World War II vet, 95, finally gets high school diploma MUNHALL, Pa. - A World War II veteran from western Pennsylvania at long last has a high school diploma, earned as a 95th birthday present. George Hovanec dropped out of school to work, then joined the Marine Corps, serving in a howitzer battalion in Guadalcanal and New Zealand. Hovanec's family tell WTAE-TV most of his relatives didn't know the family patriarch never graduated. So granddaughter Karen Murray approached Steel Valley High School administrators about a birthday surprise. Hovanec says he's glad to finally get his diploma 67 years after he came home from World War II.