SAC COUNTY, Iowa (WHO) — On Sunday, 107-year-old Orville Von Ehwegen received a high school diploma at Iowa’s East Sac County High School graduation ceremony.
Ehwegen, born Aug. 21, 1917, dropped out of school about 93 years ago at age 14 to help his father on their farm during the Great Depression.
Ehwegen enlisted in the Army and fought in the South Pacific during World War ll from 1942 to 1945. When Ehwegen was honorably discharged, he thought he would never get his diploma.
“I figured that was all gone away. That would never happen,” Ehwegen said.
Steve Irwin, a longtime friend of Ehwegen, talked to Sac County High School about Ehwegen getting a diploma.
“One thing led to another, and the school agreed to do an honorary diploma. So, I called Orv back and and asked him if he thought that would be a good idea. And he kind of hem-hawed for about a half a second and said, ‘Sure, that sounds like a really good idea,’” Irwin said.
Mark Gray, another longtime friend of Ehwegen, said he was happy to see Ehwegen receive a diploma.
“Hope the children or the young adults who graduated today really absorb what took place with him and maybe come back to the library and read his autobiography and understand the sacrifice that kids made and parents made during the Depression and World War ll,” Gray said. “It’s really amazing, and it’s great that we have someone still here today that can tell the story.”
Ehwegen was happy to graduate alongside the class of 2025, saying he’d “missed all that.”
“It’s a wonderful thing to graduate. It’s a good, wonderful thing to learn and be able to do things. And you don’t have to go through, you might say, a school of hard knocks,” Ehwegen said.