Benedictine College - Raven Yearbook (Atchison, KS)

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St. Benedict's hall is composed of students living off the campus. Most of the students have their homes in Atchison, and are graduates of either St. Benedict's high school or Atchison public high. This group does not have a prefect as do the other halls, but it is under the direct supervision of the dean of residence, the Rev. Richard Burns, O.S.B. College authorities usually re- fer to these young men as day scholars, but the students boarding at the college have always labeled the day student with the epithet, day-dog . The hall is well rep- resented in social activities, athletics, and scholarship. Where once was heard the thread of holy monks in the silent shadows of Freshman hall, disturbed only by rhythmic chant and prayer, now lives the lively, dancing freshman. Five years ago this hall was a monastery, since then the Benedictine Fathers have taken as their place of dwelling the new monastery overlooking the Missouri river, and their former home has been remodelled and equipped with the most modern conveniences for the incoming groups of freshmen. How great a change five years have made! Each year the quiet voices of the freshmen can be noticed gradually developing into a sonorous chorus of football signals, nicknames, torch songs, jokes old and new, best girls, nights out, and many other amenities charac- teristic of freshmen. It may be remarked, too, that the freshman group is of heterogeneous ancestry. Irish, Germans, Poles, Swedes, Frenclunen, Italians, and several other nationalities are represented. In a very short time after their arrival at the college, how- ever, they are welded into the one family of St. Bene- dict's students. Their prefects are Fathers Isidor Smith, O.S.B,, Jerome Merwick, 0.S.B., and Philip O'Connor, O.S.B. This year Freshman hall was visited by what the boys called a ghost of the one of the monks long since dead. For almost a week it would happen that the ghost would come into the hallways as nightfprowling freshmen would pass along. The ghost appeared several times and freshmen lost all nerve, all bravado, and, alas, even their appetite. But jokes can't go on Freshman Hall 'l'pper piffzzre, top row ---f O'Malley, Ferry, Shay, Hoey, Rakowski, McGrath. Fourth row--Dockery, Hood, Conlon, Reidy, Laughlin, 0'Sullivan, Rice. Third rowAN. Thompson, Veeneman, Meehan, Spence, Carney, Nolan, Nell, Casserly. Sewrzrl row Moltz, Conley, Concannon, Johnston, Dreiling, Snider, O'Donnell, Mideke, Mclincroe. Front rown Petersen, Neiman, Slayman, Guillen, O'Hyrne, Moulder, Ford, Kirk, Zbranek. Lo'wf'r picture, lop wwe--Carney, Lawler, Mulligan, Gallagher, Stannard, Dillon, Reidy. FU'lh row---Concannon, McLean, Gnilfoyle, Rieke, Conlon. Fourlh rowff Mondi, Ricci, McGovern, Cole, Meehan, McGrath, Donahue. Third row-fMoulder, Zalondek, Tyrrell, Vernen, Schweiger, Carroll, Rakowski. Second row-Ward, Law, Marks, Tusa, Trakas, Stanoscheck, Meany, Morrissey. Fran! row- Galvin, McGarry, Dreiling, Aschenbrenner, Petersen, Faltysek, LaFonte, Mulholland, Frey. l l - Y

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1 Upper picture'-St. J'oseph's Hall. Top row, left to right-Wanstrath, Sullivan, Peterson, Busch, Collins, Keim, Burns. Third row- Nadolski, O'Neal, Welsh, Schorn, Tarrant, Thompson, Burns. Second rowADawson, English, Farrell, Sullivan, Ekcler, Rohe, E. Daly. Front row-Mikesic, J. Daly, Seeger, Guillen, Ortegon, Keneiick, Stone. Lower pirture -St. Benedict's Hall. Top rowvwinkler, Sheldon, Elder, Zabel, Barr. Fourth ro'wfMullins, Westerhaus, Colgan, Mangelsdorf, Wolters, Smith, Nicholson. Third row-Botkin, Bailey, Carrigan, Horner, Thimes, Andrews, Haegelin. Second row- Schrick, Alberts, Kilkenny, Horan, Briggs, Shea, LeCompte., Front ro'wAMcNamara,Whitehead, Regan, Allison, Kesse, Hanny, McCarthy. Hall Bo T. Joseph's hall is the rooming building for upper- classmen. It was built in 1924 to meet the needs of the larger number of upperclassmen enrolling in the college. It is a fire-proof, brick-faced, structure of three stories and the newest college building on the campus. In this hall, as in the others, the students follow widely diversified activities, there are athletes of every type, table waiters, officers of the student council, some of the best students in the school. Such upperclass- men as jerry O'Donnell and jim Helmert, president and secretary respectively of the Student CouncilgAll- 14 Life in the halls told by one who has spent Jive years of high school and college at the Black and lfVhite. by Patrick Fitzgerald, '35 American Bud O'Nealg Willard Tarrant, Shakespearean actor, Chet Nadolski, captain of the I934 Raven foot- ball teamg Johnnie Beattie, last year's co-captain of the football team, and many other athletes and scholars live in this building. St. joseph's hall has always been noted for the spirit of camraderie which exists among its occupants. They co-operate in every activity of the school. No one of them tries to outdo or outshine his hallmate. It is the type of group which St. Benedict's likes to have among its students. Father Florian Demmer, O. S.B., is prefect and pal of all the boys in this hall.

