'I had always wanted to be a geologist'

Fred Walsh (Danny Abriel Photo)

Fred Walsh admits it. He's a rock hound. But he never realized his passion for stone would one day earn him an honours bachelor of science degree in Earth Sciences—a 13-year odyssey as an adult learner.

"I've always had an interest in geology since I was eight years old," says Walsh, 52, the plumber at the Aquatron Laboratory in the Life Sciences Centre.

"I had a pup tent in the back of the family car. Mom and dad would drop me off and I would spend the weekend there, rocking. I still have my first rock collection. I've always loved the outdoors."

That's an understatement. Mr. Walsh was born in North West River in central Labrador. About 30 kilometres west of Goose Bay, it's a remote and ruggedly beautiful village.

Mr. Walsh would get to see many rugged and beautiful places, but that would come after he started at Dalhousie as a utility service person at Fenwick Place, the university's student apartment building in the south end of Halifax. That was 25 years ago. From Fenwick, he went to Facilities Management and worked in Stores, where the trades pick up their supplies. It was a move that would change his life.

First, Walsh became a plumber. (Facilities Management supports its employees to obtain trade certificates.) This all took years to accomplish and Mr. Walsh credits one man with getting him there—Karl Knox.

Now retired, Mr. Knox was the shop supervisor (mechanical), who saw something in the young Fred Walsh and pushed him.

Those educational opportunities made Mr. Walsh push his own son. He wanted him to go to university. His son resisted. They had a fight. In the midst of the argument, his son hurled this at his father: "If you like school so much, why don't you go back?"

"So I thought about it for a bit," says Mr. Walsh. "I had always wanted to be a geologist." Little did he know that simple decision would take him down a 13-year path of often difficult work. One of the hardest parts has been working full time and studying 40 to 60 hours a week.

"Working, working and working some more," says Mr. Walsh of his efforts to get through courses like calculus, physics and chemistry.

And there have been high points: many of them field trips to Newfoundland, Italy, England, Chile, Northern Canada and many places in the United States. And there's an A- in calculus when he was barely scraping by at the first of the term. And there is the simple love of knowledge.

That really is the secret to Fred Walsh. He loves learning. While studying for his degree, Mr. Walsh also earned a building systems technician certificate (two and a half years to obtain.) And for the past five years, he's been president of the Nova Scotia Prospectors' Association, a group of registered prospectors who have monthly meetings, outings and field trips.

So what does someone who has been so busy do now? Is he seriously tempted to do a master's degree? "Hmmm. Yes," he says. But for now he is going to savour the fact he has earned his BSc, a feeling he describes as "surreal."

Any words of advice to others?

"Never give up. No matter what happens. There are times when I definitely wanted to give up. You just have to brush yourself off and get back up and go back at it again. Never give up."