83-year-old HS graduate: ‘Nobody will ever know what this means'

MERCER, Pa. — Although the school year just started last month, Mercer High School is celebrating the graduation of one of its students, and he has a lesson for all of us.

Eighty-three-year-old William Young isn’t your average high school graduate -- he hasn’t attended school since 1946.

So you can imagine his surprise when he was presented with his high school diploma at Monday’s school board meeting.

“It was unbelievable. I didn’t know it until when I got to the door and saw all my family here. So I knew there was something going on. Nobody will ever know what this means (to me),” Young said.

Young dropped out of school at an early age so he could help his family. He later joined the Navy, where he earned a certificate equivalent to a high school diploma. However, it was never honored.

“Over the years, he threw the certificate away and didn’t think any more about it,” said Young’s daughter, Amy Jenkins. “He told me this story, and it touched me.”

Jenkins said she spent the next six months tracking down the required paperwork, eventually making her father one of the oldest graduates of Mercer High School.

“We’re so proud that we can do it: that we were given the ability to do this by the state,” said school board president Cedric Butchy. "To be able to honor one of our veterans in such a way is just a wonderful thing."

Although it took 60-some years to receive, Young said he’s always known the value of an education.