Alvin, Texas — Graduations are usually reason to celebrate — especially when a person has waited three-quarters of a century for their diploma.
At 93, Pat Moore proves that age, like the year on a diploma, is just a number. He was supposed to graduate high school in 1945. Then again in 1946. But life had other plans.
“Verna Browning failed me!” Moore said about not passing his English literature course. “I hate to read!”
Instead of graduating, he returned to high school the following year, but was then drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps a few months before graduation. “Uncle Sam was calling so I had to go,” he said.
After nearly four years of service, he came home to fly crop duster planes and start a family. Being a father and a pilot left little time for school.
Moore finally received his diploma earlier this year in a small ceremony. What made him want to come back and get his diploma?
“That little girl right there,” he said of his great-granddaughter, who also graduated from high school this year.
His great-granddaughter, Bryssa, was one of 697 students who graduated from Alvin High School this year. It was the same school he was supposed to graduate from decades ago.
