St. Charles marks 100 years educating high school boys

The oldest Catholic high school currently in existence in Columbus turned 100 years old this year, but it’s showing no signs of aging.

St. Charles Preparatory School has positioned itself to continue to educate young men for years to come with extensive expansion projects and upgrades to its campus. 

The school for boys in grades nine-12 commemorated its centennial year on Friday, Nov. 3 with a Mass in the Walter Student Commons celebrated by Bishop Earl Fernandes along with 11 priests from the diocese.

A ceremony after the Mass included the presentation of a time capsule to be filled with items from the school and proclamations from the Diocese of Columbus read by Bishop Fernandes and from Bexley Mayor Ben Kessler, who declared Nov. 4 as St. Charles Day in the east-side suburb.

The feast day of the school’s patron, St. Charles Borromeo, is celebrated each year on Nov. 4. A Mass for the feast day is an annual event, but this year’s observance had special meaning on the 100th anniversary of the school’s founding in 1923. 

Bishop Fernandes mentioned his joy to be celebrating the Mass at a school named for St. Charles Borromeo, the nephew of Pope Pius IV and a descendent of a noble family who became a cardinal at age 21 and served as the archbishop of Milan, Italy, during the Protestant Revolt in the 16th century.

“St. Charles Borromeo has a special place in my heart,” Bishop Fernandes told the student body, faculty, staff, alumni and guests during his homily at the Mass. “I not only pray for your school, but he is the patron saint of bishops.

“He has a special place in my heart because when my father (Dr. Sydney Fernandes, M.D.) first came to the United States (from India) he worked at St. Charles Hospital in Toledo.” 

The bishop pointed out that St. Charles Borromeo serves as a witness to the students at a school named in the saint’s honor to strive for holiness and excellence. St. Charles spent many hours praying before the Blessed Sacrament and the crucifix.

“We are blessed in many ways here at St. Charles Preparatory,” Bishop Fernandes said. “We have been given many gifts – the gift of a good education, the gift of faith, the gift of good friends.

“Do we hand off these gifts to future generations? … New vocations have been produced from this high school. And yet the mission of handing on the gift – the gift of wisdom and grace – lives on in each and every one of us here at St. Charles.”

Donations from hundreds of alumni and benefactors have allowed St. Charles to build toward the future as part of its five-year campaign, The Vision for the Future: Building Leaders for the Next 100 Years.

During the centennial year alone, the school has completed the new Frank E. Murphy Convocation Center for athletic events and other large gatherings that seats up to 2,000, beautification of the campus’s Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto and a new central plaza connecting a number of the preparatory school’s buildings.

The beginning of another project was announced Friday. A new Brotherhood Center will be built on the site of the original gymnasium to provide space for more classrooms, offices, a new library and a media center.

“We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us … grateful for their vision and dedication,” St. Charles principal Jim Lower said at the anniversary ceremony. “Throughout the years, our school has been a beacon of light, illuminating generations of students. It has been a place of learning, not only in an academic sense but also the lessons of humility, faith, character, charity, justice. … 

“Our students are encouraged not only to strive for academic success but also to be compassionate and to live a life of service to be your brother’s keeper. To the students who walk these halls today, you are the embodiment of the hopes and dreams of those who came before you.”

In the school’s 100-year history, more than 7,000 young men have graduated from the institution. Many have gone on to achieve career success in a variety of fields. A number of families have established a legacy at St. Charles with several generations of young men graduating from the school at 2010 E. Broad St.

The school’s largest graduating class in its first 100 years was 155 students in 2017, but that number could be eclipsed in 2027 after welcoming the largest freshman class in school history in August with 198 first-year students who also constitute one of its most diverse classes.

Current enrollment stands at 579. The sophomore, junior and senior classes range in size from 119 to 129 students who come there from 64 ZIP codes.

“The impact of St. Charles stretches far beyond these walls,” Lower said. “Our alumni have gone on to become leaders, innovators and agents of positive change in their communities. They are dedicated husbands, fathers and grandfathers, all gathered together as we celebrate this milestone.”    

Banners representing each decade of the school’s existence were carried by current students during a procession before the start of the anniversary Mass. Alumni from as far back as the 1950s up to the 2020s walked behind the banners.

One of the graduates in the clergy procession was Msgr. William Dunn, a member of the Class of 1957 who concelebrated the Mass.

In addition to having a notable reputation for academics, St. Charles has provided the Church with many vocations throughout its history. According to records, the school has produced approximately 300 diocesan and religious order priests, including 13 who were ordained since 2000. 

Two more, Michael Ryan from the Class of 2008 and Brian Vetter from the Class of 2013, will be ordained this spring by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which has a strong connection to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Another eight graduates are currently answering God’s call to a religious vocation in seminaries across the country.

