St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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LAB SCENE Higgins, Craig, Barrette, Bullock, Fr. Cotter, McCarthy and McDonald There were changes too in the School at large. As regards the Faculty, we missed the presence of Fr. Julien and Fr. Meehan, whom His Eminence the Cardinal trans- ferred to the Faculty of St. John's Seminary. In their stead St. Sebastian's had re- ceived Fr. Stocklosa and Fr. Hannigan to teach French and Latin respectively. We became familiar too with the jovial personality of Fr. Cotter whose task it was to initiate theilunior Class into the mysteries of Physics. At the time also we observed a change in the department of Physical Education. Mr. Bernard T. Duffy, who had coached all sports in the first two years of the School's existence, had found war-time duties pressing and had yielded his position to Mr. Vincent C. Murphy, whom we immediately accepted as a true sportsman and a capable mentor. What jarred us IHOSE, however, was the marked increase in the Scl'1ool's enrollment. Our first year had accustomed us to a student body of thirty-five, and now we found that number more than doubled. Evidently in the short space of two years, St. Sebastian's had gained a line repute and thirty-five Freshmen, together with the additions to our own and the Junior Class, had raised the student population to a total of seventy-five. The effect of the increased enrollment made obvious changes in our athletic outlook. The School's sport program lost its informal and rather intra-mural character, and assumed a more ambitious objective. Day following upon day transformed these progressive changes into the natural order of things, and we settled down to the scholastic routine and discipline, which was alleviated by our absorption in the School's athletic expansion. We watched

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We watched the ceremony as the three priests at the head of the table were served first, and then the platters were passed to us in rotation. Most of us had expected a sort of hot lunch , and we were most agreeably surprised by the full dinner with seconds and thirds of everything we wanted. The spacious gym was also a novelty as far as our previous experience was con- cerned. The two-sroried building with lockers, showers and equipment rooms on the first floor, revealed a mammoth 100 fr. square cage destined chiefly for Basketball and Baseball, but adaptable also to Football and Hockey needs as well. We were awed too by the sky-lighted squash and handball courts, and we could easily envisage countless happy hours to be spent in such an ideal sports' atmosphere. Social life thrived there too, we found, for the gym proved to be the mecca that drew the entire student body during recess periods. It was during recess periods and football practice sessions that we had an oppor- tunity of getting to know our fellow schoolmates, the Sophomores. Some few of them were new arrivals like ourselves, but most of them had the advantage of a whole year's tenure at the School. Despite this advantage, they accepted us readily and took it for granted that Sr. Sebastian's and its facilities were ours as well as theirs, and that our opinions on moored subjects were entitled to a hearing. We were to be drawn closer and closer to them over a period of three years, but even those Hrsr associations with the Bakers, Hank , Joe Carroll, Jimmy Collins, Hugh , Shaun , Jimmy Lydon, Charlie McCarron, Murph and Jimmy Scully are now treasured memories. Their new classmates, Ed Courtney, Bill Cryan, George Gilbert, Danny O'Brien, seemed to catch the spirit of the pioneer St. Sebastian group and we felt entirely at ease with them as well. In such pleasant company and in such an ideal atmosphere that kept a proper pro- portion between work and play, it was no wonder that the scholastic year sped by almost before we knew it. Bridging the interval of the years between, we can recall now: Fr. Mclnnis' liberality in giving us an afternoon holiday to view the circus, the Christmas and Year's End parties at which the winning Red and Blue captains hung their shields and Myron Bullock won scholastic awards, Tom Gallagher's recitations, Paul Flynn's difficulty in locating his books, Bill McGowan's early or late appearance, dependent upon the sympathy of passing motorists, Bert Bloomquist's signing for the Navy, Ronny Daly's and Eddie Shields' artistic draw- ings, Fr. Meehan's suppression of Bob Higgins, Charlie Mackey's infrequent ap- pearances, and the frequent interchange of ideas between Fr. Keating and Bob Flynn. Those were the days that laid the foundation of our devotion to St. Sebasrian's and also cemented many personal friendships. Returning ro the Hill after a refreshing summer, we sensed immediately a change in what Wehad considered the normal order of things. To begin with our own ranks, a few familiar faces were missing and replacements in greater numbers had arrived. We were sorry ro have lost such boon companions as Charlie Mackey, Bill McGowan and joe Murphy. We felt our importance magnified, however, when we discovered that the largest classroom on the first floor had been assigned to us as Sophomores and that our increased numbers called for such a change. It took a few days or so to discover the identity of all our new classmates, but in time we hailed the following luminaries as welcome additions to our roster: Arthur Craig, Tom,Dunbar, Johnny Ellard, Paul Ford, john McGoldrick, Paul McGrath, Harold McKinney, Johnny Menton, Jackie Mulhern, Ken Quigley, Bob Shea, Dan Sullivan and Billy White. Most of the new candidates were on hand for the opening day of the scholastic year, while others like Mui and Sul turned up at intervals.

