“It makes me feel very humble. I’ll enjoy every minute of it,” said Williams, who has already cleared a special place on a wall in his house for the framed diploma. “I won’t be able to use it for anything but to look at it. I will be looking at it every day. I just wish my wife was around to see it.”

Williams said his wife died nearly three years ago.

The diploma Williams receives will be one from 1953, and Yearly said the signatures will be copies of those used to sign diplomas that year.

Yearly said her father gets choked up just about every day thinking about his degree. She believes he was always embarrassed over not graduating.

“The worst thing is, he walked across the stage in a cap and gown ... and the folder was empty,” Yearly said. “That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.

“We’re just so incredibly proud of him.”