California man, 78, gets high school diploma 6 decades later

At the age of 78, a man in the United States received his high school diploma. Ted Sams, who owed $4.80 for a book, could not get it back in 1962, even after appearing for the tests.

In the last six decades, Sams has regretted losing out on high school graduation. He regretted not having to feel the excitement of receiving a diploma or donning a cap and gown. But, on Friday, he was able to realize his dream and declare himself a graduate. It was after receiving his diploma in the class of 2022 at San Gabriel High School in Southern California.

Sams, then a senior in high school, got himself into some trouble in 1962. Before the end of the school year, he was suspended for five days. Sams said he missed a vital final exam and had to make up for it during the summer.

“When I went back with my grade, they wouldn’t give me my diploma because I owed $4.80 for a book. And so, I just walked away and said forget it,” Sams told KABC-TV.

“Over the years, I complained to my kids a number of times about how $4.80 kept me from having my diploma,” Sams adds.

The school, on the other hand, still had Sams’s original diploma in an old filing cabinet. He was proud when he eventually went across the graduation stage at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to collect his diploma. Sams now intends to display the diploma on his wall at home.