Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 9, 1990 TAG: 9005080349
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELAINE VIEL SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
By the time Gov. Douglas Wilder had wound up his commencement speech at Virginia Tech Saturday, the Conrad home had become a "Dd.A." - a double-doctorate abode, and the Conrads were to be awash in Ed.Ds.
Dale Conrad's doctorate has been on hold since the summer of 1976. That's when he became one of those "ABD" candidates - "all but dissertation," as he puts it.
Sue Conrad has been working on her advanced degree since 1984.
The payoff was last weekend, and now they just have to agree on who gets to hang which sheepskin on which wall.
In their early 40s, the Conrads say their doctor of education degrees are sweet after the years of work. They say they plan to continue their current careers, she as a counselor at Radford University and he as a career counselor at New River Community College.
Sue Conrad was so excited that she could tell you the exact time she finished all the requirements to earn her degree.
"On July 21, 11 a.m., " she said with a laugh, she completed the defense of her dissertation, "National Study of Job Involvement and Job Characteristics of Student Affairs Professionals in Community and Junior Colleges."
She said she looked at the time because she wanted to know the exact moment.
Dale's defense of his dissertation took place on what he calls an appropriate date for an undergraduate history major: Dec. 7, "Pearl Harbor Day."
It was not easy being out in the real world holding down a job while trying to go back to school. The pressures of trying to scale the ivy-covered walls of academe can have one climbing the walls at home.
Sue Conrad knows that.
When she began her doctoral work, she was also holding down a full-time job at Pulaski Middle School.
"It was difficult to do both," she said.
So she decided to "jump into it with both feet." She quit her job and became a full-time student.
"It was wonderful," she said. "I never felt too old or out of place . . . that says a lot for Tech."
She later began to work part-time at Tech and, because her work schedule was flexible, she was able to do both.
She has been at the Radford counseling center since last August.
Dale, on the other hand, has been working for the past six years at New River Community College while doing the research and working on his dissertation.
He said he really got back on the doctoral track in 1985 when he took a couple of classes at Tech.
"In 1986 I asked the graduate school for permission to go back and to continue working on my dissertation."
Like his wife's, Dale Conrad's degree will be in counseling and student affairs.
In 1987, he did research for his dissertation, which is an evaluation of study of two systems that are "designed to help people do education and career planning."
Sue Conrad said that after collecting the data for her dissertation it took about six months to write it and "I was pleased with the lack of revisions."
Going back to school, she said, was "one of the best decisions we made."
She said that "if you are one-half of a couple who does it [goes back to school] it's really stressful, if both of you do it, you truly understand . . . what the other is going through."
"It feels great," Dale Conrad said about finally getting their degrees.
by CNB