History students were the youngest and oldest of the 3600 students that graduated on December 18.
Aubrey Ottaviano, 19, earned her bachelor’s degree in history.
Mary Sullivan Linhart, 77, earned her PhD in American history. The Winchester, Va., native earned her bachelor’s degree in 1959 in New York City and her master’s degree in history in 1963 from the University of Virginia. The mother of three was a junior high school teacher who then joined the computer field in the private sector and the federal government. She worked for Mason from 1999 to 2010. Linhart began taking history classes at Mason in 2002. She plans to use her dissertation about Winchester and Frederick Co., Va., as the basis for a book and several articles.
NBC4 ran a story on Linhart's accomplishment, which also featured History professors Zach Schrag and Paula Petrik.
December 22, 2014