A Farewell to St. Benedict High School

Thanks for the Memories, St. Benedict High School! What a great crowd of alumni, former and current faculty, friends new and old, that came out on Sunday, June 2nd for the celebration of 69 years of blessings that was St. Benedict High School to this parish and the north side of our city. Over 350 guests came over to the gym after the beautiful noon Mass of Thanksgiving. A special thanks to Mike Teolis '71 who directed the festival choir alongside our Director of Liturgy and Music, Jeremy Kiolbassa. Mike’s musical setting for the Responsorial Psalm was an added bonus! We really appreciated visiting clergy, Fr. Heidenreich, Fr. Beaven, Fr. Sergio from St. Andrew’s, and Father Rex from St. Clement’s who concelebrated alongside our parish priests.
Members of the School Sisters of St. Francis came from both local convents and their motherhouse in Milwaukee, to celebrate with us. Our thanks to former administrators, faculty, and alumni who participated in the liturgy as readers, gift bearers, and Eucharistic ministers: Sr. Kathleen McNulty, OSF, Sr. Margaret Gerharty, BVM, Sante Iacovelli, Erika Mickelburgh, Kellina Bruett-Fedell, Tony Couty '84, Joshua Figueroa '19, Jackie Stevenson-Stancin '02, Jan Bahr ’70, Bill Peters '59, Bernard Ford ’54, Mary Ann Noesen Kattner ’58, Pat Noesen Woodhouse ’60, Dar Noesen ’65, and Kelly Matthews Halper ’64, Margaret Richard '69, Linda Krier '74, and Joan Wilcox '65. Thanks to our volunteers especially Ed Halper, Ben Mazzone, Erwin Canciller, Nancy Hoffman, Jean Hyland, Jose Diaz, Chris Deakins, Aida Sinka, and Loreen Strasser. This great reunion of the High School community was made possible through the efforts of our HS Celebration committee made up of the following faculty and staff: Fr. Steve, Rachel Gemo, Maggie Deady, Colleen Fahrenbach, Janet Gallagher, Amanda Genge ’11, Jean Bahr Hybinette ’72, Roxy Ponzio, Erico Ramirez, Maria Tubay, and Joe Accardi.

A gallery of photographs of the event comes courtesy of Hackney Photography at https://gallery.heatherhackney.com/stbenshighschoolclosing…/. To download a photo for free to your computer or phone use pin 3704. Check it out soon as it expires July 7th. Thanks again to everyone who came out to celebrate. Yearbooks, tours, etc. are still available. Please contact Joe Accardi at 773.509-3832 or jaccardi@stbenedict.com.