Scott Schwartz of the Rocky River school board presented Donna Moats with her father Theodore’s high school diploma 65 years after he would have graduated. (Photo courtesy Robin Reinbold)

Life’s lessons count for a lot in education arena
By Jennifer Mitchell
Rocky River
Published Oct. 4, 2006

Theodore Moats was a smart man. Maybe, if things had been different, he would have gone to college. But the money wasn’t there. And, because of circumstances beyond his control, he never got his high school diploma.

On Sept. 21, with the help of Rocky River city school officials, his daughter Donna Moats stood before the Board of Education and accepted the diploma that state law says Theodore Moats should have received in 1941. While his peers were graduating, he was trying to right wrongs committed overseas in a battle known as World War II.

Recognizing that life’s lessons can be just as educational, if not more, than those in the classroom, Ohio law now awards diplomas to veterans of WWII, or the Korean and Vietnam wars, who left school to serve their country before graduating.

“In recognition of the curriculum he completed at Rocky River High School with the understanding that the units he lacked in history and English were more than earned as he fought for his country and made history himself … be it resolved … that Theodore H. Moats be approved for graduation from Rocky River High School,” his posthumously awarded diploma reads.

After reading the entire proclamation aloud, school board member Scott Schwartz placed it into Donna Moats’ hands.

“It just makes us all very happy,” she said of Theodore Moats’ family. “Thank you very much.”

Superintendent Dennis Allen thanked Moats in return. He said the process allowed him to walk down the district’s collective memory lane.

“One of my dear friends went to school in that class, so it meant a lot to me, too,” Allen said.

Theodore Moats’ grandson, Vincent Adkins, looked on from the audience. Donna Moats’ mother, Henrietta, and siblings Ted and Amy Kay, were unable to attend, but Moats brought their appreciation with her.

Moats contacted her local veterans affairs office after reading about the state law in a recent newspaper article. She said a gentleman in the Lorain office on North Ridgeville Road made the whole process simple.

“We filled out papers and boom, it was done,” Moats said. “I was really surprised.”

Moats said she hasn’t stopped missing her father, who died in June of 1996. The last serious conversation she remembers having with him was about the war, something he remembered vividly for years after. His friends and the experiences of that time were a major part of his life, she said.

“My dad was a very intelligent man,” Moats said. “Even though he’s passed away, this would have meant a lot. It would have meant so much to him to get this.”