DULUTH, Minn. — Anyone who’s crossed the stage to pick up a high school diploma will never forget the feeling.
But at 101, it was a feeling Harlan Olson had never known.
“Yeah,” Harlan said, “They drafted me.”
Harlan was 19 when he was ordered to report for military service before his high school graduation.
Harlan’s father picked up his son’s diploma, as Harlan began his service in the infantry during WWII.
“We always said, he crawled through France and Germany on his stomach,” Harlan’s wife Pat said.
A few months ago, at an after-church-coffee, Pat and Harlan shared the story of the missed commencement with graduating senior Grace Nonnemacher.
Grace has known the Olsons since her family joined United Church of Two Harbors when she was six years old.
“They've always loved Grace,” her father, Dave Nonnemacher said.
The friendship was about to be strengthened.
Grace’s father continued, "The wheels started turning and I thought, 'that man needs to walk across the stage and get his diploma handed to him.'"
Grace loved the idea. “That’s really cool,” she remembered thinking.
Harlan’s reaction?
“Holy (expletive)" he recalled thinking.
It’s been, after all, 81 years since the rest of his class walked the stage.
“Never too late,” said Tom Tusken, the principal at Duluth's Denfeld High School, from which Grace will commence and Harlan should have.
Once alerted by the Nonnemachers, it didn’t take the principal long to seize on an opportunity.
“My reaction was, we will find a way to make that happen,” he said.
The school didn’t even have to order a diploma.
“This is Harlan's original diploma from 1943,” said the principal, holding up the yellowed document. “They brought it to us.”
On graduation night, Harlan’s family also brought Harlan.
Outside the auditorium, Harlan’s sons helped their dad with his cap and gown as Grace arrived in hers.
“I'm feeling good, I'm excited,” a smiling Grace said.
As Pomp and Circumstance played, 200 graduates entered Denfeld’s historic auditorium.
Harlan sat in the auditorium seats, off one side of the stage, joined by Grace.
“Are you nervous?” she asked him.
“It's a long time since I graduated,” Harlan replied.
“You deserve it though,” Grace assured him.
Pat sat with the rest of the Olson family, on the opposite side of the stage.
“I'm so proud of him,” Harlan’s wife said.
Harlan’s participation came with one condition. “’Grace escorts me across the stage,’” Dave Nonnemacher says Harlan insisted.
So, before the members of the class of ’24 had their moment, Harlan – escorted by Grace – had his moment on the same stage on which his classmates had received their diplomas 81 years earlier.
A sustained standing ovation started as Harlan and Grace made their way to center stage.
“Harlan, on behalf of Duluth Public Schools and Denfeld High School, congratulations,” principal Tusken told Harlan as he handed the WWII vet his old diploma.
“Thank you very much,” Harlan told the principal as a smile crept across this face.
The rest of the class of ’24 followed, including Grace making a second appearance to receive her own diploma.
Upon exiting the stage, Grace immediately gave Harlan a hug.
“I’m proud of you,” she told him.
Eight decades ago, Harlan Olson fought the war that saved the world.
Credit Grace, for saving Harlan a place.
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