In 1962, just before the end of the school year, Sams ran into trouble. He was suspended five days before the graduation ceremony. He had also missed a crucial final exam, which he had to make up for in the summer.
“When I returned with my final grade, they still wouldn’t give me my diploma because I still had to pay a $4.80 fine for a library book,” he told KABC-TV. “Then I ran away. I thought: forget it with that diploma.”
After sixty years, the school was found to have still kept Sams’ original diploma in an old filing cabinet. He beamed as he walked across the stage at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and finally received the paper.
According to the proud Sams, the diploma will have a nice place on the wall at home.