TUCSON, AZ — A retired Tucson woman who once said she did not want to work that hard is now preparing for another demanding chapter: law school. Carol Nigut, a Master of Legal Studies student at the University of Arizona, is set to graduate in May and is weighing offers to continue on a Juris Doctor track.
At 73, the longtime career-switcher says the decision feels less like a surprise than the latest turn in a life shaped by reinvention. Her offers include scholarship support from California Western School of Law in San Diego, and she hopes for additional options as she looks ahead.
From Chicago suburb to Arizona classrooms
Nigut grew up in Skokie, Illinois, the only girl among four children. After high school, she hitchhiked through Europe for nearly a year and later became a flight attendant, first on international routes and then with Hughes Airwest.
Her early working life repeatedly interrupted her education, but it also sparked an interest in human behavior, addiction and counseling. While living in Colorado and later back near Chicago, she earned a bachelor’s degree in applied behavioral sciences from National Louis University in 1984 and moved into employee assistance and counseling work.
A desert reinvention in Tucson and Pima County
Nigut moved to Tucson in 2014 after visiting her brother in Tubac and falling in love with the Sonoran Desert. A friend suggested real estate, and she eventually earned her license and spent about a decade as a top-producing agent in Pima County…