THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WTXL) - Navy Veteran Ed Titus has traveled to ten countries, been a captain in the United States Navy, and has degrees from Harvard and Columbia, but he is still motivated to keep going.
"I believe you have to always stay busy regardless of your age," Titus said. "I am going to stop teaching at the college level, but I am going to do other things by refiring."
Titus is currently a professor at Troy University in Albany, Georgia. He always wants to inspire his students. Several still keep in touch with him to update Titus on their lives. He loves encouraging the people around him to believe in themselves.
"They can be anything that they want to be," Titus said. "It requires not only an education, but personal motivation."
Titus says it motivated him being from a small town like Thomasville to show people that where you are from is not a setback.
"I said, I am going to show them that those from a small town can be whatever they want to be," Titus said. "I am going to help those I teach be the same way."
Titus bench presses 150 pounds. He is grateful to be alive everyday because he lost everything in Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Also, he was almost killed as a naval aviator during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba.
"I was flying in and picking up and bringing back Castro prisoners, bringing them back to the ship at night. We had all the markings off our airplane and I almost was shot down in one case, but there was an F-8 fighter behind me and he got hit" Titus said.
Titus plans to retire at the end of the year from Troy, but he says he wants to find something to do to help the Thomasville community afterward.
