WWII got in way, but vet gets degree

EUGENE, Ore. — Harry Peltzer had originally planned on graduating from the University of Washington in 1946, but went off to serve his country. After World War II, real life got in the way of completing his degree.

The 80-year-old will finally graduate today as a member of the class of 2004 during a ceremony at Husky Stadium. And it’s all thanks to his granddaughter.

Julie Noll-Klarr, 25, a business major at Northwest Community College, always assumed her grandfather had graduated. She was shocked last summer when he confided he hadn’t received his diploma.

“We got to talking about his credits, and when I realized how close he’d come, I said, ‘We need to find out what you need to do to get your diploma!’ ” she told the Register Guard. So Noll-Klarr e-mailed UW and told them about her grandfather.

Janet Kime of the school’s undergraduate advising office responded with unexpected news: Peltzer was just one course shy of the requirements for his degree and the school was willing to waive it.

“The reason we were able to graduate him was that he’d actually completed the number of credits he needed to graduate,” Kime said. “All he lacked was one course in his program.”

The requirement was a senior project designed to help graduates identify a suitable career field. Since Peltzer started his own business, Metal Detectors Inc. in 1965, school officials determined he had satisfied the course.

In his freshman year, Peltzer enlisted in the Air Force, becoming a decorated navigator with the 459th Squadron of the 385th Bombardment Group of the Eighth Air Force. He flew 35 missions in a B-17 Flying Fortress over enemy-occupied Europe, was twice shot down and was awarded an Air Medal as well as First, Second, Third and Fourth Oak Leaf Stars.

When he returned from World War II, he married his high school sweetheart and went back to school. But he was no longer excited by engineering, and switched majors to what was then called general studies.

After his marriage broke up, he landed a job with a clay products company. But work interfered with his final class, and he never completed it.

An avid Husky fan, Peltzer later remarried, started a family and didn’t speak about his unfinished degree. Until last summer.

Today, Noll-Klarr will walk down the aisle at the graduation ceremony next to her grandfather, who uses a wheelchair.

“I was so grateful to her. My rationale had always been that I didn’t really need the degree, but I was wrong, because I’m a person who likes to accomplish things,” Peltzer said. “And this is an accomplishment.”