WAPPINGERS FALLS – An Army veteran drafted into WW II at the end of 11th grade in 1943 finally received his high school diploma on Saturday night. Henry “Hank” Hochlowski, 97, walked across the stage at the Roy C. Ketcham High School graduation on Saturday, accompanied by his longtime friend, Village of Wappingers Falls Justice Ray Chase.
Hochlowski was born in the City of Poughkeepsie in 1925 and finished 11th grade at Poughkeepsie High School in 1943. In November of that year, he was inducted into the United States Army. He fought in Europe during WW II, including six months as a POW in Hitler’s Germany.
He returned to the States in 1945 and ended his military career in December of that year.
He returned and completed his studies, he told Mid-Hudson News, but never managed to pick up his diploma from Poughkeepsie High School. That was rectified on Saturday when the infantryman joined the Ketcham Class of 2023, in walking across the stage and receiving his Poughkeepsie High School diploma. The diploma lists his graduation as June of 1946.
The recognition, according to Wappingers Central School District (WCSD) Superintendent Dr. Dwight Bonk, is part of “Operation Recognition”, a law that allows qualifying veterans of WW II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War, to receive their diplomas.
Hochlowski lives in Wappingers Falls. Dr. Bonk says the long-delayed graduation was a joint effort between the WCSD and the Poughkeepsie City School District (PCSD) where Hochlowski had gone to school, to afford the hero the recognition he deserves.
Hochlowski told Mid-Hudson News that he finished his studies and got “sidetracked” with life, forgetting to pick up his diploma. He went on to work at IBM for more than 40 years and raised a family in Wappingers Falls. “I got busy,” he said, during a break between well-wishers visiting him before the ceremony.
Roy C. Ketcham’s 2023 Valedictorian, Natalie Hilton, visited Hochlowski before the…
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