California IN BRIEF : AUBURN : Congressman Picks Up His Diploma
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Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the only American Indian in Congress, has returned to this Gold Rush-era town to pick up the slip of paper that eluded him 40 years ago--his high school diploma. The 58-year-old congressman, one of 262 graduates in Placer High School’s Class of ‘91, received the certificate from Principal Tom Spencer, who joked that the diploma should be withheld because “he needs to serve 603 hours of detention for the six months of classes he missed.” Campbell, who is three-eighths Northern Cheyenne, left Placer High in December, 1951, six months before the end of his senior year, to enlist in the Air Force. During his military service he completed the academic requirements for a General Education Degree but he never got the diploma. After his stint in the military, Campbell attended Meiji University in Tokyo and San Jose State University in California, obtaining a bachelor of arts degree and two lifetime teaching credentials.
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