Jeff Lipscomb is proof positive that it’s never too late to live your dreams.
For Lipscomb, who lives in Covington, his passion and desire to learn kept his dreams within reach. However, the road to success was not easy. Lipscomb was diagnosed at a young age with epilepsy.
“I started having seizures when I was about seven years old,” Lipscom says. “I graduated high school in 1985 from Madison, Ill. and tried to go to college, and it just wasn’t working out.”
He was later placed on Social Security disability due to his disorder.
He grew tired of Florida, so he moved to Washington, where his mom was living at the time, and became a patient of the vocational services at University of Washington.
Finally, after numerous tests, Lipscomb consented to neurological surgery.
The surgery was done by University of Washington neurosurgeon Dr. George Ojemann, and performed at Harborview Medical Center.
“The surgery was eleven hours,” Lipscomb says. “About four and a half was spent getting into my skull, then an hour was spent simulating my nerves, and the rest was spent removing a small — about a half stick of butter— sized malignant tumor from my left temporal lobe.”
After his surgery, Lipscomb attended Renton Technical College where he started work on his degree and began working on cars at Yonker Nissan.
He then attended classes at Green River for his associated degree while working for Comcast in Puyallup.
After six months of working for Comcast, he began working on his bachelor’s degree in business administration through online classes from Jones International based out of Colorado Springs, Colo. As well as working full time, Lipscomb completed his degree in January 2009, graduating with a 3.95 grade point average.
Lipscomb wasn’t done quite yet, though, and decided to focus on his next goal.
“About a month and a half later, in the beginning of February, I started attending classes through University of Phoenix Western Washington campus to get my master’s degree,” Lipscomb says.
On June 5, Lipscomb graduated from the University of Phoenix Western Washington Campus with his master’s in Informational Services.
Lipscomb has learned a great deal over the years about how the brain works and through his formal education he sees quite a few parallels between the brain and computers.
“Computers are much like the human brain in the sense that after brain surgery, once you have had something taken out of it, it is hard to work things differently, much like a new computer with all new settings and programs on it,” Lipscomb says.
After all his education and all his knowledge and all he has gained from this experience, Lipscomb’s greatest gift came outside of the classroom and doctor’s office.
“The biggest reward of all was meeting my wife. I met her during my recovery while I was at the Renton Community Center and it was love at first sight,” Lipscomb says. “She has supported me in every way mentally, physically and emotionally ever since we met.”
Lipscomb still hasn’t had enough of school. He has already decided that further down the road, when he can afford it, he will return to school to get his doctorate.
“I love to learn,” Lipscomb says.
Much can be learned from Lipscomb’s story.
“A person can never give up on what slows them down,” he says. “A person should keep on doing the best to accomplish what they can.”
When all is said and done, Lipscomb has overcome many challenges and achieved the greatness he strived for but that can’t replace what is the most critical key to his success.
“How important it is to accept support from family,” Lipscomb says. “Family is the biggest resource that should not be taken advantage of or taken for granted.”
