Non traditional student to walk across Old Harvard Yard, with honors.

In an era of instant gratification and fascination with youth, one local woman is providing a living example of perseverance, goal-setting and not-so-instant gratification worthy of the effort.

Martha Heller, age 74, is graduating from Harvard on June 4. Her Associate of Arts degree will be granted cum laude (with honors).

"I want those letters after my name; I've known that for decades," she said, adding "And if I wasn't going to graduate with honors, I wasn't going to commencement."

Heller's gritty determination in the face of 53 years of postponement and some formidable obstacles is characteristic both of her personality and her generation, said her son, Frank Hadden. A research attorney with the Mississippi Supreme Court, he plans to be in Boston to attend her commencement.

"I was pleased with her academic success, and the fact that she was able to resume her studies after cancer surgery," Hadden observed. "Her generation, born during the depression, grew up overcoming adversity - they were exceptional."

"I was just determined," said Heller.

Heller came of age in the 1950s, when most women didn't go to college. They went to work or got married. She did both, working for 20 years as a tax examiner for the IRS, dealing with high income individuals and businesses.

After retiring from the IRS in 1976, Heller went to work elsewhere. Later, in her 50s, husband Larry encouraged her to go to school.

"It was not the time; I had other responsibilities," said Heller.

Over the course of the next two decades, she provided primary care for first her mother and then her seriously ill husband, who used a wheelchair for the last five years of his life.

After a lifetime of taking care of others, her own health issues presented both an opportunity and an obstacle to realizing her academic ambition. On a visit to Boston for eye surgery several years after her husband's death in 2002, Heller noticed an advertisement in the subway. It advertised a Harvard program for non-traditional students.

"I thought I'd try it," she said.

Harvard's admission criterion for the program was stringent.

"You had to get at least a B-minus in expository writing to be admitted," said Heller. She didn't do well on that first test and sat out the fall semester to do remedial work. However, she persevered.

"The first time my work was severely criticized, it was a shocker - little tiny purple writing all over the margins - but I decided to learn from it," said Heller.

Scheduled to finish in 2008, removal of half a lung delayed her only slightly.

"I begged the doctor to let me out so I could go to class," said Heller.

With the IV still hanging from her arm, she opted to take a cab instead of the subway.

When a fellow student told her she was "amazing," Heller was nonplussed. Generally, she found her younger cohorts at Harvard to be less motivated than she was.

"Sometimes it would be noticeable that I was the only one who'd read the assignment," said Heller.

The only time her motivation flagged was when she learned she had cancer. Presently coping with a rare bronchial disease, bronchiectasis, that was diagnosed in 1999, Heller said only during the past week has she been able to breathe without pain. Several times a day she uses a machine to clear her lungs. Nonetheless, she is looking forward to her graduation and planning to sign up for summer school.

"There's simply not enough for me to do around here," she said. "I'm planning on taking History of the Holocaust; the professor is supposed to be good. Why not?"

Heller's son has come to regard his mother's accomplishments as par for the course, but believes that her young grandson will look back and view her as exceptional.

"She has always encouraged me to shoot for the top, to do my best," said Hadden. "And she's never taken ‘no' for an answer."

As she prepares for that long-awaited walk across Harvard Yard, Heller remained pragmatic about her feat.

"I really find people who only talk about their grandchildren or playing cards incredibly boring," she said.

Quotable quotes from a non-traditional student.

-Heller not only "kept up with the kids," she excelled academically, making the Dean's list with a 3.66 GPA for a while. "A lot of the students did not apply themselves the way they could have. Not many did what I did," said Heller.

-Older students do not get a break at Harvard. "They were harder on us than on other students," said Heller. According to Heller, only 3.7 percent of nontraditional students get a degree.

-Acceptance by a peer group was not terribly important to Heller. "My son wanted me to live on campus, but I wanted to stay at the YWCA with the rest of the old ladies," said Heller. "I go to bed at 9 o'clock and I didn't want those kids keeping me up all night."

-Asked if she encountered any friends her own age at the ‘Y, Heller scoffed "Only one 73 year old bleached blonde with many face lifts."