Ed Horn

Graduation took a bit of a miracle — and a lot of determination — for Ed Horn

Ed Horn has finished pretty much everything he started. He’s gotten married, served in the Coast Guard for four years, had kids and grandkids, held a job in the Public Works Department in Delanco Township for 35 years.

He’s done it all, except earn a bachelor’s degree.

That is about to change for the 66-year-old Riverside resident.

In May he will graduate from Rowan University with a B.S. in sociology summa or magna cum laude, depending on how his very last class plays out.

Study in determination
That he is making that commencement walk is a study in determination and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of a miracle.

It’s not so much that his parents split when he was a kid and he was raised by his grandmother Mary.

It’s not so much that he earned an associate’s degree at Burlington County College in 1973 and never immediately followed up on furthering his education.

It’s not even about raising a family and trying to find the time to pursue his education.

It’s in large part about surviving a devastating accident three years after he returned to college in 2000, being told he may never walk again and still displaying the fortitude to return to classes and succeed.

His higher education story starts more than a decade ago.

The beginning
A relative was taking graduate-level classes in sociology at Rowan and suggested he look into an undergraduate program.

Horn recalled she said, “‘I’m going down to register for a class. Do you want to come?’”

“I said, ‘I don’t know how to register because I don’t have a computer.’”

“I wanted to return to get my education,” he said. “That’s one thing that I always failed in my life to get, so I approached my wife and said, ‘What do you think? Can this old man go back to school again?’ and she said ‘If you want to bad enough, go right ahead.’”

He bought a computer and signed up for a history class. At 55 or so, it was an experience.

“I had to learn all over again how to study,” Horn recalled. “But I had the determination to do it. I had the first course, and to me I didn’t think I was doing very well.”

He made up his mind if he got a “C” or better he would continue.

“This is my symbol”
“Back then they mailed you your grade. I looked in the mail, and I received an ‘A’ for the course,” said the 1963 Riverside High School graduate. “So I walked down to the bookstore and I bought this (Rowan University) hat I’m wearing. This hat is 10 years old and this is my symbol. It’s dirty, it’s beat up, just like me. But it means an awful lot to me. I’m proud to wear it.”

Taking one or two classes a semester makes earning a degree a long investment. Horn’s timeframe got even longer in 2003.

As he tells of that fateful trek to Princeton Avenue in Delanco, he’s philosophical.

“I guess I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. There was an emergency call, a tree had spilt in half,” he said. “My job was to go out and clean up the mess because the police had called and I had to respond. We went to the job site and we started removing the half of the tree that was in the street, and lo and behold I turned around and here comes the other half of the tree and it crushed me to the street.”

His co-worker called 911, and he was rushed to a local hospital. The damage was too traumatic for that facility, and he was transferred to the trauma unit at Cooper University Hospital.

He spent nine days in the trauma unit and more in a step-down unit with a crushed pelvis, damaged urethra, massive contusions and a large hematoma on his left leg.

Things were touch and go for a while. Thankfully, the internal bleeding traveled to his leg. “If it didn’t go into my leg it would have stayed in my system and I would have been a goner,” Horn said.

From Cooper, he went into a rehabilitation facility, spending 16 weeks trying to learn how to walk again.

“I’m the breadwinner of the family. I wanted to get back to work. My goal was to go to 65 and retire. It got to be too much for me. I wound up going back in the line of work that created my injury,” Horn said. He lasted on the job until age 62.

Lots of support
He lasted at Rowan longer.

“I figured I’d never go back to school, let alone walk,” said Horn, who dropped 45 pounds and was on a diet of morphine after the accident.

But he did return, about four months later.

Two professors, Dr. Jay Chaskes, who uses a wheelchair, and Dr. Anthony Sommo, who is blind, inspired him in particular.

Others were there for him as well, after the accident as well as before.

“If it weren’t for my wife, family and grandchildren giving me support along the way, my journey never would have happened,” Horn said.

“What I found coming to Rowan is the personal relationship you have with the professor. In my over 10 years not once has a prof slammed a door in my face or said ‘Ed I’m too busy.’ The people who I have met here at Rowan — it’s been a very close, warm, inspirational relationship. And it’s given me the drive to continue. They made me lifelong learners,” said Horn, who last year won a prestigious Rowan honor for sociology studies.

His own attitude helped, of course.

“To me, failure in life is not falling down,” he said. “Failure in life is when you choose to stay down and not get up. I chose to stand up. If I can do it, so can others.”

As for the future, he may pursue more education, he may explore other career opportunities.

Or, he said, “At 66 I might just go fishing.”