World War II Veteran Graduates at 88
Penn State has recently awarded an 88-year old World War II veteran an undergraduate degree, 7 decades after he started the course.
Clarence Kasales started studying at Penn State when he was 18 in 1940 until 1942. He left to attend medical school when he heard the national call for medical students to serve in the army during the Second World War Kasales joined the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1943, before joining the Navy, making himself a long, distinguished career.
During the war, Kasales worked his way to get his degree in medical at Temple Medical School in 1946. Then, he served in the Navy as an aviation medical examiner before becoming an assistant medical officer on the USS Boxer.
Kasales’ son-in-law asked Penn state’s director of premedicine, Ronald Markle regarding his father-in-law’s eligibility to get the degree. After a review, Markle said that after three years of undergraduate study, premedicine students can enter medical school using credits from their first year of medical school. However, it is a rare case.
Kasales will be attending the graduation ceremony to receive his degree with his wife, daughters and grandchildren.
