Welcome to the history project of our celebration of 150 years of Catholic schools in Portsmouth.

Description BY BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

Perhaps no other person has had a more profound and lasting effect on Catholicism in Portsmouth than the Rev. Thomas J. Brady.

His works remain visible in 2026: The current St. Paul’s Catholic Church downtown. All-Saints Cemetery, aka Portsmouth Catholic Cemetery, on Elm Avenue. And Portsmouth Catholic Regional School, the descendant of Father Brady’s determined efforts to build parochial schools here.

Brady was born June 5, 1843, in County Cavan, Ireland. He was educated at All Hallows College in Dublin. The college was founded in 1842 to train Irish priests for missionary work in the English-speaking world.

Brady came to the United States after his ordination and served three years as an assistant pastor at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond. During that time, he also was secretary to Bishop John McGill.

He was 27 when he was sent by McGill to Portsmouth to serve as pastor of St. Paul’s, the second-oldest parish in Virginia. His tenure began Oct. 9, 1870.

Two years later, McGill was replaced by Bishop James Gibbons, who would have a profound influence on Brady’s pastorate.

As bishop, Gibbons made a priority of building Catholic schools across the diocese. He saw parochial schools as a way for immigrant children to be integrated into American life and academically prepared to be patriotic and productive citizens.

With those thoughts in mind, in 1876 Gibbons bought a parcel at Dinwiddie and King streets in downtown Portsmouth for $2,000. (That’s the equivalent of $62,250 in 2026 dollars.)

Brady obtained a $3,000 loan ($93,300 equivalent) from a Baltimore bank to help finance construction. A contract for $4,550 ($141,500 equivalent) was awarded to Robert Cutherell to build a school. The three-story building also would include space for a convent.

Cutherell’s company worked quickly and delivered a brick building that would serve as a school for the next 40 years.

NEXT: Classes begin at St. Joseph’s Female Academy.

SOURCES:

“A Story of Faith / 1804-2000 / St. Paul’s Catholic Church / Portsmouth, Virginia”

“Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” by Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien

BY BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

The misleadingly named St. Joseph’s Female Academy opened on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 1876. A faculty of four nuns welcomed 35 students – mostly girls but also a “few” young boys.

The school’s mission was guided by a simple principle provided by the Rev. Thomas J. Brady, pastor of St. Paul’s Catholic Church: “Save the child, and the man will take care of himself.”

Classes were segregated by gender. The girls were educated in the new, three-story brick building at 608 Dinwiddie St.

The younger boys were taught in a neighboring house, and older boys were taught about a block away, in St. Patrick’s Hall parish house on the site of what would become the Hotel Governor Dinwiddie.

Catholic education in Portsmouth had existed per se since 1844, in makeshift form at five locations in the city. We celebrate the 150th anniversary of Catholic SCHOOLS this year, as St. Joseph’s was the first school to be built, from the ground up, for parochial education.

The first nuns at St. Joseph’s, from the Emmitsburg, Md.-based Sisters of Charity, were Sister Gertrude Howe, a native of England and the school’s first superioress; Sister Mary Josephine Donovan, age 18, from New Orleans; Sister Isodore Minton, 28, a native of Ireland; and Sister Caroline Meredith, 21, from Lancaster County in Virginia.

The Norfolk Virginian newspaper reported on Sept. 30, in the flowery style of the day, the following: “St. Joseph’s Female Academy – This handsome edifice has been completed, and the Sisters of Charity, under whose auspices the school is to be conducted, have taken it in charge. Nothing has been neglected in the construction of the building that could contribute to the comfort of both teacher and scholar, and the institution, we have no doubt, will be in everyway a great success.”

Students were organized in three groupings: primary, intermediate and senior, in grades 1 through 9. The school operated on a 10-month calendar with summer break in July and August.

Classes began at 9 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m. Lunchtime was a full hour.

In a thesis on the work of the Sisters of Charity in Virginia in the 1800s, its author noted that “Since the students attending the school were in comfortable financial circumstances, a tuition fee ranging from $1.50 to $3 per month was paid.” (In 2026 dollars, that’s the equivalent of $46.68 and $93.37.)

Over time, the curriculum became astonishingly robust.

Elementary courses included:

religion, arithmetic, reading, writing, geography, calisthenics, Bible history, grammar, spelling, history, sewing, and singing.

Older students were instructed in:

algebra, mental and practical arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, familiar science, chemistry, physiology, astronomy, botany, physical geometry, history, grammar, literature, etymology, rhetoric, philosophy, religion, elocution, sewing and embroidery, and singing.

Enrollment grew quickly in the early years and reached 150 in 1879. The nuns’ community room in the convent section of the building had to double as classroom space.

By 1886, a free-standing convent was built for the five nuns who now comprised the faculty, and the convent section of the main building was converted into full-time classroom space.

A 10-member committee was appointed by Father Brady to raise $4,000 (equivalent to $141,700 in 2026) for the new convent. A benefit picnic attracted an estimated 1,300 people on July 7, 1886, and raised $650 in one day.

In 1897, a kindergarten program for children ages 4 to 6 was added.

By the time of St. Joseph’s 40th anniversary, the school long since had outgrown its original building.

NEXT: The new St. Joseph’s Academy

SOURCES:

“A Story of Faith / 1804-2000 / St. Paul’s Catholic Church / Portsmouth, Virginia”

“Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” by Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien

“The Nineteenth Century Educational Contributions of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Virginia,” by Sister Mary Agnes Yeakel

BY BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

After 40 years in the same building, St. Joseph’s Academy was ready for a new home.

In 1910, the Rev. Charles E. Donahoe, pastor of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, foresaw the need for a larger building for the girls’ school. Money from the estate of the Rev. Thomas J. Brady, Donahoe’s predecessor, was used in part to buy an adjoining lot that faced King Street.

Six years later, with the school’s enrollment at 250, it was time to build. (By then, combined with the enrollment in the nearby boys’ school, St. Paul’s Boys Academy, about 600 students were attending parochial schools in the city.)

The new, three-story brick school would face King Street. It included seven classrooms, a library and an auditorium.

The Sept. 6, 1916, edition of The Portsmouth Star reported the following: “The existence of St. Joseph’s Academy for 40 years and of St. Paul’s for 25 is but one of many things which attest the popularity of parochial schools in the city. The steady increase in enrollment reached its climax last year, when the combined number of students in attendance at the two academies was nearly 600. This has demanded additions to the teaching staffs, and has moreover necessitated the erection of a new St. Joseph’s Academy, a magnificent building modern in every particular.”

But the building boomlet wasn’t done yet.

The next year, beginning in May, construction began on a new brick convent to replace the convent built 31 years earlier. The project was completed in January 1918 at a cost of $17,000 ($442,300 equivalent in 2026). By 1952, the convent would be home to 17 nuns.

Those two buildings would serve the Catholic school community in Portsmouth for the next 52 years, until the 1970 consolidation of St. Paul’s Elementary School, Holy Angels School and the School of the Little Flower.

Today, the convent sits vacant. The adjacent school building houses 20 units in what its website describes as “the premier apartment building in Portsmouth.”

NEXT: Father’s Brady’s enduring legacy in Portsmouth.

SOURCES:

“A Story of Faith / 1804-2000 / St. Paul’s Catholic Church / Portsmouth, Virginia”

“Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” by Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien

“The Nineteenth Century Educational Contributions of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Virginia,” by Sister Mary Agnes Yeakel

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve tried our best, but we have not been able to determine with any certainty the year that St. Paul’s Boys Academy opened. The cornerstone says 1891, but most historical references we’ve found indicate the school opened in 1892. The records of the Xaverian Brothers order, which comprised the faculty at the school’s beginning, says that tenure began in 1892. Unfortunately, no contemporaneous newspaper coverage of the school’s opening day has been found. So, for the purposes of this history project, we’re using 1892.

BY BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

The Rev. Thomas J. Brady came to Portsmouth to do big things. Some of those things were part of a grand strategy. At least one was a response to tragedy.

When the Irish-born and -educated priest arrived in October 1870 at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, he inherited a parish facing financial challenges. The church had been rebuilt after a fire in 1859, and $5,000 of debt (the equivalent of $127,000 in 2026) remained. Money raised through several social events, plus an appeal to parishioners, eventually paid off the note.

Brady then looked west, to Suffolk, where he would begin a mission that eventually would result in a new parish.

He traveled by train from downtown Portsmouth to downtown Suffolk, where once a month he would say Mass and administer the sacraments in the farm home of parishioner Elfrida Holland Lewis. She was the daughter of Katherine Woodley Holland, the first Catholic to settle in Suffolk.

For decades, at the farm and at two successive residences, Mrs. Holland opened her home for Mass. Her daughter, Katherine Lewis Crowder, wrote in her diary that confession would be heard in one room with a priest seated on a chair and the penitent kneeling at his side. Mass was celebrated in the living room, with a bureau draped with white cloths serving as the altar.

The first Catholic baptism in Suffolk was conducted by Brady in the Lewis home in 1902.

Brady and his assistant pastor, the Rev. William B. Hanley, would continue this mission for 25 years. The mission eventually led to an independent parish, St. Mary of the Presentation, in November 1909.

In 1880, Father Brady purchased 6 acres at the corner of Elm Avenue and Gosport Road – the future Portsmouth Boulevard – for a Catholic cemetery. Another purchase three years later expanded the cemetery to 14 acres. Brady borrowed the money to buy the properties with the confidence that “the cemetery ought to pay for itself.”

Today, we know that 14-acre tract as All Saints Catholic Cemetery. It is the resting place of more than 1,600 people.

But perhaps Brady’s greatest legacy, which would benefit children for the next 150 years, began in 1876 with the purchase by the diocese of a 113-by-880-foot lot at Dinwiddie and King streets in downtown Portsmouth.

Portsmouth’s first diocesan school, St. Joseph’s Female Academy, opened in September 1876. Enrollment grew quickly, and by the late 1870s Brady began plans for a separate academy for boys. Before then, boys were taught in makeshift facilities nearby.

A boys academy remained a dream for most of a decade until a parishioner, Eliza Burke Gregory, bequeathed $10,000 for the school “under the control and management of persons of the Catholic faith but shall be open to scholars of all denominations upon application.”

Brady purchased a lot at Washington and London streets – coincidentally of the same 113-by-880-foot dimensions as the original St. Joseph’s Academy property – and in September 1892, St. Paul’s Boys Academy opened with an enrollment of 60.

The faculty was composed of three Xaverian Brothers: Vincent, the superior; Justin; and Christopher.

St. Paul’s Academy would operate as a boys school for the next four decades. Catholic education would continue uninterrupted in that building for almost 100 years.

By 1897, Father Brady’s legacy seemed assured. In his 27 years in Portsmouth, he had put his parish on sound financial footing; established a thriving mission in Suffolk that eventually would become its own parish; built two schools, a convent and a rectory; and established a church-operated cemetery.

But on the night of March 29 fire destroyed St. Paul’s Catholic Church, after flaming debris from a nearby structural fire blew onto the roof of the sanctuary.

Brady recorded the event in his diary: “The church caught (fire) from sparks carried by a strong northwestern wind from Whitehurst Hall near the corner of Green and Glasgow, more than two squares away. The high breeze blowing 40 miles an hour lodged bushels of sparks, some being whole shingles, in valleys, which melted the zinc communicating with the sheathing, and the fire commenced over the organ gallery and northwest corner about same time running, between ceiling and slates, reducing the sacred edifice to a heap of ruins.”

Within 90 minutes, the church was destroyed.

An entry in “The Fireman’s Red Book” provided additional details: “On the night of March 28, 1897 with a terrific wind blowing, fire raged for five hours, destroying 35 houses, including St. Paul’s Catholic Church. Over 300 people were made homeless. For a time it looked as if the fire might sweep the entire city, but owing to the brave work of the Fire Department, the flames were subdued. Great assistance was rendered by the Navy Yard and County Fire Departments. Four men were arrested and sentenced to the penitentiary for causing the fire. The loss amounted to $85,000.”

Brady responded with a tried-and-true formula: He appointed a 19-member committee to raise money to rebuild. The initial goal was $20,000, but more than $70,000 was raised within a year. (That’s the equivalent of about $2.8 million in 2026 dollars.)

But that was only a start. The cost of rebuilding was placed at $100,000. More money would be needed to furnish the building. Additional money was borrowed, and the women of the church held a series of social events, picnics and bazaars to repay the debt.

The rebuild would be a lengthy process.

Ground was broken for the fifth St. Paul’s on Feb. 2, 1898. On April 15, the cornerstone was laid by Bishop Augustine Van de Vyver as a crowd of 2,000 people gathered.

The new St. Paul’s would be larger and grander than its predecessors, and work on the exterior would take seven years. Bishop Van de Vyver dedicated the new church on Nov. 12, 1905.

Final work on the interior took several more years. Each of the church’s 28 stained-glass windows was financed by a parishioner, as were 14 carved-wood Stations of the Cross. One of the finishing touches, the murals above the altar, were completed in 1928.

Father Brady, who oversaw the rebuild from its infancy, never would see the finished product. In his 37th year as pastor, he suffered a stroke on Oct. 25, 1907. He died eight days later, on Nov. 2, at age 64.

His funeral Mass was described as one of the largest ever in Portsmouth. The Rev. Felix Kaup, who had been an assistant pastor under Brady, said in a eulogy published in The Portsmouth Star that “the history of the past 37 years has shown him to be a boon to his fellow citizens, a pattern to his flock, and a credit to the Catholic clergy in Virginia.”

Brady is buried in the priests’ section, along with Father Hanley, in the cemetery he established for his congregation.

SOURCES:

“A Story of Faith / 1804-2000 / St. Paul’s Catholic Church / Portsmouth, Virginia”

“Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” by Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien

“The Nineteenth Century Educational Contributions of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Virginia,” by Sister Mary Agnes Yeakel

“Shine Like Stars / The Catholic Diocese of Richmond / 200th Anniversary / 1820-2020”

“The Fireman’s Red Book

NEXT: The start of Catholic education in Portsmouth preceded St. Joseph’s Female Academy by 32 years.

BY BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

Catholic education in Portsmouth, but not necessarily brick-and-mortar Catholic schools, can be traced to a time 32 years before the construction of St. Joseph’s Female Academy.

The Rev. Francis Devlin – 30 years old, a native of Langford, Ireland, and newly ordained – arrived in Portsmouth in 1844 to serve as the fifth pastor of St. Paul’s Catholic Church.

He had been educated at the short-lived St. Vincent’s Seminary and College near Richmond. The seminary was begun by Bishop Richard Vincent Whelan in 1841 but was shuttered just five years later.

Father Devlin lived in the home at 414 London St. in downtown Portsmouth, a short walk from the church. The home, built in 1840, still stands today and has been divided into apartments.

Devlin used the basement of the home to teach children. In her book “Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” author Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien said “This happens to be the first organized Catholic education in Portsmouth. What was taught and for how long is not known.”

Devlin’s successor as pastor, the Rev. Joseph H. Plunkett – another Irish priest trained at the Richmond-area seminary – accelerated the education effort after he arrived in Portsmouth in 1855.

The Norfolk Virginian newspaper published the following in 1867: “Under the immediate charge of the Rev. Father Plunkett, there are now in successful operation five schools for the education of the Catholic children of our community. This speaks volumes of praise for the untiring energy of the Rev. Father in his endeavors to foster and cultivate a liberal system of education among the young who are under his care and guidance. Few denominations can boast of the unlimited advantages as are here presented, and the full attendance at these schools show that the efforts of Fr. Plunkett are appreciated by the flock. The following is a list of the schools and teachers who have charge of the same: Mr. Walsh’s 52 pupils; Miss Larkin, 35 pupils; Miss H. Conley, 40 pupils; Miss Gallilee, 40 pupils; Miss Chicken, 40 pupils. Total, 207.”

By 1875, on the eve of construction of Portsmouth’s first from-the-ground-up Catholic school, William A. Walsh wrote in “Annals of the Catholic Church of Portsmouth, Virginia, from 1804 to 1875” that Sunday school lessons were taught “under the personal care of the Pastor, assisted by a superintendent, a number of young ladies of the congregation, and a committee of young men selected from St. Joseph’s Benevolent Society, attached to the church.”

Younger boys and girls attended a school “held in the sacristy of the church, under the care of a Catholic lady,” Walsh wrote.

Older Catholic girls attended one of two private schools in the city “under the direction of competent Catholic teachers, where the catechism is taught daily, but not being under the control of the pastor.”

(One of these private schools, Mrs. Gregory’s Female Academy, was owned by St. Paul’s parishioner Eliza Burke Gregory, whose $10,000 bequest in 1888 would result in the construction of the city’s second from-the-ground-up Catholic school, St. Paul’s Boys Academy.)

Walsh described the threadbare operation of the boys’ school under Father Thomas J. Brady, in St. Patrick’s Hall parish house on the site of what eventually would become the Hotel Governor Dinwiddie, this way:

“The male parochial school is under the immediate care of the Pastor, who spends several hours each day, assisted by an experienced teacher, in hearing the recitations of the scholars, and giving them catechetical instructions on the sacraments, doctrines of the church, etc. The present attendance is about 65. … The scholars make a small monthly payment, but for the last two years, this is inadequate to pay the teacher and Fr. Brady has to make up the deficiency. This in addition to his daily labor in the school presses heavily upon him, and must necessitate a great change, unless the congregation will do, what they have not yet done, help to defray the expenses of the free scholars, who amount to nearly one-third of the daily attendance; and are furnished with school requisites without charge. The school room is large, well lighted and ventilated, but inadequately supplied with school furniture; but the great deficiency lies in the want of books, maps, etc., which a large portion of the parents are unable to purchase; this increases the labor of teachers, as they are compelled to use whatever books the scholars are able to procure, instead of the improved Catholic books now generally used. This state of affairs is disheartening to scholars and teachers, and unless speedily remedied, will have a disastrous effect upon the Catholic male school in Portsmouth.”

Walsh’s description was written at the end of a trying 20-year period for Portsmouth in general and the city’s Catholic community in particular.

In the summer of 1855, a yellow fever epidemic devastated the populations of Portsmouth and Norfolk. About 3,000 people died in Norfolk, out of a population of 16,000; and about 1,000 people died in Portsmouth, out of a population of 10,000.

Yellow fever was brought to Hampton Roads when the steam-powered cargo ship Benjamin Franklin docked in June in Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth for repairs.

The ship was carrying cargo and passengers from St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean and ultimately was bound for New York City. The virus spread from the ship into the community from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and infected crew members.

Yellow fever symptoms range from mild flulike aches to liver damage.

About 15 percent of victims develop severe symptoms, including high fever; jaundice, causing a yellowing of the skin and eyes; abdominal pain; and bleeding from the nose, mouth, eyes or stomach. About half of victims in this condition would die within seven to 10 days.

An estimated 75 percent of the populations of Norfolk and Portsmouth – those with the means and a place to go – evacuated the cities. The cities’ governments and health care systems collapsed.

