A 78-year-old California man was officially able to graduate high school after he finally received his diploma alongside the class of 2022.
Ted Sams was prevented from graduating in 1962 because he got into some hot water near the end of the school year. He was suspended five days before the end of the semester and ultimately missed a final exam he needed to graduate.
He was able to make up the exam over the summer of ’62 but was told he wouldn’t be given his diploma unless he paid the $4.80 (around $46 today) for a book he had forgotten to return to the school’s library.
“Over the years, I complained to my kids a number of times about how $4.80 kept me from having my diploma,” Sams said.
That diploma spent the next 60 years locked away in a filing cabinet until Sams’ old stomping grounds, San Gabriel High School, invited him back to accept his original diploma during their class of 2022 graduation ceremony at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
Now officially a high school graduate, Sams said he plans on hanging his diploma on his wall at home.
Source: https://abc7.com/ted-sams-san-gabriel-high-school-graduate-78-year-old-graduation-ceremony/11908761/