A woman who last set foot in a college classroom shortly before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor finally got the chance to put on a cap and gown and pick up her master’s degree from Stanford University.
Virginia Hilsop, 105, had completed all the required courses to receive her master’s back in 1941 — except, that is, submitting a master’s thesis.
However, after Pearl Harbor she dropped everything to marry her college sweetheart before his Army deployment, and helped however she could in the war effort.
Virginia, who has since served on school and college boards, and worked as a college director, tells CBS News she always regretted not having a master’s degree like many of her co-workers.
That changed 83 years later, when Stanford University dropped its thesis requirement, clearing the way for her her to don a cap and gown and finally pick up her master’s.
Hilsop hopes it serves as a reminder that it’s never too late to get a diploma, or in her case, “add it to the others I have in my basement.”