MAYFIELD, Sanpete County — A 77-year-old man who dropped out of high school 60 years ago to help support his family received his diploma Friday at the Mayfield Community Care Center.
Nurses and other residents cheered as adult education instructor Charles Scott gave Clifford Cunningham his Manti High School diploma Friday. Cunningham's wife, Artie Bernice, who lives at the same center, participated in the celebration.
Cunningham was born in 1926 in Fresno, Calif. His mother was Aurelia Hope Pratt, a granddaughter of the LDS apostle Parley P. Pratt. Cunningham is proud of being Parley P. Pratt's great-grandson, and it appears he may have inherited some of his great-grandfather's grit.
Cunningham's father disappeared the year he was born. Times were tough for his family in the 1930s and early 1940s, so with only a couple of high school credits under his belt, he quit school. "I was a real skinny kid," he said, "but I was willing to work."
The family moved to Salt Lake City, where Cunningham worked for Western Union and Photo Blue. He also worked for Hill Air Force Base.
His mother died in 1943 during World War II. But because he was underweight, he couldn't get into the armed forces. (At 19, he was 5 feet 9 inches tall but weighed only 90 pounds.)
"But I still wanted to help with the war effort," he said. For several years, he worked for Armed Forces Radio and the War Assets Administration, both in Los Angeles.
Over the next four decades, he lived in California and Salt Lake City. During his years in Salt Lake, he worked as a bellhop at the Congress Hotel and as a custodian at the Boston Building and LDS Church Office Building.
In 1963, he and Artie Bernice were married in Elko, Nev. A year later, the marriage was solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.
In 1987, Cunningham retired, and after briefly living with his sister in Colorado, the couple settled in Manti.
A few years ago, Cunningham decided to resume his education. "You'd think Clifford would get discouraged, but he didn't," said Scott. "He said the glory of God was intelligence, and he wanted more."
He started in August 2001 and completed this month. "Math was the hardest," he said.
In April, he developed pneumonia and had to have valve-replacement surgery. After he got out of the hospital, he and his wife moved to the care center.
Because Cunningham couldn't march with the rest of his class Friday, Scott took his cap, gown and diploma to the care center. Scott and another instructor, Steve Lund, picked up the fees and cap and gown rental.
"This is what education is all about," said Scott. He credited Cunningham with being an inspiration to younger students in the South Sanpete School District adult and alternative education program. "They looked at Clifford and decided that if he could do it, so could they."
Contributing: Lloyd Call
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