Student continues learning at 90 years old

Bursting into the newsroom, 90-year-old student Diana Baldwin and her 80-year-old friend Penelope Doherty were eager to get an article to press, not realizing they were the real story.

After being knocked over by a passing skateboarder, Baldwin thought the campus should know the consequences of careless cruising.

With her injury healing and her story reported to campus police, Baldwin sat down with the Daily 49er to talk about her overall experience at Cal State Long Beach.

Baldwin started taking classes at CSULB when she was 65 years old. She estimates that she has spent 10 years studying at the university.

“Diana is ready with comments all the time, she asks questions, she absorbs, she takes notes,” history professor Arnold Kaminsky said. ”She is really just a very classy act, to be quite honest.”

Baldwin was born Dec. 26, 1925 on the East Coast. Her humble upbringings in Mt. Vernon, New York launched her motivation to seek knowledge and take value in her education.

Having received high marks in high school, Baldwin was granted a full-ride scholarship to New York University.Courtesy of Diana Baldwin

Baldwin opted out of studying French and decided to major in Spanish after speaking to an adviser who thought it would be more beneficial. She graduated magna cum laude from NYU.

Baldwin has continued her path of knowledge by taking a variety of courses here at CSULB.

“I like a little bit of everything. I have taken geography, and I’m matriculated in Jewish studies and have taken some wonderful classes with Jeffrey Blutinger,” Baldwin said. “Mostly history and literature, I love taking a lot of the classes I missed out on majoring in Spanish.”

During her years after NYU, Spanish teaching jobs were hard to come by at the time, so she used her Spanish degree to travel.

After graduation, she and her friend Jean Frommer, author Arthur Frommer’s sister, travelled to Cuba “B.C.,” or as Baldwin explains it, “before Castro.”

There, she took advantage of her Spanish degree by translating for her friend, which allowed them to navigate the country with ease.

“I think my love of travel started then because I became a travel agent while I was teaching, and I have [since] visited 106 countries and I’m still going,” Baldwin said.

Next week, Baldwin is going on a river cruise on the Mississippi River on the American Steamboat that goes from New Orleans to Memphis. She is planning to go on another river cruise that travels from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland, this April.

“I keep looking for good deals, being a travel agent,”  Baldwin said. “My daughter works for Delta, so that helps a lot.”

Baldwin’s professors enjoy having her and her fellow senior program students in class because they provide an interesting perspective having had more life experience than the average CSULB student.

“She actively participates and does the reading like any other student might,” said Jeffrey Blutinger, a Jewish studies professor.

Over the summer, Baldwin received a unsettling email from the administration indicating that because she was not working towards a degree, she would be unable to enroll in classes.

“I wrote an email back that had said, ‘if you had shot me right through the heart, you couldn’t’ve hurt me more. You’re taking away the greatest pleasure of my life.’” Baldwin said. “[CSULB] reinstated me.”  

Right now Baldwin is enrolled in a comparative world literature European masterpieces class and a history of India course.Courtesy of Diana Baldwin

Baldwin said that students should really take their studies seriously and not fool around.

“There’s nothing like knowledge, and no one can take that away from you.” Baldwin said. “Be diverse, be a good human being and don’t knock anyone down while you’re skateboarding.”