Lawrence Sellner, a 75-year-old Leavenworth Township man, will get his high school diploma June 1 during the Sleepy Eye High School Class of 2008 graduation ceremony.

SLEEPY EYE — A 75-year-old Leavenworth Township man will add a special flavor to the June 1 Sleepy Eye High School Class of 2008 graduation ceremony.

Lawrence Sellner completed the eighth grade in a one-room, country school in Mulligan Township before family farm duties took him out of the classroom and into the barn and field.

“My dad (Albert) had health issues and it was tough to find hired help back then, so he asked me to come back to the farm,” said Sellner.

He milked cows by hand and grew corn, beans, oats, wheat and flax for seven years before the U.S. Army drafted him in 1957.

His younger brothers picked up on the farm where Sellner left off, while he served as a medic at Bad Kreuznach Army Air Field Hospital in Germany.

In the Army in Germany, Sellner passed five General Educational Development (GED) tests.

On Oct. 7, 1957, he earned a GED certificate from the U.S. Armed Forces Institute, European Branch.