Twenty years after taking a leave of absence from Harvard, Christopher D. Thorpe of Newville, Penn., works two jobs.

By day, he's a waterworks operator for a rural township water authority. By night, he manages Twirly Top, a popular local drive-in restaurant.

And Thorpe is still--technically speaking--a Harvard student. Originally a member of the Class of 1980, the fine arts concentrator took time off after his junior year and hasn't been back.

Now, Thorpe lives in a house he built using materials from an old barn, 10 miles from the nearest town, on a hill overlooking the Appalachians. And as for his status as a Harvard student, "lots of people know but nobody cares," he says.

For Thorpe, his education was not a means to an end.

"I personally believe that the greatest things that men and women do are the things they do that don't earn them any money," he says.

Unlike many former Harvard students who owe their positions to the diplomas hanging on their walls, bulking up his resume was the last thing on Thorpe's mind when he enrolled.

"All I was looking for was an education," he says. " I didn't necessarily need that education to shape my career. I just needed it to shape me as an individual."

Thorpe adds that his idealistic educational philosophy made him something of a minority at Harvard.