Marine veteran in hospice care finally receives his high school diploma

POOLESVILLE, Md. — Late this afternoon, a nearly 100-year-old local Marine in hospice was hand-delivered the high school diploma he never received.

98-year-old Richard Remp didn’t get a diploma back in the 1940s because he dropped out at age 17 to serve in World War 2, then Korea, then Vietnam. Today, he savored the remarkable moment.

Remp, who goes by Gunny since he was a decorated gunnery sergeant in Vietnam, is at home in hospice. He fell a few weeks ago, and that’s when doctors discovered stage 4 cancer throughout his body.

SEE ALSO: 97-year-old Marine shares memories of his famed father Lt. Gen. Keller Rockey with author

His family and his buddies at the nearby American Legion Post 247 hatched a plan to see if they could get him the high school diploma he never received at the time. He was busy saving us from the Third Reich.

His friends reached out to school officials in his hometown of Sharon, Pennsylvania , which is 90 minutes north of Pittsburgh. The high school he attended couldn’t pull off a diploma quickly.

SEE ALSO: 7News Salutes: What is a veteran?

But when neighboring Sharon High School’s District Superintendent Justi Glaros heard about Gunny, she got the diploma printed with approval from her board and drove 4.5 hours on Friday to personally deliver it to his bedside.

“Thank you very much. You people just don’t know what it means to me," Remp said "I’ll cherish this for the rest of my life.”

“On behalf of myself and the Marine Corps, I thank you very much for what you have done for me. I’ll never forget this," Remp added. "How can I with all you good people around me? I’m really happy.”