Meet the cutest lil old Penn State student you’ve ever seen – he’s 76

Carrol Prentiss Ozgood, affectionately known as Oz to his friends and current classmates is a retired neurosurgeon/veteran medical corps captain in the Vietnam war/current Penn State student (at 76 years old).

A native of Connecticut, Oz went to Williams College for his undergrad in Biochemistry before attending Jefferson Medical School and then doing his residency at Emory University Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh. He holds honors such as the 1973 Simonton Prize for Resident Research from the Pittsburgh Academy of Medicine and is part of medical societies like the Society of Vascular Technology and the Pennsylvania Medical Association.

And now, he also holds the title of current Chinese 003 Heritage course student.

Having retired just this past August, Oz has followed his lifelong passion for learning and enrolled in classes at University Park, 54 years since he first graduated as an undergrad.

The Tab recently sat down with Oz to ask him about his exciting experiences in the classroom, the field and the operating room.

I see you went to Williams College for your undergrad. What made you choose Penn State this time around?

I graduated from Williams in 1961—in the middle of the Cold War. There, I took a lot of science courses and was grateful for my education. But, I’m retired now and the world is much more peaceful. Penn State is the nearest large university with an Asian studies program, and I wanted to go back and maybe go to graduate school for Asian Studies and Applied Linguistics. If I could go back and change one thing about my undergrad, I would have taken more Humanities courses, which is what I’m tying to do now.

That’s pretty impressive. What’s it like being back on campus after all these years? What do you think the biggest change you’ve noticed since your time at undergrad is?

It’s very interesting, especially seeing all of students from all over the world coming here to learn English, which is wonderful. Textbooks and teaching methods are vastly improved as well. Students at Penn State get a much better education than we got at Williams 50 years ago. There’s just so much interesting and profound technology around. I mean, look at all the virtual reality programs and items like “Google glass.” Have you heard of the new “deep learning” software? It’s new software that can essentially “learn” by imitating what brain cells.

Speaking of technology, now that you’re back on a college campus, are you exploring social media?

Ha, no, not really. I practice Japanese and Chinese grammar on the computer, but that’s the extent of my social media activities.

Did your daughters go to Penn State? What do they think of you coming back?

No my daughters both went college in New York state and graduated a long time ago. They’re very supportive of me coming back. My wife sometimes says I am, quote on quote “abandoning” her, but she also keeps busy working for non-profits and being a grandmother.

So why Chinese? What inspired you to come take a Chinese course?

I spent 13 years in the army and was stationed in Vietnam from 1967-1968, which was the peak of our war effort really. While stationed abroad, I picked up both Chinese and Vietnamese. I’ve mainly forgotten the Vietnamese now, but I am trying to keep up with my Chinese.

What was your time in the army like?

I was stationed in Vietnam from 1967-1968, which was at the peak of our war effort. I worked both as a battalion surgeon and at the Second Surgical Hospital in Chulai.

You hold quite a few titles: veteran, student and apparently, neurosurgeon. What inspired you to be a neurosurgeon?

I was a doctor for 47 years. When I was younger, my mother developed a huge brain tumor and became severely ill. She survived a major operation, with some disabilities. It was during this time that I developed a keen interest in neurology and surgery.

What was the hardest part about being a neurosurgeon?

Probably being on-call all the time. I was on-call for most of my life.

You just recently retired this last August, right? Do you miss it? Were there any memorable cases that you still think about?

There were too many fascinating cases to recount. I was very grateful for my clinical career in neurosurgery. But I’ve been keeping myself so busy that I don’t have time to miss it. I want to try something completely new—some teaching and post-graduate studies.

You teach English on campus right now, right? What’s that like?

Yes, I do. I teach a couple afternoons a week and I love it. It’s the highlight of my week. Teaching is always person-to-person, and I look forward to it every week.

You’ve clearly kept yourself busy. What’s a typical day for you like on campus? Do you have any favorite places to study

I usually leave around 7am and I don’t get done until 4pm on most days. I usually study here at the library or in the computer room at Bouke.

So, what do you like to do for fun?

We had, for 25 years, a working farm outside Altoona. My wife boarded 18 horses and we had cattle and feed and pigs. We enjoyed our years on the farm very much—we were both city kids. We had a lot of fun experiences. It was a lot of work, and we’re both 76 now, so we had to sell it to a much younger couple. I also have a 5 year old grandson at home, so I’m hoping to teach him some Chinese soon.