Porch Notes
The Most Degreed Person in Modern History Is a Kalamazoo Man Who Just Kept Going to School
History and culture
Most of us collect a diploma or two and call it a day. Michael Nicholson of Kalamazoo collected about thirty.
Born in 1941, Nicholson is what’s known as a “perpetual student,” and he’s widely recognized as holding the unofficial record for the most earned college degrees of anyone in modern history. By the mid-2010s his collection included one bachelor’s degree, two associate’s degrees, around 22 master’s degrees, three specialist degrees, and a doctorate — most of them in education-related fields, but ranging into subjects like home economics, health education, and law enforcement.
What’s remarkable isn’t just the number, but how he did it. Nicholson’s father, a Canadian, had to leave school after the third grade; his mother finished high school and pushed her children to go as far as they could. Michael took that to heart and simply never stopped. He paid his way without piling up debt — starting with a paper route as a young man, and later working as a parking-meter attendant at Western Michigan University, which earned him a tuition discount for years. He famously typed many of his papers on the same 1960s green typewriter.
His first degree came in 1963; his doctorate in education from Western Michigan University in 1978; and the degrees just kept coming after that. Asked why, he gave a wonderfully simple answer: school keeps life interesting.
It’s not a tale of fame or fortune — it’s a quietly inspiring Michigan story about loving to learn for its own sake, and about a mother’s hope that her kids would reach further than she could.
Where to see it
There's no monument to Michael Nicholson — he's a person, not a place. But his story is rooted in Kalamazoo and at Western Michigan University, where he earned his doctorate and worked as a parking attendant to fund decades of study.