Class Notes & Profiles

At Last

By Holly Hobart ’62, ’05

In the spring of 1962, I was 21 years old and a drama major in my senior year at Vassar. I became pregnant and, during spring vacation, requested permission to get married, stay in college, and graduate with my class. The Warden told me that I could under no circumstances continue at Vassar, and that I could “never consider myself to be a cultured woman” after what I had done.

During the intervening years, I married and gave birth to a beautiful daughter, became a systems analyst, programmer, and, finally, a manager of many programmers at a Silicon Valley company. Later, with my present husband, I sailed over much of the world. Whenever I could, I took courses in math, chemistry, biology, and computer science.

Last year, I wrote President Fergusson to inquire whether I might complete the requirements and graduate. She was immensely supportive and encouraging. The registrar discovered that I had accumulated more than enough credits, and so I found myself, at age 64, marching up to accept my diploma amid the awesome class of 2005. I was thrilled beyond words to have graduated, and still am.

Today’s Vassar seems a far more vibrant, elegant, and inspiring place than the college I remember from the early 1960s, with brilliance, taste, and intellectual energy evident everywhere. I take tremendous pride in being a Vassar alumna—at last.