3 generations earn diplomas

Some dads go fishing with their sons. Others, hunting.

But Jim and James Nunley have an even more special bond. The father and son are graduating.

The 72-year-old Jim and 36-year-old James have earned diplomas from the Granite Peaks adult high school completion program in Granite School District.

And to top it off, James' 17-year-old daughter, Brittany Wright, is graduating from Hillcrest High School.

Mary Nunley, the graduates' wife, mother and grandmother, couldn't be prouder of her family class of 2007.

"It's very emotional," she said. "It's overwhelming to see these three people I love so much accomplish something (like this) in their life."

Jim, who would have graduated in 1953, left high school with less than a year to go. He had been working with his contractor father, or helping out at least, since he was 10 years old. By high school he had a paying job with his pop, "and it wasn't too bad," he said. "I never made a lot of money, but I survived."

Jim took the reins of the family business, Nunley Painting, at age 30, when his father died. The Cottonwood Heights man, who also served four years in the Air Force, still runs the company on his own elbow grease.

But unfinished business of his youth has haunted him.

"All those years, I kept thinking about it and thought I ought to do something about it," Jim said of a diploma. "It was always there in the back of my mind, you know, but I just didn't do anything about it until two beautiful people came along and pushed me into it."

He's talking about Granite Peaks teacher specialist Susan Patterson and secretary Karen Harrison, friends of the Nunleys from church. Jim recalls Harrison telling him about a World War II veteran seeking a diploma. Jim told her he'd never completed high school, either. Patterson got in touch with Jim and helped him get going.

"When Jim decided to do it, he had tears in his eyes and said, 'What do you think of me going to get my diploma?"' Mary recalled. "I said, 'Go for it!"'

Jim, however, didn't go it alone. He asked if his son, James, would be interested in finishing what he'd started, too.

"I was thinking (he meant a) GED," James said, but later learned he could earn a full diploma. "You get the ceremony, you get everything. And I was thinking, this would be really neat to graduate with my dad. You know how a lot of guys talk about going fishing with my dad, or hunting with my dad, and I can tell my grandkids, 'I graduated with my dad."'