At 73, an impossible dream comes true for Moltke Township man

Clyde J. Roeske, 73, of Moltke Township proved it?s never too late to earn a high school diploma. Roeske, who is described by his daughter Mary Lynn (Roeske) Carvour as a ?lifetime learner,? left school during his eighth grade year and got sidetracked — for about 57 years. Clyde served three years in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict and worked his way up from groundsman and meter reader to staking engineer for Presque Isle Electric and Gas Co-op. He once rejected an offer for promotion to a higher position because he did not feel qualified without a high school diploma, even though he had passed numerous college courses at Michigan State University and Ferris State University in electrical training.

ROESKE ENROLLED in classes in the 1980s to work toward his GED and studied for two years until the program was canceled in Rogers City. Later in life Clyde also learned part of his struggles in the classroom were from dyslexia, a disorder that makes words and letters on a printed page often appear differently. His daughter, a home schooling supervisor, gathered information from her father to learn what classes he had taken and to ?evaluate what his skills were,? said Carvour. ?I put them together and created him a transcript that was very much qualified for high school graduation.?

Carvour made arrangements for her father to receive the diploma during a special ceremony in central Iowa and told everybody in the family what she was up to, except for Clyde. Family members traveled to Iowa to watch Martha Carvour — Mary Lynn?s daughter and Clyde?s granddaughter — graduate with honors May 8 from Iowa State University. The next day, in a surprise recognition ceremony at the Carvour home in Altoona, Iowa, Roeske was awarded his high school diploma from The Institute for Independent Secondary Studies.

WHEN HIS kids dressed him up in a graduation cap and gown and marched him down the hall to the tune of ?Pomp and Circumstance,? Clyde thought they were pulling a prank. ?When they presented it to me, I didn?t believe it because I thought it was a gag,? said Roeske. ?It was a total surprise.? He was stunned and almost cried, Carvour said. It took him several days to believe it was real and official.

?I know it meant an awful lot to him,? said Carvour, a 1970 graduate of RCHS. Mary married Mickey Carvour prior to graduating from Michigan State University in 1976 and eventually moved to

her husband?s hometown in Iowa. ?This is something he has always wanted to do. He had given it up. He thought there was just no way he could go back now and do it. It?s the one thing that he?s always strived to accomplish.? All four of the Roeske siblings, Mary Lynn; Connie (Roeske) Cook of Little Rock, Arkansas; Dave Roeske of Shelbyville; and Tim Roeske of Ypsilanti gathered for the occasion, making this the first family reunion all have been able to attend.

?IT WAS very exciting,? said Carvour. ?It was a very special family event, with it being an opportunity for everybody to come and have our reunion too.?

WHILE ROESKE says he hasn?t hung his graduation certificate, and has gotten sidetracked with other activities the last two months, he promises not to let the chore linger for a decade or two.