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with interest and enthusiasm the attempt at more rigorous schedules and, in par- ticular, the formation of a Hockey team whose skill and color drew us like a magnet to the Skating Club on Catholic League nights. Socially too we felt important when our brother class of Juniors solicited our help in making the first Junior Prom a success. Despite a second year of bliss on Nonantum Hill, we felt suddenly more mature when the inroads of war affected our School life. Frank Kickham, George Gilbert and Donald Marshall, whom we had known and respected as upper classmen, had to leave the idyllic existence of St. Sebastian's for less attractive training in the Armed Forces. Then, too, toward the close of the School year, we were saddened by news of the death of His Eminence, William Cardinal O'Connell, the Founder of our youthful institution of learning. We felt an intimate grief as we assisted at the Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul in our School Chapel. September 1944 called us from vacation's pleasures to assume the dignities and responsibilities of Juniors. We returned to the St. Sebastian scene with eagerness and alacrity, for, during the summer, we had met several boys and heard of many others who were planning on enrolling at the School, and we were quite anxious to note the omens for the year ahead. Despite our expectations of growth in the student body, we were not prepared for the flood-tide ofnew arrivals that swelled the School's enrollment to one hundred and thirty-five boys. It seemed odd to find a Freshman class of fifty outnumbering us on the first floor and to discover more than ten new faces in our own ranks. john Menton was among the missing, but we had taken on the following celebrities: Leo Casey, Tom Dewire, Dick Killion, Ken Lehane, Lane McCarthy, Fred McDonald, Ray Neelon, joe Phelan, john Pickard, Charlie Reynolds and John Russo. We noticed too a new member in the Senior Class, Don Gibbons. Contrary to what might be expected, the assimilation process was a rapid one, and in no time at all the enlarged Junior Class was functioning smoothly as an integral unit. The student body's expansion necessitated also an increase in the Faculty. Two additions were made to the teaching staff in the persons of Fr. Desmond and Fr. Clifford who were assigned to the Freshman Class. Most unfortunately, Fr. Desmond's presence in our midst was a brief one, for God called him suddenly to an eternal reward on October 4th. In his place St. Sebastian's received Fr. Beatty to labor in the English department. Early in the School year also another Faculty change took place when His Excellency, the new Archbishop, saw iit to assign Fr. Collins to Catholic University for advanced study and sent Fr. james Redding to Nonantum Hill to fill the vacancy thereby created. Fr. Collins' transfer was a serious personal loss to everyone of us, for he had been with us from our first day at the School and had been Faculty Director of Athletics. Upon Fr. Collins' departure, Fr. Cuffe succeeded to the task of supervising our athletic program, and we were pleased to note that the School's athletic policies remained unchanged. The first memorable event of the scholastic year 1944-45 was the wave of rejoicing that swept over the Archdiocese when our Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, named Bishop Cushing to succeed Cardinal O'Connell as Archbishop of Boston. A Mass of Thanksgiving was offered up by the Headmaster in our School Chapel on the day following the announcement, and Fr. Mclnnis' words on that occasion enabled to to grasp the providential character of the appointment. Some short time later we were extremely gratified to learn that the new Archbishop had summoned the Headmaster and the entire Faculty and had expressed his paternal interest in St. Sebastian's high ideals and rapid development. p