with friends her senior year, but about halfway through the year she was ready to get married, so she left the University. Over the next 10 years, Thoms took occasional evening classes at Butler and completed her bachelor’s in 1975.

“I took graduate classes off and on, but I was working full time and had kids and just kind of let it go,” Thoms shares.

“Then my husband, Bill, passed away about six years ago and I’ve got more time than I know what to do with,” she says. “And I thought ‘Both my kids are attorneys, my husband was an attorney; the least I can do is finish what I started.’”

“When I decided to go back, my kids [sons Chris and Joe] thought it was great. My 80-year-old friends thought it was ‘stupid,’” she laughs. “‘Why would you do that?’ they said. ‘You’re not going to do anything with it.’” “That’s not the point,” Thoms says, “I just wanted to do it. I thought, ‘Why not?’”

From there she began to make phone calls and connections at Butler. Thoms doesn’t recall what led her to College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) Associate Dean Dr. Jennifer Poor, but credits her with making all this possible. Dr. Poor reached out to Associate Professor Dr. John Cornell in the History, Anthropology, and Classics Department who not only agreed to become her advisor, but also helped reconstruct a Master’s in History program, as it had been removed from the University’s offerings several years prior.

How did it feel walking into a classroom of students 60 years younger? “The first day–that felt weird,” she says. “I didn’t know how I’d be treated. But every professor has explained to the class who I am and why I’m there and that makes a difference.” And the students seemed to enjoy the perspective she could bring. Thoms says, “I told them how I watched Clowes Hall and Irwin Library being built. And about the day that President Kennedy had been shot.”

Were there obstacles or challenges? “I was just afraid I wouldn’t be fast enough. And I never did figure out Canvas (Butler’s learning management system). But the professors were more than happy to accept my papers through email.” And the students were always willing to help with any new technology, too. “They were so sweet and nice to me,” she says.

“There has not been one person who has not been wonderful to me. It’s been a phenomenal experience.”

“I just hate that I’ll never see those kids again.”