-
Chalk-Dust Memories: The 1950s
In those days, everyone was unified. Everyone had friends from SH and Riordan, which had just started, and we used to all meet at the dances Friday night at one of the three schools. We were all interested in girls at that time. As a freshman and sophomore, I competed on the swimming and basketball…
-
Three Candid Critiques
Dan Flynn ’57, who served as editor of Inside SI in his senior year, now teaches ESL in Belgium. Looking back on his days at SI, he sees several problems with the way he was taught and with what he was taught. Michael Corrigan ’60, the author of Confessions of a Shanty Irishman and The Irish Connection and Other Stories,…
-
Dissension in the 1950s
SI in the 1950s was a Shangri-La for most students and teachers, but not for all. Not everyone was happy with the conformity and old school ways imposed both by 1950s America and a pre-Vatican II Society of Jesus. Some students rebelled, such as Michael Corrigan ’60, who wrote about his displeasure with Jesuit strictness…
-
Jesuit Missionaries
From its beginnings, the Society of Jesus involved itself in missionary work. St. Ignatius went to Jerusalem in hopes of converting Muslims to Christianity and later sent St. Francis Xavier to the Far East to share the Gospel of Christ. The Jesuits who came from Europe to establish schools and parishes throughout California and the…
-
Korean Conflict
The Korean War (1950–1953) included a number of SI grads who fought and at least two who were killed in this police action. 1st Lt. Roger Kelly ’43, a member of a pioneer San Francisco family, graduated from West Point in 1949. As part of the 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, he died in…
-
Jerry Brown ’55
The 1955 yearbook lists this for Edmund “Jerry” Brown, Jr.: “Jerry proved his oratorical abilities by winning the Freshman Elocution and Sophomore Oratorical contests, being chosen on the Silver and Gold Medal Debates, and gaining the Degree of Distinction in the National Forensic League. He was also a member of the CSF and the Activities…
-
Bob Drucker ’58
Bob Drucker ’58 is best known as the Wizard of Westlake for leading SI basketball teams from 1966-1986, taking the ’Cats to the NorCal championship and to the state finals in 1984. Drucker got his start in basketball long before coming to SI when, in 1947, his mother took him to the San Francisco Examiner basketball camp…
-
Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla ’53
Bishop Carlos Sevilla, whose parents immigrated to San Francisco from Colima, Mexico, near Guadalajara, is the only SI grad to be named a bishop. (Msgr. Eugene Fahy ’29, who died in 1996, was granted many of the powers of a bishop in 1951 for his missionary work in China, though he was never granted the…
-
Peter Raven ’53
When Time named Peter Raven ’53 a Hero of the Planet in April 1999, the editors there had good cause. Few other men have done as much as Raven to stop the destruction of rain forests and slow the loss of biodiversity, and hardly anyone is as articulate or as passionate as he is regarding our need…
-
Gordon Getty ’51
No one knew it at the time, but two brothers in the Class of 1951 belonged to one of the richest families in the country. Both Gordon Getty II and John Paul Getty, Jr., however, didn’t grow up wealthy. Their mother, Ann, had divorced J. Paul Getty, and, according to Gordon’s good friend and classmate…