A 79-year-old Texas professor hospitalized with cancer said he preserved his 45-year-long perfect attendance record by teaching via teleconference.

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Professor William Kielhorn of LeTourneau University in Longview said he was one class short of completing 45 years of teaching without missing a single day when he was checked into the intensive care unit at Good Shepherd Medical Center due to chemotherapy complications for the treatment of his stage four colon cancer, ABC News reported Tuesday.

He said his daughter, Martha Croft, and granddaughter, Courtney Bellamy, made arrangements for him to use the Internet to teleconference with his engineering class Thursday and complete his perfect record.

"I felt the students had paid for the courses and the least I could do was show up and teach," Kielhorn said.

Bellamy said her grandfather has recently had trouble speaking, but the problem seemed to disappear while he was teaching.

"It was perfect, it was strong, it was just unbelievable really," she said. "I had not seen him talk like that in a long time."