Father Devlin, the St. Paul’s pastor, ministered to the stricken, including to immigrants on “Irish Row” on First Street adjacent to what now is known as Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Devlin himself became infected and died Oct. 7, 1855. He was buried under the altar at St. Paul’s.

Devlin was succeeded as pastor by Father Plunkett. During his pastorate, in 1859, the church was destroyed by fire. A report in “The Fireman’s Red Book” blamed arson: “(T)his was of incendiary origin, and so determined were the culprits to accomplish their purpose that the hose was cut twice during the fire.”

Plans for rebuilding began immediately, but the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 delayed the start of construction.

During the war, when Norfolk and Portsmouth were occupied by Union forces, Plunkett served as chaplain to the federal army. When the war ended, some of the Union soldiers offered to stay and help with rebuilding his church.

The fourth St. Paul’s finally was completed in 1868, three years after the war ended.

SOURCES:

“A Story of Faith / 1804-2000 / St. Paul’s Catholic Church / Portsmouth, Virginia”

“Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” by Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien

“Annals of the Catholic Church of Portsmouth, Virginia, from 1804 to 1875,” by William A. Walsh

“The Fireman’s Red Book”

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve tried our best, but we have not been able to determine with any certainty the year that St. Paul’s Boys Academy opened. The cornerstone says 1891, but most historical references we’ve found indicate the school opened in 1892. Records of the Xaverian Brothers order, which comprised the faculty at the school’s beginning, say that tenure began in 1892. Unfortunately, no contemporaneous newspaper coverage of the school’s opening day has been found. So, for the purposes of this history project, we’re using 1892.

BY BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

A lasting monument å stands as testament to the generosity and farsightedness of Eliza Burke Gregory.

Gregory, a lifelong parishioner of St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Portsmouth, devoted a great part of her adult life to the education of children in her native city.

In death, she guaranteed that her belief in this cause would continue into the 21st century.

Gregory was the daughter of an Irish immigrant father, John Burke, who operated a grocery store and worked as a stonecutter. She was educated at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity, St. Joseph’s Academy, in Emmitsburg, Md. 

After she returned to Portsmouth, she worked as a music teacher. She later owned and operated Mrs. Gregory’s Female Academy, a private school in Portsmouth. 

She married John H. Gregory, a transplanted New Yorker who owned and operated The New York Store on Crawford Place. The store specialized in silks, damasks, linens and other fine fabrics.

The Gregorys would have one child, John Jr. The three-generation household – patriarch John Burke, his daughter and her husband, and their son – lived at 81 High St.

John Jr. would die at age 15, on Jan. 18, 1864. His father died the next year, on Oct. 29, at the age of 43.

After the deaths of her son and husband, Gregory continued to operate her school. A newspaper article in 1868 described her academy as a “flourishing and popular seminary of learning.” She was described as “an accomplished preceptess, earnest and devoted in her high calling, and is very well known to almost everyone. … She possesses large experience in teaching the young of this community.” 

Her father, John, who was born when life expectancy was under 40, was 87 when he died Nov. 29, 1878. 

His death left Eliza with no living relatives. Two years later, she decided to move to St. Vincent de Paul Hospital in Norfolk, where she lived under the care of the Sisters of Charity.

Her obituary stated that “in her declining years, being delivered by the hand of death of all of her relations, she became like a stranger in a new city. In her loneliness and despondency, she sought aid in her Holy Religion. Well did it fill the gap caused by the severance of every human bond. St. Vincent’s Hospital became her new home, and there under the nestling of the Sisters of Charity, she learned meek resignation.”

In a 2006 interview with The Virginian-Pilot, Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien, author of “Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” said Gregory “was a very pious person and an educated person and a spiritual person. I think she just was a good example.”

Those traits carried over after her death.

In her will, Gregory left $10,000 – the equivalent of about $351,000 in 2026 dollars – to St. Vincent’s Hospital.

She bequeathed the same amount to her church in Portsmouth, for the establishment of a boys academy to compliment the girls academy, St. Joseph’s, which opened in 1876. 

St. Paul’s Boys Academy, with 60 students and a faculty of three Xaverian Brothers, opened in 1892. Catholic students would be educated at that site, in that building, uninterrupted for 100 years.

Over the decades, the campus at Washington and London streets was expanded piece by piece, through acquisition and construction, and eventually became Portsmouth Catholic High School.

Gregory’s gift, and her foresight, had established the second pillar in the development of Catholic schools in Portsmouth and put the boys on equal footing – at least as far as facilities were concerned – with the girls. Her legacy continues in 2026, as the successor to St. Paul’s thrives as Portsmouth Catholic Regional School.

Eliza Burke Gregory is buried in a gated plot, with her parents, her husband and her son, at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth.

SOURCES:

** “A Story of Faith / 1804-2000 / St. Paul’s Catholic Church / Portsmouth, Virginia”

** “Catholic Education in Portsmouth, Virginia / 1844-2007,” by Mary Sue Morlino O’Brien

** The Virginian-Pilot

(First in a series of three)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the April 1, 1951, editions of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot that reported on the 75th anniversary of Catholic schools in Portsmouth.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style. (See if you can identify the 41-word sentence with nary a comma.) 

Two errors of fact are noted: The story states that the original St. Joseph’s Female Academy was built in 1876 for $3,550. Research indicates the cost was $4,550. Also, the original story misidentified the location of St. Paul’s Boys Academy as being Washington and Lincoln streets. In this case, “Lincoln” should have been “London.”

          This month, April, marks the 75th anniversary of parochial schools in Portsmouth.

Plans for the first Catholic school in this city were made at a congregational meeting at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in April, 1876.

Completed on Oct. 1, 1876, the building cost $3,550.

Known as St. Joseph’s Academy, the structure was erected at the corner of Dinwiddie and King streets. Its faculty was composed of three sisters of Charity with Sister Gertrude as superior.

The sisters had arrived in Portsmouth September 28, four days before the school’s official opening.

A second Catholic school, now known as St. Paul’s High School, was completed at the corner of Washington and Lincoln streets on August 28, 1891, and two days later, three Xaverian Brothers arrived in Portsmouth to compose its faculty. Brother Vincent was superior.

Known as St. Paul’s Boys’ School, the second building was officially opened September 5, 1891, with an enrollment of 60. 

At that time, the boys attended St. Joseph’s until the fifth grade, then were transferred to St. Paul’s. Girls went on through high school at St. Joseph’s.

The original St. Joseph’s building suffered a fire after the turn of the century and the present structure was erected in 1916. It is believed to have been the first fire-proof building in Portsmouth.

The new St. Joseph’s building was known as St. Joseph’s Academy for Girls and St. Paul’s as St. Paul’s Academy for Boys until two years ago when St. Paul’s was made the Catholic High School and St. Joseph’s the Catholic elementary.

At that time, four classrooms were added to the elementary school and houses torn down to make room for a large playground, and a gym was added to the high school.

Modern cafeterias were installed in each building.

Present enrollment of the two schools is 750 with 165 at the high school. The faculty at the grade school has increased from the original three sisters to 11 sisters and one lay teacher. At St. Paul’s the faculty is composed of six sisters and two lay teachers. (The brothers left the city in 1930.)

Four priests teach religion at each school once a week.

Catholics of the city are proud of the honors achieved by St. Paul students both in the realm of scholastics and in athletics.

In the last three years, three St. Paul’s students have won scholarships.

Last year, Tommy Brockwell won a scholarship to Catholic University and Fay Francisco won a VFW scholarship. The previous year, Virginia Griffin won the VFW honor.

Athletic teams were originated at St. Paul’s while the brothers were still there. Brother Clarence, who revisited the city last year, was largely responsible for the introduction of competitive sports.

It has been only during the last two years, however, that the institution has had paid coaches.

Outstanding competitive sport is basketball. St. Paul’s girls have twice walked off with the State championship for Catholic schools and St. Paul’s boys have copped the crown once.

Latest step forward for the Catholic schools is uniforms for the student band. Financed largely through the highly active St. Paul’s Parent-Teacher Association, the uniforms are of blue and white, the school colors, and consist of an Eisenhower jacket, stripped trousers and blue hat with white insignia.

Plans are now afoot, according to Charles Cigler, hard-working bandmaster, to have four baton twirlers with the band next Fall and for the group to make formations on the playing field at halftime.

(Second in a series of three)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Oct. 11, 1951, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on plans for a weekend of events to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Catholic schools in Portsmouth.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

St. Paul’s Catholic School will celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary this week-end highlighted by ernCMFW CMF C CMF CMFWY a banquet and dance at the Suburban Country Club beginning at 7:15 p. m. Saturday.

Principal speakers at the affair will be the Reve. J. Louis Flaherty, diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, and Mrs. James D. Watson, a St. Paul’s graduate. Jerome Bisese, another St. Paul’s graduate, will be toastmaster.

The address of welcome will be delivered by Mrs. Robert F. Haley, president of the St. Paul’s Alumnae Association, sponsor of the diamond jubilee celebration. Closing remarks will be by the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Joseph F. Govaert, pastor of St. Paul’s.

The diamond jubilee celebration will officially open at 7 p. m. tomorrow with benediction at the church to be followed, at 7:15 p. m., by a reception and pageant in the high school gymnasium. Under direction of the Catholic Sisters, cast of the pageant will consist of school pupils.

Saturday’s events, in addition to the banquet and dance, will include mass at 8 a. m. followed by breakfast at St. Paul’s Elementary School.

Solem High Mass will be celebrated at 11 a. m. Sunday at St. Paul’s Church, to be followed by breakfast at Hotel Portsmouth.

The celebration will draw to a close at 3 p. m. Sunday, when the pageant will be represented in the St. Paul gymnasium.

Chairman of the affair is Mrs. S. A. Tisdale.

(Third in a series of three)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a speech given Oct. 13, 1951, by St. Joseph’s Academy alumna Margaret Theresa McHugh Watson at a gala celebration of the 75th anniversary of Catholic schools in Portsmouth.

Watson was the organist at St. Paul’s Catholic Church from 1893 to 1947. At the time she gave this speech, she was the oldest living graduate of St. Joseph’s.

She died the following September at age 77 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth.

Her speech is an appendix in “A Story of Faith / 1804-2000 / St. Paul’s Catholic Church.” 

I decided when I retired as organist that my day of speech-making was at an end, but Catholic education (a cause for which I have always worked with deep interest), combined with the Diamond Jubilee, and the fact that I am the oldest living graduate of my Alma Mater, was a combination too strong to refuse. I am proud of the latter distinction but not so thrilled about it, as I would rather be one of the younger graduates. Still I am deeply grateful to our Lord for having blessed me with unusual good health, and a happy, colorful life.

The era of which I am about to speak was the age of the lamp-lighter, the horse and buggy, jingle bell sleighs, the first horse-drawn street car, large penny pickles, two chocolate drops for one cent, a penny’s worth of home-made taffy, girls wearing bangs with pigtails hanging down their backs and dresses much longer than those worn by the children and girls of today.

Prior to the opening of St. Joseph’s Academy (now St. Paul’s School), many of our mothers (among them my own dear mother), in order to receive a Catholic Education, attended St. Mary’s School in Norfolk. Later on, Mrs. Eliza Gregory, a prominent Catholic woman of Portsmouth, started a select school for girls which was attended by both Catholic and non-Catholics. It was she who bequeathed the money to the church which was used to build St. Paul’s for boys, the site of our present High School.

In 1870, just five years after the Civil War, a zealous young Irish priest, Reverend Thomas J. Brady, came to Portsmouth. Six years later in 1876, as a result of his keen foresight and indefatigable courage he brought a little band of four Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul to help him realize his aim to extend Catholic Education to the children of Portsmouth. This was the beginning of St. Joseph’s Academy, seventy-five years ago.

There was a Dutch roof, frame house on the corner of Dinwiddie and King Streets and a trellised arbor that joined this to the brick house which was the school. The downstairs of the wooden structure served as dining room and kitchen, and the upstairs was used as a class-room for the boys. The girls were taught in the brick building, which also contained the parlor, chapel and Sisters’ dormitory. The frame house later was pulled down and the brick building enlarged.

As far as I know, we have three living charter members of St. Joseph’s Academy: Mrs. Blanche Bilisoly Borum (Mrs. James A. Borum), of Portsmouth, Mrs. May Godwin Parker (Mrs. William C. Parker) of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Miss Mary S. O’Connor, also of this city. Among the many charter members who have passed away, and of whom I have no record, one was Mrs. James A. Mulvey, mother of our beloved Margaret Mulvey Hewitt, who worked faithfully for our Alumnae and whose presence we miss here tonight. The first graduate of St. Joseph’s Academy in 1885 was Mrs. Anne Ward Williams, a non-Catholic, who reared all her children in the Catholic faith, and afterwards became a Catholic herself. She was the mother of Mrs. Laura Williams Riggan and the grandmother of Mary Riggan, Betty Boggs Cunningham and James Boggs, all graduates of our school. The second graduate was Miss Mary Boyle, Class of 1887. In 1889, Mrs. Mary Genevieve O’Connor Boyd and Mrs. Annie Johnson Williams received graduation honors. I started to school in “The Roaring Eighties” and graduated in “The Gay Nineties.” It was remarkable that the three of us who graduated together lived until the chain was broken last February, when Mrs. Mary Irwin Hulcher passed on to her eternal reward. The third member of our class, Mrs. Virginia Griffin Riddick, now resides in Washington, D.C., and regrets that she cannot be with us upon this memorable occasion. In 1894 there were two graduates: Mrs. Mary Nolan Jones and Mrs. Margaret Clarke Halligan. Mrs. Jones is with us tonight.

There were three grades in the original school: the Primary, Intermediate and Advanced Class, equivalent to the High School today.

My childhood was so linked with St. Joseph’s Academy that I find it difficult not to reminisce. In the first grade, to help us learn the alphabet, we were taught a little song which I discovered afterwards to be a melody from Hayden’s “Surprise Symphony.” Much time and attention were given to the three “R’s,” reading, writing, and arithmetic, especially writing. Spencerian penmanship with its attractive shading was taught, and many of the girls excelled to such an extent their handwriting looked like copy-plate. Music meant so much in those days, sometimes two or three in a family taking piano lessons at the same time. Well do I remember the old wooden pump in the yard, with its iron dipper attached by a chain, hard to work but it brought forth water that was truly “Nectar of the gods.” The statue of our Blessed Lady in the center of the lovely flower garden was the first shrine I can remember, instilling in us at an impressionable age, a love for the Mother of God. On the feast of St. Joseph, there was a procession of the children around the grounds and streets in the vicinity of the school, all singing hymns and the two largest boys carrying the statue of our patron Saint.

I would like to say a few words about our commencement exercises, as they were truly unique. I do not know why they were called commencement exercises as they were at the close of school and around the 25th of June. They were held in a hall that was used as a chapel when the church was burned, the site where the Grammar School now stands. In the center of the stage was a large American flag, canary birds in cages were suspended from the ceiling and beautiful magnolias added their fragrance to the decorations. The singing of the birds blended with the solos, duets, recitations, etc. Gold and silver crowns and books were given as premiums, and I will never forget the thrill I felt when Father Brady placed a gold crown upon my head at the end of my first year. I felt as if I were ready to fly to Heaven.

In the intermediate grades besides a continuance of the three R’s, we took up sewing, drawing, music, all gentle arts. In fact, good manners and gentility were the order of the day, to such an extent that we had a special course on etiquette. I would like to tell you a little incident that illustrates the attention that was paid to deportment. One day, in going up the steps in the exuberance of youth, we made considerable noise and were met by our teacher, who proceeded to reprimand us for not acting like young ladies. Her punishment was that we should all remain after school and write one thousand times “I ran up the stairs like a wild Indian.” I know we never ascended the stairs like that again, but many a time I have wished that I could run up the stairs like a wild Indian. That was one of the nights that I met the lamp-lighter carrying a ladder and stopping at the corners to light the gas lamps.

Physical instruction was taught by the use of dumbbells to the accompaniment of music, everybody counting. These exercises were very artistic and used sometimes in the commencements. There was a great deal of marching on those days and I happened to be the official pianist. “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” was the favorite tune, so I had to play it over and over. (HERE’S A YOUTUBE LINK TO “MAGGIE”: https://youtu.be/0i-kXaS7FSY?is=kLDKAqVXRCTmpd2U)

Among the studies in the Advanced Grade were geography, rhetoric, chemistry, physiology, scientific knowledge, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, even botany and astronomy, and a Compendium of History comprising all the countries of the world from 4004 B. C. to that time. One Sister taught the boys and the other three the girls, the Sister Superioress teaching the advanced class. These Sisters of the early years were truly pioneers. They made their own fires, carried buckets of coal up the steps, cleaned out ashes, took care of their laundry, and performed many a menial task, all accompanied with light hearts and smiling faces for the honor and glory of God.

It was amazing how much knowledge these Sisters had acquired in their young lives, as most of them were young, and I wonder if we realize how much they imparted to us that helped to mold our lives. I know that my beloved music teacher, Sister Regina Horrigan of blessed memory, launched me upon my career in music. It was she who taught me to play for the singing classes, who gave me pipe organ lessons and had me playing for the children’s choir, when I was twelve years old. She also induced Father Brady to allow me to substitute as organist, a substitution that extended over fifty years. When I was timid and hesitant, she would tell me that God had given me a talent for music, but that I lacked ambition. That was a challenge, and a challenge always gets action. I would also like to pay tribute to Sister Margaret McCarthy, who was my teacher for six years out of the ten I went to school. Strict but very thorough, she had a wonderful fund of knowledge, and as a teacher, I do not believe that she could be surpassed, even in this day and time. This would not be complete without mentioning Sister Mary Joseph Holly, whom we all loved and revered. She was here forty-one years from 1883 to 1924 and is buried in St. Paul’s Cemetery next to Sister Mary Garvey, close to the priests and people she loved and served. May they rest in peace.

Much can be said for the people who have carried on the traditions of St. Joseph’s Academy, now St. Paul’s School, but my toast is to the Pioneers. They taught fifty, sixty and seventy years ago, and while they had no degrees, they turned out pupils who became fine men and women, a credit to their church, school, and community.

May these pioneers from their high places in Heaven be reaping the reward of the many sacrifices they made, instilling knowledge and religion into the minds and souls of those entrusted to their care. The children of that generation became the men and women who worked and sacrificed to give you and your children the magnificent edifice that is the St. Paul’s of today!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s post is the first of many you will read from the files of The Virginian-Pilot, the Ledger-Star and several other newspapers in Virginia on events, trends and issues that affected the Catholic schools in Portsmouth. Our hope is that these contemporaneous accounts, stitched together over the next five months, will give readers a fuller appreciation of the history of Portsmouth’s parochial schools.

The following is a story from the May 13, 1960, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the winner of a quiz on St. Vincent de Paul at St. Paul’s Central High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– Winners of a quiz on St. Vincent de Paul, sponsored by the Children of Mary at the St. Paul’s Central High School, have been announced.

