95-Year-Old WWII Vet Gets His High School Diploma After Waiting for 8 Long Decades

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It’s graduation time, and seniors countrywide are getting ready for their graduation ceremonies after four long years of high school. But for one student from Snowflake High School in Arizona, the wait has been just a little bit longer. Not only is Charles Hall a senior, but he’s also a senior citizen.

Hall is a 95-year-old Second World War veteran who has patiently waited almost 80 years to collect his diploma despite being a very high-achieving student. According to KGUN 9, Hall was Junior Class President, lettered in three different sports, and was a talented boxer. So why the agonizing wait?

It all came down to Hall’s duty to his country. Hall enlisted in the Marine Corps after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor; he joined ranks in July of 1943. The ambitious young man left high school, not to mention his friends, family, and everything he knew and loved, behind for unknown territory. He could have deferred—he was eligible—but he chose not to, deciding that serving his country was the right thing to do.

It came as no great surprise to everybody who knew Hall that he was an A-Grade student in the Marine Corps, too. He earned numerous awards, including the American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, among others. Hall even survived one of the most momentous battles of all, and incidentally the last major battle of the Second World War, the Okinawa invasion.

Hall returned home safe, but things had moved on from the heady days of his youth and his long-forgotten high school career by then. Responsibilities beckoned; Hall busied himself with work and family, and bringing home the bacon became particularly imperative as Hall’s family grew. Today, the accomplished patriarch has 13 children, 52 grandchildren, 155 great-grandchildren, and 16 great-great-grandchildren. Have you lost count? We have, too!

One thing persistently loomed over Hall’s winter years, however, and his family caught wind of it, telling ABC15 that his biggest regret was not going back to school. In order to make Hall’s long and illustrious life complete, the people around him decided to help make their beloved veteran’s lifelong dream come true. He would graduate, after all.

On Friday, May 24, 2019, Mr. Charles Logan Davis Hall walked to the stage in a royal blue cap and gown, surrounded by fellow graduating students, and did exactly that.

What better way to honor a veteran, loyal family man, and academic high achiever than to allow him to realize such a marvelous and modest ambition? Hall’s son-in-law made a powerful speech on the day to the applause of the gathered crowds: “By recognizing the sacrifices of Mr. Charles Logan Davis Hall,“ he said, ”we are fulfilling a dream for a man who helped make this community, this state, and this country what it is today.”

Nobody deserves it more. Congratulations, Charles!