Jim LeShane would call his father, Bob, in Florida to tell him how he was doing in school. Bob LeShane had left school after the sixth grade, but went back at the age of 65. He took classes at Temple University in Philadelphia where he worked in maintenance.

For both father and son, life sometimes got in the way of the education they wanted. But both wanted it badly enough to fit it into lives that seem to leave no room for it. And age had nothing to do with it.

When he was pursuing his associate’s degree at the Lincoln Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island, Jim LeShane was also working a full schedule as a salesman at Cardi’s Furniture. He was raising his daughter. He was carrying a full academic load. His days started with a 6:30 workout in the morning. Then he prepared breakfast for his daughter and put her on the school bus. Then there was work and school. He would pick his daughter up at the babysitter’s at 9:30 and have her in bed by 10.

“Then I’d break out the books.” Then, after five hours sleep, he’d do it all again.

There are few things I know for certain, but one is that I could never go back to the classroom after too many years away. The discipline just isn’t there. I have great respect for those who do it, especially those who add it to a life already filled with responsibility and challenge.

When he graduated from CCRI this spring, LeShane was singled out for his 4.0 grade point average — achieved 29 years after he graduated from high school. And he got a thumbs up from Governor Carcieri when it was announced that he wants to go into politics.

The moment was bittersweet. Bob LeShane died Dec. 1 of last year at 83. He did not see his son graduate.

But LeShane did not stop with associate’s degree in hand. It’s just the beginning. He does want to go into politics, but that won’t come until after he finishes law school. And law school won’t come until after he graduates from the University of Rhode Island where he headed this fall with his credits from CCRI.

When he graduates from law school, he’ll probably be older than most of his classmates. He’ll be 52 if he follows the schedule he’s laid out for himself. At what age he’ll run for governor is not certain, but that’s the goal. And if anybody is looking for a candidate who can look voters in the eye and tell them he understands, it might be a good idea to start stamping out some LeShane campaign buttons right now.

And it might not have happened, this unlikely academic career and thoughts of the governor’s office, if LeShane had not been paging through a CCRI course catalogue in 2006 and found, near the back of the catalogue, information on tuition waivers for disabled veterans.

He is a disabled vet because of injuries suffered when he was serving in Guatemala with the 119th Military Police Company of the Rhode Island National Guard.

He came to the Guard at 29. He was called “Grandpa” in boot camp.

“But I maxed the PT test,” he says.

He loved the Guard. He got chills when he was sworn in. And he always saw it as a way to finally get to college. But his daughter was born in 1995 and he bought a house in Providence and college had to wait.

“I wanted my daughter to get good grades in school,” says LeShane, who is divorced. “I tried to show her how education was important and she should work as hard as she can. I told her she didn’t want to end up like me — in my mid-40s regretting the fact that I had never gone to college.”

He did go, of course. He racked up that 4.0.

But he was petrified, he says, when he went to register at CCRI. He had been a member of the National Honor Society when he graduated from high school, but that was in 1979.

“I was sitting in my first class saying ‘what have I gotten into?’ ”

What he had gotten into was a school where the professors understand students who have a whole lot of living behind them.

“The professors are fantastic,” he says. “They’re enthusiastic. They made it easy for me.

“I’ve always been like a sponge for information. I’m just feeding the thirst.”

One thing he wants to do with his law degree, besides make a few bucks, is set up a legal defense fund for other veterans. He has done some research. He thinks it’s needed.

Then, politics. There are no plans yet for the official announcement. It’s some years away. But don’t expect anything grand.

“Politicians are far removed from everyday life,” says Jim LeShane. “I’d like to see more everyday people running.”

He’s everyday people.

bkerr@projo.com