[Krystal]

Source- Sympatico/MSN news

DETROIT - John Locher lived through the Great Depression, fought in the Pacific during the Second World War and enjoyed a long career with General Motors.


But missing was the high school diploma whose pursuit he abandoned in the 1930s to help feed his family in Detroit.

Locher checked that of his list Monday night. The 90-year-old joined other graduates for commencement ceremonies at Detroit Southwestern High School, accepting a diploma more than 70 years after he dropped out.

The school, at the urging of Locker's family, sent the General Motors Corp. retiree a letter this past winter saying it was awarding him an honorary diploma for "life credits."

Locker, who now lives in Cape Coral, Fla.. called the gesture "overwhelming," saying he felt "100 per cent lighter."

Five of Locher's eight children and his 80-year-old wife, Mary, were among relatives attending the graduation ceremony.

"When I opened it up (the letter), I almost fainted," Locher said a few hours before the ceremony from his daughter's home outside Lansing, Mich.. "I thought someone was playing a real cruel joke on me."

Locher left school after the 10th grade, with the city and rest of the country mired in the Depression and his father suffering from tuberculosis.

"My family was starving, literally," he said. "I had to make some provision to make money. I was the oldest. I had a paper route. I did all kinds of work. I worked one place for 33 cents an hour, and I worked my fanny off."

He latched onto GM in 1936.

"I worked 38 years with GM," he said proudly. "I was a senior design engineer at the time, and I didn't have a high school diploma. God has been really good to me."

[Adrienne]

Aww, it's always interesting to hear these kinds of stories.