1969 alumna returns to experience pomp

Ellyn Larsen, 85, is assisted by her daughter Judy Bowker before a master’s hooding ceremony Saturday. Larsen never got to participate in the commencement ceremonies when she graduated 40 years ago.

Of all the thousands of paths that will lead underneath Kansas University’s Campanile into Memorial Stadium today, it’s likely none are quite as long as Ellyn Larsen’s.

The 85-year-old Salem, Ore., resident earned two degrees from KU — a bachelor’s degree in 1964 and a master’s degree in 1969. Twice, she missed out on her graduation ceremonies — once because she had to work and a second time because she was out of the state on a job interview.

Larsen said she’d expressed some interest — in particular over the last 15 years — in coming back to see whether she could walk down the hill and participate in the commencement exercises she missed more than 45 years ago.

That became a reality for her after her daughter, Judy Bowker, got her a cap and gown for Christmas last year. That accompanied a trip to Lawrence, where she’ll finally walk down the hill today.

“I was so surprised and so thrilled,” Larsen said. “Kansas University has been a big part of my life. It always has been.”

She also took part in a master’s hooding ceremony at the School of Education’s commencement ceremony Saturday.

The mother of four took about 12 years to earn the two degrees — she took classes in the summer, nights, weekends and by correspondence so she could farm, teach and help raise her children. After earning her degrees, she spent her life in the Pacific Northwest as an elementary school counselor, helping to institute new programs to help children in need of emotional assistance.

Earlier in her life, Larsen recalled how her family would sell watermelons they grew to raise enough money to put a down payment on a house outside Bonner Springs.

She recalled one day when the choice for the family came to purchase life insurance or to start her KU education.

“I thought I would rather go to school and have something I could use for the rest of my life,” Larsen said.

Bowker, herself a KU graduate now working as a professor at Oregon State University, recalled how the children would take swimming lessons during the summer days while Larsen took classes and would wait for her to get done inside the small igloo-like atrium of Bailey Hall.

Much has changed since Larsen last visited campus.

“All these buildings in what was just open space,” she said. “It was kind of a small campus at the time, and now it’s just enormous.”

She recalled her time at KU fondly. One day, she turned around and found herself looking at a belt buckle at eye level.

“It was Wilt Chamberlain,” she said. “He was enormous.”

To this day, Larsen said, each March remains a special time for the family, and everyone has to break out their blue KU T-shirts as the basketball team works its way through the NCAA championship tournament.

“The university’s really been at the center of my life,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do all the things I’ve done without it.”