101-Year-Old Man Finally Receives High School Diploma After Dropping Out In The 1930s
A New Jersey man who was unable to graduate during the 1930s because his single mother
was too poor to pay his high school tuition, has finally received his diploma.
According to Washington Post, Merrill Pittman Cooper, 101, of Union, New Jersey, was one of the first Black trolley car drivers in Philadelphia and was a union leader in the city, the newspaper reported. The only gap in his long, successful career was a high school diploma.
Cooper was forced to drop out of school in 1938 after his junior year at Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a segregated boarding school founded in 1867 that originally educated formerly enslaved children.
According to a news release from Jefferson County Schools, Cooper studied college preparatory courses in Latin, biology, history, English, and mathematics at Storer.
Cooper’s mother, a live-in housekeeper, was unable to afford the final tuition payment for his senior year, the Post reported. Cooper and Nancy Washington moved to Philadelphia so she could be near family members.
“She worked so hard, and it all became so difficult that I just decided it would be best to give up continuing at the school,” Cooper stated.
According to online records, Cooper was born February 9, 1921, in Kearneysville, West Virginia. After leaving high school, Cooper took a job with Victory Cleaners And Dyers Co., in Philadelphia, online records show.
He also worked at a women’s apparel store, then was hired in 1945 as a city trolley car operator, the Post reported.
Cooper eventually became secretary-treasurer, and later vice president and president, for Transport Workers Union Local 234, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.
He helped integrate trolley operators, and when those vehicles were phased out years later, Cooper became a successful bus driver.
In 2018, Cooper visited his former high school and expressed regret about not graduating, according to the news release from Jefferson County Schools.
Cooper further stated;
As time went on, I thought it was probably too late, so I put it behind me and made the best of the situation. I got so involved in working and making a living that my dreams went out the window.
His relatives wanted that dream to come true. They reached out to Jefferson County school officials, who worked with the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, the Storer College National Alumni Association and the West Virginia Department of Education, to honor Cooper.
“Jefferson County Schools is committed to helping every student, young or old, fulfill their dreams,” Jefferson County Schools superintendent, Bondy Shay Gibson-Learn said in a statement. “For Mr. Cooper, that meant receiving a high school diploma. We are honored to help make that dream a reality.”
And this past weekend, Cooper finally got his graduation ceremony and an honorary diploma with his family around him.
