Mr. Parmet Gets His Diploma

Ben Parmet went to Brooklyn's James Madison High School many, many years ago. He mentioned his days at Madison to Ben Goldberg, a volunteer at his nursing home, who as it happened also attended Madison, albeit much later, and who contacted the editors of the James Madison Alumni News about Mr. Parmet. By chance the editors later met Jerry Parmet, who told that them his father had indeed gone to the school, and was proud of it -- it is, after all, the alma mater of Senators Charles Schumer, Bernie Sanders, and Norm Coleman, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- but never graduated because he had to leave school to work, and always regretted that.

The editors asked the school's administration if there was anything they could do about this. They contacted the Board of Ed, and yesterday Ben Parmet had his wish granted: an Honorary Diploma, in lieu of the one he was unable to receive with his graduating class back in 1927, presented at the Sarah Neuman Nursing home in Mamaroneck as his family looked on. Mr. Parmet is 100 years old.