Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Gallery (click any photo to view the gallery)

Eighty-three-year-old Ed Cox receives his diploma from Superintendent Stu Silberman during the Henry Clay commencement June 5.

Principal John Nochta introduces Ed Cox at Henry Clay's commencement June 5.

Eighty-three-year-old Ed Cox jokingly says he got tired of being called a dropout, so he called the school district office about finally picking up his high school diploma.

“I thought it would be something nice to have,” said Cox, who was drafted during World War II after he quit school.

Friday night, this Navy veteran had a seat of honor onstage at the Henry Clay commencement. “I’m supposed to be first in line,” he said earlier. “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”

Cox only had to supply the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs with a copy of his military discharge papers; the GED wasn’t required. While other veterans have received their diplomas through Fayette County Public Schools, Cox is thought to be the first to participate in a graduation ceremony.

He admitted he might get choked up – “I’m kind of softhearted anyhow.”

But the support of a few dozen relatives and friends in the audience at Rupp Arena should carry him through, he said before the ceremony, adding, “My neighbors are going to come down there and make fun of me, I think.”

Kim Bunnell and Dick Miner are among those longtime neighbors.

“I’m thrilled that one of our veterans can be honored in this way,” said Bunnell, who said Cox can regularly be found sitting on his porch sharing stories from the past or helping folks with handyman projects.

“He can fix anything,” Bunnell said. “He’s a go-to guy on the street if you need to borrow a tool or need advice on how to repair something. Then he’ll usually volunteer to fix it for you.”

Miner, who has known Cox for 23 years, also lives in the Fairway area near the Idle Hour Country Club. “We call him the mayor of Queens Way,” Miner said, referring to their street. “He’s very well-admired and well-liked in the whole neighborhood.”

Miner noted that his old friend, who still putters in his carpentry shop, has probably worked inside just about every house in Chevy Chase.

“He can cipher in his head with numbers better than anybody you ever saw,” Miner said, adding, “He always refers to himself as an eighth-grade dropout, but he’s got more street sense than anybody you’d ever meet.”

Cox, a widower, described himself as a happy-go-lucky boy. “I get along with everybody,” he said.

He was even good friends with one-time superintendent of city schools John Ridgeway, a social studies teacher and truant officer.

“He was hot on my trail,” Cox said with a chuckle. “He kept telling me, ‘Edward, you’ve got plenty of sense if you’d just use it.’”

Cox finished eighth-grade at the old Lexington Junior High at Fourth and Limestone. At age 18, he joined the service and spent 1944-46 in the South Pacific.

He worked at a drugstore awhile in his younger days, then ultimately settled on carpentry. Now he seems quite content in his workshop, sporting suspenders and khaki shorts – a wooden, fold-out rule in the side pocket.

He’s still building bookshelves and selling iron house-number markers, which he sets in concrete for his customers.

“After I get this diploma, I’m going to go up on my price,” he said with a smile.

Did you know?

According to Kentucky law, “a local board of education shall award an authentic high school diploma to an honorably discharged veteran who did not complete high school prior to being inducted in the United States armed forces during World War II, the Korean Conflict or the Vietnam War.”