From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for May 17, 1972:

Among the 4,257 graduates at Kansas University this year was Walter Lietzen, who at the age of 52 was receiving his bachelor’s degree in public relations from the School of Journalism. Lietzen had been working as a locomotive engineer since 1941, but he had also spent the last 10 years as a college student, working for Union Pacific at night and on weekends while attending college, bit by bit, during the day. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do all my life,” he said. “My idea of doing something worthwhile is to study.” Lietzen was planning to come back to KU in August as a graduate student in mass communications. Mrs. Mary Ellen Warner of Topeka was also walking down the hill this year after earning a master’s in social work while, with her husband, raising their 10 children, ranging in age from 7 to 18. “We have a very democratic, cooperative family,” she explained. “Everyone knows how to cook, even the 7-year-old. We all take turns with the cooking and the chores.”