Msgr. Dunn has experienced St. Charles from several sides. After his days as a prep student, he was ordained to the priesthood and then was assigned to his alma mater to teach religion and Latin from 1968 to 1975.

Since then, he has returned through the years to celebrate Mass while serving as a priest and pastor at several parishes throughout the diocese.

“Every time I go out there, I can see the spirit of the students,” Msgr. Dunn said. “It’s a unique situation.”

The only all-boys high school in the diocese was established in 1923 by Bishop James Hartley. The first classes were held in September that year at the old Sacred Heart School north of downtown Columbus with five priests on a faculty teaching 14 students. Enrollment grew to 52 students the following year.

In 1924, Bishop Hartley purchased 26 acres on the school’s current site, and ground was broken on July 2 that year. On Nov. 4, 1925, Bishop Hartley dedicated the new school, which consisted of a main building and a power plant, and Msgr. Joseph Weigand served as rector for the next 17 years.

That same year, the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity came to the school to perform duties at the bishop’s request. They remained until 1976.

For the next 35 years, the school’s enrollment continued to grow, and the facilities also expanded with the addition of the grotto in 1928, a chapel in 1937, a theater in 1940 and more seating in the gymnasium in 1951. A flood from nearby Alum Creek in 1959 caused an estimated $150,000 in damage to buildings that had to be repaired.

In 1961, a decision was made because of diminishing priestly vocations in the Church to restrict enrollment to only young men with serious interest in the priesthood. Over the next seven years, the student population plummeted from 350 in 1961 to 65 in 1968.

Msgr. Dunn had joined the faculty in 1968 and was at the school when it was decided St. Charles would return to being a prep school open to all boys starting with the 1968-69 academic year.

“It was wonderful to see it grow again,” Msgr. Dunn recalled. “People were happy to have an all-boys Catholic high school, and there was great support there.

“Some alumni fathers transferred their sons, who were juniors and seniors at other high schools. That, of course, is always hard for students at that age, but they acclimated themselves to their surroundings and became friends with other students.

“We see them at alumni events now, and they’re still very supportive of the school.”

In the 1970s, the school began to offer more courses, and a majority of the faculty members were lay people rather than religious.

“It has an excellent reputation as a college prep school,” Msgr. Dunn said. “When some of the alumni got to the university, they were able to bypass certain basic courses in math, history, English and were often placed in second-year college courses.”

Father Charles Jackson served as principal from 1971 until July 1976 when Father Daniel Pallay succeeded him. Both priests were St. Charles alumni.

At that point, the student body had swelled from 317 to 450. To handle that growth, a floor was added to house classrooms and laboratories. 

Enrollment jumped again after Dominic Cavello, a 1964 graduate, became the first lay principal in St. Charles history in July 1985 after serving as assistant principal for 10 years.

Improvements to the campus included the Holy Angels Library, a natatorium, training and fitness facility, technology upgrades, a new driveway and entrance off E. Broad Street, the Robert C. Walter Student Commons, the St. Charles Student Services and Fine Arts Center, and a multi-sport athletic field.

In 2011, the school expanded beyond its original site for the first time, developing a West Campus that featured an athletic complex with additional practice and competition fields, a new track and a weight training and conditioning facility along with a parking lot accessible from a pedestrian bridge across Alum Creek.

Lower took over as principal after Cavello’s retirement in 2012. As a teacher and boys basketball coach, Lower was quite familiar with the school. Among his achievements as a coach was guiding the Cardinals to a state runner-up finish in 1992.

In 2016, land was purchased next to the school’s West Campus to build a large facility that would house the robotics team and My Brother’s Keeper mentoring program and provide a recreational area for basketball and indoor golf practice.

In athletics, St. Charles has won five Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) state championships, including golf (2009, 2010), soccer (1983, 1985) and swimming (2008). The school has also won seven non-OHSAA-sanctioned championships in water polo and two in volleyball.

Its teams compete in the Central Catholic League in baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.

A number of athletes have achieved all-state status and gone on to play at the collegiate and professional levels in various sports. The school also offers a variety of clubs and has an acclaimed theater department.

Nearly all of the school’s seniors attend college after completing St. Charles’ rigorous academic course of study and have gone on to prosper in business, arts, medicine, law and public service.

“What are we preparing for?” Bishop Fernandes asked the current students as he concluded his anniversary homily. “Is it just for university? Is it just for a job? Is it for our vocation? Perhaps to be a husband or a father? To be a teacher or a priest or religious? Or to be a physician?

“Perhaps this school is preparing us for life, but ultimately the reason the school exists is to prepare you for life not only here below but for eternal life.”