They are Marion Mabry, first place; Amelia Warren, second; and Mary Tobin, Beverly Sharpe and Greta Gustavson, tied for third.

St. Vincent de Paul was the founder of the Sisters of Charity who staff the school. The quiz was in honor of the 300th anniversary of his death.

The quiz was open to all students who were tested on facts concerning the life of the saint which were read over the public address system by Children of Mary officers for a month before the examination.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a dozen or so posts based on the content of souvenir homecoming programs from the 1960s and 1970s.

Programs from athletic events, especially from homecoming weekends, are a treasure trove of information and memories. Many of the programs you’ll see come from the archives at St. Paul’s Church; others are from personal collections.

The programs include photos, both from the contemporaneous student body and of the alumni being honored. 

Ads in the programs are a reminder of the dozens of Portsmouth businesses that supported our schools. And many of the programs featured “booster” pages with long-lost signatures of students, faculty, alumni and parents.

Expect to see photos of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, teachers, friends – and perhaps even your young self.

By BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

Now that the 2026 football season is under way, it’s time to explore one of the great forgotten chapters in the history of Catholic schools in Portsmouth: the four-year period when St. Paul’s High School fielded a football team.

You read that right – a football team.

The team was led from 1950 to 1953 by the enterprising Ray Chamberland, a native of Woonsocket, R.I., who, in addition to teaching, coached football and basketball and sold cars at McCready Motors, the local Lincoln-Mercury dealership. (See his newspaper ad from Nov. 16, 1955.)

Stories in The Virginian-Pilot about the St. Paul’s gridders invariably mentioned Chamberland and Notre Dame in the same sentence.  

Chamberland was a member of the Notre Dame Class of 1949, but he did not play varsity football for the Fighting Irish. He gained coaching experience in the South Bend, Ind., school’s robust intramural football program.

He also gained stage experience in college. From the Dec. 14, 1945, issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic student news magazine, in a review of a campus variety show: “From time to time throughout the performance, ‘Smiling’ Ray Chamberland trips across the footlights in his BTO jacket to give a series of well-timed imitations, packed with punch and spontaneous wit.”

Chamberland spent just seven years in Portsmouth, all in the employ of St. Paul’s High, but his ties to the city lasted a lifetime. He married a Portsmouth woman, Rose Rita Reagan, in January 1953. Their marriage lasted until Mrs. Chamberland’s death in February 2014.

Chamberland left St. Paul’s in 1957 to take a job coaching and teaching in the Southern Berkshire Regional School District, based in Sheffield, Mass. He rose to the rank of principal in 1978 and retired in 1987. 

Online condolences posted after Chamberland’s death on Nov. 17, 2014, included at least three from Portsmouth: someone named Charlie, and from St. Paul’s alums Bernie Kirsch and Sandra Waldren Walsh. 

Said Charlie: “We all have fond stories to tell about our relationship with a caring and challenging coach. He will be remembered by the former students and players in Portsmouth, VA for a long time to come.”

Said Bernie: “Ray came to Portsmouth, VA in 1950 after graduation. He started as a teacher and assistant coach and in a short time coached all of the St Paul's High School sports teams. He was an inspirational young coach full of energy and determination to learn the trade. Those of us who were students then were the beneficiaries of his hard charging but caring style.

“His bride, Rita, was a Portsmouth lass and theirs was a wonderful lifelong love story. He leaves behind a legacy of love. For those of us who knew him he is unforgettable and will always live in our hearts. 

“My condolence to his family and friends. May he rest in peace.”

Said Sandra: “Dear Coach - What a legacy! Not only your and Rita's family but the extended family of all your former students. The wonderful influence and character building you provided us will continue. I am so glad I got the opportunity to let you know that. Rest in Peace Coach. St. Paul's, Portsmouth, VA, Class of '55.”

NEXT: The Saints have high hopes for their game against Norfolk Catholic, also new to football in 1950.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is excerpted from a preview story in the Nov. 9, 1950, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the first-ever football game between St. Paul’s High School and Norfolk Catholic High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

.The newest Catholic high school football rivalry writes its first chapter tomorrow afternoon with Norfolk Catholic meeting St. Paul’s, of Portsmouth, on the field behind the Norfolk school. The kickoff is scheduled for 3 o’clock.

This is the first season of varsity football for both teams.

The Portsmouth Saints will yield a big edge in weight and experience.

Coached by Ray Chamberland, a graduate of Notre Dame, the Saints won their first game last week by defeating Norfolk Academy, 32-18. They have dropped decisions to Elizabeth City Central, Roanoke Catholic and tied Barry Robinson.

Playing their first home game of the season, Coach Johnny Korzowski’s Crusaders are shooting for their first victory since they defeated Smithfield, 7-0, in the opening game of the season.

St. Paul’s line will be composed of Jackie Robinson, 137, and Phil Robbins, 150, at ends; Don Ullum, 141, and Nichelson, 154, at tackles; John Charlton, 150, and Bob Mounie, 143, guards; and Butch Kilpatrick, 132, center.

In the backfield, Coach Ray Chamberland will start Gene Dragon, 145, at quarterback; Luke Malabad, 145, and Charles Sanford, 153, halfbacks, and John Christotomo, 152, fullback.

NEXT: The first football game between the Saints and the Crusaders has a lopsided outcome.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Nov. 11, 1950, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the result of the first-ever football game between St. Paul’s High School and Norfolk Catholic High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

By JACK BEAL

The initial contest of a new twin-city gridiron rivalry turned into a track meet as the Crusaders from Catholic Central rolled over a game but vastly overpowered St. Paul’s eleven of Portsmouth by a score of 62 to 0 yesterday at the Norfolk school’s home field.

Coach Johnny Korczowski’s squad, led by halfback Johnny Martin, looked good enough to beat all comers as they scored in every period. Alex Whyte’s kicking toe proved strong and true as he booted eight conversions.

Tommy Wyszatycki began the scoring parade by going around end for 30-yards and a touchdown, climaxing a 39-yard first period drive. Later in the same period, Bill Tucker sliced off tackle for 12-yards and another score.

The second period scoring was opened by Ernie Knox, who went 15-yards on an end sweep and another tally. Whyte’s kick was true, but was ruled out because of a clipping penalty. Jerry Decker’s dropkick attempt then fell short.

In the same quarter, Bobby Martin bucked over the center of the line for two-yards and the fourth Catholic score. With 30-seconds remaining in the first half, Johnny Martin swept around end and romped 55-yards for another TD and the second longest run of the game, to make the score 34-0.

Opening the third quarter, Tommy Wyszatycki tallied his second score of the game by scooting 30-yards around end. Johnny Martin later added to the total on a 51-yard end run.

Early in the final period, quarterback Pat Versprille carried the leather around end for 12 yards, but the play was nullified by a clipping penalty. Whyte carried through center for 12-yards and another tally later in the period. The final touchdown was made by Tucker, when he returned a St. Paul punt for 65-yards, which was his second tally and the longest run of the game.

Coach Ray Chamberland had nothing by praises for his gallant defensive quarterback, Paul de la Cruz, who was St. Paul’s outstanding player.

The lineups:

Catholic Central (62)

Ends – Kane, Dunn, Longton, Coulsting, Powers.

Tackles – Bonday, Peck, Hudgins, Gregory, Standing.

Guards – Fisher, Rutter, A. Decker, Query, Donnelly, J. Decker, Wingfield.

Backs – Whyte, T. Wyszatycki, J. Wyszatycki, Wilmoth, Knox, J. Martin, B. Martin, Versprille, Miller, Tucker.

St. Paul’s (0)

Ends – Robbins, Barham, Nash, Robinson, Runk, Lofton.

Tackles – Ullom, J. Runk, Flannery, Nickleson.

Guards – Mounie, Charlton, Crostic.

Centers – Kilpatrick, Ollice, Morlino.

Backs – Dragon, Crisostomo, de la Cruz, Malabad, Sandford, Bisese, Horton, Fiel, Cantwell.

NEXT: The football era ends at St. Paul’s.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Jan. 10, 1954, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the end of football at St. Paul’s High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

.By HOWARD JACOBSON

St. Paul’s High School, of Portsmouth, is suspending football from its athletic program because of lack of enrollment, head coach Ray Chamberland announced last night.

The Saints, a Catholic school with an enrollment of only 133 – 42 of which are boys – have already informed rival schools they are suspending the sport for a period of two years.

“It’s quite a disappointment to me,” coach Chamberland said, “but it’s the only satisfactory answer at this time. We just don’t have enough enrollment to have a football team.”

St. Paul’s fielded its first football team in 1950. During the four-year period, the out-manned Saints won nine games against 22 defeats and a tie. The Saints enjoyed their biggest success against Group Three teams.

Throughout the four-year period, the Saints played a majority of the top Group Two teams in this area.

The Saints were forced to finish last football season with only 19 players. Ten members from last year’s squad will graduate before next season. The team compiled a 3-6 mark in 1953. Despite lack of experience and manpower, the Catholic gridders displayed a spirited brand of ball throughout the season and enjoyed a highly successful financial year.

Chamberland said the football equipment will be stored away, with hopes that enrollment will pick up after a two-year period.

With the dropping of football, basketball is the only sport at St. Paul’s.

St. Paul’s also has lost its athletic director, Father Leo Creamer, who is transferring to Richmond.

Post No. 16

This October 1945 photograph from The Virginian-Pilot shows local entrepreneur Charles H. Consolvo (center, in sunglasses), owner of major hotels in Norfolk, Richmond and Baltimore, with members of St. Paul's Catholic Church in Portsmouth. The church members were attending the last day of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus shows in Norfolk.

Whom do you recognize? A grandparent? Parent? Yourself?

Post No. 17

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is excerpted from a story from the Sept. 8, 1955, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on enrollment figures for the new school year.

This history project will include several similar stories from across the years that serve as informative snapshots of our schools’ wellbeing. Also, take note of the photo that accompanies the story on the newspaper page.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

Parochial schools in Portsmouth opened yesterday with an enrollment of approximately 1,177 pupils, a slight increase over enrollment last year. St. Paul’s Elementary School registered 520 pupils. The figure was a decrease of approximately 100 students, many of whom will attend the new Holy Angels School which will open Monday with some 200 students registered.

St, Paul’s High School students will report for school today at 9 a. m.

At Our Lady of Victory School, enrollment reached 406 pupils. This figure showed an increase of approximately 64 students over last year.

Some 191 students attended school at the Little Flower School. The school accommodates pupils attending grades one through four, as does Holy Angels School.

Post No. 18

EDITOR’S NOTE: Programs from athletic events, especially from homecoming weekends, are a treasure trove of information and memories. Many of the programs you’ll see come from the archives at St. Paul’s Church; others are from personal collections.

The programs include photos, both from the contemporaneous student body and of the alumni being honored. 

Ads in the programs are a reminder of the dozens of Portsmouth businesses that supported our schools. And many of the programs featured “booster” pages with long-lost signatures of students, faculty, alumni and parents.

Expect to see photos of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, teachers, friends – and perhaps even your young self.

Post No. 19

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is excerpts from a June 3, 1985, story in The Catholic Virginian in which the Rev. Albert F. Pereira, former pastor of Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Portsmouth and St. Therese’s Catholic Church in Chesapeake, recalls his days as a spiritual adviser to President John F. Kennedy. 

After Pereira arrived at St. Therese’s, he served on the Portsmouth-Chesapeake Pastoral Council that helped to oversee the Catholic schools in Portsmouth and also served as the schools’ financial affairs officer. 

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

NOTE: The Bible mentioned in this story used by Lyndon Johnson to take the oath of office on Nov. 22, 1963, actually was a missal.

By STEVE NEILL

Of The Catholic Virginian

Being a confidante to the president of the United States and members of his family stand out in the memory of Father Albert Pereira, but his happiest years as a priest were when he served as pastor of a struggling black parish which has long since closed and merged with a white congregation.

Father Pereira, who was 70 on May 12, recently retired from the active priestly ministry, Until May 28 he was pastor of St. Jude’s in Franklin and its mission, Shrine of the Infant of Prague in Wakefield.

He was ordained in Rome March 7, 1940.

“When Pope Pius XII met us after we were ordained, he went around to each of us and asked where we were from,” Father Pereira recalled. “I said I was from Virginia and he said, ‘Oh, you’re going to be a missionary. There are not many Catholics in Virginia.’ ”

In 1950, he went to Portsmouth to be pastor of Our Lady of Victory, a black parish which since has closed.

“I guess where I felt the greatest fulfillment as a priest was at Our Lady of Victory because I really felt I was able to touch those people,” Father Pereira said. “I got very close to them, I was able to identify with them and they were very responsive to me.” He is saddened by the fact that many black Catholics there left the church after it was closed and merged with St. Paul’s in 1965 in the fervor of racial integration.

His next assignment as pastor of St. John’s in Leesburg and its small mission in Middleburg gave him contact with President John F. Kennedy, who after being elected president rented a house in Middleburg. The president and Mrs. Kennedy attended Mass on Sundays at the small Catholic mission when they spent weekends at their country home.

The relationship between Father Pereira and President Kennedy was strengthened when the president sought his advice on certain matters, including help in reaching decisions.

“I was always nice to them and I think they liked me because I was honest with them,” Father Pereira said. “If I thought the president made a mistake, I told him. He expected me to tell him if I thought he did something wrong, but I never told him what to do or what decision to make.”

The priest never met the president in the White House, however, by edict of Pierre Salinger, Kennedy’s press secretary. Salinger feared the public reaction to press reports of the president’s priest trooping into the White House to counsel him.  For the same reason, Salinger wouldn’t allow Father Pereira to have his photo taken with Kennedy.

Father Pereira’s visits with the president took place in the Kennedys’ Middleburg home or at the church before or after Mass. One such meeting occurred after a phone call one Saturday afternoon by the president to Father Pereira asking that he meet with him the next morning before Mass.

“The president told me, ‘I have a decision to make whether or not we should go to the moon,’ ” Father Pereira said. “I thought a minute and said, ‘Yes, we’re going to the moon.’ ”

President Kennedy again sought Father Pereira’s counsel when there was racial trouble in Mississippi because James Meredith, a black man, was attempting to register at the state university.

“One morning Jack called me up and said, ‘Bobby (Robert Kennedy, then Attorney General) is on my tail because I haven’t said anything about the trouble in Mississippi.’ ” The president asked the priest to write a speech he could give condemning the action of Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, who was trying to block Meredith’s registration.

“I called Bobby and he said, ‘I want you to make sure that this is discussed as a moral issue,’ ” Father Pereira said, adding that the president’s brother felt the president would tend to view the issue in a political light. The priest typed out a speech and read it over the phone to Evelyn Lincoln, the president’s secretary.

Although the president gave the speech verbatim with only a few mutually agreed upon changes, he continued to worry about it. “He called me back about five in the afternoon and said, ‘I’m really worried about this.’ I said, ‘don’t worry about it, I’m praying.’ ” Public reaction to the speech was overwhelmingly in favor of the president’s position.

Another time President Kennedy asked Father Pereira to persuade Jacqueline Kennedy to accompany him on his political fence-mending trip to Texas, which was to be his last. Mrs. Kennedy had originally planned to accompany him, then changed her mind. The priest drove to her Middleburg home and saw her just as she was getting off a horse. He succeeded in getting her to keep her original plans, appealing to her by saying that newspapers had already printed information on her wardrobe planned for the trip.

And it was a Bible given by Father Pereira to President Kennedy which was used by Lyndon Johnson when he was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One after the assassination in Dallas. The priest later received a letter from an official in the Johnson administration apologizing for the disappearance of the Bible after the ceremony.

Father Pereira continued his friendship with the Kennedy family after John Kennedy was killed. He was a frequent visitor at the McLean home of Robert and Ethel Kennedy who were soon to be his parishioners. The priest was named pastor of St. Luke’s parish in McLean in 1965.

When Robert was slain in June, 1968, Ethel called Father Pereira in Florida, where he was vacationing. He made immediate plans to return to Virginia to be with the Kennedy family and then proceed to New York where the funeral was to be held, but a hurricane was raging over most of Florida and flights were canceled or delayed. He finally made arrangements to leave by an Army jeep to board a plane in Tampa for Washington.

“The plane dropped twice a couple of thousand feet because of the high winds,” Father Pereira said. “When the plane stopped in Jacksonville, the stewardesses got off and refused to get back on the plane. And when we finally landed in Washington some of the men kissed the ground when they got off.”

He recalls that in New York he and Mrs. Rose Kennedy coached the younger Kennedy children in bringing up the offertory gifts for the funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The rehearsal took place in Mrs. Kennedy’s room at the Waldorf-Astoria. He also asked Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to give the eulogy at the Mass, a relatively new innovation for the church in 1968.

Following the rehearsal with the children, Father Pereira met Bishop John J. Russell in the hotel coffee shop and the bishop showed him a copy of a letter written by Robert Kennedy recommending that he transfer the priest from the Leesburg parish to St. Luke’s in McLean. It was a request Bishop Russell followed.

Post No. 20

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Nov. 9, 1975, editions of the Ledger-Star on an offseason facelift for the Portsmouth Catholic High School gym. 

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style. 

PORTSMOUTH –– Visitors to Portsmouth Catholic High School are in for a treat this basketball season.

The old gymnasium at the corner of London Blvd. and Washington St. that has served as the home of the Saints since 1949 has been completely refurbished.

The two men responsible for most of the labor are Jack Allison and George Rivers.

Allison, a graduate of Sterling College in Kansas, is the Saints’ cross-country and boys’ junior varsity basketball coach, along with his duties as physical education instructor and dean of discipline.

Rivers, the father of the Saints’ multi-purpose athlete Keith, is the maintenance manager at Portsmouth Catholic.

With financial help from the PTA and Portsmouth Catholic Athletic Association, Allison and Rivers managed to turn the old gymnasium into a showcase that the Saints can be proud of this season.

Among the improvements are a painted ceiling and walls, refinished playing floor, new safety mats under each basket and new shades for the windows.

As a finishing touch, banners have been hung along the walls, commemorating Portsmouth Catholic championship teams ranging from 1945 to 1975.

–– BRICE ANDERSON

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is from the June 22, 1897, edition of The Daily Pilot, on commencement exercises for the Class of ’97 at St. Joseph’s Female Academy. This item was part of a roundup of news shorts called “A Wealth of Knowledge.”

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

ST. JOSEPH’S FEMALE ACADEMY

Closing Exercises This Afternoon at Kirn Hall.

The following programme will be rendered this afternoon at 4 o’clock at Kirn Hall, the occasion being the closing exercises of St. Joseph’s Female Academy, on Dinwiddie street:

PART I

Entrance March ……………. Sydney Smith

Pianos, Misses M. M. McHugh, M. Irvin, M. Clarke and M, O’Connor.

“Sunrise Schottisch ………. J. Bellack­.

Pianos, Misses E. Dozier, M. Sullivan, J. Fantone and M. Neimeyer.

“The Fisher Crew’s Return …………. Senior Class.

