Military veteran, 91, receives Triway High diploma
Gene Leyda poses with his Triway diploma. A military veteran, the Big Prairie resident attended Shreve High School in the late 1940s but never graduated. He was honored in May at Triway's graduation ceremony.
Eugene Leyda waited nearly eight decades and fought in two wars between the time he attended high school and when he finally graduated. Forgive him, then, if he was a little overdressed — his word, by the way — for the occasion.
When you’re 91, you don’t have a lot of chances to drag the tuxedo out of the closet, so for Leyda, his graduation from Triway High School in May seemed like the perfect chance.
“They just stared at me,” Leyda said of his fellow graduates, all three-quarters of a century his junior. “I think it was because I was overdressed. I had this tuxedo on. I didn’t know. I said, ‘I’ll never do that again.’ Those kids don’t dress like that anymore. I did it first-class.”
Snazzy clothes had quite a bit to do with why Leyda never graduated in the first place. He was a freshman in high school in the late 1940s when he attended high school, which he dropped out of after one year. Between 1945 and 1950, Leyda saw older brothers Wilbur (United States Air Force, World War II), Albert (U.S. Army, WWII), Charles (Air Force) and Earl (Air Force) return either from wartime or the early Cold War years.
Each brother returned from duty decked out in full military regalia, and the young — too young, in fact — Eugene wanted that too. So his high school days immediately ended, which almost worked against him.
“My brothers all came home from the service in their uniforms and with their polished-up shoes, and I said, ‘I want to be a soldier,’” he said. “I tried to enlist in the Marines, the Navy and the Coast Guard, and all of them said the same thing: 'We can’t take you; you don’t have a high school education.' So I went to the Army. ‘We’ll take you.’ They didn’t ask any questions. I falsified my age by a year. I was 17.”
Leyda went on to see action in the Korean Conflict and much later in Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early 1990s. He also served during the Vietnam War era, though not in that conflict.
Fast forward to 2024, Leyda got the idea to graduate when somebody — he doesn’t remember who it was — casually suggested he should get his diploma.
“Somebody said, ‘You know it would be nice if you graduated from the new school,’” Leyda said. “I said, ‘I don’t even know if I’ll be living or not.’ I’m 91 years old. I said we should wait until it gets closer. So in May the phone rings. (Triway Principal) Chris Sieber calls and says, ‘We’d like to have you graduate. Can you do it?' I said, ‘Yeah, I think I can. What do you want me to wear.’ He said a suit.”
Leyda did that one better and went with the tux, completed with a Triway-purple bow tie. He, part of the initial class to graduate from Triway’s brand-new high school, definitely stood out among the nearly 100 graduates — not because of his age or his clothes, but because of his distinction.
“His decorated service was recognized by a standing ovation from all the attendees at our 2025 graduation ceremony,” Triway Superintendent Nate Schindewolf said. “He was able to speak with our graduates prior to the ceremony. It was amazing to see how intently our students listened to his every word, and they were excited to welcome him to their Class of 2025.”
Leyda, who sat among school staff rather than with the outgoing class, which was seated in chairs on the auditorium floor, said a few unprepared words to his classmates.
“I thanked them all for allowing me to graduate with them,” he said. “I told them I appreciated them for that. I said, ‘You really touched my heart.’”
Graduation wasn’t the only thing on Leyda’s plate. He is still active in the community, drives to a pretty full schedule of events and even has what he calls a “lady friend” named Marilyn.
A widower since November 2020 when his wife of 67 years, Elva, died, Leyda happened upon Marilyn, herself a widow after six-plus decades of marriage, by chance.
“I was getting groceries, and she was getting groceries,” he said. “I said a few words to her, and that was it, and then I went down another aisle and ran into her a second time. I said, ‘Hey, Marilyn, you want to ride along with me. I’ve got to go to the VA hospital.’ She said, ‘What time are you picking me up?’ I said, ‘8 and don’t be late,’ and I’ve been with her ever since. I said, ‘It’s nice to have someone to ride along with me.’”
Marilyn wound up joining Leyda for his graduation ceremony.
Leyda, who has four children, most gone from the area; 10 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren, still lives in the Big Prairie house he has occupied for 70 years. He spent much of his nonmilitary life driving trucks, which he also did while in the service, helping clear American equipment from the Middle East after the United States-led coalition defeated Iraq in the Desert Storm conflict.
Because of his lack of a high school education, he only advanced as far as staff sergeant.
“It’s a nice ranking, but it could have been better,” Leyda said.
Eventually, he got his GED and even considered pursuing higher education at Wayne College. While that would have sufficed to get him into college, Leyda ultimately decided not to pursue that route. Then some 30 years later, he figured it might indeed be good to have his actual high school diploma.
“They said the GED was all you needed,” Leyda said. “But I thought it would be nice to have that diploma. I said it might be a good idea. So when they asked, I said, 'If I’m living, I’ll do it.’”