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{Erica, just remember you feel the best you've ever felt. Keep up the hard work!}
Of the many Utah State University graduates who accepted degrees from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Saturday, Twila Boston was born first — more like some 75 years first.
Boston was the first to be recognized by the college’s dean, John Allen, at a ceremony for one of USU’s biggest colleges. On stage donning her black cap and gown, and with the help of her granddaughter, Michelle Tobin, Boston, at the age of 98, was awarded her degree in American studies.
“It was just awesome,” said Tobin, who traveled to Logan from her Manassas, Va., home for the ceremony. “It was amazing; there was a standing ovation, and people came up to her afterward saying how inspiring she is.”
Born on Sept. 7, 1913, Boston will be 99 later this year. Someone of this age accepting a college degree is “a very rare event” for USU, said Kristen Munson, public relations specialist for the College of HSS, and Boston just might be the oldest person to graduate from USU, according to university records.
“The university was delighted to hear from her about wanting to complete her degree,” Munson wrote in an email. “She loves learning. She has never stopped. And she should be commended for her efforts.”
According to USU officials, Boston did take classes through the 1970s and 1980s, but she never finished her degree.
Then, this year, USU got a call from Boston herself, who indicated she wanted to finish. Munson talked to Boston and told her she was just a few credits shy of an American studies degree, which is housed in the English department but is an interdisciplinary program that combines coursework in areas such as English, history and anthropology.
Because of her age, the university worked with Boston to come up with an oral history project she could complete from home that would meet the degree requirements. She finished it two months ago.
Boston moved to Cache Valley in the early 1970s after her husband, a lifelong physician, retired. The Bostons retired here because they had family in the area, including her daughter, who was busy obtaining a master’s degree in education at USU.
Boston had a strong affection for USU, and decided to take classes that interested her. But she didn’t really need a degree by the 1970s — she had entered nursing school in Salt Lake City on her 19th birthday and became a registered nurse.
“If you’re a nurse, you’re a nurse for life,” Boston said in her Providence home Friday afternoon, adding that her favorite classes were history and English. “But I just like to learn.”
Then, a few years after becoming a nurse, when she met and married her husband in 1936 (they were working at the same hospital) when she became an office assistant at his private medical practice. They had four children — three of whom would later graduate from USU — and lived to various cities in Utah, Oregon and Idaho.
“I’ve seen a lot of change,” Boston noted.
She’s lived through seven wars, seen economic prosperity, recessions and a depression, and the rise of science and technology to become a part of everyday life.
The year of her birth, 1913, saw Woodrow Wilson sworn in as president of the United States, the first moving assembly line by Ford Motor Company, and New York City's Grand Central Terminal’s grand reopening as the world's largest train station.
Tobin said her grandmother’s story is an inspiration to her and her family.
“I think it’s cool,” she said. “She’s showing her grandkids and great-grandkids that it’s important to get an education regardless of age.”
Boston said getting her degree from USU is based on her values she learned as a child.
“I was expected to get an education,” she said. “I want that diploma, just like anyone else, and I don’t consider myself smarter than anyone else.”
She still reads novels and watches the news, keeping her mind sharp.
Boston’s advice to the USU graduates of 2012: “Never stop learning.”
