This article featured the WPI graduation story of David D’Antonio who, in 1980, was a few classes short of earning a computer science degree when he ran out of money and dropped out. “Thirty-eight years later, the Arlington resident received his long-awaited diploma as well as praise from WPI president Laurie Leshin, who noted his ‘special amount of perseverance’ in her speech honoring the 981 undergraduates at the commencement ceremony on May 12.