At 85, Engineering Student Is Rutgers’ Oldest Grad Ever

When Tom Maniscalco receives his diploma, he will be thinking of his father, who always wanted him to earn a Rutgers degree

When Tom Maniscalco finally retired in 2019 after working a lifetime as an engineer in the private and public sectors, he had to figure out a way to fill his free time.

“I didn't know what to do with myself, so I applied to Rutgers, and they accepted me as a special student,” Maniscalco said. The remote sessions enabled him to continue taking additional classes, enrolling in one with every new semester. “I kept taking more courses.”

Now at 85, Maniscalco, of Garfield, N.J., is earning a master’s degree in engineering, becoming Rutgers’ oldest graduate ever.

“It’s a sense of accomplishment at my age,” he said.

Maniscalco has already accomplished much for any age. He has a bachelor’s degree from New York University; a master of science of mechanical engineering and a working engineer’s doctorate, both from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

But Rutgers has held a special place in his heart because his father, Joseph, always wanted to see his son earn a degree from there, Maniscalco said.

“His drive and commitment to improve himself has been inspiring,” said Stephen Tse, who was Maniscalco’s professor and advisor and serves as the graduate program director of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department in the School of Engineering. “Each time I interact with Tom, it puts my life in perspective and how lucky I am to meet people like him.” 

When I get this degree, it’s some closure because my father sent me to Rutgers to get a degree in mechanical engineering, which I was never able to achieve. I’m back where I started.

Tom Maniscalco

This is Maniscalco’s second go-round at Rutgers. He began his academic journey in September of 1957 studying mechanical engineering but flunked out.

He still recalls his grades that first semester nearly 70 years ago. “I got an A in calculus and a B in physics, but I failed engineering drawing,” he said. “Of all things - engineering drawing! And I became a design engineer.”

Maniscalco did much better this time.

“He is an active and capable student who strives to understand the fundamentals,” Tse said. “He genuinely enjoys doing engineering. He is my parents’ age.  My own grandmother learned to read and write at 90, so I could readily relate to his efforts.  His success became very personal for me.”

After leaving Rutgers the first time, Maniscalco  started working at Bendix Corporation, an aviation and defense company which then operated a manufacturing plant in Teterboro, N.J. During his stint at Bendix, he worked on some well-known aerospace equipment including the unmanned Saturn rocket that went to the moon as part of Apollo program.

In 1964 when he was 24, he returned to the classroom. He continued working at Bendix during the day and then commuted to New York University (NYU) to take courses at night at its then Bronx campus. He did this for two years before quitting Bendix to devote his time fulltime to his education. He graduated from NYU in June 1967.

“I was elected to Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, which I had hoped would happen at Rutgers, but it didn’t,” he lamented, adding that he is a member of Pi Mu Epsilon National Honor Society for mathematics.

He wanted to pursue his master’s degree – and he did for a while – at NYU until the university shuttered its Bronx campus and merged its engineering school with the then- Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn. The commute to Brooklyn would be too much for Maniscalco, so he dropped out of NYU’s master's program.

He started working as a design engineer at Kearfott Guidance and Navigation Corp., a defense equipment manufacturer, at its then-Little Falls, N.J., office. He worked on several well-known projects, including the navigation guidance system for the Space Shuttle missions, he said.

I learned from Tom that you will always be your father’s son and forever try to live up to his hopes and dreams for you.

Stephen Tse

Maniscalco's professor and advisor

While there, he went back to night school – this time at New Jersey Institute of Technology – and received that master’s degree in 1980, and eventually in 1993, his doctorate.  He went on to work in the Department of Defense for 30 years before retiring in 2019. He continues to be involved in this profession. He is currently the vice chair of the North Jersey Chapter of American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

He always had an interest in math and physics, but he traces his love of building and engineering to a specific time in his childhood: summer of 1948. 

“My grandfather was a carpenter, and we have a summer house on Long Island,” Maniscalco recalled. “We would drive out there from Garfield on weekends with him in summer 1948 and help him build the house. I was 8 at the time.”

That house in Rocky Point on the north shore of Long Island still stands and Maniscalco continues to spend much of his time there.

Maniscalco, whose father, a dress presser, and mother, a seamstress, never married and doesn’t have any children. His younger brother, Peter, died of cancer a few years ago. But when he walks on the stage on May 16 during the School of Engineering convocation, he will be thinking of his father.

“When I get this degree, it’s some closure because my father sent me to Rutgers to get a degree in mechanical engineering, which I was never able to achieve,” he said. “I’m back where I started.”