Man graduates over 60 years later

SULLIVAN, Ind. (WTHI) - It looked like an ordinary Southwest Sullivan School Corporation board meeting. But, the crowd that gathered was more than ordinary. It's a graduation ceremony long overdue for Hubert Pitcher.

"He was unable to graduate basically because he was called off to war, So he left school, high school, I believe he went until the 9th grade,” Jackie Haddix, Hubert’s daughter said.

At 84 it's difficult for Hubert to explain his entire story, but he remembers one thing about being called out of Pleasantville high school to go to Korea.

"They took me, I didn't wanna go, but they took me," Pitcher said.

Hubert would serve in Korea, but when he returned he went right back to work. He got married and raised three daughters.

While all his daughters went on to college, Hubert never received his high school diploma.

But that changed a few months ago when his granddaughter Joie Gadberry saw something that caught her eye.

"Well I saw on the television that there was this opportunity for veterans who were a part of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War who left high school to go to war, they could receive their high school diploma,” Gadberry said.

Joie, who is a senior at Linton Stockton, put together an application for her grandfather for the program in the county where he would have graduated, Sullivan.

Wednesday night he finally got the diploma he'd always wanted, but never received more than 50 years later.

"I think it's really nice, but I think it's crazy,” Pitcher said.

For Joie in her senior year she gets a graduation memory like no other.

"I mean most teenagers can't say they're graduating the same year as their grandfather who is 84 years old,” Gadberry said.