Tom Nuttle '51 was not expecting to don a cap and gown.

The 80-year-old retired businessman had been looking forward to seeing granddaughter Molly Ryan graduate from his alma mater. And until last Thursday, he had no plans to be anything but a proud grandfather.

Yet, as the morning haze lifted over the Arts Quad and 6,000 giddy graduates waited for the procession to begin, Nuttle was among them -- in cap, gown and corsage, all arranged by his family in a surprise plan hatched and plotted over the last few weeks.

The celebration was long overdue.

Nuttle came to Cornell in 1947; and with a few extra credits from high school, he finished his five-year civil and environmental engineering degree in four and a half years. He also played lacrosse, and was captain of the Cornell team during his senior year.

In December '51 Nuttle received his degree and his ROTC commission. Less than a month later, he was on his way to the Korean War with the Second Infantry Division. He spent about eight months in Korea. "I wouldn't take a million dollars for the experience or pay a nickel to do it again. I did a lot of growing up there," he said.

Back home, he began a successful career in the building materials business. He retired in 1992 and now lives in Baltimore. He was thrilled when granddaughter Molly Ryan came to Cornell in 2005, and when sister Amy joined her two years later.

As Nuttle prepared to walk in his first graduation ceremony, 57 1/2 years after receiving his degree, he soaked up the atmosphere in the company of granddaughter Molly and extended family. "I can feel the excitement and the tension just to be here today," he said, with quiet joy.

His fellow graduates were equally joyful. Nearby, and wearing mortarboards adorned with matching model DNA molecules, Maxwell Kraft and Anne-Lise Gossart chatted and called out to friends. The two biology majors will spend the summer cycling across the country with the organization Bike & Build; stopping to build low-income housing along the way.

By 10 a.m. the crowds on the Arts Quad were shaping themselves into long lines and beginning to move up the hill in a long procession to Schoellkopf Stadium, with graduates in high heels and flip-flops carrying cell phones and cameras, waving to family and friends and applauding faculty.

Among them was Maliha Khushnood, one of 64 graduates from 28 countries to receive a master's degree from the Law School. Soon she will return home to Pakistan to work as a corporate attorney, but she will stay in touch with her classmates around the world through Facebook and e-mail.

Just outside the stadium entrance, Ayse Deniz Lokmanoglu ducked out of the procession to give her father, Cihad Lokmanoglu '76, M.Eng. '77, a hug. He came from the eastern coast of Turkey for the occasion. Graduating with a double major in economics and Near Eastern studies, Lokmanoglu will begin her master's degree at the London School of Economics in the fall.

As the procession moved on, Jennifer Blackman of Albany waited in the packed stands for the College of Human Ecology graduates to make their way onto the field. The moment was bittersweet. Son Horatio, a policy analysis and management major, is the third of her children to receive a Cornell degree. "I feel like this was my second home," she said.

Two of her other children also graduated from Cornell: Loneke from Human Ecology in '07 and Balewa from CALS in '96. On Sept. 11, 2001, Balewa was one of more than 600 employees of the firm Cantor Fitzgerald to die in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

For Horatio, following in his siblings' footsteps was the natural thing to do, she said. He will be back in August to finish a few leftover credits before officially graduating in December. Meanwhile Loneke, who studied nutritional sciences, will be back on campus in the fall for an internship.

So when the ceremony was over and the graduates dispersed with grins and tears, Jennifer Blackman did not say goodbye.

"We'll be back in the fall," she said. "We're not leaving yet."