Don Bosco Technical Institute - Techman Yearbook (Rosemead, CA)

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He led by doing rather than by preaching, and when he did preach it was only to help his equals break away from the stillness and staleness of mediocrity. This forceful drive, the product of an intelligent and winning personality, earned him respect and prestige from men great and small. As an educator he professed disgust for any modern artificial substitute for true Christian education. and was deeply saddened at the proposal of anything which savored of secularism, as a replacement for the forthright, and at times heroic, Christian, Bosconian stand. He was not satisfied with being only a teacher, he wanted and lived to be what his vocation called him to be - an educator, a Christian educator, a Salesian educator. He fully realized this often meant going against the current and against the grain, yet he never settled for a compromise where principles were involved. As a pioneer he would not start anything without projecting it into the realities ofthe future. One of the greatest compliments ever paid him was that of His Eminence Cardinal Mclntyre on the occasion of the first graduation exercises: Father Penna always had a clear answer to every question. .and was always three jumps ahead of me. He could not conceive of anything small or temporary, he had to think always in terms of the great and the lasting, for such was his interior profile, the understanding of his mission, the proportion of his zeal, the temper- ature of his fervor. He never allowed pressure to change his mind or weaken his stand, nor did he allow cur- rent opinion to force him to accept anything on the mere grounds that everybody does it. His granitic firmness and unwavering attitude before the truth caused him to be considered as a man of inflexible, stubborn courage by the feinthearted, but as a man of purpose and destiny by the stouthearted. He preferred to be loved through the respect his work commanded, rather than through the softening of temporary sentimentality. His love for people was always above and beyond his own personal gratification. He acted with the firmness and charity of a father, yet he refused to bargain with the sentimental approach which humiliates education and cheapens the edu- cator. Since 1922, when many of us first met him, to his appointment as Provincial of the Salesian Eastern Provinceg from his bed of sorrow up to the very last moment of his life, Father Penna moved ahead swiftly, wisely, courageously, intelligently, as if he knew that his life span was a limited one. He fought against human and material obstacles like atrue athlete of Christ, leaving behind him unmistakable marks of a born leader and a trained and fearless fighter. Against the backdrop of man's human and original weakness and miseries, he never lessened or trimmed the lofty goals the Divine Carpenter of Galilee set for men to achieveg and he firmly believed in the possibility of achieving them in spite of the high price. He did notpermit anyone to call impossible what was only difficult, and so he helped the weak toward greater achievements, rather than let the good task die out under the comfortable warmth of subtle cowardice, even if prettily clad as human prudence or expediency. He dreamed for a life-time of a Bosco-Tech which would redeem youth and education alike from the appalling level to which it has been allowed to fall during the last quarter of this cen- tury. Before the Sputnik made its appearance in the skies, His Eminence had already approved and blessed Father Penna's revolutionary vocational educational ideas. He lived and loved this unique school because it was one of the few projects he was permitted to bring almost to com- pletion. Bosco-Tech with its daring, radical innovations in the field of vocational education, stands as an eloquent and living monument to the farsighted understanding of the Cardinal of Education and the undying dedication of a Father Penna. Father Penna, we shall miss your physical presence but we are convinced you will be with us in spirit and continue to be the inspiration you have been since the day we have met. May your soul through the prayers of your many friends find eternal happiness in the glory of God and His Blessed Mother. His Eminence james Francis Cardinal Mclntyre at the end of the obsequies paid Father Penna high tribute when he said, Father Penna is one of the few great men whom God sends on earth from time to time to give new life to education and morals. To accomplish this task he worked so hard that he was consumed by zeal. I am sure that in the same way I could not say no to Father Penna, neither would Almighty God when Father knocked at the gate of Heaven. Sincerely in Don Bosco, Rev. Louisj. Masoero, S.D.B. Principal

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fi I l lu f Rev. Louis J. Masoero, S.D.B. Principal Dear Graduates: l feel that any message to the class of 1963 would never convey the message expressed in the eulogy delivered on the day of Fr. PCI1I'l3.'S funeral. Read it, meditate on it, live it, and, like Fr. Penna, youwill be a success in life, a credit to your alma mater, your family, your faith, and your country. Greater love than this no man has than that helay down his life for his friends. Of the many traits Father Penna took from the Divine Master, this seems to describe him most vividly. He Was absolutely dedicated to a cause and a course, and to attain its success he never spared himself. Rigidly denying himself any respite, he laid out, in an intelligent and orderly fashion, his daily life for Don Bosco, his children, his people, until he found the courage to lay it down voluntarily, and asked his Master for a crucifying death by cancer, in order to spend the last days of his life profitably in union With Christ on the Cross. ,

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