Family heirloom to mark graduation

At her graduation ceremony on 28 September, Mary Maxwell proudly wore an academic gown that has been in her family for 75 years.

Mary, of Toorak Gardens, received her Bachelor of Laws at the ceremony. She already holds a PhD in politics from the University of Adelaide and a Masters degree from Johns Hopkins University, and is a former president of the Australian Institute for International Affairs in SA.

She is also the widow of Professor George Morrison Maxwell (1924-2000) who founded the University of Adelaide's Department of Paediatrics (originally called the Department of Child Health) in 1959.

The academic gown Mary wore has heirloom status - her late mother, Patricia Whalen, wore it to class every day during her senior year in Boston, as was the custom in 1936.

"I suppose when Mum was a 22-year-old, she didn't imagine that three quarters of a century later a child of hers would be getting a law degree in Australia! You may have heard of late bloomers, but this is ridiculous," Mary said.

In 2000, when Mary enrolled in the Adelaide Law program, she received a letter from former South Australian Governor and former University of Adelaide Chancellor Dame Roma Mitchell AC, DBE, CVO, QC, that said: "I look forward to you being admitted to the Bar in 2003."

However, her study ended up taking a bit longer. "I dropped out for a while," she said, "to campaign for a seat in the US Congress and to be a litigant in a suit against President Bush in 2006." The lawsuit sought an injunction against the threatened bombing of Iran, on the grounds that such a deed would contravene US Congress' "exclusive prerogative of declaring war".

Mary is the author of several books, the latest of which, Thou Shalt Not Kill Troy Davis, is about an American man convicted of and executed for the murder of a police officer.

Next year, her granddaughter Shiva Motlagh is expected to wear the family academic gown when receiving her Bachelor degree in Linguistics from Adelaide. During their studies, both grandma and granddaughter undertook exchanges in Germany.