Ray Carroll did a lot of living in 40 years, but unfortunately, the World War II Army Air Corps veteran’s time on Earth was cut short due to leukemia. When Ray passed away in 1966, his son Chris was just five years old.

As he grew older, Chris, who grew up in Osage and now resides in Marshalltown, set out to learn more about the father he barely knew, seeking records on his military service and his college years at Iowa State University — he had attended in 1945 and 1946 on the GI Bill (he enlisted at 17 years old and served as a bomber gunner during the war) after and returned in 1952. For some reason, however, he was never awarded a degree despite appearing to have met the requisite credit requirements.

So when Chris first inquired with the registrar’s office about ISU about his father all the way back in 1989, he was told that the information would have to go to his mother. She ultimately received a photocopy of a document with no further details.

Chris persisted and continued to ask questions like how many credits were needed to graduate, but he realized that the office was primarily staffed by college students who wouldn’t know a thing about a man who had taken his last class nearly four decades prior.

“They said ‘We’ll look into that and get back to you.’ That’s the standard response, you know? And it’s like, ‘OK,'” Chris Carroll said.

In 2021 and 2022, he took additional stabs at it and ended with similar results — staff promised to look into it and get back to him. On the third try, he at least secured an official transcript, and on a whim earlier this year while he was in town for a medical appointment, he took a chance walking into the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) building on a Friday afternoon.

The door was open, and after walking through what seemed to be an empty building, he found a group of people chatting. They asked if they could help him, and he shared the story and the transcript.

As it turned out, Chris happened to be conversing with the dean of the School of Agriculture, Daniel J. Robison, and his executive assistant promised to dig into the matter and see what they could find — a refrain he had heard before. This time, however, they kept to their word, and when he called back a week or two later, they had answers.

While it couldn’t exactly be determined how many credits were needed to graduate in 1952, the number was 192 in 1973. Per the transcript, Ray Carroll had amassed between 190 and 201, and his son still isn’t sure why he never received his degree. One possible explanation, according to a newspaper article published around the time he would have graduated, is that Ray headed to a reservation in South Dakota on an agricultural mission.

“You can speculate on a lot of things, I’m sure, but they did not have any concrete reasons why,” Chris Carroll said. “He got a transcript, but they don’t know. No one seems to know.”

The story concluded on a positive note last Friday as Chris Carroll and his sister Mary Jo Johnson accepted a posthumously awarded bachelor’s degree in agricultural business and rural administration on their father’s behalf at the beginning of the CALS convocation ceremony. When asked why he continued on his path for so long, Chris said it ultimately boiled down to curiosity, and it led him to other discoveries including the fact that Ray had lived in the TKE fraternity house because military veterans received priority in housing. He’s still trying to learn more about his father’s service but has run into a few of the familiar refrains he’s become accustomed to — that records might be lost or they’ll need to be looked into further.

“I’d like to thank the people who put forth the extra effort. I really didn’t expect (the recognition). I was just looking for answers of some sort,” he said. “I’m sure it was the dean’s idea to go that far. He stepped up above and beyond.”

During the ceremony, Robison shared biographical details of Ray Carroll’s life and noted that he worked on his family’s farm before purchasing his own in 1958.

“We are so excited that after years of Chris’s perseverance, today Ray is being recognized for his accomplishments as an Iowa State student,” Robison said. “Chris and Mary Jo, on behalf of your family, I am pleased to present, on behalf of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and this great Iowa State University, a bachelor of science degree in agricultural business and rural administration to your father Ray and our total congratulations.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

maharry@timesrepublican.com.