'Three of my children are still in high school and I felt I needed to be an example to them,' Clyde Welch Jr. told FOX Television Stations.
EDGEFIELD, S.C.The year was 1995. Sixteen-year-old Clyde Welch Jr. was in 10th grade and made the tough choice of dropping out of high school in Harlem, Georgia.
The following year, he started a full-time job in construction and put his high school education in his rear view mirror. For the next 27 years, Welch worked hard to build a successful life. He further developed his concrete and carpentry skills as a laborer. He then switched career paths and became a technician, eventually running his own small appliance repair shop called Augusta Appliance Repair & Service in Edgefield, South Carolina.
Welch then started work on getting his GED, an alternative to the U.S. high school diploma, and earned his diploma in March from Edgefield-McCormick County Adult Education and Literacy Center.