80-year-old former RIT student finally earns his diploma

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It’s been a year of surprises for Bob Fitch, the 80-year-old who plans to walk the stage at graduation today (Friday, May 11) at Rochester Institute of Technology, 56 years after he stopped taking classes.

Last Aug. 12, Fitch’s nephew, David Cerrone, had gathered family and former contractors and subcontractors who had worked with B. Fitch Construction in Perinton for years to help Fitch celebrate his 80^th birthday.  Suddenly, Fitch was being called up front by Howard Ward, associate vice president for Student Auxiliary Services at RIT to receive something.

“I was flabbergasted. I never even had a clue of what was going on. I didn’t know who Howard Ward was.”   Ward was there to present Fitch with the diploma he had stopped short of completing back in 1962.

“His final words he said to me: ‘You have to do the walk.’ I thought, ‘What is the walk?’ ” Fitch recalled. When relatives told him it meant walking across the stage at graduation, Fitch said, “No way, I’m not going to do that.  And here I am.”

“None of the family would let him get away with not doing the walk,” said wife Evelyn Fitch. Nor his friends. Another surprise came this week when family went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory only to find longtime former neighbors from Mendon waiting for them. Steve and Joan Pierce, and Audrey “Sam” Kettenburg had traveled from South Carolina to see Fitch graduate.

The Fitches’ two living daughters, Elizabeth Chastang  (and husband Jim) and Sarah Smith, will be there, along with three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.  A third daughter, Suzanne Poole, passed away at age 45.

With two jobs in construction and a young family to support back in the early 1960s, Fitch had found it difficult to complete the last night course he needed for a degree from RIT’s School for American Crafts. But when Cerrone contacted RIT about his uncle’s credits, RIT’s School of Individualized Study agreed it could grant Fitch  a diploma in applied arts and sciences for the work he had done.

“It was easy for SOIS to do something like this because Bob earned it,” said Abby Cantwell, assistant director of RIT’s School of Individualized Study. “He put a lot of time and energy into taking those courses and we are glad that we can use the individualized diploma to help him receive a RIT credential.”

Despite lacking that last course in economics, Fitch has applied himself to craftsmanship and business ever since, including at the university. As a construction worker and then  owner of B. Fitch Construction for many years, he ended up working on carpentry jobs at his former school. He renovated the RIT president’s office by installing oak doors and frames, and added oak walls and ceilings to the foyer and elevator area in the Eastman Building, which houses the president’s office.

Fitch sold his business to his nephew and planned to retire to Florida in the 1990s. While looking for a place to live, however, he realized he wasn’t ready to stop working. As a result, the Fitches bought a marina in Cape Canaveral that they ran from 1992 to 2002. He works for the new owners 3 1/2 days a week, doing everything from maintenance work to boat building.

“I’ve got to have something to do,” Fitch said. “As long as I’m healthy and I can get up and get out, I’m going to work.”

When Fitch was fitted for a cap and gown earlier this week, he learned from James Hall, director of the School of Individualized Study, that he will be the last student to walk across the stage at the ceremony.

“You’re saving me for last – this is not good,” Fitch said. He suspects there may be one more surprise.

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