“Rippling Waters” ………… Drumheller.

Pianos, Misses L. Carter, B. Casey, M. Martin and M. Larkin.

CORONATION AND ACADEMIC HONORS

“Vienna Forever” ………. Schrammel.

Pianos, Misses E. Dozier, L. Joyce, S. Pace and M. Mulvey.

“Mother’s Children ……………… Junior Elocution Class.

“On Prancing Steeds ………. W. Boyer.

Pianos, Misses J. Fantone, R. Langhorne, M. Niemeyer, M. Mulvey, M, Shaughnessey, L. Tatem.

“The Gobbleuns’ll Get Yer” ……………. Boys’ Class.

“Ribbon Polka” …………….. Blanc.

Pianos, Misses M. Sullivan, M. Ryan, M. Morrisette, Master D. Sullivan.

PART II

“The Martyrdom of St. Agnes ………. Recitation.

“Jesus Savior of My Soul” ……. Pantomine.

St. Agnes ………………. E. Dozier.

Fulvins ………………. B. O’Connor.

Friends of St. Agnes. Misses R. Griffin, G. Parker, C. Schroeder, K. E. Bilisoly, K. Gallagher, E. Robinson and R. Cragin.

Executioner ………… Miss L. Shea.

“Jerusalem, My Happy Home ………. Tableau.

PART III

‘Cujus Animam” …………. W. Kuhe.

Pianos, Misses R. Griffin, K. E. Bilisoly, C. Schroeder and G. Parker.

Valedictory and Farewell Chorus …………….. Graduates.

“Birds of the Forest” ……….. Carl Le Duce.

Pianos, Misses M. Revell, E. Robinson, A. Bourke and M. Sullivan.

Exit March ………….. Duet.

During parts second and third a drama in three acts entitled “The Birth of the Rainbow of Erin’s Vision” will be given.

The class of ’97 is composed of the following young ladies: Misses Gertrude Parker, Rosalle Griffin, Lucretia S. Schroeder, Kate Elise Bilisoly, Eulalie Robinson, Kate I. Gallagher and M. Regina Cragin.

The audience will kindly remain seated until the children leave the hall.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the March 9, 1954, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the construction of the School of the Little Flower.

The cost to build the school – $131,500 – is the equivalent of $1,638,000 in 2026 dollars.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style. 

NOTE: The reference in the story to an enrollment of 800 at St. Paul’s High School likely should have been attributed to St. Paul’s Elementary School.

A new parochial grade school now under construction in Oregon Acres is scheduled for completion in July and will be ready for occupancy in September.

The School of the Little Flower will be ready to accommodate more than 200 children in the first, second and third grades by September, Monsignor J. F. Govaert, pastor of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, said.

Situated on approximately three acres on Oregon Avenue, the school was started in November and will be Portsmouth’s first suburban Catholic school. The unfurnished structure will cost some $131,500.

The grade school will be used only by pupils in the first three grades of school, who will occupy four classrooms, when the school is opened. Plans call for eventual construction of partitions for 10 classrooms.

A temporary church also will be a part of the structure. Overall measurements of the brick building are 225 feet by 60 feet. Each classroom will accommodate about 55 children.

The present enrollment of some 800 students at the St. Paul’s High School is taught by the Sisters of Charity and lay teachers in 13 classrooms, Monsignor Govaert said. The need for 17 classrooms next fall, when enrollment will be boosted about 150, will be filled by the new school.

The School of the Little Flower also will eliminate the present half-day at St. Paul’s, the priest said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the July 20, 1970, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on Tim Ozmon, a St. Paul’s Elementary School student who represented Tidewater that summer in the national Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

By DAVE LEONARD

Virginian-Pilot Staff Writer

PORTSMOUTH –– When 11-year-old Tim Ozmon filed his entry blank for his first soap box derby in April, he told his two older brothers, veterans of the event, that he would show them how to race.

Saturday, Tim won the 13th annual runnnig of the Tidewater Soap Box Derby on the 300-yard course at Borum Overpass at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

To do it, he raced eight times, including a quarter final victory over his oldest brother John, 14.

And 13-year-old Bill, loser in his first race of the day, came back to top all the other initial losers in the elimination rounds. Bill also posted the fastest time of the day in his wooden car, 38.1 seconds.

Up in the stands, Mr. and Mrs. A. J. (Jack) Ozmon and the rest of their seven sons formed a cheering section.

With three sons in the various heats, they had plenty of opportunity to cheer.

Twenty-one times, Ozmons flashed silently by in wooden cars. That quarter final heat matched John and Tim.

“I just closed my eyes on that one,” Mrs. Ozmon, a nurse at Portsmouth General Hospital commented.

The race for the winner was another breathtaker. From the stands, it looked like a dead heat. From the judges’ catwalk over the track, a viewer could see Tim inches ahead of Charles Moore of Virginia Beach.

The judges flashed two fingers to indicate that Tim, in lane 2, was the winner. For the family, it was a victory sign. Next stop is the All-American derby in Akron, Ohio on Aug. 15.

Sunday, the big family gathered in the living room of their rambling home at 62 Elm Avenue in Portsmouth to recall some of their feelings about the event.

Among the three brothers who raced, there were no hard feelings.

Bill recalled congratulating the boy who defeated him in the first round and then telling him that “I’ve got two more brothers out there.”

Their father noted that the builders of the 250-pound racers freely share information about techniques of building cars, unlike the super-secret Detroit manufacturers.

A similar camaraderie exists among the parents, many of whose sons enter the race for several years.

And the father had praise for the Jaycees from area Chapters. The Portsmouth chapter sponsored one of the sons in past years. Bob Woodard, Portsmouth project chairman, was a local winner and Akron participant some years ago.

What started the Ozmon interest in the derby was an article in the newspaper.

“When John (now 14) was 11, I saw an item in the paper, and I asked him if he was interested in entering,” the father said.

Work on the first car, which won a prize as best constructed car in the 1967 race, took place in a 10 x 10-foot structure behind the house.

In 1968, for need of more space, the shed size was doubled.

The father, a mechanic with the Corps of Engineers at Crancy Island, improvised a drill press to enable the boys to handle the power drill. And the walls are lined with neatly stored tools.

Tim, eager to enter the race this year, started 14 months ago to build his first car. Marks on the wall tell the date: April 19, 1969.

After he saw last year’s winning car, he completely changed the body and built a lay-down model.

Jack Ozmon recalled a good omen that preceded Tim’s victory.

The night that the contestants met to draw their lanes in the first heat, derby director Ralph L. Barnes brought along one of the small trophies given to each of the 95 drivers who entered.

He had brought the one engraved with Tim’s name.

The Ozmon name isn’t likely to disappear from the derby rolls for a while.

Tim, as a winner, won’t be allowed to race again. But next year, David Ozmon will be old enough to race alongside John (his last year) and Bill.

In two years, twins Mark and Mike will swell the eligible list to four. And two years later, the youngest, Bruce, will be old enough for his first race.

Already the younger boys know a lot about the race and have helped build their brothers’ cars.

In the last month before the race, the whole family’s schedule revolves around car production.

When the meals are ready, I ask them if they are,” Mrs. Ozmon said to the boys. “If they’re not, I wait.”­­­

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the March 31, 1954, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on an oratorical contest won by a freshman at St. Paul’s High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

Steve O’Brien, 14, a freshman at St. Paul’s Catholic High School, won top honors last night in an oratorical contest held at Parker’s Drive-in Restaurant under sponsorship of the Portsmouth Optimist Club.

Second place was won by Tommy Chilton of Cradock High School. Bobby Brown, of Churchland High School, came in third.

M. L. Carnifax, chairman of the club’s Awards Committee, presented the Joseph A. Kerner Plaque to the first place winner. The plaque, presented for the first time this year in tribute to the local club’s president, will be awarded each year to the school furnishing the victor.

“I owe it all to Sister Christine!” the boy exclaimed, paying enthusiastic tribute to his teacher. “She gave me so much help.”

O’Brien will represent the Portsmouth area in the District 16 contest to be held May 20 through October 22 in Baltimore, under sponsorship under Optimist International. The district includes Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and West Virginia.

The Portsmouth contest was under the supervision of Jim Ligon, vice president of the club and boys’ work director. Judges were Leroy Ober, A. C. Bartlett, and Thomas F. (illegible).

Timekeeper was Herman Moore. C. E. Glisson was chairman of the Judges Committee.

Post No. 26 (First in a series of six)

By BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

The list of American high schools that can claim two alumni as members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a short one.

Forest Hills High in Forest Hills, N.Y., can brag about producing the original members of the folk duo Tom & Jerry. They later would drop the reference to the cat-and-mouse cartoon and go by their given names: (Paul) Simon & (Art) Garfunkel.

At Pinole Valley High School in Pinole, Calif., alumni Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt were inducted as members of the rock band Green Day.

And in Portsmouth, Va., graduates of St. Paul’s High School and its successor, Portsmouth Catholic High, can point with pride to Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, which included as backing members two St. Paul’s alums: Tommy Facenda and Dickie “Be-Bop” Harrell.

Vincent, a Norfolk native and U.S. Navy veteran, is best known for the seminal rockabilly song “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” which legend says he co-wrote while recovering from a broken leg at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. He recorded the song as a demo in Norfolk in 1956, after his band had performed it live on radio station WCMS (Where Country Music Swings!). 

The demo was sent to Capitol Records, which was looking for a singer to compete with a new RCA Records artist, Elvis Presley. Capitol released “Be-Bop-A-Lula” in June 1956, and it reached No. 7 on the Billboard charts. By April 1957, the song had sold 2 million copies worldwide.

It also peaked at No. 5 in the United Kingdom, where a 14-year-old budding singer-songwriter named Paul McCartney would claim it was the first record he ever bought: “I got back on the bus, went home and played it endlessly, and these memories, of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps singing ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ will stay with me forever.”

McCartney’s future bandmate mentioned the song in his one of his final interviews, in December 1980. Said John Lennon: “If the oldies but goodies come on (the radio), it’s one of my favorites. If I hear ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula,’ I can hear it over and over again. Every time it comes on I switch up the thing, and I have the record still.”

NEXT: Dickie Harrell’s impromptu scream on “Be-Bop-A-Lula” was the ultimate attention-getting device.

Second in a series of six

By BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

Dickie Harrell was 15 years old and a soon-to-be high school dropout when he went to Nashville, Tenn., in May 1956 to play drums on one of the most influential recordings of the 20th century.

His impromptu scream, intended as a cry for attention, added to the primal, rebellious energy of Gene Vincent’s song “Be-Bop-A-Lula” that reverberates throughout the history of rock ’n’ roll. 

Harrell screamed during the recording, about 38 seconds into the song, to the surprise of his bandmates who would become known collectively as the Blue Caps. 

After the take ended – and Harrell had screamed for a second time – Capitol Records producer Ken Nelson asked why he had bellowed. Harrell’s reply: He wanted to prove to his mother back home in Portsmouth, Va., that he had played on the record.

One of Harrell’s fellow Blue Caps, lead guitarist Cliff Gallup, disliked the screams and called for a second, scream-free take. But Nelson recognized the punch Harrell had added to the song and kept it.

Richard Charles Harrell, the only child of Richard Henry and Mary Bernadette Harrell, was born Aug. 27, 1940. His father, a shipfitter in Norfolk Naval Shipyard, died when Dickie was 4 years old.

According to Harrell’s 2023 obituary, young Dickie taught himself to play drums on his mother’s pots and pans. The family lived in the Dale Homes area of Portsmouth.

He attended St. Paul’s High School before he dropped out at age 15.

Harrell was playing drums in the house band at radio station WCMS, located in the Helena Building at Granby and Plume streets in downtown Norfolk, when he met Vincent.

Vincent had come to WCMS to perform “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” a song he co-wrote while recovering from a broken leg at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. Vincent still was wearing a cast on his leg when he met Harrell.

Vincent’s performance on the WCMS live variety show, “Country Showtime,” and a demo disk of “Be-Bop-A-Lula” resulted in a recording deal with Capitol Records, which was conducting a national search for the next Elvis Presley. 

The record became an international hit, and Vincent and the Blue Caps enjoyed several years of success together. They toured the country in various roadshows that included Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Roy Orbison, Eddie Cochran, Pat Boone, George Jones and Carl Pickens.

The month after “Be-Bop-A-Lula” was recorded, Vincent and the Blue Caps made their national television debut on NBC’s “The Perry Como Show.”

Harrell stayed with the Blue Caps for two years. During that time, they appeared in a movie, “The Girl Can’t Help It,” which was one of Hollywood’s earliest efforts to capitalize on the rock ’n’ roll phenomenon. The movie, starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell and Edmond O’Brien, was released Dec. 19, 1956.

Watch this clip and see Harrell scream and lose his cap, 38 seconds into the song:

https://youtu.be/ZWFlLYZm0tA?si=ozgBpNCXDD3ln6SR 

Harrell would be joined in the Blue Caps by Tommy Facenda, a friend and former schoolmate at St. Paul’s. Vincent met Facenda through Harrell and recruited him as a backup singer. Vincent knew Facenda had pipes from hanging out at the Facenda house and singing doo-wop songs together.

Vincent also would accompany Harrell to watch their buddy Facenda play basketball for the St. Paul’s varsity at the school’s gym on London Street.

Harrell and Facenda were in the band when Vincent and the Blue Caps appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Nov. 17, 1957. (That’s Facenda on the left, next to Vincent, showing some knee-knocking, Elvis-esque dance moves.) Watch the clip here:

https://youtu.be/ezpRXPn_UxU?si=Zv7FNY6cMeXYS_uq 

Harrell left the Blue Caps when he was 17, after he grew bored with touring. Harrell was the last of the original Blue Caps when he quit.

He rejoined the group for two last hurrahs, after Vincent pleaded with him: for the appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and then a 15-song recording session at Capitol Records studios in Hollywood. 

Vincent and the rest of the Blue Caps parted ways by the end of the 1950s in a dispute over money. 

In 1961, Harrell recorded a solo album, “Drums and More Drums,” for Capitol Records. Harrell said “the record sold 50 copies – 51 if you count my mom.”

After his recording career ended, Harrell returned to Portsmouth, played in local bands, and eventually went into the Civil Service. He retired from Naval Station Norfolk after 37 years.

On the day Harrell died, May 31, 2023, Brian Setzer of the 1980s be-bop group The Stray Cats posted the following on Facebook:

“Dickie Harrell has passed away. He was in the original Blue Caps and was the drummer on ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula,’ the best rock-n-roll song of all time. He also played on dozens of other classic rock-n-roll tracks. Dickie Harrell and Slim Jim Phantom are my favorite rock-n-roll drummers. Rest in peace, my friend.”

NEXT: A one-hit wonder in 1959 actually was a 30-hit wonder.

Third in a series of six

By BRICE ANDERSON

Class of 1976

Tommy Facenda can claim an American pop music achievement that likely never will be matched.

Eugene Thomas Facenda, a Portsmouth native and 1957 graduate of St. Paul’s High School, in 1959 recorded 30 versions of a novelty song, “High School U.S.A.,” written by Frank Guida and Joseph Royster, a Portsmouth resident.

Guida was a Norfolk record store owner; Royster’s other writing credits include national hits “New Orleans,” “Quarter to Three” and “If You Wanna Be Happy.”

The original version of Facenda’s “High School U.S.A.,” recorded locally, featured a series of shout-outs to Virginia high schools, including Wilson, Churchland, Maury, Granby – and, of course, St. Paul’s.

Click on this link to hear the Virginia version: https://youtu.be/Nh2lrTowU8g?is=amKgia3-1KrDEy16 

The record became a regional hit, and Atlantic Records took the song to a nationwide audience after Facenda was persuaded to record multiple versions for release in markets across the U.S. 

By the time he was finished, Facenda had recorded the song 30 times, including the original Virginia version; 28 other regional versions; and a national version that was played on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” on ABC-TV.

“I remember looking up the schools in the New York library,” Facenda said in an interview decades later with the blog Colorado Music Experience. “I did most of the research, because I was the one who had to sing it. I had to put them to a rhyme and a beat in the song. It was a nightmare.” 

The record peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard national chart. A follow-up song, “Bubba Ditty,” failed to chart, and Facenda’s career as a recording artist came to an end.

But it was Facenda’s earlier experience in the pop music universe that led, more than 50 years later, to his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

Before his brief solo career, Facenda was a member of The Blue Caps, the backing group for rockabilly pioneer Gene Vincent.

Facenda joined The Blue Caps in 1957, after he graduated from St. Paul’s. The group’s drummer, Dickie Harrell, was a friend and former schoolmate at St. Paul’s.

As a Blue Cap, Facenda played rhythm guitar and provided backing vocals. He went by the nickname “Bubba.”

He also became known as one of the “Clapper Boys” duo with fellow Blue Cap Paul Peeks. Facenda and Peeks would stand at Vincent’s side during live performances and clap rhythmically while singing backup.

Vincent and the Blue Caps encountered frenzied crowds that rivaled the reaction being stirred elsewhere by Elvis Presley.

Norfolk-based author Susan VanHecke, in her 2000 biography, “Run With the Devil / Gene Vincent’s Life in the Fast Lane,” recounted a melee after a show in Chicago in which Facenda was accosted by a swarm of fans: “When it was all over, Bubba’s clothes were ripped off – the girls took every stitch and he was left holding up half his underwear and hollering for his mama – he lost his high school ring.”

Vincent and his band were signed to appear in the 1958 movie “Hot Rod Gang.” But by the time Vincent had reached that deal, Facenda and Peeks had grown weary of constant travel and had quit the Blue Caps. Both were ready to pursue solo careers.

Facenda was lured back, temporarily, by Vincent with the promise that Tommy would have an acting role in the movie. 

As VanHecke reported in her book, “Gene gave Bubba a call … (and) asked Bubba to come to Los Angeles and do just the movie, plus one show en route to California. Bubba was hesitant. ‘Gene, I don’t know. I’m getting ready to do a session on my own and everything.’ … ‘Look,’ Gene interrupted. ‘I didn’t want to have to tell you this. I know how you are about acting. I’ve got you an acting part. You and me are the only ones who got an acting part in the movie. I know how you like to play character roles. Well, you get to beat an old man to death with a bicycle chain.’ ” 

Facenda relented. VanHecke’s book continued: “That night Bubba went out … and bought himself a bicycle chain. He stayed up all night practicing, elaborately choreographing just how he was going to work that chain in his film debut, how he was going to beat that old man to death in the most dramatic, most sensational way the world had ever seen. The role was going to win him an Oscar, for sure.”

One day during the film’s production Facenda was told he wouldn’t be needed till later that evening, so he took the chance to go see the latest Elvis movie.

