Resident Receives Diploma 60 Years Later

Henry Allyn Sheehan would have been the second generation of a four-generation family of Arlington High School graduates in the 1940's, but he left school at 16 to go to World War II, just a year shy of graduation.

On Tuesday night, the School Committee thanked Sheehan for his service to his country and finally gave him his diploma.

Sheehan, whose father, William graduated AHS in 1905 and whose daughters graduated in the 1982 and 1986 now has a grandson in the AHS class of 2019.

"My father left AHS at 16 to join the Army (only 90) days shy of 17," said Sheehan's daughter Allyne Perry of Arlington.

"The one thing Mr. Sheehan had always wished was that he had the opportunity to receive his diploma from AHS," School Committee Chairman Joseph Curro told the Committee Tuesday night.