Community Corner
At Last, WWII Vets Get High School Diplomas
The honorary Cheshire High School diplomas were more than 60 years in the making.
Edward Barzda has two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for valor for his service in World War II. Now, nearly 67 years after he would have graduated, he finally has a high school diploma.
"It took a long time,” said the beaming 87-year-old after receiving his diploma Thursday night before a small gathering of students, school officials and veterans at Cheshire High School, who gave him a standing ovation.
Barzda, who served in the 83rd Infantry Division and fought in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, was one of two World War II veterans awarded honorary diplomas during Thursday's Board of Education meeting.
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The late Earl Beebe, who served with the Navy Seabees stationed in Pearl Harbor, received his diploma posthumously. He died in 2004.
Beebe’s wife of 48 years, Helen, wrote to Superintendent of Schools Greg Florio to request the diploma after reading an article about the program in the local newspaper.
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“I think my husband deserved it,” said Beebe, who was accompanied by her daughter and son. “I thought it was time I did something to honor him.”
Both Barzda and Beebe were born in New Haven and attended the Boardman Trade School before having to drop out of high school.
Barzda went to work in 1943 to help support his family. A year later, when he was old enough to enlist, he joined the Army, fighting in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.
He landed at Utah Beach in Normandy on June 24, 1944. While fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest, he suffered frostbite and a leg wound from a German artillery shell, for which he received the two Purple Hearts.
He earned the Bronze Star when he and two other soldiers stopped a contingent of 25 German paratroopers, killing 13 Germans and forcing a dozen more to surrender. Barzda used a rifle while the others used machine guns.
When he got home, he couldn’t go back to high school because he had to work to support his widowed mother. He took a job at High Standard Precision Firearms Company in New Haven, and continued working after his retirement, spending15 years as a custodian at Norton Elementary School.
He and his late wife, Philomena, moved to Cheshire in 1965. He now lives at Highland Health Center.
Beebe was one of four sons who served in the military. After attending two years of high school he enlisted in the Navy Construction Battalion. He was deployed to Mare Island, California and then Pearl Harbor.
When he was discharged, he returned to New Haven and took a job at United Illuminating, where he worked for 38 years. “He had to go to work to support the family,” Helen Beebe said. “The boys all had to go to work.”
The couple moved to Cheshire in 1967 and raised their family here.
State law allows local school boards to grant high school diplomas to WWII veterans who were unable to finish high school because of service to their country.
Superintendent of Schools Greg Florio said bestowing the diplomas was an honor for the school district. The veterans received honorary Cheshire High School Class of 2011 diplomas.