VanHecke picks up the story again: “ ‘Well, I hope you enjoyed that movie,’ Gene said smartly to Bubba when he returned. ‘Yeah, it was pretty good,’ Bubba said. ‘Why?’ ‘Because you weren’t here to do your scene,’ Gene said. ‘What?’ Bubba exploded, his movie star dreams evaporating like summer rain on a sunbaked sidewalk. ‘Yeah,’ Gene said, shaking his head. Bubba was furious. ‘I was told I wasn’t going to shoot that until this evening!’ Gene tried to suppress his laughter. ‘And they were going to shoot that part with you and the bicycle chain,’ he said, unable to hide his smirk any longer. ‘Now it’s on the cutting-room floor.’ Bubba knew he had been had.”

Membership in the Blue Caps was fluid. During the 1950s, the group had eight different members in its various iterations. Beyond the 1950s, another nine musicians played with the group.

Facenda ultimately was a member for about 18 months, until he signed with Legrand Records in Norfolk in 1959 and recorded the original version of “High School U.S.A.”

After his recording career fizzled, Facenda joined the Army National Guard in 1960 and served two years. He then returned to Portsmouth and eventually began a 37-year career as a city firefighter.

Facenda returned to performing with Harrell and some of the original Blue Caps in the early 1980s. The group toured sporadically in Europe for about 15 years.

The Blue Caps were overlooked when Gene Vincent, who died in 1971, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.  

That oversight was corrected 14 years later. 

Seven of the Blue Caps, including St. Paul’s alums Facenda and Harrell, were inducted in 2012, along with The Comets, The Crickets, The Famous Flames, The Midnighters and The Miracles. 

The hall’s nominating committee had listened to appeals from Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Sm­­okey Robinson and Paul McCartney and created a special induction category to enshrine influential backing bands whose frontmen already were in the hall. Robinson gave the Blue Caps’ introductory speech at the induction ceremony.

Facenda, still residing in Portsmouth, died Nov. 18, 2022, eight days after his 83rd birthday. His ashes were scattered at sea at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

NEXT: A Virginian-Pilot music writer in 1959 uses words like “imperturbability” and “potentialities” as he traces the genesis of “High School U.S.A.”

Fourth in a series of six

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Nov. 29, 1959, editions of The Virginian-Pilot and The Portsmouth Star, on the genesis of local boy Tommy Facenda’s hit novelty record, “High School U.S.A.”

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

The story refers to 36 versions of “High School U.S.A.” being recorded in New York City, but most accounts say 30 versions were produced: the original Virginia version; 28 regional versions; and one national version.

.

By Carl Kraft

As an observer of the teen-age scene will concede, the primary characteristic that sets off today’s youth from other age groups is an extreme clannishness.

They dress alike, moon dreamily through their stylized ritual dances, gaze emptily into the TV camera on their beloved “American Bandstand” show; in short, react to any stimulus with a united front that is unparalleled in American history.

The record industry has seized this opportunity to sell a ready-made mass market.

The record diskeries, the juke box industry, and the horde of disk jockeys catering to the “rock-and-roll” trade all are eternally on the make for a “gimmick” that will stand out briefly over the flood of banality that passes for popular music today.

How, then, to find a chink in the armor of imperturbability that surrounds the teen-age group attitude? Three local men seem to have found an answer, as the immediate success of their “High School U.S.A.” would indicate, simply enough, the answer is to bid for the in-group school loyalty that identifies the individual as a student of Maury, Wilson, Cradock, Norview, etc.

The necessary combination of songwriter, singer and promoter-manager was achieved when Joe Royster, a Portsmouth man who works for a local clothing store and writes popular music as a sideline, walked into Frank Guida’s Birdland Record shop with a batch of newly-hatched ditties for evaluation.

Frank’s Church Street shop combines a large “rhythm and blues” trade with a staggering offering of modern jazz LP’s.

He found little of marketable use but was sufficiently impressed to suggest that Royster write lyrics and tune to an idea that Frank had “dreamed up one night while trying to get to sleep,” in his words.

In about a week Joe came back with a tune entitled “High School Rock” and another Portsmouth youth, Tommy Facenda, whom he advocated as vocalist. Tommy, a clean-cut kid of 19, seemed to Frank to have the necessary qualifications of good looks and an appealing voice (to teen-agers, at least), so he was voted “in.”

A test “45” disk was hurriedly issued on Frank’s “LeGrand” label (he has had moderate success in the rhythm and blues fild with several other personally produced disks) replete with reference to Virginia high schools in the lyrics, and it was immediately apparent through plugging by a couple of disk jockeys and a “live” appearance by Tommy on the WAVY Ron Carnet TV “teen-age party” that the idea had potentialities.

It was equally apparent, however, that the “High School Rock” would not sell outside of the Virginia area.

Here is where the full-blown audacity of the everloving “gimmick” came into being in Frank’s fertile mind. Joe Royster was immediately commissioned to devote all his efforts to preparing versions to capture the kid market in 48 states.

After three weeks of research in the Norfolk and Portsmouth public libraries Joe came back with 36 sets of lyrics, enough to blanket the nation, and it was forthwith decided to rename the tune “High School U.S.A.”

Obviously, a company with national distribution facilities was now essential to the success of the effort, so Frank had Tommy make a few sample disks and headed for New York City where he immediately made an appointment with Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, a major contender in the “R & B” and jazz fields.

Wexler’s reaction to the Virginia version was “You’ve got a nice little regional item that ought to sell down there.”

But after Frank played a couple of other “state” disks he “almost fell out of his chair,” to quote Frank, as he realized the quick phone call to Atlantic’s president, Ahmet Ertegun, sealed the deal and “High School U.S.A.” was on its way.

Naturally, Atlantic wanted to use a “name” singer (Bobby Darin was their first choice) but Frank stood firm for Tommy Facenda and finally prevailed.,

Tommy then settled down to two months of hard work learning 36 separate sets of lyrics (incorporating schools with names like Ponchatoula, Assotowam, Steinmetch, Passaquammie, La Hacienda and Turbeville into the basic rock’and’roll beat.)

As a result, he is probably the most glib-tongued vocalist working today with the exception of Danny Kaye.

All in all, it took nine months of hard work from the day the idea of “High School U.S.A.” was evolved until the day it was simultaneously released from coast to coast. However, it took only seven days to hit the top 100 list nationally, and currently it is rolling merrily along in the 30’s. 

“High School U.S.A.,” in addition to its teen-age appeal, has created quite a furore in the trade itself. Billboard has “paragraphed” it, while the “Music Vendor,” a leading juke box-disk jockey periodical, found it good for a lead editorial (on the soundness of the “gimmick”).

But most indicative of all, in the opinion of Frank, Tommy and Joe, is the invariable comment of each disk jockey who hears the record for the first time, a plaintive “Why didn’t I think of that”?

NEXT: Portsmouth fire Lt. Tommy Facenda looks back in a 1982 interview.

Fifth in a series of six

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a United Press International story that appeared in the May 18, 1982, editions of the Richmond Times-Dispatch on the reminiscences of a former teen idol.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

NOTE: Gene Vincent was a native of Norfolk. His hometown is incorrect in this story.

By ANNE SAKER

United Press International

PORTSMOUTH –– Tommy Facenda used to brush off his white bucks, slip on a droopy turtleneck shirt and sing for thousands.

Now he keeps his black shoes scuff-free, slips into his yellow slicker and white lieutenant’s helmet and commands a squad of firefighters.

Facenda was big-time. He played with Gene Vincent as one of the Blue Caps and toured with Frankie Avalon and Connie Francis.

And in 1959, the Italian kid from Portsmouth had a big hit, “High School U.S.A,” when he reeled off high school names and got the kids screaming.

.

“Looking all around, what do I see:

Every school kid that could ever be.

They came from Maury, Granby and Newport News,

Oscar Smith and Richmond, too.

Mathews, Suffolk, St. Paul,

John Marshall and Bristol, too.

Booker T., Warwick and Wilson, too.

I wanna do the high school bop with you.

.

If you’re not from Virginia, you might not remember “High School U.S.A” with those words because 28 different versions were recorded, with different high school names for each.

But now, the rock-and-roller is 42, a settled family man, an 18-year veteran of the Portsmouth fire department – and happy. Facenda is a lieutenant in charge of an aerial truck company. The father of three now sings only privately, at home or at the station house.

“Being Italian, I make my family come first, and I love my job with the fire department.” He pauses a moment. “But the first year I was out of show business, it was like a withdrawal from drugs. I came back home, and everyone I ran into would say, ‘Hey, when’s the next record coming out?’ I thought I was going to have to leave town.”

In the 20 years since he’s been a “civilian,” he’s lived down the questions from friends and neighbors. But he says not a day goes by when he doesn’t think about those heady days – the appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the Blue Caps’ Australian tour, the big money.

When he was a kid, “I never knew the meaning of the words stage fright. I’d volunteer to do the book reports to the class, and my Long John Silver in the school play holds records.”

He sang on street corners with his buddies and blew trumpet for a group called the Drapes, playing B.B. King and Jimmy Reed tunes. Then Gene Craddock, another Portsmouth native, changed his name to Gene Vincent and hit the charts with a song called “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” a classic selling more than 10 million copies worldwide.

Vincent and Facenda got together with other musicians: drummer Dickie Harrell, lead guitarist Johnny Meeks, bass player Bobby Jones and Paul Peek, who played rhythm guitar and did background vocals. 

“Gene was a legend, especially in England,” Facenda says with hero worship in his voice. “He never had the charisma that Elvis had, but Gene had one thing. He had a voice like a bell. It sounded just like the records. Elvis was just fascinated.”

After the Blue Caps toured and made a B-grade movie, “Hot Rod Gang,” Facenda got the itch to go it alone. 

“I saw Gene standing in front of people making about $1,000 a minute, and it started me buzzing,” he says. “I wanted to take one stab at stepping out front.”

He got it. Frank Guida, a Norfolk record store owner, wanted Facenda to record his song that capitalized on the teeny-bopping, rock-and-rolling feeling: “High School U.S.A.”

Facenda made the record and became a star. Atlantic Records made 28 different versions for different states, and Facenda says the New Orleans cut is the most valuable.

He went on his own, touring with the big names: Avalon, Rickie Nelson, Harry Belafonte. “I knew everyone in the business, because we were all on so many shows together. The Nelson family was the sweetest family you’d ever want to meet.”

Then a payola scandal broke, when disc jockeys were discovered taking money to play songs.

And Facenda was drafted.

“My manager arranged for me to go into the reserves for six months. So I went into the National Guard, but I was being flown back and forth to courts with the payola scandal. My commanding officer was going crazy.”

He got out of the military and show business. “I finally said, ‘The heck with all this.’ Angela, my first, was born, and I wanted to stay home. Besides, I didn’t want to end up singing in some dive just to sing.”

Facenda returned home without a job, hoping someday to return to show business.

“I didn’t know how to do anything. I mean, all I did my whole life was entertain. What was I supposed to do, go in the mafia? Finally, I started hanging around the fire station, doing odd jobs. I got to join the force, even though I knew I’d never get rich doing it. But I really love it.”

NEXT: Hall-of-fame recognition finally comes to the Blue Caps.

Last in a series of six

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the April 13, 2012, editions of The Virginian-Pilot, two days before Tommy Facenda and Dickie Harrell were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

NOTE: This story incorrectly mischaracterizes Harrell’s timeline with the Blue Caps. He was an original member and was the drummer when “Be-Bop-A-Lula” was recorded in 1956. 

By RASHOD OLLISON

The Virginian-Pilot

In the early days of rock ’n’ roll, two Hampton Roads residents were members of the Blue Caps, the exuberant band that supported Norfolk rockabilly legend Gene Vincent.

This weekend, Portsmouth’s Tommy Facenda and Dickie Harrell will join the lead singer in one of rock’s most elusive circles – the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

For Facenda, a singer and guitarist, and Harrell, the group’s drummer, the induction has been a long time coming.

“Man, I was shocked,” said Facenda, 72. “I thought they’d forgotten us.”

Vincent, best-known for the sly 1956 classic “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” joined the hall of fame in 1998, 27 years after his death.

Facenda and Harrell, 71, as well as the two other surviving Blue Caps, Johnny Meeks, 74, and Bobby Jones, 78, will be at the ceremony Saturday in Cleveland, home of the hall of fame. Smokey Robinson will present the Blue Caps and other backing groups in an event that will see headliners the Beastie Boys, Guns N’ Roses and the Red Hot Chili Peppers gain induction.

The Blue Caps and five other backup groups, including Robinson’s Miracles, will be part of the Class of 2012. It seems that the hall is trying to make up for some omissions this year, the first time it has added backing groups whose leaders already are members.

This year’s inductees also include the Crickets, Buddy Holly’s band; the Midnighters, who played with Hank Ballard; the Comets, who performed with Bill Haley; and the Famous Flames, whose membership once included James Brown.

Facenda and Harrell will become the second and third Hampton Roads natives – joining Vincent – to enter the hall of fame. Clarence Clemons, the late saxophonist from what is now Chesapeake, was part of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Springsteen is in the hall of fame, but his band is not.

For the hall of fame’s main inductees each year, a nominating committee compiles a list of candidates that goes out to several hundred voters, including the current inductees. A subcommittee recently was formed to investigate the inclusion of backing groups.

“This time, we wanted to make sure we inducted the entire band,” said Jim Henke, curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. “We wanted to make up for missing the entire backing group.”

Acts become eligible 25 years after the release of their first commercial recording. Henke said he isn’t clear about the criteria the subcommittee used when selecting the backing bands, but it’s clear those chosen significantly contributed to the development of their celebrated frontmen.

In fact, many classic performers in rock and pop might have fallen flat minus the rich harmonies, insistent backbeat and fancy footwork of backing groups.

The pain of Brown’s broken heart in “Please Please Please” wouldn’t seem as intense, without the Famous Flames echoing his grief. The piquant harmonic counterpoint of the Miracles beautifully underscored the swooning Sarah Vaughan-influenced style of a young Robinson. The hall of fame’s website calls the Blue Caps “one of the hottest bands of the era – and some would say they were the hottest.”

Harrell joined the group the year after Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lula” became a smash. Facenda left in 1958 to pursue a solo career and scored his only hit the next year with the novelty song “High School USA.”

After a stint in the military in the early ’60s, Facenda returned to his native Portsmouth, where he worked for the city’s fire department.

“Those were some good days,” Facenda said of his days with the Blue Caps. “It’s gonna be something, being inducted after all these years.”

Each year, music fans bicker about which famous and unsung names are left off the list of inductees. Several blogs recently bemoaned the exclusion of Chaka Khan and Donna Summer. Both had been nominated. 

Artists selected for the hall are those who receive the highest number of votes and more than 50 percent of the votes cast.

Some argue about the glaring omissions on the list of backing groups. Besides Springsteen’s E Street Band, also absent from the hall are the Sweet Inspirations, the legendary vocal quartet with Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mom, who backed Van Morrison, Solomon Burke, Elvis Presley and, most famously, Aretha Franklin and others.

The Queen of Soul’s 1968 hit version of “I Say a Little Prayer” is, for the most part, a duet between the Detroit legend and the Sweet Inspirations.

“There may be more backing groups inducted in the future,” Henke said. “The groups this year were very instrumental in the sound of their frontman already inducted.”

The retired Facenda said he appreciated the acknowledgment of his overlooked contribution to early rock.

“My favorite time ever was with Gene and the Blue Caps,” he said. “We had fun and made good music. Right on, man.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Programs from athletic events, especially from homecoming weekends, are a treasure trove of information and memories. Many of the programs you’ll see come from the archives at St. Paul’s Church; others are from personal collections.

The programs include photos, both from the contemporaneous student body and of the alumni being honored. 

Ads in the programs are a reminder of the dozens of Portsmouth businesses that supported our schools. And many of the programs featured “booster” pages with long-lost signatures of students, faculty, alumni and parents.

Expect to see photos of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, teachers, friends – and perhaps even your young self.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Aug. 30, 1969, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on Portsmouth Catholic High School’s adoption of modular scheduling.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

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By SHIRLEY WINTERS

Virginian-Pilot Staff Writer

PORTSMOUTH –– Portsmouth parochial schools will open Tuesday with new concepts in educational programming and new faculty members. The Rev. Thomas J. Caroluzza, former Norfolk Catholic High School principal, has been appointed coordinator.

Enrollment figures released Friday indicate a combined Catholic school attendance of 1,020 students in four schools.

A breakdown of expected enrollment includes Portsmouth Catholic High School, 250 students; Holy Angels Elementary School, 225; St. Therese Elementary School, 295; and St. Paul’s Elementary School 285.

Sister Miriam, principal at Portsmouth Catholic High School, has outlined new trends in curriculum development which allow for modular scheduling of classes.

“We are working towards smaller classes and plan to keep class enrollment at 35 students or less,” the school principal said.

She explained the advantages of scheduling classes on a varying basis as to size, length of session and occurrence in the day’s program; “Class work can be presented in a more meaningful manner by a teacher’s careful planning as to how best this variety may be used.”

Portsmouth Catholic will follow what is known as the Indiana Flexible Modular (new to any Portsmouth area school) Scheduling curriculum whereby class units are based on 25 minute modules. A regular school day will consist of 15 modules, Sister Miriam said.

The principal said that by such methods:

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**Longer periods of time and assemblies and classes will allow all students enrolled in a given course to participate.

**Guest lectures, film presentations; testing laboratory work and field trips.

**In-depth discussions, remedial work, drill, enrichment, providing for individual differences in learning capabilities.

**Each student schedule differs each day of the week preventing monotony sometimes connected with routine.

**Time for independent study by the more mature student.

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The curriculum will include an expanded physical education activity and additional courses including such subjects as current social problems, speech, art, music, mechanical drawing and creative writing.

Commenting on the quality of the faculty, Sister Merriam said that the school “considers it a tribute to the quality of education provided at our school that many former graduates have chosen to teach here.”

Included are John Gillikin and Edward Skrobiczewski, also on the faculty of Frederick College; Edward O’Donnell, graduate of St. Mary’s Seminary and University; Mrs. Sheila Magula, previously teaching in Portsmouth Public Schools and Mrs. Gale Butt who is beginning her second year at Portsmouth Catholic.

Leonard Wright and Kenneth Miller are new additions to the faculty.

Over 50 per cent of the faculty either hold a master’s degree or are presently working towards the degree.

Other new teachers are Sister Maria, social studies; Sister Vera, mathematics; Sister Genevieve, science; Sister Martha, librarian; Father Pauls, religion.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Sept. 9, 1964, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on projected enrollment figures for the new school year.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– Catholic schools opened Tuesday with enrollment in three grade schools totaling 878. Enrollment in Portsmouth Catholic High School (formerly St. Paul’s Central High) was not available.

Each of the grade schools reported increases over last year’s first day enrollment and expect more students to report today.

The total enrollment in Catholic schools will not be as great this year as last year, however, because Our Lady of Victory School, where about 140 pupils were taught last year, did not open this year. Many of these pupils have enrolled in other Catholic schools, accounting for individual school increases.

Enrollment by schools:

St. Paul’s Grade School, 281, an increase of 10.

Little Flower School, 277, an increase of 65.

Holy Angels School, 320, an increase of 30.

Last year St. Paul’s (now Portsmouth Catholic) had 312 pupils.

