In 1946, Dr. Joe Knowles enrolled at the University of Texas but it didn’t take the Bryan native long to realize he was an Aggie deep down. He transferred to Texas A&M in the spring of 1947. He went on to get accepted into medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in the Fall of 1949. Once he completed medical school, he served three years as a physician for the U.S. Air Force before settling into a practice in Borger, Texas for over three decades.
His story sounds pretty typical until you understand that Knowles was actually shy one class from earning his undergraduate degree. He just fast forwarded past that milestone and jumped straight into medical school without blinking. “I had 129 hours. If I would take a three hour course in freehand drawing they would give me a degree...I never did take it,” he explained with a smirk.
It wasn’t until he crossed paths with Sharon Clements, a neighbor and fellow Aggie who was determined to help him get his diploma after hearing the story. Their strategy was to seek eligibility to graduate by transferring his UTMB credits to Texas A&M.
She worked with the University, acting as an advocate, waiting months for an answer before they finally got the notification, it was confirmed, the school was going to grant him the diploma. But that wasn’t all, they were also inviting him to walk the stage with the graduating class of 2021 at 92 years old, and over seven decades after he had been set to graduate in 1950.
Knowles says the experience is one of the high points of his life, truly an unexpected joy! The perfect crescendo to a story that aptly illustrates the famous saying, “better late than never!”
