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Ron Cardenas left Erie Excessive College his junior yr, becoming a member of the U.S. Marines in 1963 and deploying to serve within the Vietnam Conflict.
Although he earned his remaining commencement credit whereas within the navy, the college principal on the time denied his request to obtain a diploma when he returned. He and his spouse, Dolores, went on to change into lifelong Erie Excessive advocates, supporting the college as dad and mom, grandparents and great-grandparents. Cardenas additionally volunteered his time as an Erie Excessive soccer, baseball and wrestling coach.
Friday, Erie Excessive offered him with an official diploma in a ceremony within the faculty auditorium, 58 years later. The ceremony ended with a standing ovation.
“It has been a really special occasion for me,” Cardenas stated.
Erie Excessive Principal Matt Buchler stated he first realized Cardenas hadn’t obtained his diploma a few years in the past, however his plans for a ceremony have been scuttled by the pandemic. He restarted the plans in December.
“He’s form of an icon right here,” Buchler stated.
At Friday’s ceremony, faculty board member Meosha Brooks offered the diploma earlier than an viewers of members of the family, associates and present college students. Cardenas additionally obtained the “athlete of the yr” award to honor his highschool athletic profession.
Buchler stated the couple proceed to assist the college by attending most residence video games, joking that the voice you hear yelling on the referee to rethink a name seemingly belongs to Cardenas.
Cardenas stated discrimination was rampant in Erie when he attended highschool, with white college students supported in the event that they struggled academically whereas Hispanic college students have been recommended to drop out.
He watched a good friend get expelled for leaning down close to two white women to retrieve a pencil. College directors accused his good friend of making an attempt to lookup their skirts — a declare the ladies denied, he stated. An argument he had with a coach over what he known as an unfair cancellation of a soccer recreation, ensuing within the coach threatening to paddle him, was sufficient to push him to drop out.
He stated he had wished to change into a Marine since elementary faculty.
He described the 2 weeks of boot camp as “pure hell,” saying he puzzled what he had gotten himself into. After one other yr and a half of coaching, he celebrated his nineteenth birthday on a ship to Da Nang, Vietnam.
He spent about three months in Vietnam earlier than he was critically injured throughout an ambush. He was taken to a navy hospital in California to recuperate earlier than returning to Erie to his dad and mom and his spouse, who was eight months pregnant. Solely two of the 26 Marines within the ambush have been unhurt, whereas 15 died. Cardenas ended up dropping an eye fixed.
As a younger 19-year-old, he stated, he noticed “issues that might make you sick” and nonetheless has flashbacks.
Although he didn’t attend school, his youngsters and grandchildren have gone on to earn school levels and change into profitable, he stated. He inspired the highschool college students in attendance to try for excellence.
“You attain up and seize that star, and also you let that star take you so far as you’ll be able to,” he stated.
Although his personal faculty expertise was difficult, he stated, he loves the city and Erie Excessive.
“Erie is mine,” he stated. “Erie is me.”
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