Many of us carry at least one piece of unfinished business. A class we meant to go back to. A trip we kept putting off. A promise made to a parent a long time ago.
If one came to mind just now, you are in good company.
Harvey Harris made that kind of promise in 1958. On September 1, 2026, he kept it.
Harris, 90, received his diploma from the University of Miami that day. The ceremony took place at Arbor Terrace, the assisted living community where he lives in Cooper City, Florida. Friends and family surrounded him in a room decorated in the university’s orange and green.
“It was a promise I made to my parents, and I wanted to keep it,” Harris said, according to the university’s news office. “A promise is a promise.”
Why Did It Take 68 Years?
Harris grew up in South Beach and went to Miami Beach Senior High School. He enrolled at the University of Miami in 1954.
He was six credits short of a degree when the U.S. Army drafted him in 1958. That is when he promised his parents that he would get his diploma one day.
“I couldn’t believe that after my physical, I found myself on a train to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training,” he told the university.
From there, the Army sent him to Germany during the Berlin Crisis. Here is the twist. Stationed in Augsburg, he used University of Maryland extension courses to finish the six credits he was missing.
The diploma, though, never arrived. Harris was honorably discharged in 1962. He worked as a sales representative and a mortgage banker, and he raised a family. The plan to finish kept getting pushed aside.
His daughter, Tricia Hack, told WPLG Local 10 that her father talked about the unfinished degree over the years. It remained a regret.
Who Helped Him Finish?
The turning point came from a student. Elma Pierre, a Master of Social Work student at Barry University, was completing an internship at Arbor Terrace.
Harris shared his story with her. Pierre learned that not finishing college was a regret he had carried for years, and she asked whether he wanted her to file a formal petition with the University of Miami.
He said yes.
Pierre contacted university officials and asked them to review his record. The College of Arts and Sciences reviewed it, including his University of Maryland coursework, and several deans helped transfer the credits. He had met the requirements for graduation.
Then Pierre worked with his family to plan a graduation ceremony. She gives the credit to Harris.
“To be very honest, this is all about Mr. Harris, not me,” Pierre told the station.
A Cap in the Air
At the ceremony, Leonidas Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Chantel Acevedo, the college’s senior associate dean for academic affairs, presented the diploma. The university says Harris was visibly moved.
“Life threw you some curveballs. You had to put your dreams on hold while you were serving the country,” Bachas said.
Jon Baldessari, director of the university’s Veterans Resource Center, gave Harris an honor stole and honor cord for his Army service. He also presented a challenge coin from the Veteran Students Organization.
When the ceremony ended, Harris tossed his graduation cap into the air. Then he put on a University of Miami baseball cap.
“I kept my promise after 68 years, so now I’m an alumnus of the University of Miami, which is fantastic,” he said.
His daughter was there to see it. “He’s always been a role model, and we knew he wanted to finish. And he finally finished,” Hack told Local 10. She also noted that her father graduated from college in the same year as his granddaughter.
Sixty-eight years is a long time to carry a promise. What set it in motion was one question from a student intern and one word from Harris: yes.
If you have unfinished business of your own, it may be waiting for those same two things. And if someone you love is carrying one, you could be the one who asks.