This Marine Dropped Out of School at 17. At 72, He's Fulfilling His Promise to His Mom to Graduate
The Philadelphia Inquirer | By Kristen A. Graham
Published June 10, 2024 at 2:39pm ET
PHILADELPHIA — Call him the Rip van Winkle of Benjamin Franklin High: Joseph Bond dropped out of high school at age 17, as war raged in Vietnam, leaving without a diploma.
Over 55 years, he served his country, built a career, a family, a life. But as he hit his 70s, Bond remembered the promise he made to his mother before she died: He vowed he'd earn his diploma someday.
On June 13, Bond, a 72-year-old great-grandfather, will graduate from Ben Franklin's Educational Options Program, a night school that allows adult students who disengaged as youth to finish what they started.
"I wake up all these years later, and I'm the one with the gray beard," said Bond. "It was one of my goals before I pass, to get that high school diploma."
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/06/10/marine-dropped-out-of-school-17-72-hes-fulfilling-his-promise-his-mom-graduate.html
