A 90-year-old great-grandmother is now the oldest graduate of a New Jersey university
ASBURY PARK, N.J. – Marion Thomas logged into a Zoom call Sunday to celebrate her 90th birthday with family members. Amid the familiar faces on the screen were three strangers, including a man wearing a cap and gown.
“Today, I have the distinct honor of conferring your bachelor’s degree,” he said.
The man was Georgian Court University president Joseph R. Marbach, the degree is in Interdisciplinary Studies, and the occasion came as a surprise to Thomas, a Brick, New Jersey resident who first enrolled at age 68 and attended for 10 years until her husband became ill in 2008.
“It’s about time,” she quipped, provoking an eruption of laughter on the Zoom.
Thomas is the oldest graduate in Georgian Court’s 112-year history, according to Sister Barbara Williams, university historian and former president. This is rarefied air; only a few instances of U.S. nonagenarians receiving bachelor’s degrees have been publicized.
“It was just amazing to see and very emotional,” daughter Ellen Wilson said. “Now her life is complete.”
'Don't party too hard'
Marion and John Thomas raised their six children in Bergen County, New Jersey, first in Emerson and then in Montvale. They later relocated to Warren in Somerset County before settling in Toms River. It was there, at age 68, that Marion had an epiphany.
“She said one weekend, ‘Let’s go to an open house,’” Wilson recalled. “I thought she was talking about real estate.”
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Marion had come across a newspaper ad for Georgian Court, located in Lakewood Township, and it piqued her interest.
I said, ‘Mom, that’s fabulous. Let’s go,’” Wilson said.
"I always wanted to go since I didn't after high school in New York,” Thomas said. “I was always busy with life, family, and husband."
She attended full-time that first year before throttling back to part-time.
"I was nervous, but more excited going at 68 with young freshmen 18, 19 years old,” Thomas said. "I loved taking courses. Some of the professors were younger than me.”
Back then there was no online instruction. She commuted to the campus and sat in classrooms.
“Her older grandkids were in college sharing notes with her and laughing about campus life and saying, ‘Don’t party too hard,’” Wilson said.
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Thomas chipped away for a decade, until her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2008.
“Even though she was just a few credits short, with her devotion to our dad, she stopped going to school,” Thomas said.
John died in 2012. Later, when Marion moved to Hackensack Meridian Health Rehabilitation Center in Brick, Thomas came across her Georgian Court student ID card. She held onto it.
Every now and then, she looked at the card and wondered how close her mom was to a degree.
'We were all crying'
A few weeks ago, Wilson contacted Georgian Court to find out.
“When they told me 113 credits I said, ‘Oh my gosh, she is just about finished,’” she said. “I thought for her 90th birthday it would be great for the college to acknowledge what she had accomplished.”
Wilson was hoping for a letter or certificate of some kind.
“When they sent back a note saying we’d like to award her a degree, we were just thrilled,” she said. “I was reading the text to my sisters and we were all crying.”
Provost Janice Warner decided Thomas fulfilled the missing seven credits through “work and life experience,” particularly for her deep involvement with various Roman Catholic parishes in both volunteer and paid roles.
“It’s not the first time this has happened,” Warner said. “You don’t want to do that for 20 credits, but for seven you can.”
Warner participated in Sunday’s Zoom.
“It was really wonderful, especially because it made her family so happy,” she said. “They’re really proud of her.”
It was a full-circle moment.
A great message
For decades Thomas, known as “Granya” to her 18 grandchildren and four great-grandkids, was the quintessential supporter — encouraging and applauding everyone in the family.
“She had such a love of learning and always told all of us to believe in ourselves,” Wilson said. “Growing up it was always, ‘Do your best. There will be ups and downs, but keep going and eventually the rewards will come.’”
Her kids decided to break the graduation news on the birthday Zoom, since her assisted-living facility is locked down due the pandemic. As a flourish, they sent a cake with Georgian Court’s logo on it.
When Marbach, the university president, bid Granya “congratulations and welcome to the Class of 2020,” misty eyes filled the screen.
“She is such an example, not only within our own family, but it’s such a great message to everyone — to be aspirational, even later in life,” Wilson said.
Marbach invited Thomas to participate in the May 2021 commencement ceremony along with the other wintertime grads.
“I'm going to hug the person that hands me my diploma,” she said.
Follow Asbury Park columnist Jerry Carino on Twitter: @NJHoopsHaven.