Mercy High School - Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

Page 11 text:

Students of these early Mercy schools had their speech contests, sci- ence fairs, foreign-language competi- tions, and Awards Assemblies just as we have, today. In the Gay Nineties, exhibits of Mercy school work were displayed at the World's Fair. A let- ter sent in 1892 from the Superintend- ent of Schools to the San Francisco foundress tells a story familiar to all Mercy-ites of cooperation between teachers and students to produce an excellent work: His Grace the Archbishop asked me to write and thank you, your Sisters, and scholars for your and their assistance in making the preliminary ex- hibits such a success. The beauty of the work was due to the zeal of your teachers and scholars . . . CSS Mother M. Cyril, Mother General, is a frequent Mercy visitor. Here she offers a few words to faculty and students at an Awards Assem- bly: just as did her predecessor of a century ago, Mother M. Baptist Russell. of G y ineties F 56 Mercy's Pioneer Principal, Sister M. Grace, during the school's infant years, 1952-1958, guided the first strong thrusts of academic and spiritual growth of the new Mercy family. She founded Mercy Moth- ers' Guild and helped form the Alumnae Asso- ciation. A chronicler of this period tells how Mother Baptist Russell presided at 19th Century Awards Assemblies just as Mother Mary Cyril, our present Superior General, presides over ours each june: All through her busy career in California, Mother Baptist's love and interest in the teaching apostolate burned as a steady bright flame of zeal . . . It was a rare and disappointing Honors Assembly that was not graced by her smiling and encouraging PICSCHCC . . . With the growth of the City more Catholic schools opened, and Mercy's San Fran- cisco schools gradually expanded to include St. Brendan's, St. Peter's, Holy Name's, St. Gabriel's, and St. Stephen's. Sixty-five years after the first Mercy High School was de- stroyed by fire, our Mercy High School was built: The same SPIRIT OF MERCY that flourished on the historic hill-top of San Francisco's early years, responded - nearly a century later - to the educational needs of her expanding population with construction of this beautiful school on the outskirts of the City, where pioneer Mercy Sisters and stu- dents knew only a vast expanse of rolling, shifting sand dunes! 7

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Two especially interested spectators at the 1958 Awards Assembly were Mother M. Thomasine and Sister M. Cal- lista. It was while Mother M. Thomasine was Mother General that plans were completed by the General Council for the City's new Mercy. As Mother Vicar and Director of Mercy Schools, Sister M, Callista supervised construc- tion, planned school labs and furnishings, and developed the curriculum. AW -.tr s if fairs, speech con ff ll 'act tl Mercy?-ites Vlany San Franciscans remember 1958 as the year the last ferryboat was retired. In appreciation of the devoted nursing Fast tray elling bridge busses replaced the hustling little boats that carried millions services of the Sisters of Mercy, especially' of travellers across the Bay to the City of the wondrous skyline Meanwhile Inter- during the terrible smallpox epidemics of national Airport home of the jets and Constellations and vsorld s largest terminals, the 18705, the S.F. City authorities granted free transportation on municipal streetcars to all religious communitiez.

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No longer a Mercy student, now a Mercy alumna. It is a remembered moment when a Senior crosses the Barrett hall stage during Awards Assembly, day before graduation, to receive from Mother General her inscribed membership in the Alumnae Association. unchanged Mercy in pires Sisters, San Francisco has changed from the gold-frenzied town of the 1850s to the interna- tionally known City of the 195053 but all her colorful history is in the SPIRIT of San Fran- cisco! Mercy education, too, has changed - from the simple religious instruction classes of the 1850s to the highly professional schools of the 1950sg but all its years of rich tradi- tion are in the SPIRIT of Mercy. San Francisco's modern' Mercy schools, housed in solidly beautiful buildings and D C equipped with the latest instructional facilities, have kept pace with the progress of the City and reflect the faith of her people and their sense of values.'New courses in the Mercy curriculum answer the revolutionary challenges of the 20th Century. In the activities of modern Mercy students there have been changes in social customs and recreational inter- ests, changes in fashions and fads . . . But there is something that our shining new Mercy' High School has in common withOur Lady of Mercy Academy on Rincon Hill, with old St. Brendan's, and with St. Mission: thari intangible but very real thing that we call the MERCY SPIRIT the truth and beauty of the and have it, by the tender ways. To that unchanged their co-workers in the ever the City of San Francisco, we