60 years of scholarship and faith

LONG LEGACY  A contingent of students and staff from DePaul Catholic High School, Wayne, lives out their faith by participating in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. in 2015. This year, DePaul celebrates its 60th anniversary by reflecting on its long legacy of promoting scholarship, faith and family.

WAYNE  DePaul Catholic High School here began celebrating its 60th anniversary last month to reflect on its far-reaching legacy. During this anniversary year, its faculty and staff have stayed focused on continuing to broaden the scope of an educational renaissance that has been taking place for six decades inside and beyond its walls. And they are powered by an intense passion to meet the ever-changing needs of its students by offering the latest in technology, curriculum and facilities.

Yet, the 550 students now enrolled at DePaul, including senior Victoria Schmidt, return year after year for something more than the Passaic County school’s intense pursuit of providing the best in scholarship— rooted in the traditions of its founding in 1956. Not doubt, she and the rest of her classmates also come back for its timeless core values of faith and community. “DePaul is so welcoming. We are all from different towns but become one when we are in school,” said Schmidt, an honor student, who loves history and is busy with many extracurricular activities, such as swim team; the Interact Club, which holds drives for various charities; and as president of student council and yearbook.

On Oct. 27, DePaul celebrated that sense of community as a school at a Mass in the gym to open its 60th anniversary observances. Attending the Mass were current and former students, clergy, faculty and staff; visiting clergy; and eighth-graders from Holy Spirit School, Pequannock, where DePaul first began, and their principal, Filippini Sister Marie Antonelli.

Today, DePaul — which has accelerated the pace of change in technology, curriculum and facilities since 2000 — educates students from about 70 municipalities and eight countries — all of various races, ethnicities socioeconomic backgrounds and religions, even though most are Roman Catholics. They make friends in class and in more than 50 clubs and in sports. Long known as an athletic powerhouse, the school’s “Spartans” have excelled on the field in several sports, snagging more than a dozen state championships.

That strong sense of community also extends to DePaul’s 11,000 alumni around the U.S. and the world, who have great affection for the alma mater. Many graduates return for visits, support the school financially and in other ways or become parents of students and graduates. Today, DePaul is educating its third generation of students.

Some alumni have returned to teach, said Joseph Tweed, DePaul’s president for the past three years. “Regardless of building and staff changes, our sense of family has never waivered. We are preparing our students not only for college but for real life. We have students from all walks of life but in here, that’s never an issue. At DePaul, we are all Spartans,” Tweed said. “DePaul has grown with the world around us. We have remained true to our mission: to prepare our students to meet the challenges and opportunities in the 21st century,” he said.

DePaul continues to make leaps forward in providing the best for its students as part of its already world-class education. It started a sports medicine program in its new athletic training and exercise area. Summer internships connect students with alumni and parents, who introduce them to such professions as medicine, business and marketing in such workplaces as St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, Paterson. DePaul offers an engineering curriculum and plans to partner with Caldwell University and William Paterson University, Wayne, to offer courses in math, English and theology for college credit, Tweed said.

Recently, DePaul updated its facilities with a $75,000 investment in providing open bandwidth for computing, with a $60,000 investment in school security and with the construction of an admissions and advancement suite. In 2014, Bishop Serratelli blessed its information commons — a suite, where students can conduct online research or study. In 2010, DePaul opened an eighth-grade prep program to prepare incoming public-school students for the Catholic-school experience.

All these initiatives continue to expand the scope of an educational renaissance that started at DePaul in 2000 with the dedication of its multi-purpose athletic field. Two years later, the school opened its “bigger and brighter” science lab suite. In 2006, the school opened Flarity Hall — the former convent. It was gutted to accommodate the new academic pavilion, which added seven classrooms, a 75-seat chapel, music and art studios and administrative offices. All the while, DePaul has kept retooling its courses, clubs and activities and wireless capabilities that enable students to use computers throughout the campus, Tweed said.

Yet DePaul’s renaissance has been built on the tireless vision and hard work all those teachers, staff, clergy and parents who have served here throughout the school’s history, Tweed said. He singled out the dedication of Msgr. John McHugh, its first director; Sister of Charity Ann Joachim, its first principal; and the Sisters of Charity, who served the school from its opening in 1956.

With great affection for the teachers, Isaac Boone, a senior, who enjoys English, plays football and belongs to the Interact Club and Sports Debate Club, said, “They are always there to help.”

For DePaul, it’s strong sense of family “always comes back to faith,” Tweed said. It helps students deepen their faith through school-wide Masses and opportunities for Adoration, Penance, daily morning Mass and pilgrimage and missionary experiences. The school challenges students to serve others, especially the poor, in its Christian Service Program. It also instills values through Stand Tall, an anonymous and voluntary student drug-screening program, Tweed said.

DePaul’s long legacy of love and learning started in September 1956 when it opened as Passaic County Catholic Regional High School. The first classes were held at Holy Spirit, before they were moved to the Wayne building on Alps Road and was renamed DePaul Diocesan High School and dedicated December 1957. Six years later a new 12-room classroom wing with guidance offices, clinic and faculty-conference room opened.

On Thursday, Nov. 17, DePaul continues its 60th anniversary celebrations with a gala at the Venetian, Garfield, at 7 p.m. The school will honor William Martin of the Class of ’64, chairman of its board of trustees, with its St. Vincent DePaul Apostle of Charity Award.

“I love this place,” said Kenneth “Chip” O’Connor, a faculty member since 1970, having taught physical education and driver’s education and coached baseball and freshmen football. “DePaul has this ambience. When you walk through the doors, you are family. It’s been a good experience for me — and the students,” he said.

[Information on DePaul’s 60th anniversary gala, call Brynn Merritt Campbell at

(973) 694-3702, ext. 441].