Richard A. Gosson, 88, a lifelong Fall River resident, put his education on hold to serve his country in the Korean War. On Monday, June 9, at the Fall River Public School Committee meeting, Gosson was honored with the diploma from B.M.C. Durfee High School he had been scheduled to earn but had sacrificed many years before.  

Donning a traditional graduate’s robe and four-pointed mortarboard, Gosson was called down from the front rows of the Durfee auditorium — from which generations of his family, friends, and veterans applauded — to accept his diploma from Superintendent Dr. Tracy Curley and with the support of the school board. 

In between taking pictures with balloons bobbing and his diploma proudly displayed, Gosson shared that of four of his children, three of them graduated from Durfee. “I can hardly express it in words,” he said of the significance, after long last, of becoming a graduate alongside his children. 

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