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Page 24 text:
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As days passed the School program went on its routine way, and we could not help but notice with pride how much our class was contributing to St. Sebastian life. The highly successful Football team, that won all its games save the Portsmouth Priory contest, featured seven Juniors in its starting line-up. When The Arrow sponsored a theatre party at Julius Caesar , we were well represented on the arrangements committee. Several of our group were active too in the short-lived Magno-Magno organization. During the Christmas recess we proved also that we had learned the social graces, for we managed our first Prom which, although it was held on the worst night of the Winter, was a very pronounced success-thanks to Bob Higgins and his hard-working confreres. We showed initiative too, for, from among our numbers,were selected the pioneer members of a School band. It seemed that by now St. Sebastian's could depend upon us, because the Class of 1946 was called upon to provide the Editor of The Walruf' and the School's spokesmen on the junior Town Meeting of the Air program-Myron Bullock. All this time we were carrying a heavy scholastic program of six major subjects, but we bore up well under the strain. The Hindu Method did not help matters any in Math, and we reeled from a two-weeks diagnosis in Latin. In English we were satiated with Poetry, and Physics Was a new experiment for us. However, a lighter strain relieved the tension from time to time: Leo Casey's questions, Tom Dewire's devotion to Phoebe, Joe Phelan's home-town exploits g Mul's raptures over synec- doche, Lehane's belated arrivals, and the development of The Walrus into a menace that could not be brought home without previous censorship. After Easter, the year rapidly drew to a close with Baseball and Bob McNabb's superlative hurling taking the spotlight. As we watched the Seniors preparing for Graduation, we forcibly realized how much they had meant to us for three years and how much of a void their passing would create. We rejoiced with them, however, as they observed their Commencement Week with a Prom, an outing at Scituate, a Fathers' and Sons' Day, a Musicale and the Graduation Exercises. Through the interest and generosity of Archbishop Cushing, St. Sebastian's was invited to hold its lirst graduation on the grounds of the Archbishop's Residence, and we were deeply moved by the beautiful setting, His Excellency's kind words and the crowning ceremony of the outdoor Benediction. Just one year more , we thought, as we parted for Vacation. As this history is being written we are now more than half-way through our Senior year. Sometimes it seems almost incredible that our years at St. Sebastian's are coming to such an immediate end. It was pleasant enough to return in September and be pointed out to the Freshmen as lordly Seniors, but we missed the contribution made to our School life by many individuals who were no longer with us. Ken Lehane had left early in ourjunior year, and before the term was completed we parted from Al Amendola, Ronnie Daly, Tom Dewire, Paul Ford and Eddie Shields. In the course of last Summer, Leo Casey and Joe Phelan were lost to us. In the majority of cases it was the long arm of Uncle Sam that had reached into our ranks and sum- moned our classmates forth, and it was good to discover from their letters to the Headmaster and ourselves that they wished to be kept informed about St. Sebastian's. One new member had joined our crew for special courses, Bob Giggi, but our class numbers had dwindled considerably from the preceding year. Once again the School enrollment had increased and now there were one hundred and sixty-five Sebastianites. The school year was only a few days old when we were saddened to learn that we were to be deprived of the talents and directive abilities of Fr. Cuffe. Recognizing the worth of the St. Sebastian Faculty member, His Excellency the Archbishop appointed him to be Chaplain of St. Elizabeth's Hospital,
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Page 23 text:
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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
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