I'm a graduate of an earlier time, the first UMBC graduating class (1970). A degree in Mathematics gave me a good foundation for a career in actuarial science, but my fondest UMBC memories center on the graduation of the woman directly before me in our graduation processional, Elinora Bolton, my mother. Elinora Bolton enrolled in UMBC in 1968 determined to complete her college degree which she started some 30 years before at the Sorbonne. College was interrupted by World War II and then marriage and raising a family. The year Elinora started at UMBC the youngest of her 10 children entered kindergarten. While still raising her family, she earned a UMBC degree in French and graduated with me in 1970. Her career in French studies continued to grow and she went on to become a professor of French at U of M College Park and at Catholic University.

In 1973 her son Chris graduated from UMBC and in 1986 her two youngest sons, Andy and Jim, also graduated together from UMBC. Here is a picture of Elinore with her 10 children at her granddaughter Erin's (a 1999 UMBC grad) wedding. Elinora Bolton died in 2012 at the age of 92.