Vera A. Foster Rollo (1924–2010)

Vera Foster Rollo was born in North Carolina and grew up dreaming that she would fly airplanes, be a writer, marry, and have children. She accomplished all four goals. Getting her wings as a teenager in 1943, she worked as a flight instructor in Florida and Maryland until 1988. Marrying and having two children, she became a writer for an aviation magazine and spent a year with a local newspaper. When she found out that her son was learning Maryland history from pamphlets, she decided to write a state history entitled Your Maryland. When she couldn't interest a publisher in her book, she started the Maryland Historical Press publishing textbooks on Maryland topics. She then got her bachelor's and master's degrees in American history from the University of Maryland-College Park and in 1990 received her doctorate in education development, policy and administration. During this time, she was associate professor of history and coordinator of the aviation program at Wilmington College, Delaware. Finding that there was a dearth of scholarly textbooks on aviation business management, she wrote several college-level texts and biographies. Books on Americana followed. [adapted from: Therese C. Yewell, Women of Achievement in Prince George's County, Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, 1994, p. 141]