BELLVILLE — Albert Beyer never imagined he’d get his high school diploma.
The Vietnam veteran enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps before completing his senior year. While his classmates went to senior prom and graduation, Beyer was serving overseas. He eventually got his G.E.D., but never experienced the milestone moment of a commencement ceremony.
More than 50 years after he was supposed to graduate, Beyer finally got his diploma earlier this month during a surprise ceremony.
Beyer’s wife, Dayna, heard about veterans with similar stories being awarded their diplomas years later. So she reached out to Fox Chapel Area High School in Pittsburgh, where her husband attended high school.
“He had COVID, I had COVID in September. It was a wake-up call,” Dayna said “There’s a lot of stuff we want to get done and we’re getting older.”
Fox Chapel Principal Mike Hower agreed to include Beyer in January’s early graduation ceremony. School personnel ordered him a diploma, cap and gown.
Meanwhile, Dayna discreetly invited family and friends to the ceremony. The biggest challenge was getting Al to show up without ruining the surprise.
Hower emailed the Beyers a note on official letterhead inviting him to participate in a panel discussion on military service, patriotism and education.
Al thought it was a scam and decided not to respond. At Dayna’s urging, he finally agreed to call the school and verify the invitation was real.
Twenty-four family members and friends traveled to Pennsylvania for Al’s graduation, but Dayna and the school kept the ruse going until the very last minute.
“Albert Beyer enlisted in the Marines. Before he could graduate, he was deployed to Vietnam,” Hower told the crowd at the beginning of the ceremony. “He thinks that he is coming here to be part of a panel discussion or even a keynote, but what I would actually like Albert Beyer to do is officially join the class of 2022 as a graduate.”
Beyer got a standing ovation from the crowd as he made his way up to the podium to say a few words.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I’m very honored to be with you guys. Thank you very much.”
Looking back on that day, Al said he didn’t fully recover from the shock until after leaving the school.
“I was a little awestruck. I was in non-belief. I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “It hit me pretty deep.”
As he looked out into the audience, he started to see his friends and fellow personnel from the American Legion. Even his own kids had managed to sneak in and sit behind him.
“It was such a really uplifting moment,” he recalled.
Weeks later, the Beyers are still getting cards and messages congratulating Al.
“I was very proud of him. I was very happy that his family and his kids and fellow veterans could be there to support him,” Dayna said.
“The school, they were the ones that made it happen. They inducted him in the class of 2022. He’ll be in the school yearbook.”
Beyer served in the Marine Corps from 1968 to 1978. He spent two years in Vietnam and was later stationed in Hawaii, where he and Dayna met.
Today, he and Dayna are active members of the American Legion. Both serve as historians for the organization. Al was a member of the Honor Guard from 2012 to 2019 and came up with the Bellville flag program, a Lion’s Club fundraiser that places American flags at homes across Bellville during patriotic holidays.
Al also continues to mentor younger veterans through the American Legion, providing the support he didn’t get as a returning Vietnam veteran.
“It’s an awesome organization. They do a hell of a lot for not only the vets personally but their families and their children,” he said.
“Other vets come back and they don’t know where to turn to next. They’re trying to acclimate back into civilian life and they don’t know who to go to first. It’s everything that I didn’t get.”
