He already had a bachelor's degree in biology from Fordham University in New York, and had made it most of the way through a doctorate when the pressures of family life led him to take his government job in immigration for a steady paycheck. Retired and with no particular hobbies, he went back to school in early 2011 at Howard County Community College, where seniors attend classes for free. He began a year and a half of prerequisites and then entered a two-year nursing program. He never wanted to work anywhere but at Gilchrist, where his wife, also a nurse, spent her last days.