Bob Stoll, 84, enrolled as a freshman at Columbus St. Mary, Mother of God High School during the 1952-53 academic year and graduated in the Class of ’56. During Stoll’s years there, the pastor, Msgr. Edmund A. Burkley, an amateur filmmaker, often showed home movies he’d made of various parish and school activities such as First Holy Communions, confirmations, festivals, parades down Third Street, sporting events and graduations. 

Outside of celebrating Mass, it was a rare occasion to see Msgr. Burkley without his Bell & Howell 16mm movie camera. His films, which he made beginning in 1929 and continuing into the late ’50s, were always popular.

During his school years, Stoll was intrigued with the films and thought, “Wow, this is wonderful! This is some great stuff!” 

“I just fell in love with them and could see that, down the road, there might be some real value in being able to see them again.”

In 1964, shortly after Stoll returned from a four-year stint with the Coast Guard, he became a member of the Foresters Club, a Catholic benevolent society located on Whittier Street on Columbus’ south side. It was there that he met John “Mike” Sergio.

At the time, Sergio – who is now 91 and a graduate of St. Mary High School, Class of ’48 – wanted to organize a class fundraiser for the school and had received permission to show some of Msgr. Burkley’s old films at the event. Knowing how entertaining they were and how much they were loved by the alumni, Sergio thought the films would be a big draw.  

However, the films needed cleaning and splicing before they could be shown. Sergio asked Stoll if he could help. At the time, Stoll was a plasterer at Ohio State University and knew some staff members in the Department of Photography and Cinema. Through this connection, Stoll had the films restored and in projector-ready condition for the fundraiser. The Foresters covered the restoration cost.

On and off, through the 1970s and ’80s, Sergio and Stoll showed the films at other fundraising events. When home video became popular, they had the films put on VHS cassettes that were then offered for sale during St. Mary festivals to benefit the school. 

At the time, the silent films were chronologically assembled with the original titles that Msgr. Burkley had created on school chalkboards. Most were of individual events, such as “St. Mary’s Football, 1932,” but otherwise weren’t edited into a grander, combined story.

Then, early in 1989, parishioner Elizabeth Wolf (now deceased) learned that the diocesan Office of Communications was offering its video production services to schools and parishes. She asked the office if a video about Msgr. Burkley’s many years leading St. Mary Church and School might be made. 

By this time, Sergio and Stoll had raised funds to have Msgr. Burkley’s entire collection of 16mm films preserved on professional quality videotape, although still unedited. As a result of Wolf’s efforts and with the availability of the unedited films in a modern format, a video about the school and Msgr. Burkley’s beloved presence there was created.

The yearlong effort was spearheaded by Tony Dinovo Jr., a part-time employee of the Communications Office from 1988-92. (He later entered the Pontifical College Josephinum and was ordained a diocesan priest in 2002, eventually taking the reins as pastor of Worthington St. Michael Church.) The result was a half-hour video, Remembering St. Mary’s School: The Legacy of Msgr. Edmund Burkley.

During the production, Dinovo cataloged the unedited videos, wrote and narrated the script and served as the program’s editor. Its primary destination as a finished video was Public Access TV (Channel 21 on Warner Cable), which was, at the time, a Columbus city-funded cable TV channel offering free broadcasting of qualifying programming. It was, for the diocese, a cost-free way to get Catholic programming out to Catholics and the general public.

The video told the story of Msgr. Burkley’s passion for three things. First was his devotion to the Catholic faith, and especially to the Blessed Mother, after whom Columbus St. Mary Church and School are named. 

Second was his dedication to making Catholic education at the parish level, from kindergarten through 12th grade, the foundation of lifelong learning and service to the larger community.  Last was his delight in making home movies of special parish happenings.

One of the people who appeared in the 1989 video was Fran Ryan – now 89 years old and a graduate of St. Mary High School, Class of ’52. 

"In 1950, my father was transferred from Pittsburgh to a new position in Columbus,” she said recently. “We settled in the German Village area, and I became enrolled in Columbus St. Mary’s High School. This was at the beginning of my junior year. 

“I’m a cradle Catholic and had gone to Catholic schools most of my life, so the transition was pretty smooth. In fact, I was amazed at how quickly and easily I was accepted into the new school by my fellow students and the teaching staff. 

“It was, like, I was new, but the quality of the kids that were there and the families, they kind of adopted me. And I had so much fun and just loved being there.

“I remember Msgr. Burkley as if it were only yesterday. He was so devoted to the school and to the parish. And that movie camera! It seemed that he always had it with him. We all loved to watch the movies he made of us. 

