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http://www.omniture.com --> Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend June 11, 2006 Harold Hargitt, 81, pictured with his wife, Marjorie, graduated from Rogue River High School Saturday night more than 60 years after attending. He didn�t earn his diploma the traditional way because he was drafted to serve in World War II as a junior in high school. (Mail Tribune / Jim Craven) In a class of his own By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune ROGUE RIVER — When graduation day rolled around for Rogue River High School's class of 1944, Harold Hargitt was half a world away from his classmates. The skinny trombonist and Eagle Scout usually spotted in the center of class pictures had been drafted at the end of his junior year, just months after his 18th birthday. So while his classmates donned caps and gowns in Oregon, Hargitt wore a Navy uniform as a personnel yeoman keeping track of troops at Munda, a military airfield on New Georgia Island, part of the Solomon Islands group. Sixty-two years later, his niece and youngest daughter decided he deserved his own march to "Pomp and Circumstance" so they worked with school officials to get Hargitt a diploma and a chance to walk with the class of 2006. "I'm ready to graduate," Hargitt, 81, said. He had only two classes remaining for his senior year — algebra and world history — when he got the draft board letter calling him for a physical in Medford in June 1943. Found "Class A," he was ordered to Portland, where he enlisted in the Navy. He trained in Farragut, Idaho, and on several California bases before shipping out in the middle of a December night for the South Pacific. He was stationed first in the Russell Islands, then in Munda. "That's where I was when my class was graduating," he said. He also spent time in the New Hebrides before being granted leave in early 1945 after 18 months in the Navy. On leave, he returned to Rogue River to marry, then shipped back out to Bremerton, Wash., to await the completion of an aircraft carrier he would be assigned to. Japan had already surrendered by the time the carrier was done, so Hargitt's stint traveling the West Coast on it was short. He was discharged from the Navy in February 1946 and returned to Rogue River. In April that year, he took a job at the Grants Pass post office, where he worked for 34 years. "I did just about everything I could do in that office," he said. From an entry level job he worked his way to supervisor of mails, then decided to get out of the office and delivered a rural route southwest of Grants Pass for the final 10 years of his career. In 1972, he and his first wife divorced after raising two daughters. In 1975, he married his current wife, Marjorie, whom he met on his mail route. After retiring in 1980, he and Marjorie took to the road in a recreational vehicle. They spent 19 years crisscrossing the country to see the sights and visit scattered family members. A prostate and bladder cancer diagnosis complicated by aneurisms in his legs discovered during treatment prompted Hargitt to settle in the Bend area for medical care. Doctors only gave him two years to live — but that was seven years ago, Marjorie Hargitt said proudly. "I think this diploma is a nice idea to finally get closure," she said. Hargitt's niece, Elizabeth Moore Lenander, said her uncle always recognized the importance of education and proudly watched younger generations graduate. "It was always a disappointment to him, I think," she said of his own missed chance. Hargitt said he got a diploma in the mail from school officials sometime in the mid-1940s. "I guess they figured I had made world history," even without algebra, he joked. Lenander, a music teacher in the Grants Pass School District, formerly taught in Rogue River, so she started calling people she knew in the district this February to see if she could arrange a graduation for her uncle. "My dad died 10 years ago, so he's very special to me," she said. Lenander found that six young men from the class of '44 had missed graduation because of military service. Only two are still alive: Hargitt and Lenander's cousin, Chuck Moore, who wasn't interested in participating in graduation after all these years, she said. Lenander kept calling Rogue River school officials on her uncle's behalf until the pieces fell into place. Hargitt arrived in his RV from Prineville Tuesday to go to baccalaureate Wednesday, a senior breakfast and graduation practice Friday and Saturday evening's graduation. Timmy Perston, valedictorian of the class of 2006, met Hargitt so he could introduce him at graduation events. "I think most kids thought he was with the civic club that puts on the breakfast, but when they found out he was one of the graduates, they thought it was really neat," Perston, 17, said. "It's pretty amazing to hear his story and how he's coming back to graduate. It's really, really cool to be part of it." Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485 or at [email protected] Advertisement s Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations --> online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Entertainment Guide --> Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy