Dr. Peter Mayes handed out his first diploma as new principal of Whitehall High School 10:30 a.m. July 15.

The recipient was just as special as the occasion. Ninety-seven-year-old Stella Lubenetski finally received her diploma after having to leave school at the tender age of 16.

“Surprise graduation would be the best way to put it,” Mayes said, noting he had little information about the event, and Lubenetski had even less. “If there was going to be a first diploma to hand out, this was quite the memorable one.”

The whole affair had been coordinated by Lubenetski’s daughter Diane Schraymeyer and the rest of her children, with the help of Whitehall-Coplay School District Superintendent Dr. Robert Steckel, who referred the family to Mayes.

Lubenetski was lured to the high school under the pretense that her daughter had to sign some papers. Once there, she was surprised with the presentation of her high school diploma.

“It was wonderful to see in her eyes the excitement, the thankfulness, the enjoyment that I think you would see from your average 18-year-old when they get their diploma,” Mayes said. “To have her family there and for us to help them was a real treat.”

Born in 1925, Lubenetski was one of 11 children and was raised in an era when the prevailing attitude in the community was that women didn’t need diplomas because they were going to get married and raise a family.

Lubenetski, however, loved and excelled in school. Her daughter said she made the most of her opportunities by partaking in music and art as well as mastering the memorization of poems and scoring high points in most of her exams. She was due to graduate with the Class of 1943.

Unfortunately, at the end of 10th grade, she had to leave school and get a job. It was what her sisters and most of the women in the community had done before her, and she knew nothing different.

It was also the beginning of World War II, and times were tough. She did what she had to do to support her family.

She went to work in the garment industry, which was prevalent at the time and employed many women. Her first job was at a factory in Coplay, sewing dresses and women’s blouses. She helped her family by contributing from her paychecks, until 1947, when she married and began a family of her own.

Over the years, Lubenetski left work to raise six children - five of whom attended Whitehall High School. She returned to work, as life demanded, but never seemed to miss the diploma.

“I am more practical than aspirational,” she said. “Many of my peers who graduated ended up in jobs that didn’t pay so well,” she said.

That is not to say she didn’t appreciate the diploma. She said she was surprisingly excited to receive her diploma.

Still bright and vibrant at 97, Lubenetski, when asked what she would say to high school students today, said, “Study and enjoy school, and make the most of it. Be glad for the opportunities you have.”

Lubenetski, a lifelong resident of Whitehall, now boasts a family of six children, 14 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.