FRANKLIN — John Dearth wants to sit down with his two stepgrandsons — who are 6 and 2 years old — and talk to them about the importance of education.
You know: Stay in school. Be cool.
He’ll tell the boys, in his deep, grandfatherly voice, that without at least a high school diploma — or an equivalent — all their roads will dead-end.
After today, June 6, Dearth can show them the importance of finishing what you start.
In 1966, Dearth, then a junior at Carlisle High School, said he was drafted into the Marines during the Vietnam War, stealing his opportunity to graduate.
That chance will come today, 43 years later.
When asked why obtaining a diploma now was so important, Dearth, 63, a retired welder, sat quietly in his living room.
“I hope those boys look at me and say, ‘If Pawpaw was able to graduate, then we can graduate,’” he said. “I want them to look up to me.”
So how will Dearth feel when his name finally is called and he walks across the stage? “I’m probably break down,” he said. “I will ... get pretty emotional. It’ll be a wonderful feeling.”
His wife, Angela, added: “Something has been missing in his life.”
Graduating became more of a priority, he said, after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer late last year. His wife said he was “devastated,” but she encouraged him to “fight back and not quit.”
So one day, after receiving one his of 40 radiation treatments at the Dayton VA Medical Center, Dearth drove into Carlisle.
He wanted to inquire about obtaining his diploma. He stopped into the office at Chamberlain Middle School.
There he met Sheila Baker, school secretary, and now his angel. Dearth told Baker his story, broke down right there in the main office — he blamed the tears on the cancer medication — and the two formed a friendship.
“He touched my heart,” said Baker, whose daughter, Krystal, is graduating from CHS today.
So Baker pushed the district to allow Dearth to participate in the graduation ceremonies. He served in Vietnam. Certainly, the district could give him a few seconds.
“It was a simple wish,” Baker said. “When you think of your senior year, you think of football games, dances, graduating and all that stuff. He missed all that. He had no choice.”
Dearth will stand out today. While his fellow 2009 graduates may wear shorts and sandles under their gowns, Dearth is taking a more formal approach. To prepare for the graduation, Dearth and his wife drove to a military outlet store in Fairfield. He purchased a camouflage uniform, shiny black boots and five medals. The outfit cost $300. His pride will be priceless.
This is a day Dearth figured never would happen. Since he enrolled in kindergarten late and was held back in the seventh grade because of an undiagnosed sleeping disorder, Dearth was old enough for the draft before he graduated.
Dearth, who didn’t drink before he became a Marine, was an alcoholic after the service, he said. When he came home, he worked at Armco — where his father, brother and grandfather worked for more than 125 years — for five years, but his drinking ended his career prematurely.
He walked away. “I didn’t want to disappoint them,” he said of his family.
He worked for numerous welding companies and retired from Mound Technologies in Springboro.
Dearth applauds the American people for changing their feelings toward veterans. After Vietnam, when Dearth walked the streets of Franklin, he was called “a baby killer,” he said.
Today, when people see the veteran stickers on his truck, they honk and wave.
John and Angela Dearth, his second wife, attend Victory of God Church in Germantown. As they walk with cancer, they lean on their faith.
“God helps him a lot,” his wife said.
“He’s there for you,” Dearth said. “I can never repay the man.”
Contact this columnist at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
