Student receives degree—74 years later
90-year-old who left UChicago to work for Marshall Plan becomes College’s oldest graduate
When June Gordon Marks Patinkin received her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago this month, she was the only student to have five grandchildren there to celebrate.
Patinkin, who turned 90 last year, arrived at UChicago as a 16-year-old student, taking college classes with some of the era’s most illustrious scholars. But before graduating, she left school to work for the Marshall Plan, the ambitious American effort to rebuild postwar Europe.
Patinkin remained without a degree for the next three quarters of a century until her family contacted the College asking about her transcript. Counting classes she had taken at Northwestern University, it was determined she had earned enough credits to graduate. She received her diploma with the Class of 2018 during the University’s 531st Convocation on June 9.
