Watch a World War II vet, 90, receive his college diploma
YouTube/XavierUniversity
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Walter Bunker, a 90-year-old World War II veteran, accepted his college diploma Saturday, proving it's never too late to go back to school.
Bunker attended Xavier University in Cincinnati during the 1940s, but left once the idea of graduating got to be too much for him. "I decided to put it off for a little bit, and that became 70 years," he told FOX19 Cincinnati. Bunker was a bombardier in World War II, and went on to work in real estate. After surviving lung cancer and watching his children and a grandchild graduate from Xavier, he knew it was time to return to the classroom.
The college registrar worked with him, and Bunker was able to transfer credits from the Air Force to Xavier. In need of just two more credits, Bunker submitted stories he had written, which allowed him to earn his Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree. So what's Bunker going to do now? "I guess I'll have to go out and start looking for a job," he joked. Watch Bunker receive his degree below (he's accompanied by another member of the Class of 2014, Iraq War veteran Ryan Hoefer). --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
