UMD holds its undergraduate commencement ceremony this weekend and at least one degree earner will be far older than his fellow graduates.

Dave Anderson tells the story of a man who discovered a talent late in life and wants others to share it.

When Fran Leek plays Beethoven's Fifth, she can use her husband Joe's sculpture for the music.

Joe just earned a bachelor's degree in art and his bride of 59 years had no idea he had it in him.

"Oh no I certainly did not. I knew he could do everything but I had not known that."

Joe Leek is 84 and worked as a medical doctor for 55 years, retiring just last October.

On Friday, he picks up a fine arts degree at UMD.

For the past few years, he was possibly the oldest student on campus.

"I obviously could be the father of my professors!"

After a few classes, the octogenarian art major fit in easily with his teen and twenty-something class mates.

Joe began to excel at sculpture, ceramics and painting.
He can't pick a favorite.

"If you have in a room a blonde, brunette and red-head and they're all great, would you want to pick one?"

Right now, some of Joe's artworks are on display at Pilgrim Church on East Fourth Street in Duluth.

The pastor says they're attracting attention for more than the age of their creator.

"Some of these have caused people to stop and comment and look carefully and then look again because there's so much in them and there's the opportunity to ask questions."

Joe asks some of those questions himself in his paintings.

Because of his medical background, a common theme is medical ethics.
Now, with work and school behind him after 84 years, Dr. Leek is looking forward to being a grandfatherly version of the painter, Grandma Moses.

"I'm doing it. I'm painting and I think I'll do some more ceramics work."

Just don't ask Joe's musician wife Fran to join him in his artistic passions.

"I don't take up the same things Joe does."

Joe does hope others will join him, though, and says the need for continuing education does not diminish with age.

In Duluth, Dave Anderson, the Northland's News Center.