Northeast
WWII veteran, 100, finally receives his college diploma nearly 60 years after graduation
A 100-year-old veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War thought he was going to a celebration for his 100th birthday and to honor his contributions to the University of Maryland Global Campus, his alma mater.
Instead, Jack Milton this week received the surprise of a lifetime: his long-overdue graduation ceremony.
“I’ve had many ceremonies throughout my life, fortunately, to celebrate many occasions, but this has to be the tops,” Milton told Fox 5 DC.
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“I feel like this is the finale of a long journey in education — and again, I keep using the word appreciative, but I can’t think of any other word,” he added.
Milton, 100, enrolled at the University of Maryland Global Campus in the 1960s while he was working at the Pentagon. At the time, the school was called University of Maryland, University College.
Jack Milton, front and center, finally had a graduation ceremony from the University of Maryland Global Campus on Tuesday, April 30. He missed his original ceremony in the 1960s because he was called to serve in Vietnam. (Fox 5 DC)
Then, and now, the school caters to non-traditional college students, including veterans, and offers both in-person and distance learning.
Milton was a military pilot for 31 years. He amassed more than 12,000 flying hours, said a 2021 article from Achiever, the University of Maryland Global Campus magazine.
During his career in the Air Force, Milton was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and flew combat missions in Vietnam.
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Milton had earned enough credits for his bachelor of arts diploma, and was planning on walking the stage at graduation in 1966.
But before that could happen, he was deployed to Vietnam.
It had always irked him that he never formally received his diploma, he said.
Milton earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1966 from the University of Maryland Global Campus, but he couldn’t attend his graduation ceremony because he was called to serve in Vietnam. He spent 31 years in the Air Force before retiring from the military. (Fox 5 DC)
“On my way to Southeast Asia, I had many thoughts about not being there to see my fellow graduates,” Milton said to Fox 5 DC.
President Gregory Fowler, PhD, of the University of Maryland Global Campus said it was an honor to present Milton with his diploma and graduation cap — several decades after it was supposed to have happened.
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“I hereby confer upon John L. Milton the degree of bachelor of arts with all the rights and privileges thereto and pertaining. Congratulations,” said Fowler.
Milton, age 100, said he’s enjoyed “a lot of ceremonies” in his life, but this one was the best of all. (Fox 5 DC)
After he returned from Vietnam, Milton, along with his wife, Symantha Milton, remained involved in the University of Maryland Global Campus community.
They especially supported programs for active military and veterans enrolled at the school.
In 2010, the Miltons established the John L. and Symantha Milton Scholarship Fund, which supports another University of Maryland Global Campus scholarship fund specifically for volunteer caregivers of injured military servicemembers, said Achiever.
Fox News Digital reached out to the University of Maryland Global Campus for additional comment.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
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SALT LAKE CITY — Up until the past month or so, Clayton Young wasn’t sure if he’d make it to the starting line of the 130th Boston Marathon.
By Monday afternoon, he was walking away from the course with a stunning new personal best.
Young finished the 26.2-mile point-to-point course in a personal-record time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 41 seconds Monday, good for 11th place in an all-time year. Zouhair Talbi ran the fastest time ever by an American, finishing fifth overall in 2:03:45 and Jess McClain broken the American women’s record in 2:20:49.
In all, seven American men and 12 American women finished in the top 20 of the prestigious marathon — including Young, whose streak of six consecutive top-10 finishes dating back to 2023 (including the Paris Olympics) ended, albeit barely.
But donning the No. 24 bib and a brand-new kit for new sponsor Brooks, the former BYU national champion who prepped at American Fork High jumped into the lead pack from the start and never looked back as he broke his previous lifetime best set from the 2023 Chicago marathon and the Olympic trials nearly a year later by close to 3 seconds.
“With only nine weeks of training. … I was really happy to be a 2:05 guy,” Young told FloTrack after the race. “Obviously, falling outside the top 10 is a little disappointing, but I’m really happy with the time.”
The final finish was only the faintest disappointment in the incredibly fast field.
Young’s finish as the third fastest American on Monday marks the fifth-fastest time by an American man all-time in Boston. Charles Hicks finished 50 seconds behind Talbi in 2:04:35, with Young coming in just over a minute later to cheers of friends and family.
His former BYU teammate, Canadian international Rory Linkletter, finished 14th with a personal-best time of 2:06:04. Former BYU runner Michael Ottesen finished 52nd in 2:16:06, and Utah resident Todd Garner finished his 11th running of the Boston Marathon all-time in 3:14:35.
“I think we’re in an era in distance running, on the men and women’s sides, but especially the women’s side, where we’re all making each other so much better every time we line up with one another,” McClain told the Associated Press. “And I think it’s just going to get stronger and stronger.”
Former Utah Valley and BYU runner Kodi Kleven finished 14th in the women’s race with a personal-best time of 2:24:48. The three-time St. George marathon course record holder from Mount Pleasant led for large portions of the race en route to her qualifying time for the 2026 U.S. Olympic marathon trials.
Former BYU standout and Utah State coach Madey Dickson, who also runs trains locally with Run Elite Program, beat her previous personal record in 2:28:12 — good for 18th in the women’s race.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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