“I graduated from St. Mary’s in 1952. So, I had two years there. But those two years were the most fulfilling of all my school days. They were just fabulous! I mean, I loved every minute of it. I loved the football team. I loved all the sports. I even played on the girls basketball team.

“But I think it was the work ethic and the core values that I learned in St. Mary’s School that have stuck with me to this day. In fact, as you know, I got into public service following my college education at Ohio State. And I really believe it was my Catholic education that prepared me best for serving the needs, not only of the Columbus and Franklin County community, but of the nation as well while I worked for the Carter administration. 

“You know, things like caring for others, like advocating for seniors and the elderly, and like taking opportunities to use the talents God gives you and putting them into service. It’s all about you making somebody’s day a little bit better. Then you’ve created something that’s lasting.

“One thing I’ve taken away from my experience at St. Mary’s School is that our Catholic values, our faith, teaches us to be all-encompassing and that we have to embody the whole community.”

During the 1990s, Remembering St. Mary’s School became available on VHS and eventually on DVD, again to be offered for sale at reunions and other events to raise funds for the school. But there was still the issue of preserving Msgr. Burkley’s original 16mm films as they were fragile, yet historically important, records.

Those films, stored in cardboard boxes in various closets and cubby holes at the school, seemed to mysteriously disappear and reappear over the years. But persistence paid off when Stoll, sometime in the late 2000s, called a retired Franciscan sister, Sister Margaret Ann Zimmerman, OSF, at her residence in the sisters’ assisted-living facility in Joliet, Illinois. 

Sister Margaret Ann had taught at St. Mary from 1962 to 1985 and was the only person Stoll could find who realized the historical importance of the films and might know their location.

Sister Margaret Ann – who passed away in 2022 at age 101 – told Stoll where to find them. 

Fast-forward to 2022. During a major renovation and expansion of St. Mary School, once again Msgr. Burkley’s original films seemed to disappear amid the dust and clutter of construction. Stoll wanted to know where they were, not only for himself but also for posterity. 

St. Mary’s deacon, Roger Minner, undertook a successful search. The box of films turned up in the attic of the rectory where many items were being stored during construction. Attics, however, aren’t ideal for storing old movie film.

Now, through the efforts of St. Mary Church and the Catholic Record Society (CRS), the films will be preserved in CRS’ archives. Remembering St. Mary’s School will also be preserved there, and it is likely that St. Mary will eventually post a link on its website to the video so others can see it.

“As the repository of diocesan archival materials, CRS assures us that there will be real benefits for future generations of Catholics who are the stakeholders of St. Mary’s School,” Don Schlegel, CRS secretary, said. 

“First, the purpose of preserving the records of our schools and churches is to give the community a perspective of where we are. And we don’t know where we are unless we know where we’ve been. We can see if things have improved through time or if they’ve deteriorated and need more work. That sort of thing can give us some feeling for our history and the struggles that the people of the past went through. 

“Regarding Msgr. Burkley and his films, I think the big value is that it brings the past to life for us. Those people don’t just remain a name on a page. You can see them and what they’re doing. It gives you a tie to them, a kind of connection through time, a ‘communion with the saints,’ so to speak.”

Msgr. John Cody, a retired priest of the diocese, although not referring to the video or the films, had this to say about St. Mary School: He said his sister, Kathleen Cody McClernon, who died in 2018, had been a teacher, and then the principal, at St. Mary School for 39 years. In 1965, she was hired as an eighth-grade teacher while Msgr. Burkley was pastor. 

“Kathy loved St. Mary’s School,” Msgr. Cody said, “and, during her 39 years there, she distinguished herself as an excellent teacher to such a degree that the diocesan school office would often send teachers having trouble in classroom management to Kathy, who would work with them and help them gain confidence. 

“Kathy was also a pioneer in making our Catholic schools inclusive. She was willing to accept as a student a young boy whose parents were told by his parish school principal that they were unable to accommodate his special needs. Kathy accepted him at St. Mary’s, and this, in turn, served as a model for other parish schools.”

Today, Columbus St. Mary School continues its tradition of providing academic excellence to the community as well as being a strong Catholic witness on the south side of the city. Msgr. Burkley’s legacy of devotion and honor to the parish namesake, Mary the Mother of God, lives on in every aspect of its mission.

Fr. Vince Nguyen, pastor of St. Mary, said that this is all about the kids and their families and having a place to grow -- that everything St. Mary is doing is focused on providing them with the best possible opportunities to grow in values and in faith, to help them grow as a family unit, and to help them learn how to serve and to give back.

Also, with a nod toward the future, he said that St. Mary itself, as an institution, will continue its mission moving forward, tirelessly striving to serve kids, adults and elders in their diversity, in their cultures and in their languages.


Ken Snow is a photojournalist for The Catholic Times.