For 60 years, Ted Sams regretted missing his high school graduation.

Now 78, Sams can finally call himself a graduate after donning a cap and gown and receiving his diploma Friday with the class of 2022 at Southern California�s San Gabriel High School.

Back in 1962 when he was a high school senior, Sams got in trouble and was suspended five days before the end of the school year. He said he missed a crucial final exam and had to make it up over the summer.

�When I went back with my grade, they wouldn�t give me my diploma because I owed $4.80 for a book,� Sams told KABC-TV. �And so I just walked away and said forget it.�

The school still had Sams� original diploma locked away in an old filing cabinet. He beamed as he walked across the graduation stage at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and received the diploma.

�Over the years, I complained to my kids a number of times about how $4.80 kept me from having my diploma,� he said.

Sams said he plans on hanging the diploma on a wall at his home.

(AP)