90-year-old veteran awarded honorary diploma
PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) — Bob Bonhomme has accomplished a lot in his 90 years, but the sacrifices he made decades ago caused him to miss out on a couple of key moments in a person’s life.
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Bonhomme was on track to graduate high school in 1951, but he dropped out of school as a teenager to work and support his family. Then, at 19 years old, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and life happened. He got married, raised four kids and never looked back at high school, working at a local papermill for more than 40 years.
Thanks to Portage Public Schools, he can add another accomplishment to his long list.
With friends and family on hand, Bonhomme was honored Monday night at the PPS Board of Education meeting and granted an honorary diploma.
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“We do want to recognize his accomplishments. We thank you for your service to our country. We thank you for everything you sacrificed to make that possible, to raise a family,” PPS Superintendent Mark Bielang said.
Board member Keith Crowell echoed the remarks, calling it the perfect capper for graduation season.
- Bob Bobhomme, 90, was awarded with an honorary diploma on Monday by Portage Public Schools. Bonhomme dropped out of school as a teen to support his family and was then drafted into the U.S. Army. (Courtesy Portage Public Schools)
- Bob Bonhomme shakes hands with PPS Trustee Kimberly Larson on Monday, June 10, 2024. (Courtesy Portage Public Schools)
- Bob Bonhomme receives an honorary diploma from PPS Board of Education President Randy Van Antwerp, right, and Superintendent Mark Bielang on Monday, June 10, 2024. (Courtesy Portage Public Schools)
“Before tonight, I was going to say it was a splendid graduation season, but this tops it all. I’m glad we could do that,” Crowell said.
The plan to honor Bonhomme came from his daughter-in-law, Diane. During a weekly breakfast date, Bob confessed that he still had a couple of things on his bucket list.
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“‘I wish I had graduated and gone to prom,’” she recounted Bonhomme’s words to PPS. “I saw the desire in his eyes when he talked about it. Before his life was over, I wanted to make sure he got to enjoy and do those things.”
Diane got the ball rolling, first with a prom held earlier this year at a local senior center, and then finally Monday’s big night.
Bob doesn’t have any college plans with his new diploma in hand but recalled taking a two-day course at Kalamazoo College for job training with the paper mill.
“Just because he never graduated high school doesn’t mean that he wasn’t smart,” Diane Bonhomme told PPS. “Doing the job of working at a papermill for over four decades, while technology was constantly changing, would teach someone great skills. … (He deserves) a diploma.”
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