LEWISTON — Like many families, the Perreault family is showing gratitude to their dad — who is also their grad.

After taking classes off and on for 30 years, Dan Perreault, 50, received his bachelor’s degree in business last month from the University of Maine in Augusta after taking classes through Lewiston-Auburn College’s instructional television video.

Perreault is an assistant store manager for Shaw’s.

His wife, Jan; son, Michael; daughter, Becky; and parents, Damien and Gisele Perreault, said they’re proud of what he’s done.

It would have been easy to quit, especially when he stopped taking classes for a few semesters.

“To start over in the routine is hard,” Jan said.

When you take classes while working and raising a family, “you do give up things,” she said. While others would go out to eat, he’d do homework. While others watched the Red Sox, he’d do more homework.

As early as 1983, Perreault said his goal was to become a store manager.

He grew up in Lewiston and began school at Holy Cross Elementary, speaking only French. He began working at Shaw’s at age 16. He graduated from St. Dom’s in 1980 and married in 1983. Soon after, he took his first college classes.

In those days, he went to college at Sacred Heart School in Auburn. He and his wife took some courses together.

“One was interpersonal communications,” she said. “I was pregnant. The professor said, ‘I see you guys have interpersonal communications down pretty good.’”

Most of the time, Perreault took one course per semester. When the demands of fatherhood grew, there were some semesters that he didn’t take any.

He stopped taking classes when he was needed to help coach his son’s hockey team and the year he served on the cheering board. He also stopped taking classes the year he ran the concession stand for the South Lewiston Little League. “It was the closest we got to ‘Dan’s Market,’” Perreault said with a laugh.

Some lapses in courses meant he fell out of degree programs and had to re-enroll. “If you don’t take a class for a few years, then you’re dropped out of a program.” Over the years, “I signed up for degree programs four times.”

Every time he began again, it was tough, Perreault said. “I groaned, ‘I don’t think I will make this class.’” That went on for the first three or four weeks. “But as I became more comfortable with the information, it became easier.”

The core business courses came easily, Perreault said, because he could relate to them. “You understand the reasons for decisions at all levels.”

Some of the electives — psychology, biology, Web applications and poetry — were challenging.

“Poetry was hard on the family,” his wife mused.

No matter which class he was taking, he said that after the first few weeks, “I enjoyed the information that I was receiving. There always seemed to be something that was applicable to what was going on at the time. Recently, I heard somebody say, ‘Education is information, and it’s good to be informed.’ Every class seemed to have some bit of information that pertained to everyday life.”

Michael Perreault said his dad lives what he preaches, that hard work will pay off, “and never, never give up.”

Like many dads, “he’d do anything for the kids,” his wife said, even volunteering for the cheering board when he knew nothing about cheering because they were short of people. He wanted to see the program continue so his daughter could cheer.

Perreault said he learned to be a good father “because I have a great dad. It’s about setting the example.” His father showed him “that perseverance and hard work will get you what you want.”

Perreault has recently applied for a store manager position.

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