Florence Walter Finds Missing Diploma
Erik Laing needed his Huntington High School diploma to join the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Since the 2000 alum never picked it up, he had a problem. So he sent an e-mail to the Huntington School District's website last week requesting a copy of the diploma.
A district official promptly answered Mr. Laing's e-mail about an hour later, directing him to high school guidance department secretary Florence Walter who was equipped to send the Huntington grad a copy of his transcript.
Mr. Laing quickly contacted Mrs. Walter and reiterated his request for a copy of his diploma, not his transcript. "We don't issue copies of diplomas," Mrs. Walter said. "We issue transcripts."
Mrs. Walter is as thoroughly a woman of Huntington as there can be. One of 10 children, she was born in Huntington Hospital and educated here and has lived out her life in this community for the past 70 years.
"I was born and bred in Huntington," said Mrs. Walter, who lost her husband many years ago. She attended Robert L. Simpson High School on Main Street (now town hall) and participated in the legendary "M Day" parade in November 1958 from the old building to the sparkling new Huntington High School erected on the grounds of the former H. Bellas Hess estate. She's a 1960 Huntington graduate.
Mr. Laing made his plea to Mrs. Walter for a copy of his diploma, but she knew that it was only possible to produce a copy of the alum's transcript. "Then I got a premonition," she said. "I said to myself, "why don't you take a look in the school safe?" She headed off to the main office.
Shocked, Mrs. Walter found Mr. Laing's diploma in the safe. "It had been prepared, but he never picked it up," she said. "Someone put it aside and placed it in the safe." There it stayed for the next 13 years.
"I was so glad to find it," Mrs. Walter said. "He was so appreciative. He couldn't believe it." Mr. Laing's sister drove over to Huntington High School to pick-up the diploma for her brother.
Mrs. Walter started working for the district in 1985 as a substitute secretary at J. Taylor Finley Junior High School. "Helen Hoey was wonderful to work with," said Mrs. Walter about Finley's longtime secretary, who also happens to be the mother-in-law of Hall of Fame hockey player Pat LaFontaine.
In 1988, Mrs. Walter went to work full-time at Huntington High School. She has been there ever since. "Every once in a while I think about retiring," she said. "But, I haven't made any plans or met with the retirement system yet." Fortunately for Mr. Laing, she was on duty last week when he needed his high school diploma.