Granada Hills : City Council Honors UCLA Graduate, 83

Florence (Susie) Clifton, an 83-year-old Granada Hills woman who recently received a college degree from UCLA, was honored by the Los Angeles City Council on Friday as a “model for women of a generation to come.”

The resolution, introduced by City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, recognizes Clifton’s lifetime of service to the state and to the Democratic Party.

Galanter said she was prompted to introduce the measure after reading an article about Clifton in the newspaper.

“We want to encourage young people and adults to let them know it’s OK to go back to college at any time,” Galanter said. “Education is something to be treasured at any time.”

Clifton received her bachelor’s degree in physical education in June after a 62-year break from college. With just four credits remaining to graduate in 1931, Clifton left school to help her family make ends meet. She married and had five children, served two terms in the Peace Corps in Micronesia and West Africa, and said she never thought more than five months ahead at a time.

“I didn’t get around to thinking what I hadn’t done that I wish I done until last Christmas,” Clifton said. “I was too busy all this time.”

But Clifton said she had always promised herself she would finish college. And when she returned to UCLA to inquire about enrolling in classes, university officials told her that some extension classes she’d taken for self-improvement in the 1950s were sufficient to allow her to graduate, and they awarded her with a diploma.

Clifton, who just celebrated her 60th anniversary with her husband, retired Municipal Judge Robert Clifton, went through the commencement ceremony in June, and said she is considering returning to school in the future for a master’s degree relating in some way to community service.

She received the council honor in person Friday but said the resolution means more to her family than it does to her.

“My objective was just to complete my degree,” she said.