98-year-old Marine veteran in hospice care finally receives his high school diploma

POOLESVILLE, Md. (WJLA) — A nearly 100-year-old Marine veteran in hospice Friday was hand-delivered the high school diploma he never received.

98-year-old Richard Remp was unable to get his diploma back in the 1940s because he dropped out at age 17 to serve in World War II, then Korea, and then Vietnam. But he savored the remarkable moment Friday.

Remp, who goes by "Gunny" since he was a decorated gunnery sergeant in Vietnam, has been in hospice care at home since doctors discovered stage four cancer throughout his body after he fell a few weeks ago.

His family and his buddies at the nearby American Legion Post 247 hatched a plan to see if they could get him the high school diploma he was unable to attain after he left school to fight the Nazis.

His friends reached out to school officials in his hometown of Sharon, Pennsylvania, which is 90 minutes north of Pittsburgh. However, the high school he attended could not help them pull off their diploma gift so quickly.

But when the neighboring district's Superintendent Justi Glaros heard about Gunny, she got the diploma printed with approval from her board and drove 4.5 hours on Friday to personally deliver it to his bedside.

“On behalf of myself and the Marine Corps, I thank you very much for what you have done for me. I’ll never forget this," Remp said. "How can I with all you good people around me? I’m really happy.”