SIERRA VISTA — “When I was just this big,” said Joanna Michelich, her palm indicating about knee-high, “I thought every kid lived in a house that was filled with shelves that were covered with books.”

Michelich was busy in Cochise College’s Room 900 on Friday, helping ready it for the ceremony that would start at 10 a.m. As the college’s vice president of instruction/provost, she is routinely involved in various post-secondary pomps and circumstances.

But this event, billed as a “Special Graduation Recognition,” was for a single student. Her dad.

John Kurdeka, 89, is the gentleman who lined her childhood home with books and read to her and her brother from their earliest days.

“He is interested in everything, from geology to art to quantum physics, and retains that little-boy curiosity,” she said.

“I can honestly say he is the most well-read person I’ve ever known. He was a very engaged father. His only regret has been that he was the only one in the family without a college degree.” Not anymore.

Room 900 had a festive, holiday air and the 50 or so friends, neighbors, faculty and college governing board members who gathered all understood how special it was.

Board president Jan Guy, who by state law is the only individual who can confer a Cochise College degree, bubbled, “This is such an exciting day. This is such a great thing.”

Michelich’s brother, David Kurdeka, had flown in from Ridgecrest, Calif. He is a retired rocket scientist.

“Wonderful,” he said of the event. “I had no idea until today how many courses my dad had taken over the years.”

Apparently neither did the elder Kurdeka until college President Karen Nicodemus produced a yards-long printout of his transcript — 83 courses over a 40-year stretch, without one year missed.

“He has a 4.0 grade point average,” Nicodemus said. “That’s a number I never saw in college.”

Michelich said her father briefly attended the University of Alaska during World War II. Formerly of Douglas and now of Sierra Vista, Kurdeka is retired as the engineer in charge of the Federal Communications Commission monitoring station in Douglas.

Kurdeka enrolled for his first class, “Native Americans of the Southwest,” at Cochise in the spring semester of 1967. He and daughter Joanna even ended up in one philosophy class together. She graduated from the school in 1968.

Kurdeka has shown a particular interest in the arts and anthropology — his ceramics are well-known to friends and family — and he recently donated an extensive collection of books on those subjects to the Cochise College Foundation.

“The original plan was to award John an honorary degree,” Nicodemus said. “But I thought why don’t we conduct a check. I am probably in violation of FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), but it turns out an honorary degree wasn’t necessary.”

Kurdeka was more than eligible to receive an associate of arts with high honors.

One of the school’s counselors estimated he had enough credits to have earned a degree in the mid-1980s.

And because this was the real deal, Guy, Nicodemus and Michelich donned their full academic robes as officials of the college. Kurdeka wore a robe as well, noting along the way that he hadn’t ever worn a skirt before.

Nicodemus opened the proceedings saying no one better reflects the college’s aims and goals than John Kurdeka, describing him as generous, service-oriented, and a good darn guy.

“He honors us today,” she said.

Upon conferring the degree, board president Guy said she felt privileged to be part of the day’s ceremony and that Kurdeka’s example and legacy of learning includes his two fine and successful children.

Following a standing ovation for Kurdeka’s achievement, Michelich teared up as she thanked everyone for coming, for everything they’ve done “to make his life happier.” She read a letter to her father, extolling him as “an example to the citizens of Arizona” for lifelong learning, signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano.

“I’m grateful for your confidence in me,” Michelich told her father. “When fathers tell their daughters they can be anything they want to be in life, it makes all the difference.”

Asked if he had anything he’d like to say, Kurdeka decided that, “After all that’s been said, the best thing I can do is shut up.”

A reception followed with a cake that read “Congratulations John Kurdeka,” adorned with a little mortarboard and diploma.

“And it’s all chocolate, dad,” Michelich smiled.