Surprise: Wife helps retired veterinarian get Mississippi State bachelor’s degree 60 years later

Contact: Allison Matthews

STARKVILLE, Miss.—One of this fall’s graduates at Mississippi State University never imagined he would receive the MSU undergraduate degree he worked on 60 years ago.

Dr. John G. “Rusty” Thornton took his last class at MSU in 1965 before transferring to Auburn University to complete his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. After transferring and earning additional credits at Auburn, he was eligible to finalize his MSU bachelor’s degree; however, an $85 graduation fee was financially prohibitive for the young husband and father who was continuing his studies.

A native of Oxford, Thornton first enrolled at MSU in 1962. He couldn’t resist returning to his hometown and attending the University of Mississippi for the 1963 school year since his high school sweetheart and the love of his life was there. After Rusty and Stephanie Thornton married in 1964, he returned with his bride to MSU where he completed the pre-veterinary curriculum. MSU’s DVM program in the College of Veterinary Medicine didn’t launch its inaugural class until the mid-1970s. However, the transfer program was in place earlier for those aspiring to become veterinarians, and Thornton graduated from Auburn with his DVM in 1969.

Fast forward nearly 60 years from his MSU enrollment—after retiring from a long and successful veterinary career in Helena, Arkansas, and returning to Oxford, Thornton occasionally had mentioned his regret about not tying up that Mississippi State diploma. This gave Stephanie an idea, and she called MSU to see if there was any possible way to make him an official Bulldog alumnus.

She was connected to Associate Dean Jack Smith in MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine who worked with Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Peter Ryan. The first step was to search university archival files for Thornton’s student record, review his credit hours and go over his other transcripts.

“When I saw his transcript, I knew we were going to be able to award the degree,” Ryan said. “He had completed the credit hours and earned the degree but had not transferred all his hours back to MSU to make it official.”

On Thursday [Dec. 12], under the guise of picking up some of MSU’s famous Edam cheese at the MAFES Sales Store and also with plans to donate some older veterinary textbooks to MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, the Thorntons headed to Starkville.

It was graduation week at the university, and it also happened to be Thornton’s 81st birthday.

“It’s good to know that after 60 years, I can still surprise him,” Stephanie said.

When Thornton met with Smith and Ryan, along with Dean Nicholas Frank of the College of Veterinary Medicine and other university representatives to donate the textbooks, the surprise was successfully completed when he was presented a gift and unwrapped his long overdue MSU diploma.

“I’m totally speechless. I had no idea that this would ever happen,” Thornton said. “I’m really proud of this and surprised.

“I just can’t tell you how much this means to me,” he said.

Thornton was awarded the Bachelor’s of Science in General Science degree, which actually falls under MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences rather than CVM and can be used for students who go on to professional schools, such as medical or law school.

“This was a great opportunity to recognize an accomplishment,” Ryan said.

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