At the age of 83, Frank Ganz has passed algebra — with an A — to earn his high school diploma. Ganz starting cutting school in eighth grade. It was the Depression and working was his priority. He dropped out in ninth grade and forged his birth certificate to enlist in the Navy at 16. When he got back from service, he got a job, married and fathered four children. From the San Jose Mercury News:
“I always told my grandchildren ‘Make sure you graduate high school,’ ” said Ganz, who ran an auto parts store in Los Gatos until his retirement. “But inside it always burned that I didn’t finish. I was always embarrassed. When my grandchildren started going off to college, I made up my mind. I said ‘I’m going to do it.’ “
Unwilling to settle for a GED, Ganz enrolled in an adult ed program that let him qualify for a diploma. It took him five years to earn the credits with help from a math tutor. Now Metropolitan Adult Ed — “It’s never too late” is the motto — wants Ganz to come back as an American history tutor. He knows it because he’s lived it.