KUSA - We would all be lucky to see the day Ruth Purkaple is celebrating. She turned 102 on Sunday.

She says education has been her greatest gift.

Her grandmother was the first woman west of the Mississippi to earn a college degree.

Purkaple's mother graduated from DU in 1900 and became the first Dean of Women at DU in 1904.

Purkaple earned a bachelors and masters degree from DU and was the Director of the Study Abroad Program at CU Boulder.

If she follows in her father's footsteps she'll have a few more birthdays. Her dad lived to be 105.

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