Never too old, never too late

GREELEY, Colorado – There’s at least one guy with a new high school diploma who’s not worrying about getting into college or finding a job.

After all, Takeshi Murata is 84.

Murata was 18 and a student at University High School in Greeley, Colorado, in 1944 when he was drafted to fight in World War II, according to the Greeley Daily Tribune newspaper.

Though he was the son of Japanese immigrants, he grew up speaking English. In the Army, he was trained in an intelligence unit and given some studies in Japanese. After the war, he was sent to serve in US military headquarters in Tokyo.

“I really didn’t know Japanese that well,” Murata told the Tribune. “But I’d learned a little in the intelligence schools, so they sent me.”

He met his wife, Chikako, there, he said. They married in Japan in 1947 and returned to northeast Colorado, where they farmed and raised five children.

The high school finally granted Murata’s diploma Wednesday after a teacher heard his story and found his old report cards. – AP