66-year-old graduate looks forward, back

After having been bossed around as a secretary for too long, Marilyn Cresser decided it was time to take things into her own hands.

"I was tired of being trampled on all the time," she said. "It was time to go back to school."

The 66-year-old Cal State Long Beach student said she's had a long and eventful life. 

Cresser has worked at Boeing, holding many different positions, for 37 years. She will receive her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and technical writing this week.  Cresser is also dyslexic.

"It works fine," she said. "I just have somebody proofread my stuff, to take out the errors that I can't find."

Now she works as a technical coordinator, working with phone and computer networks at Boeing, the company she started working for in 1964. But that's not what she's always done. 

She started as a clerk and worked as a secretary until 1988, when company layoffs and downsizing forced her into rethinking her job situation. 

After taking a company sponsored training class in 1990, she ended up working as a mechanic, building the rudder pedal for MD-11 airplanes.

"I had a lot of fun being a mechanic," she said. "I've been a backyard mechanic all my life, working on cars and such in my spare time."

But a higher ambition drove her on. The declining job market and the possibility of becoming unemployed shifted her focus back to school. But most of all she wanted the respect that she felt she deserved.

"As a secretary you get bossed around all the time," she said. "I said ‘I can be just as smart as them' and went back to school."

At 66, Cresser said she doesn't plan to retire until she turns 70, but she won't be sitting still then either. She will be back at CSULB in the fall, working toward her masters degree in speech communication.

"I've got a house up in Apple Valley that I built all by myself," she said. "It's got two and a half acres, so I'll be keeping busy."

She plans to do some part-time teaching after she retires, as well as travel around the United States. She said she recently bought property in Florida and plans to visit relatives around the country.

"I'll be seeing a lot of the U.S.," she said. "Right now, I live in a mobile home in Long Beach during the week, and go home during the weekend. When I retire, I'll be staying at my home a lot more."