The schools will operate on a half-day schedule the rest of this week. Monday will be the first full day.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Feb, 26, 1970, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on four Portsmouth Catholic High School students’ views on the “generation gap.”

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style

By SHIRLEY WINTERS

Virginian-Pilot Staff Writer

PORTSMOUTH –– A generation gap isn’t confined to parent-child relations, is nothing new, and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The opinions were those of a panel of Portsmouth Catholic High School students.

Panelists Thomas Loew, sophomore; Candace Potts, Stephanie Kansil, and Maurice Murphy, seniors, responded to a set of questions compiled by Mrs. Carl Opauski and Mrs. H. H. Newbill, co-moderators of a Cradock Junior Woman’s Club meeting this week.

“There’s always been a generation gap, and I think there will continue to be one,” Candace said.

Her companions agreed, and Loew added, “There are generation gaps, between brothers and sisters as well as parents. And this is not necessarily bad. If everybody thought alike, there would be a monotony of ideas and we would learn a lot less.”

The students concurred with the idea that parents and children are equally to blame when the “gap” widens beyond the point of mutual understanding.

The group offered its views from the vantage point of class consultation.

“The discussion really grew after the different classes learned of the range of topics and many teachers devoted class time to it,” Mrs. Opauski, a teacher at Portsmouth Catholic High School, said.

In student discussion before the club program, the Portsmouth Catholic High classes pursued the subjects: abortion, birth control, drinking, smoking, drug abuse, sex, religion, education, pornography, and other current topics.

It was from this range that discussion topics were selected.

To the following they answered:

• What differences are there among the younger and older generation on the concepts of life?

Stephanie: “The younger generation looks to the future, the older generation looks to the past. Today’s youth is in a hurry to meet the future. Things are moving at such a fast pace we have to keep up.”

• What are some of the differences in the concerns of patriotism and      brotherhood?

Thomas: “The older generation is more patriotic. I guess it is because they went through their wars with a unity of belief. With us (the younger set) it’s brotherhood and the needs of others that’s foremost.”

•  On drugs.

Maurice: “The problem wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t publicized so highly. Don’t forget, when you hear of drug use catching on in other parts of the country, it becomes a matter of instant access to those who want to follow suit.”

• Pornography. “Yes, it has a detrimental effect. There should be some method of curbing obscenity or putting it out of the reach of the too-young. One thing might help. If movie theaters would be stricter in adhering to their ratings when admitting young people.”

Stephanie criticized theater operators for “being sure you’re 12 when it makes a difference in the admission cost. But a kid can say he’s 18 or 16 when he wants to see an X-rated movie and there’s no questioning.”

When asked their viewpoint on the variation of the concept of justice between generations, or to explain their idea of justice, panel members said: “You can’t define justice or injustice. It means something different to different people.”

The program was presented by the club’s education department with Mrs. Charles Grubbs, chairman.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following are stories from the Nov. 4, 1968, editions of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the Nov. 5, 1969, and Dec. 3, 2015, editions of The Virginian-Pilot, on Bobby Gillikin, a 1971 graduate of Portsmouth Catholic High School who was a two-time State Catholic League cross-country individual champion.

The 1968 story recounts Gillikin’s first state championship, and the 1969 story covers his second state title. The 2015 story is an appreciation written after Gillikin’s death at age 62.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original stories, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

FROM NOV. 4, 1968:

Special to The Times-Dispatch

POWHATAN – Bishop O’Connell of Arlington successfully defended its State Catholic High School Cross-Country Championship, while Bob Gillikin, Portsmouth Catholic’s only entry, captured the individual title in record time here yesterday.

O’Connell, placing three in the top five, had a low total of 28 points. Bishop Ireton of Alexandria was second with 67, followed by Norfolk Catholic (99), Walsingham of Williamsburg (107), Benedictine of Richmond (126) and host St. Emma Military Academy (156).

Gillikin covered the 2.5-mile course in 13:32, beating runner-up and defending champion Rick Loughery of O’Connell by 13 seconds. The previous record was 14:08 set last week by Benedictine’s Jimmy Spencer. Spencer finished sixth with a 14:11 clocking yesterday.

FROM NOV. 5, 1969:

POWHATAN –– Bob Gillikin of Portsmouth Catholic successfully defended his State Catholic cross country title and broke his own meet and course record with a 13:26 clocking over the hilly 2.3-mile course at St. Emma’s Academy.

Pat Curtis of Norfolk Catholic finished fifth in 13:51 and his team finished fourth behind the winning team of O’Connell of Arlington. Portsmouth Catholic was not eligible for the team title, because only two men competed for the Saints.

FROM DEC. 3, 2015:

By PAMELA NICHOLS

Correspondent

“We’ve lost a great one.” That is the consensus regarding the death of Robert Gillikin as friends, family and colleagues contemplate the life of a man described as a brilliant, humble servant.

Robert Wayne Gillikin was born in Portsmouth on March 1, 1953. He married his high school sweetheart Eileen, another Portsmouth native, in May 1975. The couple met in high school and dated seven years before their big day.

“He was assertive and over-the-top honest,” Eileen said, describing her attraction to her beau. “Of course he was cute, too.” The couple would eventually relocate to Suffolk and raise three children.

Gillikin’s career as an insurance broker and financial adviser spanned 40 years. He was a member of the Million Dollar Roundtable, an association of financial professionals recognized for ethical conduct, outstanding client service and exceptional product knowledge. He was a charter member of Norfolk’s Town Point Club and former president of the local chapter of the American Cancer Society.

He enjoyed coaching basketball and raising money for the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy marching band. Above all, Gillikin’s favorite pastimes were the Washington Redskins and vacations at Nags Head with his family and friends.

An event in Gillikin’s early life perfectly describes the rest of it. He was a student at Portsmouth Catholic High School when he decided to compete in the state’s cross-country track championship. Though his school didn’t have a team, Gillikin was allowed to run solo representing all private schools in Virginia.

He started at the back of the pack but eventually pulled through and won the race, becoming Virginia’s 1969 cross-country track champion. When asked about his win, Gillikin described his strategy, finishing with the phrase “kick hard and finish strong.” They were words he would repeat often during his life, Eileen said. He won the race again the next year but missed it in 1971 by a few seconds.

Leading the pack was common for Gillikin, according to Raymond Stiles, owner of the commercial insurance agency Raymond W. Stiles and Associates in Virginia Beach.

The men shared a 40-year friendship that began when Stiles recruited Gillikin to work at his company as the younger man was completing his studies at Old Dominion University.

“He was like the Energizer Bunny – he kept going and going,” Stiles said. Gillikin became an expert at estate planning and eventually left Stiles’ company. Their friendship deepened through the years, however.

“It was not unusual for a lunch date to carry over into supper,” Stiles said.

Gillikin applied his business prowess under the umbrella of Virginia Beach-based Penn Financial Services, where he served as a financial adviser and insurance broker.

He helped two generations of Cary Fedei’s family. As it was with Stiles, the line between work and friendship was erased between the Fedei and Gillikin families.

“He was one of the most brilliant minds, compassionate hearts and devoted friends I have ever known,” Fedei said, noting Gillikin still made house calls when it was convenient for his clients.

“There was nobody like him,” said Portsmouth-based attorney Leo Sharpe. Sharpe and Gillikin attended the same high school but didn’t become friends until their professional lives crossed.

“He was smarter than most attorneys I know.” He agrees with Stiles’ Energizer Bunny comparison to a point. “Even the Energizer Bunny knew when to stop. Bobby would just keep going,” Sharpe said.

Even cancer couldn’t stop Gillikin’s work ethic. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease, and given just months to live. Traditional therapies didn’t work, so he volunteered for a four-part research program. Of the 26 patients nationwide who attempted the program, none made it beyond the first trial. Gillikin was undaunted.

“He was determined to make it through so that others could be helped. He always said ‘Cancer is not going to beat me,’ ” Elaine said.

It didn’t.

One day in October, Gillikin enjoyed his favorite meal of she-crab soup and scallops at his favorite restaurant, Surf Rider in Western Branch, and returned home, where he suffered a fall. His recovery took weeks.

Even as he recuperated, Elaine could sense his time had come.

She was by his hospital bedside, she said, when she leaned over and whispered a familiar phrase in his ear. “Kick hard and finish strong.”

Gillikin squeezed his wife’s hand and died five minutes later, on Nov. 9. He’d completed three levels of the research program and left doctors with needed information on a potential new cancer treatment.

It was only later, after reading the death certificate, that Elaine realized just how determined her husband was. Gillikin’s cause of death was listed as cerebral hemorrhage.

“He always said cancer wouldn’t take him. He was right,” Elaine said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Aug. 30, 1961, editions of Ledger-Dispatch and Star about the arrival of a new principal and other faculty members at St. Paul’s Central High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– When parochial schools here open Sept. 5, five new sisters will be on the staff at St. Paul’s Central High.

The new principal will be Sister Gervase who is no stranger to this city.

Sister Gervase was principal of Our Lady of Victory School here for six years before going to Norfolk Catholic High as guidance director. She leaves Norfolk to return to Portsmouth this year.

* * *

Sister Catherine will be new in the social studies department. She comes here from St. Patrick’s in Richmond.

Sister Helen, from Holy Cross High School, Lynchburg, will be new in the science department.

Sister Margaret Mary comes from St. Martin’s High in Baltimore to teach in the mathematics department.

Sister Anastasia from St. Joseph’s in Petersburg will be the new librarian at St. Paul’s.

Ten sisters, two full time lay teachers, and two part time teachers will be the full complement.

Enrollment at St. Paul’s this year is expected to be 314. Last year was started with 296.

St. Paul students will report to school tomorrow between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. and get their books.

Sept. 5, all students will assemble in the gymnasium for 30 minutes of orientation but the various grades will report at different times.

Eighth grade students will come at 9 a.m.; 9th graders at 9:30; 10th grade, 10 a.m.; 11th at 10:30 a.m. and 12th grade students at 11 a.m.

Classes will begin on Sept. 6 but this will be a “short” day. Students will run through their complete schedule but on abbreviated periods beginning at 8:50 a.m. They will be dismissed by noon.

The regular full-day schedule begins Sept. 7. Classes will begin at 8:50 a.m. and continue until 3 p.m.

Parochial grade school students will attend half-day sessions Sept. 5 and 6, and full day Sept. 7.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Dec. 16, 1959, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on plans for a Christmas pageant at St. Paul’s Central High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

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PORTSMOUTH –– An ambitious Christmas pageant that is slated to become an annual spectacle will be presented Friday and next Tuesday at St. Paul’s Central High School.

The religious pageant will be produced for the high school Parent-Teachers Assn. Friday at 8 p.m. The second production will be for the student body.

Religious readings will be illustrated by four live tableaux: Annunciation of Angel Gabriel, The Nativity, The Angel’s Message to the Shepherds at the Manger, and The Kings Following the Star and Their Reception at King Herod’s Court.

Sources for the script were The Gospels and A Woman Wrapped in Silence, by the Rev. John Lynch.

The lead roles will be played by Miss Janice Siegler and Kenneth Copley, both juniors. Accompaniment will be by Miss Jane Lynch, pianist, and Mrs. Bernard Bankos, organist.

The P-TA meeting and pageant will be in the high school gymnasium. The P-TA board will meet today at 1:30 p.m. in the assembly hall.

Also in the planning stage at St. Paul’s is the annual homecoming, set for Jan. 10. It will honor the classes of 1938 and 1939. The program will feature basketball games between the girls’ and boys’ varsities and the alumni and alumnae. The Homecoming Queen will be crowned between the games.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following item is from the “Chronicles” column published in the Jan. 3, 1884, editions of The Norfolk Virginian.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

NOTE: We suspect the number of parishioners, given as 12,000, actually was 1,200. (In 1897, the parish had a congregation of about 1,500.) Also, we suspect the aggregate number of members of men’s groups is 150; the third digit is illegible.

St. Paul’s Catholic Church –– Pastor, Father Thomas G. Brady. The number of membership, about 12,000; the numbers of baptisms during the year 1883, 49; the number of deaths, including infants, 35, number of marriages, 13; the number of pupils in Sunday school, average attendance, 175. There are two day schools under the patronage of this church, with a total attendance of 190 pupils. The boys’ school is presided over by Mrs. P. J. Dolan, and is under the immediate supervision of the reverend pastor, whilst the girls’ school is in charge of the Sisters of Charity, sister Zoe McGee, superior. These good sisters devote their time and talents to the training of the minds of their youthful charge, at the present time numbering 140 pupils, including a class of small boys under 10 years of age. The church has three societies of men and one of ladies, the former numbering, in the aggregate, 150 members, and the latter about one-third of this number. The Catholic knights are presided over by Dr. A. L. Bilosoly as president; Charles Schroeder, vice-president; William J. Langhorne, corresponding secretary; Joseph L. Bilosoly, financial secretary; John J. Curran, sergeant-at-arms; Patrick Holden, sentinel; William Schroeder, Joseph A. Parker and W. B. Bilosoly, trustees; and Father Brady, chaplain.

The St. Patrick’s Society, mutually beneficial, has for President, P. O’Connor; vice-president, Peter Oakes; Treasurer, Dennis Sullivan; Secretary, Thomas J. Kilpatrick; and Chaplain, Rev. Father Brady.

The St. Joseph’s Catholic Benevolent Society is under the charge of John G. Cullen as president; Edward Curtain, vice-president; Edward J. O’Connor, secretary; and John G. Curran, treasurer; with Father Brady, chaplain.

The “Ladies Altar and Sanctuary Society,” who take charge of the interior of the church, decorating and supplying wants of the altar and sanctuary, is presided over by the venerable Mrs. Eliza Bilosoly.

Financially, St. Paul is in the most healthy condition, the debt on the same amounting, at the present writing, to only a few hundred dollars. The church edifice and parochialhouse adjoining, were erected by the late Father Joseph Plunket, at a cost of about $69,000.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Programs from athletic events, especially from homecoming weekends, are a treasure trove of information and memories. Many of the programs you’ll see come from the archives at St. Paul’s Church; others are from personal collections.

The programs include photos, both from the contemporaneous student body and of the alumni being honored. 

Ads in the programs are a reminder of the dozens of Portsmouth businesses that supported our schools. And many of the programs featured “booster” pages with long-lost signatures of students, faculty, alumni and parents.

Expect to see photos of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, teachers, friends – and perhaps even your young self.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Jan. 12, 1965, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the uncertain future of Catholic schools in the United States. The story includes comments from the principals of Holy Angels School and the School of the Little Flower, which was referred to here as “St. Therese’s School.”

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

By JOHN MOREAU

Virginian-Pilot Staff Writer

Doubts about the value of continuing a Catholic school system were voiced by Catholic clergy and laity before the appearance last year of a book called “Are Parochial Schools the Answer? Catholic Education in the Light of the Council.”

But Mary Perkins Ryan, author of the book and herself a Catholic, brought the issue sharply into focus.

She wrote that the formation of religious thought which is the main reason for a separate system can be done just as well in the home or elsewhere by the laity. Her conclusion is that the Catholic school system should be phased out.

She argues that the cost of running the system and great need for energies and funds in missionary work, among other endeavors, are factors requiring the end of a Catholic school system – although some Catholic schools always will and should exist.

“It is hard to see how,” she writes referring to the Ecumenical movement, “under present circumstances, the continuance or the extension of the Catholic school system can be anything but an obstacle to the pursuits of those aims.”

Mrs. Ryan has more public detractors than she has adherents, but even those who attack her take her seriously.

In Tidewater, most of those connected with parochial education disagree with the author. But they believe she has raised significant questions.

“I know Mary Perkins Ryan personally,” remarks Rt. Rev. Msgr. Carroll T. Dozier, pastor of Norfolk’s Christ the King Church.

“It’s a matter which should be discussed. I’m not sure I agree with her, but I do know that Catholicism doesn’t live or die in the parochial system. It (the system) is just a technique of the apostolate.”

To some Tidewater Catholic educators, the book has good points.

“I think she’s on strong ground,” says the principal of Holy Angels School, Portsmouth, Mother Alphonse, “when she says that too much religion was taught in the past. This may have been because many teaching sisters were from Europe.”

But generally, parochial educators here are not receptive to suggestions of doing away with a parochial system.

“Oh, I’d agree with Mrs. Ryan in a moment,” observes Sister Mary Christina, principal of Christ the King School. “I agree that religious instruction should be done in the home. But let’s be realistic. It isn’t done, and we’re trying to do it. I’d be the last to say that the home isn’t the place for religious instruction.”

What teachers and administrators all say is that they don’t know and wouldn’t know how to try to measure whether Catholics who come from Catholic schools or Catholics who go to public schools are stronger in the faith.

That question in the last 10 years has been the subject of research by Catholic and non-Catholic scholars. The Rev. Joseph H. Fichter, chairman of the sociology department at Loyola University, New Orleans, is one of them.

His study of parochial and public school pupils showed students to be the same in almost every category. Then he studied Catholics who were graduated from Catholic and from public schools.

He found that the two groups were the same so far as strength in the faith was concerned. But he also found that Catholics from public high schools were more curious about the Church and more concerned with social questions.

Research like that of Fichter tends to support the Ryan thesis, but in the opinion of the Rev. Richard Burke, superintendent of schools for the Richmond Diocese, Mrs. Ryan’s book applies more to parochial education in the early 1950s than it does today, and overlooks what he says is the vitality of parochial education.

“She doesn’t seem to be aware of the changes since 1950,” he said.

Those who disagree with Mrs. Ryan find support in a 139-page preliminary study prepared by the Rev. Andrew Greeley and non-Catholic associates at the National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago.

Under a Carnegie Corporation grant they have been asking questions of three categories of Catholics: those who had all Catholic education, some Catholic education, no Catholic education. They also have surveyed Protestants.

The results show those with all Catholic education to be markedly stronger in the faith. But some of the results also are distressing. In several cases those with all Catholic education took clearly heretical positions. And only 53 per cent said acts of charity are more important than not eating meat on Friday.

Greeley’s “The Social Effects of Catholic Education,” when published in full, will not close the matter. In fact, last week in Commonweal, a Catholic lay journal of opinion, Greeley was the subject of a strong attack by a Catholic.

One might exoect a unanimity as to the question of federal aid to private and parochial education. In Tidewater nothing could be farther from the truth. Sampling interviews suggested that most would like it but fear federal control.

Opinions range from that of Sister Paulette, principal of St. Therese’s School, Portsmouth, who wants nothing to do with it because of the element of control, to that of Superintendent Burke, who believes the question of federal control is a phony one.

In Tidewater there is widespread use of the federal lunch program and there has been some borrowing of federal money. And in at least two places in the Richmond Diocese there is an experiment in shared time with public schools.

A prevalent fear is that public but not private schools might be voted funds. In Superintendent Burke’s opinion, “That would leave us far behind.”