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The Hilltoppers-St. Bede's and St. Gregory's Halls. Back row, left to right-Pfeiffer. Davenport, Quinn, LaRocque. Frfth row-Dolan, Fitz- gerald, O'Rourke, Guilfoyle, Sedla- cek, Senecal, Bree, Nockels, Rea. Fourth row-Garcia, LaPlante, Wet- ta, Quinlan, McCor-ristin, Dehner, Fry, Curtin, Meissen. Third row- Knoeber, Lueckenhoff, Kane, Kongs, DeMar, Finken, Morey, Miller, Schmelzle. Second row-O'Connor, Ketter, Vandenberghe, Lohkamp, Duffy, Donahue, Roberts, Micek, O'Hora, Betzen. Front row-Dow- ney, Kohake, Quinlan, Duval, Hel- get, Gray, Frederick, Malone,Brad- ley, O'Shea, Wack, Motoh, Kerr, McClure, Carrigan, Strecker. forever, this appearance of a dead monk was found by the freshmen to be an upperclassman, who had nothing to do late in the evening. It was too late for the fresh- men to stop the story, they had sent news of it to every town, village, and hamlet where they had relatives. Ah! the poor freshman. Up on the hill closest to the Benedictine Fathers we find the young men of St. Gregory's and St. Bede's halls. Those desirous of entering the Benedictine order occupy the former, and the boys who wish to become secular priests in dioceses throughout the country are in St. Bede's. With the sounding of the 5:45 A.M. bell, the hill- toppers begin the day. After fifteen minutes of con- tinual splashing of water, we see them in chapel giving the first hour of their day to God. They are a happy crowd, always realizing their call in life. Every year on March 21, the feast of St. Benedict, six or seven of the young men of St. Gregory's hall march up to the altar to receive the black habit of St. Benedict. On that day they make their first step toward entering the Benedictine order. A year later they enter the monas- tery to find the realization of their hopes and ambitions. The men of St. Bede's hall have a different mission. It is their hope to one day preach the gospel of Christ to the world. When they finish their college studies they enter whatever seminary to which their bishop sends them. Aside from the difference of mission and life work the young men of these two halls form a group having the same goal. Everything is not of a serious nature for these boys. Some of the finest athletes in the school come from the hillg they have their games, their athletic contests, their pillow fights, and dump- 24 ing of beds in the dormitories even though their pre- fect's eye is ever vigilant. The educational range of the boys on the hill is from the third year of high school to the fourth year of theol- ogy among the students for the secular priesthood, and from the third year of high to the second collegiate year for the Benedictine postulants. Fathers Cuthbert McDonald, O.S.B., and Aloysius Krapp, O.S.B., are prefects of St. Gregory's hall, and Fathers Gervase Burke, O.S.B., and Michael Carroll, O.S.B., have St. Bede's in their care. The halls are to life at St. Benedict's what the dif- ferent fraternities are to life at a university. There exists a certain rivalry between them, though it is a good-natured rivalry, in their sports, in their studies, in all their activities. This rivalry makes for progress in the school in so far as it furnishes competition which in- sures a continual devising of new means of achieving new successes. This rivalry of course does not go so far as to cause dissension within any of the varsity teams or any all-college group working for the glory of the school. The halls also act as do fraternities in that they foster a fraternal spirit among the occupants of each hall. This is the natural result of close companion- ship under the common roof of a common home. Hall life is the true life of St. Benedict's. It is in the halls that the boarding school really is found and lived. Life there is governed by rules which must be obeyed, and which sometimes appear tothe occupants of the halls to be great disadvantages, but one of the purposes of a school, teaching one to live with one's fellows, is accomplished chiefly through such life in com- mon as is found in the boarding halls of St. Benedict's.