NEVER TOO OLD

The average age of the nation’s high school graduates ticked up a fraction this month, as two 106-year-olds separately received their diplomas decades after attending high school. Reba Williams of Columbus, Ohio, and Fred Butler of Beverly, Mass., were each belatedly awarded high school diplomas. Butler had dropped out of school in ninth grade to look after his family, while Williams was denied a diploma in 1925 after refusing to reread a required book. Williams encouraged today’s kids to keep informed. “If they expect to get anyplace in this world, they have to learn,” she said.