John Doherty, 83, and Twins Franzi and Edward Hoene, 18, Prove Learning is Timeless
Image by Ed Brennen
05/19/2025
By Ed Brennen
At 83 years old, John Doherty is proof that it’s never too late in life to earn a college degree. And at just 18, twins Franzi and Edward Hoene are proof that it’s never too early.
Together, they were the chronological bookends to UMass Lowell’s Class of 2025 — its oldest and youngest graduates.
Their graduating class included 4,447 students from 42 states and 98 countries. No matter where they were from or when they were born, the Class of 2025 was united by determination and a desire to grow.
Here’s a closer look at the paths that Doherty and the Hoenes took to Commencement.
‘Maybe I Need a New Challenge’
When it was time to write his first paper for “Native Americans of the Northeast Woodlands,” his first course en route to a master’s degree in history, John Doherty sat down at his typewriter and click-clacked away.
“What’s this?” his professor, Department Chair Christoph Strobel, asked when Doherty turned in his typed work.
“It’s my paper,” Doherty replied.
“We don’t do that,” Strobel said. “We use email or a thumb drive.”
“What’s a thumb drive?” Doherty asked.
Considering he was 80 years old at the time, Doherty could be forgiven for not being up to date on the latest academic technology. He hadn’t taken a class since 1971, when he earned a law degree from Boston College. After a 50-year academic hiatus, Doherty decided to go back to school at UMass Lowell.
Image by Ed Brennen
While languages were his first love, history was a close second. He reached out to “a whole slew” of programs and found UML to be a good fit: close to home with a strong history department and youthful faculty.
“Although compared to me, everybody’s youthful,” Doherty grins.
He emailed Distinguished University Professor Robert Forrant about enrolling in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (FAHSS). Forrant encouraged him to apply, but there was one problem: Doherty’s academic transcripts had been lost to the dustbin of time. Instead, he submitted photocopies of his three diplomas, which the university accepted.
“The school was very accommodating,” says Doherty, who embarked on a three-year academic journey, one class per semester, entirely in person.
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Many of his courses were a mix of undergraduate and graduate students — most of whom were young enough to be his grandchildren. Doherty had a line ready whenever a classmate asked about his age.
“'Hey, be nice — I used to date your grandmother. We might be related,'” he’d say. “They thought that was great.”
Doherty lived the history that’s found in textbooks. He served as a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam, where he earned the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Back home, he served as a Massachusetts assistant attorney general and assistant U.S. attorney. He practiced private law for 14 years before serving as director of veterans services in Andover for nine years, until his retirement in 2007.
All that experience didn’t prepare him for the culture shock of the modern classroom, however.
“The first course I took, in comes a girl wearing bunny slippers and pajamas,” he recalls. “Needless to say, when I started at Harvard in 1959, that would have got you thrown not only off campus, but out of school.”
“But of all the academic experiences I’ve had, this was the most fun,” he adds. “The students were great, and the faculty was very helpful.”
Doherty’s cheering section at Commencement included his wife, Denise, his daughter, Margaret, his 1-year-old granddaughter and his son-in-law. Now that he’s donned the cap and gown again (“I look like a deranged penguin”), Doherty’s already eyeing his next academic pursuit.
“Maybe an MBA, but we’ll see. I’ve had some health setbacks, so I have to be realistic,” says Doherty, a three-time cancer survivor. “Going back to school was a lot of work, but I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had the past three years.”
Doherty is a testament to the power of lifelong learning.
“There’s no reason to shut down your gray matter, no matter your age,” he says. “If you're interested and willing to put the time in, do it.”
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‘I Found Myself as a Person’
At an age when most of their peers are finishing high school, 18-year-old twins Franzi and Edward Hoene have graduated with honors from UMass Lowell and are looking ahead to graduate school.
“It's an interesting feeling,” says Edward, who majored in civil engineering and will continue at UML in the fall for his master’s degree. “But I really don’t know how to feel, because I haven't seen it from the other perspective.”
The Hoenes, who are from Woburn, Massachusetts, took an unconventional academic path that started in middle school. During the pandemic, around the age of 13, both began taking community college classes at Northern Essex and Middlesex community colleges through the Commonwealth Dual Enrollment Partnership.
They enrolled full-time at UMass Lowell when they were just 16 — following in the River Hawk flight path of their two older siblings, computer engineering alum Hans Hoene ’18, ’19 and mechanical engineering alum Henning Hoene ’21, ’22, ’24.
“I had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends at UMass Lowell. I found myself as a person,” says Franzi, who majored in biomedical engineering and is already on her way to a master’s degree through the bachelor’s-to-master’s program.
Starting college at 16 didn’t seem unusual to the Hoenes.
“I’d already started community college when I was 13, so I was more used to that environment than I was going to middle school or high school,” Edward says.
“The age difference wasn't something I noticed,” Franzi adds. “And it's something that my friends often forget. My best friend, who’s now 20, forgets that I was 16 when she met me.”
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“It was a great experience. We built simulation models from scratch, and I liked being able to see the real-world impact of our work,” says Edward, who was also a member of the Concrete Canoe team.
Franzi also embraced extracurriculars at UML: She was a member of the Women's Club Soccer team and several intramural teams, and also discovered a love of surfing after taking part in a trip with the Outdoor Adventure Program.
“My classes were fun and I learned a lot of great things, but I was more focused on the social part” of college, she says. “I was able to build relationships with people from all over the country.”
Their parents, Penny and Bernd, and siblings cheered them on at Commencement. It was a big day, but the twins had unique perspectives on being the youngest members of the Class of 2025.
“It doesn’t mean I get to retire earlier,” Edward said.
Franzi added with a grin, “I’ll look back one day and say, ‘I used to be smart once!’”