A degree can’t bring Christopher Gelineau back, but “he deserves this,” his widow says.

PORTLAND (AP) – A Maine National Guard soldier who was killed last month in Iraq will be awarded a posthumous degree Saturday at the University of Southern Maine commencement.

Christopher Gelineau, 23, was one semester away from receiving his bachelor’s degree from the School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology when he was called to active duty last November.

Gelineau, who grew up in Vermont, joined the National Guard after graduating from high school. He transferred to the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion after enrolling at USM and was killed last month when a convoy he was escorting was ambushed outside Mosul.

His widow, Lavinia Gelineau, came to USM as a scholarship student from Romania.

She will receive dual degrees Saturday in English and business administration.

“Chris worked a lot, went to all his courses and never missed a class, he deserves this,” she said Wednesday. “But no rank advancement or degree is going to bring him back to life.”

The couple, who met at USM and began seeing each other after Gelineau fixed Lavinia’s computer, were married in April 2002.

Robert Nannay, a professor of technology at USM, said Gelineau was an honor student who planned a career in information technology.

“He had a bright future ahead of him,” Nannay said. “You couldn’t paint a more tragic situation to unfold.”

When the School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology is called forward, Christopher Gelineau will have his name read aloud during commencement and a member of the family will accept the degree.

Members of Gelineau’s class and faculty from the school recommended he be awarded the degree earlier this month.

Only about five posthumous degrees have been awarded in the past decade, usually at the request of an academic department, USM spokesman Robert Caswell said.