The Mansfield News Journal reports that Reba Williams was presented the award on Wednesday from Mount Vernon Superintendent Steve Short.
Technically, the High school dropout rate in the nation just dropped a fraction. Although it is not clear whether that counts towards 1925 or 2013.
In 1925, Williams finished all 12 grades in Mount Vernon, but never received his diploma.
And it was a bureaucratic error. Williams was denied his diploma after she refused to read a book by one of his teachers. It turns out that Williams had already read the book, disliked and refused to dredge up again through its pages.
"I would like to tell them what happened to me," Williams told the newspaper. "If you expect to get anywhere in this world, they have to learn."
Actually, it was a recent profile of Williams from the Journal that helped finally get the diploma. A former teacher read the profile of Williams and presented his case to the board of education, which decided unanimously to award Williams a diploma.
Surprisingly, one of the Board members who helped make the case he had been awarded his diploma at the age of 95 years.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," said Williams. "Isn't that wonderful?"
Williams Junction for the occasion were a number of relatives, including his brother, 88-year-old "baby", Charles.
In fact, Williams has some distinct society. It was just last week that Massachusetts resident Fred Butler was awarded his high school diploma at the same age – 106. In fact, Butler expressed concern that he was not "earned" the degree, the ceremony in which they held a number of local figures including the Mayor.
And despite graduating late, Williams greatly praised the Mount Vernon school system saying that provided students the opportunity to embark on a lifetime of learning.
You can use it or not, "he said. "I was learning all the time."
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