Harvey Harris waited 68 years to finish what he started.

At 90, the South Florida veteran is officially a University of Miami graduate, after his college education was interrupted by military service more than seven decades ago.

Harris was a University of Miami student in the 1950s when he was deployed to Germany and had to leave school to serve his country. He was six credits short of completing his degree.

While stationed in Augsburg, Germany, Harris completed the remaining six credits through extension courses offered by the University of Maryland. Those credits were later accepted by the University of Miami.

Still, the degree remained unfinished.

Years later, Harris shared his story with Elma Pierre, a Barry University Master of Social Work student who was completing an internship at Arbor Terrace Cooper City, where Harris lives.

Pierre learned that not finishing college was a longstanding regret for Harris. She asked whether he wanted her to file a formal petition with the University of Miami.

He said yes.

Pierre contacted university officials and advocated for Harris, asking them to review his academic record and the circumstances that had interrupted his education.

The UM College of Arts & Sciences reviewed his record, including the coursework he completed through the University of Maryland Global Campus, and determined that Harris had met the requirements for graduation.

Harris celebrated his graduation surrounded by family, friends and representatives from the university.

“I kept my promise after 68 years, so now I’m an alumni of the University of Miami, which is fantastic,” Harris said. “And it’s a promise that I wanted to come true, and it did today!”

For his daughter, Trisha Hack, the moment was decades in the making.

“He’s always been a role model, and we knew he wanted to finish. And he finally finished,” Hack said. “And he actually graduated from college in the same year as his granddaughter. So, 1958 to 2026, 68 years later.”

Hack said her father had talked about the unfinished degree over the years and that it remained a regret.

“I mean, it was a regret of his that he never actually made that step to finish,” she said. “And so now that he’s done this, it means a lot to our family because he’s always been our role model and we knew he wanted to finish.”

Pierre said Harris was the one who made the achievement possible by trusting her with his story.

“To be very honest, this is all about Mr. Harris, not me,” Pierre said. “Yes, I was instrumental in helping him move it forward. But it’s all about him because he was the one that was very open during the sessions and he was the one that told me his story, and he trusted me enough to move forward with it.”

Pierre said the University of Miami was receptive to the request.

“The University of Miami was very understanding, so the ball got rolling and so they were very, very helpful,” she said.

For Harris, the long-awaited graduation was the fulfillment of a promise he had carried with him for decades.

“I knew at some point I would,” Harris said when asked whether he ever thought he would finish his degree. “It was like a challenge for me all these years, so I finally did it.”

And after 68 years, Harris finally has the diploma to prove it.

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