Catholic administrators have no end of plans for what they would do with aid if they had it. A remark by Sister Teresa Julie, principal of Blessed Sacrament School, Norfolk, is typical:

“I went over to Northside Junior High School and watched classes receiving a lesson about Turkey. There were eight or 10 good television sets. It was one of the best planned lessons, I’ve never seen anything so fine. I don’t have that. I never was so envious.”

What is clear from an examination of Catholic clerical and lay publications as well as non-Catholic secular publications is that the federal aid argument has moved away from questions of constitutionality and political feasibility to that of educational advisability and need.

“The Church,” says the distinguished non-Catholic writer Martin Mayer, “should request … money to reduce class size, to hire additional teachers, to improve facilities … ”

“But, says the Catholic writer Wilfrid Sheed, “if public aid causes unholy rancor, it is best forgotten about. The schools are worth saving – but not at the expense of hatred.”

And in Tidewater parochial schools the consensus was expressed in almost the same words by principals of St. Mary’s Academy, Norfolk, and Holy Angels, Portsmouth, Sister Constance and Mother Alphonse, both of whom, after they became nuns, taught in public schools:

“I think most of us look at it as a community affair,” Mother Alphonse said. “We’re not just proselytizing … the future, everybody’s future is involved.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the June 4, 1970, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on a gift from the Portsmouth Catholic High School Alumnae Association toward a beautification project that would come to be known as “The Mini-Plaza.”

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– Portsmouth Catholic High School Alumnae Association has made the first installment toward a $3,000 pledge for beautification and improvement of the school.

Accepting a $250 check, Sister Miriam, school principal, expressed her appreciation and said that plans will be presented to the school’s board for final approval.

The principal said that grounds adjacent to the school at Washington and Queen streets will be improved for recreation and to allow limited parking. Approximately three lots on the north side of Queen Street have been purchased by the school.

Also planned is renovation of the school’s exterior by painting and brick work, Sister Miriam added.

Work is expected to begin after the closing of school for summer recess.

Alumnae officers aiding the campaign are Mrs. Mae Wakefield, president; Mrs, Anna Morlino, vice president; Mrs. Elizabeth Haley, secretary; and Miss Jonie Didio, treasurer.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the May 12, 1929, editions of the Virginian-Pilot and the Norfolk Landmark on a whirlwind multischool field trip involving students at St. Joseph’s Academy.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

The senior classes of the following schools, conducted by the Sisters of Charity: St. Joseph’s Academy, Portsmouth; St. Mary’s Academy, Norfolk; St. Joseph’s Academy and St. Patrick’s Academy, Richmond; St. Joseph’s Academy, Petersburg; Holy Cross Academy, Lynchburg, and St. Joseph’s Academy, Martinsburg, W. Va., have planned their second educational trip, to include many places of interest.

Friday, May 17, the Portsmouth and Petersburg seniors will meet Mr. Cox and Sullivan Foster, representing the Old Bay Line, who will conduct the party through the entire trip. The Norfolk seniors will go by the Chesapeake, Mr.  Myers being in charge of their party. From Baltimore the students and chaperons will go by bus to St. Joseph’s College, Emmitsburg, Md., where a most delightful day is anticipated.

The party will spend one day in Baltimore at the New Howard and Belvidere Hotels, visiting the Seton High School, and attending mass Sunday morning at the cathedral. From Baltimore they will go in busses to Annapolis, Md., visiting all points of interest; then to Washington to the Martinique Hotel for lunch. Here they will spend two days visiting Mt. Vernon, tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Congressional Library, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, Pan-American Building, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Capitol, Franciscan Monastery, Catholic University and other points of interest.

From Washington they will go by bus to the Old Bay Line and the Chesapeake steamers, Baltimore, reaching their respective cities Tuesday morning.

The Portsmouth school will the chaperoned by Mrs. Margaret Halligan and Mrs. John Kevill, and the Norfolk school by Mrs. Holmes and Mrs. Lee. This trip spoken of among the girls as the “Virginia Day at St. Joseph’s College, Emmitsburg,” promises to surpass in every detail last year’s trip.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Aug. 30, 1961, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the start of the 1961-62 school year.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– The area’s five Catholic schools expect to enroll 1,316 pupils when they open Tuesday.

The first two days will be half-day sessions. The first full day will be Sept. 7.

Schedules are as follows:

St. Paul’s Central High School: Books will be sold Thursday between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. in the high school book store. Pupils will report Tuesday in the gymnasium as follows: eight graders at 9 a.m.; ninth graders at 9:30 a.m.; 10th graders at 10 a.m.; 11th graders at 10:30 a.m.; 12th graders at 11 a.m. School on Sept. 6 will begin at 8:50 a.m. and end at noon.

New at St. Paul’s High School this year are Sister Gervase, principal; Sister Catherine, social studies; Sister Helen, science; Sister Anastasia, librarian; and Sister Margaret Mary, math department. Sister Gervase returns to Portsmouth from Norfolk Catholic High School where she was a guidance director. She previously was Our Lady of Victory principal.

At St. Paul’s she succeeds Sister Barbara who was transferred to Bladensburg, Md.

St. Paul’s new coordinator is the Rev. John S. McMahon, pastor at St. Paul’s Church. He succeeds the Rev. Robert McEleney, transferred.

Enrollment is expected to be about 310 pupils.

St. Paul’s Grade School: Books will be sold Thursday between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. in the school cafeteria. On the first two days, school will open at 8:45 and close at 11:30 a.m.

New here is Sister Genevieve, second grade teacher.

Enrollment is expected to be about 271.

Holy Angels: Pupils whose last names begin with A through M should report between 9 and 10:30 a.m. and O through Z between 10:30 and noon Tuesday. Wednesday hours will be from 9 a.m. to noon.

Enrollment is expected to be about 305 pupils.

Our Lady of Victory: Tuesday and Wednesday hours are 9 a.m. until noon. The school’s new principal is Sister Madeleine who comes from St. Martin’s in Baltimore. She succeeds Sister Mary Virginia who has gone to St. Joseph’s College, Emmitsburg, Md.

Enrollment is expected to be about 120 pupils.

St. Therese’s: Books will be sold Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. School will open Tuesday with a Children’s Mass at 9 a.m.

New are Sister Ann Patrice, third grade; Sister Mary Anita, fifth; and Charles Jopson, sixth grade.

Enrollment is expected to be about 310 pupils.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Dec. 13, 1949, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the opening of the new gymnasium at St. Paul’s High School. 

The newspaper that morning had two stories on the opening night – one in the sports section and another in the news section. Perhaps the left hand and the right hand weren’t talking that day in The Pilot newsroom. Whatever the circumstances, both stories are transcribed here.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original stories, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

IN THE SPORTS SECTION:

The St. Paul’s High School basketball team defeated the Alumni quintet, 41-30, in a game dedicating the new St. Paul’s Gymnasium in Portsmouth last night before a capacity crowd.

In the preliminary game, the St. Mary’s girls team and the Alumnae played to a 27-27 tie.

The new Portsmouth sports plant was dedicated in between-game ceremonies by the Rt. Rev. Monsgr. Joseph Govaert, pastor of St. Paul’s Catholic Church.

IN THE NEWS SECTION:

Sports followers, students of St. Paul’s School and members of St. Paul’s congregation last night turned out to dedicate the new St. Paul’s gymnasium at London and Washington streets.

The opening of the new school athletic floor marked the end of a two-year drive by Catholic basketball followers.

A gala program was presented highlighted by two basketball games in the gym described as one of the biggest in Tidewater.

The boys’ team met the Alumni while in an earlier tilt the girls’ team, defending State champions, also played against girls’ Alumni Club.

The Rev. Brother Clarence, CFX, former director of athletics at St. Paul’s High School, was the guest of honor at last night’s dedication activities. He also was the guest at an open-house at the Knights of Columbus Hall after the gymnasium ceremonies.

The construction of the new athletic facility represents the outlay of considerable money and will promote athletic events at the school.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Programs from athletic events, especially from homecoming weekends, are a treasure trove of information and memories. Many of the programs you’ll see come from the archives at St. Paul’s Church; others are from personal collections.

Take note of the cover photo – it’s the same picture in use at least since the 1961 program, but for the 1965 program the crop is tighter on the right, to delete the art deco lettering “ST. PAUL’S HIGH SCHOOL.” At the start of the 1964-65 term, the name of the school had been changed to “Portsmouth Catholic.”

The programs include photos, both from the contemporaneous student body and of the alumni being honored. 

Ads in the programs are a reminder of the dozens of Portsmouth businesses that supported our schools. And many of the programs featured “booster” pages with long-lost signatures of students, faculty, alumni and parents.

Expect to see photos of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, teachers, friends – and perhaps even your young self.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Aug. 24, 1970, editions of the Ledger-Star on Sister Grace Malonzo’s medical missionary work in the African nation of Malawi. Sister Grace is a graduate of St. Paul’s High School and the Maryview School of Nursing.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

By BETH HURDLE

PORTSMOUTH –– Sister Grace spent five years dispeling superstitions in the small southeastern African nation of Malawi. And now that she’s back in the United States, she can shed some light on at least one western notion.

“The people in Malawi do accept missionaries today. During the rainy season when we couldn’t get to them, some would walk 10 miles to get to us,” she said.

Sister Grace, who is of the order of the Daughters of Wisdom at Maryview Hospital here, knows firsthand about missionary acceptance.

She spent one of her five years in Malawi working out of a mobile medical unit in the Malawian bush country where ant hills as tall as people, elephants roaming freely and 119 degree temperatures are not uncommon.

Not uncommon, too, are diseases, most of which have been eradicated in the U.S., and vast protein deficiency.

“There are 4 million people in Malawi. And too many protein deficient children,” Sister Grace said.

“At the age of 3, many have already suffered some brain damage because of the lack of protein in their diet.

“They have the food. They simply don’t know how to use it,” she added.

Besides immunizations and other duties as the registered nurse with the medical unit, Sister Grace set up demonstration classes which stressed the importance of protein in the diet and suggested protein-rich foods.

“On a day-to-day basis, some of the mothers were really getting the message. But sometimes it was discouraging because there would be no response to our work,” she admitted.

“The miracle would be if we had had a rehabilitation center in which to feed the children before their mothers’ very eyes so they could see the difference.”

Sister Grace, who was born in Washington, D.C., but has spent most of her life here (including nurse’s training and work at Maryview Hospital) believes it takes a special calling to be a missionary.

“I don’t think I considered it until Sister Mary Joy died in Africa. We had trained together here at Maryview and I followed her work there,” she said.

Before setting foot in Malawi, Sister Grace says she actually knew little about the country and its people.

“But I learned,” she said with a gentle smile.

One of the most essential things to learn was the language (Chicwa) which she learned from the natives.

The secret for getting along with the people, she says, is to “accept them as they are. You have to realize, too, that you can receive from them.

“They relate to you. And they know when you care for them. They can feel this,” she said.

Looking back, especially at life in the Malawian bush country, Sister Grace remembers most “the simplicity of it all.”

Except for health and nutrition problems, life in Malawi as happy. “The people live on what they can grow. The lan dis their life,” she added.

The country, about the size of New York state, gained its independence from Great Britain in 1964. But as yet the Malawian government is far from making medical service available to most of its people, Sister Grace explained.

“It is rewarding to know that we were there and helped immunize the children.

“Sometimes I would think to myself: If you weren’t there, then who?”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Sept. 21, 1975, editions of the Ledger-Star that profiles Sister Zoe Hyland as she marked her 25th year in Portsmouth.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

.

By CHRIS GWYN

PORTSMOUTH –– Sister Zoe Hyland, a member of the Portsmouth Catholic High School teaching staff for 25 years, is looking forward to Saturday.

That is the day when the school’s alumni association will celebrate the canonization of the first American-born saint, Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the parochial school system in this country and founder of the Daughters of Charity, of which community Sister Zoe is a member.

Sister Zoe was unable to make the trip to Emmitsburg, Md., to the Provincial House of the Daughters of Charity Sept. 14 for the celebration on the day of the canonization but she is glad that the local alumni association has arranged an observance Saturday. That date is the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Daughters of Charity in Portsmouth.

Sister Zoe, did, however, attend an observance here of the Sept. 14 canonization.

Mass was held at 11:30 a.m. at the Naval Hospital by Father Robert Kinel, Navy Chaplain, honoring Mother Seton (she had two sons in the Navy).

From the Mass at the Naval Hospital, the Daughters of Charity went to DePaul Hospital for a celebration and then to Christ the King Church for evening prayers and a showing of slides of Mother Seton’s life by Father William S. Dinga.

At one time or another, Elizabeth Ann, in her relatively short life (1774-1821), was an Episcopalian, a Catholic, a wife, a working mother, a nun, a teacher, a social worker, an aristocrat, the founder of the first native American sisterhood, and now, officially, the first American-born saint.

Sister Zoe was high in her praise of the Portsmouth Catholic Schools Alumni Association for its engineering of the local observance of the canonization.

“This alumni association is just wonderful,” she said. “It does so many things for our schools. It is a dedicated and hard-working group of people and I love them everyone.”

When the parochial schools ran into financial difficulty a year ago, committees were organized under general chairmanship of A. G. Pinkston Jr. and the needed funds were raised.

When sufficient enrollment was threatened because of an increase in tuitions to meet financial needs, the committees got busy and boosted enrollments to capacity in the elementary school and to near capacity in the high school.

“Our enrollment is very satisfactory,” Sister Zoe said. “The students here are here because they want to be here. Therefore, we do not have disciplinary problems that some schools have,” she added.

Some of the students get summer jobs to help pay their tuition to Portsmouth Catholic High, Sister Zoe said.

Sister Zoe has taught business education courses most of her 25 years here although presently she is in guidance. She has been closely associated with teen-agers and said she loves them and has enjoyed the association.

The students must feel very close to Sister Zoe, according to the way they keep in touch with her after graduation.

“They send me invitations to their weddings and I never miss one,” she declared. “And when their babies are due, oftentimes they call and ask me to pray for them,” she added.

During the students’ free time at school, many drop in to talk with Sister Zoe.

“Some of the students have problems to talk over. If I can offer some help, I do. If I can’t, then I can at least listen to them. They need to be listened to,” she explained.

Sister Zoe is a qualified listener. She is certified in guidance as well as in business education. Her master’s degree is from the University of Maryland. Also, she has taken graduate courses at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and has done further graduate work in both business education and guidance at Boston University.

Sister Zoe has been more than a classroom teacher at Portsmouth Catholic High. She was senior class homeroom advisor for 14 years; president of the alumni association for two years; taught religion at Holy Angels School on Saturdays and Sundays for seven years; and at St. Mary’s in Bowers Hill on Sunday mornings for eight years.

“I am very happy here, working with the parents, the sisters, the teachers and the students,” she said. “They are all a very dedicated lot,” she said.

“I love Portsmouth,” she concluded.

In three more years, Sister Zoe will be able to celebrate her golden anniversary as a Sister in the Daughters of Charity, 25 of which already have been devoted to Portsmouth.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Nov. 16, 1978, editions of the Ledger-Star on Sister Zoe Hyland’s golden jubilee with the Sisters of Charity.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

By SHIRLEY WINTERS

Currents Correspondent

PORTSMOUTH –– She left a busy job on the New York Stock Exchange to take up a selfless life in the Catholic Order of the Sisters of Charity St. Vincent DePaul.

That was 50 years ago and Sister Zoe (rhymes with Joey) is still at her desk working as assistant guidance director at Portsmouth Catholic High School with a brief time out for the celebration of her golden anniversity in the order.

The pleasant-faced sister leaned back in her chair and said of her decision to leave the business world, “It was no snap decision. It took quite a while for me to make up my mind to give up my job and the kind of life I know so well. There are no regrets. I have been very happy in the order and love what I am doing.”

She enjoyed the brief flurry of excitement connected with the 50th anniversary reception hosted by the Portsmouth Catholic High School Alumnae Association and being with members of her family who came from Baltimore for the event.

But the occasion was only a milestone in her life and Sister Zoe has no intention of retiring from everything, much less her job.

Her students, former students and fellow faculty members are glad.

“We don’t know what we would do without her. There’s scarcely a day that someone from the community or a former student doesn’t drop by for advice or help,” said Sister Leo, school principal.

A native of Baltimore and the only one of her family to enter a Catholic order, Sister Zoe earned a B.S. degree at St. Joseph’s College at Emmitsburg, Md., and a master’s degree in business education from the University of Maryland.

After joining the Catholic order, Sister Zoe worked at a children’s home in Boston.

“I loved the work there. I love children,” she recalled.

She spent some time in Richmond working with the Richmond Diocese before coming to Portsmouth Catholic High School 27 years ago.

She taught business education before the appointment to the guidance post.

“The business teaching job was very rewarding and, of course, my previous experience in the field was a help. I liked being able, also, to help students find jobs and the cooperation of the Portsmouth business community was just wonderful,” she said.

She is grateful, Sister Zoe said, for the mission which brought her to Portsmouth and for the opportunity to work in the community.

“I think I’ve been able to do some good. There are a lot of poor people we have been able to help – some on a very limited income. Unless someone helps, they go without.”

One such recipient dropped by during the interview to congratulate the sister on her anniversary and to assure her he would “certainly be at your party. I wish you the best – you’ve done so much for me …”

“I wanted you to come. God love you,” she responded.

Although she suffers from severe arthritis, Sister Zoe is grateful, she said, for good health otherwise.

She maintains a favorite pastime, correspondence with prisoners in the city jail.

“I keep in contact with several of them. They haven’t met me personally but the prisoners seem to like having someone to write to. I’m not obvious about it but I do like to tuck a little religion into my letters. Sometimes I send a Bible to someone if they indicate they would like one.”

She writes notes of encouragement and support to others of her order serving in foreign missions and she does some hospital visitation.

Guidance to her is more than a job and she takes a keen interest in her students or former students who seek her out.

“Teen-agers today live in such a difficult world. They need someone to talk to and they need advice. I’m happy to do whatever possible to help them.”

Portsmouth is her home community now and the friendship of its people has earned her devotion.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes since I came to Portsmouth but one thing remains – the people here are the greatest.”

Any hobbies?

“Reading. I love history. And listening to music – good music.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the obituary in the May 29, 1981, editions of The Virginian-Pilot for Sister Zoe Hyland.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– Sister Zoe Hyland, 78, faculty member of Portsmouth Catholic High School for 30 years, died Wednesday in Villa St. Michael, home for retired sisters of the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Md.

Sister Zoe came to the school in 1951 when it was St. Paul’s High School and taught business courses until 1972. Since then, she had worked in the guidance department until early this year, when she became ill.

She joined Daughters of Charity Sept. 14, 1928, and served initially at St. Mary’s Asylum in Norfolk. She spent most of her life teaching and served Catholic schools in Boston, Washington, Baltimore, and Lynchburg before coming to Portsmouth. 

In the fall of 1978, she celebrated her Golden Jubilee. Many sisters and priests participating were her former students.

Active in the Portsmouth Catholic Alumni Association, she was once its president.

