{"id":354,"date":"2025-12-10T13:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/?p=354"},"modified":"2025-12-10T13:41:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:41:04","slug":"after-70-years-neurosurgeon-will-get-his-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/2025\/12\/10\/after-70-years-neurosurgeon-will-get-his-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"After 70 years, neurosurgeon will get his degree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-355\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-1024x576.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-1024x576.avif 1024w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-300x169.avif 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-768x432.avif 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-600x338.avif 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2.avif 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">David L. Kelly Jr. was one class shy of earning a Carolina undergraduate degree in spring 1955. He hoped to attend medical school. UNC\u2019s School of Medicine was admitting qualified students through an accelerated program, so he applied.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He was accepted and became an accomplished neurosurgeon.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Now 90, Kelly \u201959 (MD) sometimes wondered about finishing his bachelor\u2019s degree. \u201cI was the only person in my medical school class who didn\u2019t have the degree. Quite frankly, I wanted to be an alumnus of the University of North Carolina,\u201d he said. He was even willing to attend class on campus.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Chancellor Lee H. Roberts heard about Kelly\u2019s long-held wish and asked Lauren DiGrazia, associate provost and University registrar, to look into fulfilling that wish. Her staff determined Kelly\u2019s academic record matched 1955 requirements for a Bachelor of Science in chemistry.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">His wish has been granted.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On Dec. 14, Kelly will put on a Carolina Blue cap and gown, then join younger graduates at Winter Commencement. His diploma will read \u201cClass of 1955.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unc.edu\/posts\/2025\/12\/01\/after-70-years-neurosurgeon-will-get-his-degree\/\">Read more about Dr. Kelly&#8217;s story.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David L. Kelly Jr. was one class shy of earning a Carolina undergraduate degree in spring 1955. He hoped to attend medical school. UNC\u2019s School of Medicine was admitting qualified students through an accelerated program, so he applied. He was accepted and became an accomplished neurosurgeon. Now 90, Kelly \u201959 (MD) sometimes wondered about finishing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/2025\/12\/10\/after-70-years-neurosurgeon-will-get-his-degree\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about After 70 years, neurosurgeon will get his degree\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112547,"featured_media":355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2.avif","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-300x169.avif","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-768x432.avif","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-1024x576.avif","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2025\/12\/HERO-DavidKelly2-150x150.avif","featured_image_alt":"David L. Kelly, MD '59","category_details":[{"name":"Alumni Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/category\/alumni-stories\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}