DENMARK, WI (WBAY/CNN) - A Wisconsin man's dream of receiving his high school diploma has come true 66 years after the rest of his classmates.
Norman Knuth, 83, grew up on the land he still lives on today, a fourth generation family farm near Maribel, WI.
His earliest childhood memories, chores around the farm.
“This was once exactly like my dad had,” said Knuth pointing to a John Deere tractor. “Those days we didn't have silo and loaders and barn cleaners, so a lot of hand work. My dad needed some help so I'd stay home and help him and finally I didn't go back to school. I just quit.”
Halfway through his junior year, Norman's school days were over.
After continuing to help his parents, he served six years in the Army Reserves, and then came home, eventually taking over the farm.
But as the years passed, regret over not finishing high school grew inside him.
"It was always something in the back of my mind, I wished I hadn't quit," Knuth said. "And they have high school class reunions and things like that and those I couldn't attend. But then they started an over-50 group where anybody that went to Denmark (High School) could go, so I could go to those reunions but I just always felt I didn't belong.”
"It would be sad,it would be talked about. I knew that it bothered him," his wife Audrey Knuth said.
This is why Knuth insisted his three children, and any young person who worked for him, appreciated school.
"You should get all the education you can, it's so important in your life because you have your plans, what your life is, what you're going to do, but the Lord's got different plans for you sometimes," Knuth said.
Without Knuth knowing, his daughter Sheri recently approached the Denmark School Board and shared her father's story.
This past Sunday, in cap and gown, Knuth received his diploma.
The class of '52 has a new member.
“I was very happy for him because I knew that it meant a lot,” said Audrey Knuth.
“The Denmark School District, school board, Mr. Nehls, Mr. Klaubauf, they were part of it, so I'm so glad they did it for me,” Norman Knuth said.
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