After 60 years, man earns diploma
Ted Sams, 78, fulfills dream by graduating from San Gabriel High before joyous family
Ted Sams, 78, was only hours away from graduating with the San Gabriel High class of 2022 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Friday.
“Oh, yeah, I'm excited,” he said.
Butterflies?
“Ah, just a little bit, you know.” Sams said. “But once I get in the line and settled and all that stuff, I think it'll be OK. The one thing that I'm really glad about is that it's going to be over here pretty soon.
“This thing got so out of hand, I can't believe it.”
Hours later, after his 6p.m. graduation that saw him walk in cap and gown with students 60years his junior, Sams was on top of the world.
“I love the way I got treated and I love the way they treated my family,” he said.
He said this was one of the highlights of his life.
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Sams said. “When you get your picture taken and people are cheering for you, what do you expect? I didn't expect all of that, either, but what can I say?”
His daughters, Sherry and Sally, were over the moon.
“Actually, when he walked and got his diploma, every person on that stage hugged him and then the whole class applauded for him,” Sherry Sams said. “Everyone, and I think most of the people in the stands, too, were cheering and applauding.
“They knew he was there from 1962 and they knew his story because the principal had talked about it, so both myself and my sister got teary because kind of the whole stadium came to a standstill.”
Her sister caught all the action.
“Just to see this fulfilled, I guess, was, yeah, got choked up a bit,” Sally said. “Especially when I was filming it, everybody congratulating him, shaking his hand and then the whole crowd cheering for him was very special. It was fun.”
The thing is, Sams should have walked with the class 60years ago. His story got out of hand, as he said, because of its magical nature.
Sams was suspended from school with five days left in his senior year “for just screwing around,” causing him to miss one of his finals. Sams attended summer school at Alhambra High and passed the class. But when he went back to San Gabriel High to pick up his diploma, he was told he had to first pay $4.80 for a book he had not returned.
As a working kid not from a rich family, he said that was a lot of money in '62.
“And so I just said, `Ah, forget it, I'll have to wait,'” he said recently.
Sams got it into his head that the school probably got rid of the diploma when he did not return for it, so he never went back again.
After hearing their father tell his story for the umpteenth time at a Super Bowl party on Feb.13, daughters Sherry and Sally put their heads together and decided to see what they could do.
Sherry Sams led the charge, getting on the phone to SanGabriel High to get the ball rolling. Eventually, school employee Veronica Molina went above and beyond by searching through old boxes, finally finding Sams' original diploma from 60 years earlier. She took it to principal Debbie Stone, who invited Sams to walk with the class of '22.
Among those on-hand to witness the magic were Sams' wife Cheryl, daughter Sherry and her husband, David Orr, daughter Sally and her husband Ryan Bonette, grandson Justin Scott and his wife, Shannon, and their daughter Alice, grandson Nicholas Sams and his wife Kalei, friend Richard Lopez, high school friend Carl Wilgeroth and Molina and her husband.
Afterward, the party moved to Sams' home for pizza and beer.