Alison Bryant/The Gazette Milton Minneman, 87, of Potomac, graduated from the University of Maryland, University College, in May with a master’s degree in information technology. This is his sixth degree.

More News

Renovations needed at Colmar Manor’s new town hall

School board chairwoman Jacobs plans to focus next term on incentives to motivate, keep effective teachers

Frederick city, county close to airport hangar deal

English only, say Frederick County commissioners

Judge backs HMSHost, blocks highway plaza contract award to competitor

This report was corrected June 13, 2011. An explanation follows the story.

Milton Minneman began his formal higher education in New York City in 1939, when a subway ride cost a nickel and the nation was suffering through the Great Depression. And he finished earning degrees in Maryland in May, when a gallon of gas averages $3.77 and the nation is digging its way out of a recession.

Minneman, 87, graduated from the University of Maryland, University College, last month with his sixth degree a Master of Science in information technology.

“I just don’t see any need to stop doing something useful,” Minneman said. “If you’re capable of doing something, you should keep doing it.”

His academic resume stretches six decades. Minneman received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cooper Union in New York in 1943; a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1949; a professional degree in engineering from Cooper Union in 1952; a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in New York in 1966; and a Bachelor of Science in computer studies from the University of Maryland in 2005.

Minneman said he thought he was done after earning his doctorate. But electrical engineering began to move primarily into computer activities, he said, prompting him at age 72 to update his knowledge at the University of Maryland.

“Once I did that, it only seemed reasonable to continue on with the master’s,” Minneman said.

Minneman isn’t the only one to attend the University of Maryland in the ninth decade of life. Henrietta Spiegel graduated in May 1989 at the age of 85 with a bachelor’s degree in English and Phi Beta Kappa Honors, said David Ottalini, spokesman for the University of Maryland.

Minneman spent most of his career working for the U.S. Department of Defense. At one point, he was the director of mobility acquisition and was responsible for vehicles that transported people abroad, including the Boeing C-17 airplane that carries deceased troops back to the U.S.

After retiring from DOD in 2004, Minneman focused on politics and became communications director of the Montgomery County Democratic Party.

And in early 2011, Minneman was just about to call it quits and retire for real when he got a call from state Del. Aruna Miller (D-Dist. 15), asking him what he was up to.

“I said I was loafing,” Minneman said. “She said, ‘No, you’re not. You’re coming to work for me.’”

Minneman recruited Miller into the Democratic party, Miller said. The two have known one another for about nine years.

“I just have a lot of respect for him,” said Miller, who lives in Darnestown. “Here’s a guy at his age doing the things that he does, and wants to be active, wants to participate. Who wouldn’t want someone like that?”

Now Minneman is special assistant to the delegate, reviewing bills and recommending how the delegate should vote.

“Milt was going to stay in his pajamas and read the paper,” said Doris Minneman, Minneman’s wife of 56 years. “And that lasted about two weeks. That’s just not the life for him.”

Classes in the 1940s differed from those in the 21st century, Milton Minneman said. At Cooper Union, students went to class, did lab work and homework, and about 50 percent of students who entered school with him graduated with him, Minneman said. But his latest degree was all online. Students received assignments via the Internet and submitted them that way as well.

“I found it not exactly perfectly easy,” he said. “But it was not much of a strain.”

Minneman is not slowing down. He and his wife just returned from a post-graduation trip to Russia.

“People should keep doing something active and useful,” Minneman said. “Even though I got away [without] it for two months.”

abryant@gazette.net

Correction: This report was corrected to say that Milton Minneman graduated from University of Maryland, University College.