97-Year-Old War Veteran Finally Graduates High School

It’s never too late to receive your high school diploma, even if you’re Frederick L Gray’s age. The 97-year-old World War II veteran finally graduated high school on Monday after putting it off for eight decades.

Gray dropped out of high school in 1934 to join the Civilian Conservation Corps so that he could support his mother and two brothers after his father died. He served in the corps for a couple of years before working at the New York Air Brake in a few different positions. He was drafted into the army soon after. Gray served in the army for three years in the Pacific and earned a Bronze Star with an Oak Leaf Cluster.

After the war was over, Gray returned to his job at the New York Air Brake and retired as head of the company’s billing department.

The administrators from Watertown High School, the Watertown City School District and this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian came to Gray’s home for his graduation ceremony.

“I don’t have honors like this very often,” Superintendent Terry N. Fralick said. “I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.”

Gray was very excited to finally receive his diploma. “I’m amazed … I never in God’s world expected to be getting this,” he said. “I’m just dumbfounded by the thoughtfulness.”

The war veteran is not the only 97-year-old high school graduate. Last year, 97-year-old Ann Colagiovanni received her high school diploma.

Colagiovanni quit school when she was 17 to work in her father’s market. Her daughter, Emilia Colagiovanni Vinci, noted that it was more important to work than go to school during the Depression.

“When I told her she was getting a diploma, she sobbed as if a pain had been relieved from her heart,” Vinci said. “I never knew what it meant to her. She wanted this.”

Do you know any 97-year-old high school graduates?

[Image via Shuttershock]