Sister Zoe carried on an active ministry to the poor in downtown Portsmouth. In March 1979, Catholic Family Services presented her with its first Good Samaritan Award. At the time, Joseph Koury Jr., then the agency’s executive director, said, “People jokingly say she runs her own private social welfare service. Anyone of any religion. She never asks. She just tries to help them.”

Born in Baltimore, she received her bachelor of science degree from St. Joseph’s College at Emmitsburg and her master’s in education from the University of Maryland.

Survivors include a sister, Marie Hyland of Baltimore.

Burial will be Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in St. Joseph’s Provincial House in Emmittsburg. A memorial service will be held Monday at 7:30 p.m. in St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Portsmouth.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a letter to the editor published June 4, 1981, in the Ledger-Star, eight days after the death of Sister Zoe Hyland.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original letter, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

NOTE: We suspect the writer’s reference to “Portsmouth Elementary” should be “St. Paul’s Elementary.”

To the Editor:

In 1950 I was employed as a Portsmouth Police school guard. During my employment I was stationed at High and Washington streets for more than 20 years.

I was responsible for more than 300 students attending Portsmouth Elementary and Portsmouth Catholic High School.

My school crossing was safe during my stay there from any major accident. I owe a great deal to the late Sister Zoe Hyland.

Sister Zoe would always call me in advance whenever there would be a change in the school schedule or if the school would not be in session for any reason.

I had always had her full cooperation. She was not only interested in the safety of the students but was interested in their welfare and behavior while on the streets of Portsmouth.

Sister Zoe Hyland is no longer with us but her unselfish life, her faithfulness and untiring works will live on forever.

My life was certainly richer because I had the pleasure of such a close relationship with Sister Zoe.

I’m sure I can speak for many others in Portsmouth. This world is a better place to live because Sister Zoe was a part of it.

Annie L. Jones

Portsmouth

EDITOR’S NOTE: Programs from athletic events, especially from homecoming weekends, are a treasure trove of information and memories. Many of the programs you’ll see come from the archives at St. Paul’s Church; others are from personal collections.

The programs include photos, both from the contemporaneous student body and of the alumni being honored. 

Ads in the programs are a reminder of the dozens of Portsmouth businesses that supported our schools. And many of the programs featured “booster” pages with long-lost signatures of students, faculty, alumni and parents.

Expect to see photos of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, teachers, friends – and perhaps even your young self.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the June 5, 1974, editions of the Ledger-Star on troubling trends buffeting parochial schools in the Tidewater area.

The $5,000 average salary for lay teachers cited in the story is the equivalent of $34,172 in 2026 dollars.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

By JUDY PARKER

There will be the same number of Catholic schools reopening in Tidewater in September that are closing for summer vacation this month.

And as has been the trend for the past 10 years, there will be fewer nuns and priests on the school faculties and more lay teachers instructing the pupils when the new school term begins.

No one will say Catholic schools in Tidewater are in trouble. And perhaps their situation is not quite as critical as in other parts of the country where some parochial schools are closing.

Enrollments, after declining for several years have been stabilizing in most schools and in some instances, increasing.

But there are problems locally. And like the common cold, the woes besetting parochial schools appear to have no simple or even complex solution, only a common denominator – money, the lack of it.

In the Diocese of Richmond (which includes Tidewater) lay teachers receive salaries which average 75 per cent of public schoolteachers’ wages.

In several schools, teachers receive 90 per cent of the public school wage.

“Salaries are becoming much more realistic for our personnel,” said Sister Mary Fennel, director of elementary education for the Tidewater region of the Diocese.

Across the Diocese, teacher salaries average approximately $5,000 per year.

Tidewater’s 11 elementary and three parochial high schools operate on a pay-as-you-go system. And when the intake slows down, so does the system.

“Our problem is very basic,” Sister Mary added. “Parochial schools cannot operate on tuition monies alone. Unless each parishioner, ideally every Catholic, makes an effort to support parochial schools, they will all inevitably, close.”

Tuitions in area parochial elementary schools range from a high of $360 at Sacred Heart School to a low of $140 at St. Mary’s. Both schools are in Norfolk.

Among high schools, Norfolk Catholic’s $715 and Portsmouth Catholic’s $342 are the high and low.

These figures are for the 1973-74 school year and are applicable for children of church parishioners.

As Sister Mary explained it, tuitions are subject to many variables.

Rates can depend on how many children a family has enrolled in a school; whether the family is Catholic or not; whether the family supports the parish church.

At St. Gregory’s School in Virginia Beach, for example, tuition for one child varies between $200 and $385 depending on one of the above factors, according to a spokesman at the school.

“There is a limit on the amount of money a family can pay to educate their children – no matter how much they desire a Catholic school education,” Sister Mary said.

Consolidation is one of the experimental alternatives some Catholic communities are using to keep parochial school budgets and tuitions down.

Portsmouth Catholic elementary school is a consolidated school – the only one in Tidewater and only one of two in the Diocese.

According to Sister Mary Ann Bozel, principal of the five-year-old school, not much money has been saved either to parents or contributing parishes through consolidation.

“We’re employing the same number of lay teachers in one school that we had in three. And of course their salaries have increased each year.”

Tuition has also increased each year since the school opened – from $100 for one child enrolled in the school in 1970 to $225 this year.

During the same time, the school has experienced a decline in enrollment from a high of 664 students to 540, an average of 32 students a year.

“I know of several families who withdrew their children because they could not afford the continuing rise in tuition,” Sister Mary Ann said.

“Catholic schools face a danger of becoming schools for an elite class unless solutions to their financing are found.”

Like Sister Mary Fennel, Sister Mary Ann advocates community sharing of the financial burden to operate schools.

“People have to stop wringing their hands because they see a younger generation alienated from the Church. Unless that younger generation receives a good solid Catholic education, they certainly won’t support the Church as adults.”

A consolidated school system, like the one in Portsmouth, has advantages. Maintenance costs, for example, are limited to one building and can be shared by all parishes contributing students.

But other expenses must be met.

Where children once walked to a nearby school, the school is now a good distance away from most youngsters’ homes.

So school buses become a necessary luxury. Parents are free of the burden of transporting their children twice a day, but they pay for it.

In Portsmouth, for example, the cost is $17 per month for one child to ride one of several buses the school maintains.

Another financial alternative being used in Tidewater is the Princeton Plan – which while not affecting the cost of running a school, the plan does make it more equitable for parents with children enrolled.

“A parent can choose to pay all the tuition, or they can file a confidential report and pay a percentage of the tuition,” Sister Mary Fennel explained.

The plan is so-called because the report was developed at Princeton University.

It is similar to financial statements filed when applications for aid are made to a college or university.

Norfolk Catholic High School is the only school in the area using the plan, although it is being considered at Portsmouth Catholic elementary and high schools next term.

According to spokesman for the school, the plan has been successful.

All of the parochial schools in the area are accredited, a factor which makes their operation more costly.

“There are certain standards our schools must maintain to remain accredited,” Sister Mary Ann Bozel said.

But we’re not in any competition with the public schools. Actually I believe we’re ahead of the public schools – just how far can they go teaching values to their students?”

Support from the entire Catholic community, Sister Mary Ann believes, will prevent parochial schools from having to take state aid, if it were ever available.

“I’d rather see the schools close first than to take state aid.

“But I firmly believe our parents should be allowed some sort of tax exemption. And even if that never happens, I think our Catholic people are creative enough to find other alternatives to keep our schools open.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the May 23, 1964, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the planned dedication of a new convent in downtown Portsmouth.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– The new convent for Sisters of St. Paul’s Central High School will be dedicated and blessed in ceremonies today at 4 p.m. with the Rev. John J. Russell, bishop of Richmond, officiating.

A processional guard of honor from St. Paul’s Church to the convent at 463 Washington St. will be composed of members of the fourth degree, Knights of Columbus. The senior class of Central High will form the honor guard at the convent.

Bishop Russell will address an audience of area pastors, high school faculty and students, and parishoners of Holy Angels, Our Lady of Cictory, St. Mary’s (Bowers Hill), St. Paul’s and St. Therese’s parishes.

After the ceremony, the convent will be open to visitors until 6 p.m.

After September, Central High School will be known as Portsmouth Catholic High School.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the April 27, 1916, editions of the Virginian-Pilot and Norfolk Landmark on the construction of the replacement St. Joseph’s Academy.

This post leaves us with a mystery: What ever happened to the cornerstone mentioned in the story? There’s no evidence of it on the existing building, but as you can see in the picture here, something has been removed from the wall adjacent to the side door.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

The $35,000 cost of new school is the equivalent of $1,069,000 in 2026 dollars.

The cornerstone of the handsome new parochial school building of St. Joseph’s Female academy, for St. Paul’s Catholic parish, was formally blessed and set into position yesterday morning by the Rev. Father Charles E. Donahoe in the presence of a large gathering of people including parents of the pupils, members of the parish, friends of the school and congregation generally.

The ceremony was preceded by a procession, headed by a cross bearer, altar boys and the clergy. In this line were the pupils of St. Joseph’s and St. Paul’s Male academy, the Sisters of Charity and the Xaverian brothers. Religious banners and the American flag were carried in the procession.

The pupils of St. Joseph’s and St. Paul’s academies sang “Heart of Jesus, We Are Grateful,” after which the formal blessing and laying of the cornerstone was conducted by the reverend pastor, Father Donahoe, assisted by Fathers William T. Whearty and Andrew Wilczek of St. Pauls church. This ceremony was followed by the prayers of intercession by the pupils, including “Aspirations to the Blessed Virgin,” and “Invocation to St. Joseph.”

The exercises were concluded with the singing of “My Country ’Tis of Thee.”

The cornerstone contains a number of relics, coins, a list of the city officials, national officials, organizations and societies of the parish and names of doners and friends of the academy. The inscription on the stone is “Education, the Salvation of the Country.”

The building is being constructed by Randell K. Revell, contractor of this city, and is already 30 per cent completed, and barring unforeseen delay, the new school will be ready for occupancy in September of this year, the beginning of the next school session.

The building is set back on King street, thereby allowing for further construction on Dinwiddie street, according to future needs of the parish.

The school building as planned will be three stories in height, and basement, and will be thoroughly modern in its equipment.

The basement will be a full story, containing a well ventilated and lighted gymnasium, furnished complete and up to date.

On the first and second floors will be eight large class rooms, each provided with individual desks, cloak rooms, retiring rooms, etc.

Modern sanitation will be provided throughout the classrooms and building.

The auditorium will be situated on the third floor with a seating capacity of about seven hundred. A stage will be constructed and regular stationary opera chairs provided. The third floor will also contain two music rooms, two commercial class rooms and the office of the superior of the academy.

The exterior walls of the building will be constructed of buff pressed brick, trimmed with stone.

The school building is so situated in a way to afford a complete circulation of air around the entire structure and affording play yards to accommodate the pupils. When completed and furnished the building will cost about $35,000.

Of the eight class rooms the following donors have supplied complete furnishings: The Rt. Rev. Denis J. O’Connell, bishop of Richmond; the Misses Guthrie, the Misses Maupin, Mrs. John Mahoney, Mrs. Joseph A. Parker, Mr. R. K. Revell, the graduates of 1916, the children and pupils of the school, and the auditorium furnished by the Children of Mary.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is excerpted from a story in the Sept. 7, 1960, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on enrollments at the start of the new school year, when the eighth grade was added to St. Paul’s Central High School. 

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

Enrollment by Catholic schools is as follows: Holy Angels, 310; St. Paul’s Grade School, 280; St. Paul’s Central High, 310; St. Therese’s, 288; and Our Lady of Victory, 120.

The high school’s enrollment was approximately 25 more students than last year in addition to the eighth grade students, previously housed at the elementary schools. St. Therese’s enrollment is an increase of approximately eight, but other are about the same as last year.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Nov. 29, 1966, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on an awards ceremony at Portsmouth Catholic High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.  

PORTSMOUTH –– Capt. R. T. Whitner, of Mathews County, retired Army officer, will present Freedom Foundation certificates Monday at 2:10 p.m. at ceremonies at Portsmouth Catholic High.

The awards will go to the school and to four individuals for programs dedicated to democracy during 1964–65, it was announced.

Sister Gervase, principal of the high school, said she had been notified of plans for the presentation and had set Dec. 5 for the ceremony.

She said Sister Martha, in charge of the school’s journalism class, was largely responsible for the award-winning programs, and has been designated to receive the school’s award.

One of Sister Martha’s students will make the response to Capt. Whitner’s presentation, Sister Gervase said.

The ceremony will be held in the gym-auditorium during an assembly period. The school is located at London and Washington streets.

ITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Oct. 6, 1969, editions of the Ledger-Star on fundraising campaigns by Portsmouth Catholic and Norfolk Catholic high schools.

The $50,000 goal for Portsmouth Catholic is the equivalent of about $456,000 in 2026 dollars.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

By RICHARD C. BAYER

The area’s two Catholic secondary schools – Norfolk Catholic High and Portsmouth Catholic High – have started drives to raise a total of $180,000 among Tidewater parishioners.

Norfolk Catholic, at its enrollment peak with 860 students, will attempt to raise $130,000 for operating expenses among about 6,700 families in 10 parishes in Norfolk, Virginia Beach and part of Chesapeake.

The four-year school, with a faculty of 48, including 18 priests and nuns, has a current operating budget of $300,000. The annual tuition is $275 per student or $450 per family for more than one child.

Portsmouth Catholic, its enrollment down to 240 from a high of 325 in 1965, will seek $50,000 from about 2,000 families in four parishes.

That school has a faculty of 23, including 12 nuns and priests. Its operating budget for the current academic year is $120,515.

Parish priests announced from their pulpits Sunday that a house-to-house canvass would be carried on the week of Nov. 2.

The Rev. William Pitt, principal of Norfolk Catholic, said the fund raisers would seek pledges equal to 1 per cent of the annual income of a family.

He said the Norfolk Catholic High board of 10 priests and six laymen decided last spring that another tuition increase might limit enrollment to children from high-income families.

Sister Miriam, principal of Portsmouth Catholic High, said “the mortality rate was great” after the school’s last tuition increase from $120 to $225 per student.

Portsmouth has a sliding tuition scale which starts at $225 for the first child, $175 for the second and $150 for the third child from a family.

The two schools, which will conduct separate but simultaneous drives, face the same financial pressures as Catholic schools in all parts of the nation.

Higher salaries for lay teachers and nuns along with a need for more teachers and better instruction have raised costs.

Brandt-Semenza Associates, a fund-raising firm based in New York City, is helping direct the drives.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Jan. 22, 1970, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on the results of fundraising drives by Portsmouth Catholic and Norfolk Catholic high schools.

The $58,145 raised by Portsmouth Catholic is the equivalent of about $529,000 in 2026 dollars.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

NORFOLK –– Two separate by simultaneous drives to raise $180,000 in operating funds for Norfolk and Portsmouth Catholic high schools have exceeded their goals by $53,000.

Catholic educators are pleased with the results. “Not just for financial reasons,” said the Rev. William Pitt, principal of Norfolk Catholic, “but because it shows a goodly number of people have a commitment to Catholic education.’ Catholic families in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and part of Chesapeake pledged $175,000 to the school – n$45,000 above its goal.

The Rev. Thomas J. Caroluzza, pastor of Holy Angels and coordinator of Portsmouth Catholic, said, “We’re very thrilled about it all and what it is saying to us. The big thing that impressed me is that in a time when everyone is talking about the end of Catholic education, the people in this city have come forth in support.”

Portsmouth Catholic had sought $50,000, but reaped $58,145 in pledges. 

The Portsmouth school has a current operating budget of $120,515. The Norfolk school’s current budget is $300,000.

The schools launched their simultaneous fund-raising drives in October, asking Catholic families to pledge an amount equal to 1 per cent of their annual incomes. Father Pitt noted that paid in five installments, the contribution does not become “too strenuous” for families to handle.

Both men, and Sister Miriam, principal of Portsmouth Catholic, indicated that they expect some type of fund-raising efforts will be necessary each year, though not necessarily the same kind of campaign conducted this year. The decision will rest with their school boards.

“The general plan was that we would not raise tuition,” Father Caroluzza said. “Rather we would go out into the community. There seem to me to be no other alternative. I feel to raise the tuition would put this kind of education out of range of ordinary working people.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the Feb. 27, 1964, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on a name change for St. Paul’s Central High School.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style.

PORTSMOUTH –– St. Paul’s Central High School will become Portsmouth Catholic High School in September.

The change by order of the Rt. Rev. John J. Russell, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, will be more descriptive of the area the school serves, it was stated.

The school serves five parishes. Feeder schools are St. Paul’s Elementary, St. Therese’s in Oregon Acres, Our Lady of Victory in the 1000 block of Effingham Street, Holy Angels in the Cradock area, and St. Mary’s in Bowers Hill.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a story from the May 20, 1971, editions of The Virginian-Pilot on plans for offering tuition aid to families of the Catholic schools in Portsmouth.

What you will read below attempts to be a faithful re-creation of the original story, with any typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation and inconsistent elements of style. (NOTE: Father Thomas J. Caroluzza’s name was mischaracterized in this story. Also, the story mischaracterizes the timetable for construction of Portsmouth Catholic Elementary School; only a section of the school was newly constructed.)

PORTSMOUTH –– A program designed to assist those desiring but unable to afford a Catholic education has been implemented by the Portsmouth Catholic School Board.

The Rev. J. Thomas Caroluzza, coordinator of education, Wednesday described it as the first of its type in the state system of Catholic schools.

“It has concerned us for some time that because of rising tuition costs, some youngsters might be deprived of the opportunity of attending our schools,” Father Caroluzza said. “This is something we never waned to happen.”

He said that a scholarship program has been devised which might encourage those in need. “This assistance should help those in temporary need who might be able to afford partial tuition costs.”

The coordinator said Portsmouth’s pilot effort might prove successful enough to establish an example for other Catholic schools in the state.

Father Caroluzza said that the school board in working to “insure the completely impartial administration of the program has secured the services of a committee of competent professionals totally disengaged from our schools and any parish direction.”

The committee includes Robert Sondej, attorney, chairman; the Rev. John H. Hollis, pastor of Community United Presbyterian Church; and Mrs. Hugh Chedester of the United Fund office.

“All of the committee are active in the civic life of Portsmouth. They will study applicants coming from parents who feel that with some assistance they could give their children the education they desire for them.”

The tuition assistance will be applicable to students wishing to attend Portsmouth Catholic High or Catholic Elementary School. Application for aid should file by June 15.

Tuition costs at the high school range from $250 for one child per for two, and $100 for each additional student.

Elementary school tuition starts at $150 for Catholics and $250 for non-Catholics.

The elementary school, newely constructed on a site on Oregon Avenue, has been recently accredited by the State Board of Education.

The high school on Washington Street includes a faculty of 23 degree-holding teachers instructing a program comparable academically to public high schools, Sister Miriam, principal, said.

“The scholarship program is open to any parent. We do not wish to exclude any child from our schools because he is unable to pay,” the coordinator said.