By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO| FC
From left, students Anneka McCombs, Sarah Bogdan, William Costa and Michael Hanke take part in Cardinal Gibbons High School's 50th anniversary Mass.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Paul Ott remembers going to Cardinal Gibbons High School back in 1962: The girls were in one building, the boys were in another. One student came to school by boat, another on horseback.
“There was nothing,” he said.
No traffic, no streetlights, no homes on the other side of Bayview Drive and no seawall separating the street from the water. The school had neither a cafeteria nor a locker room so the boys could not shower after exerting themselves on the sports field.
“Some of the students would just jump into the canal. In those days the water was crystal clear,” said Ott, who also remembers spending a lot of time pulling weeds and laying sod on the school grounds.
Ott did not leave Gibbons for long. He graduated in 1966, went to the University of Notre Dame and returned to teach at Gibbons in 1970. He is now the school’s principal.
His memories are shared by others who attended the school in those early years. Many met their husbands and wives in Gibbons’ hallways. Many continue to be a part of the school because their children and grandchildren attend. Many also have returned, like Ott, to teach at their alma mater, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
“I’m actually quite happy that I didn’t have to do the rocks,” said Mary Mullen, a 1972 graduate whose three children, now ages 30, 26 and 20, also are Gibbons alumni.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO| FC
Archbishop Thomas Wenski passes Franciscan Sister Marie Schramko, assistant principal, as he processes into the gym for the Mass marking the start of Cardinal Gibbons High School's 50th year.
Now, Gibbons’ 26-acre campus has a gym that seats 1,200, 48 fully air conditioned classrooms, eight science labs, a computer lab, a chapel that seats 300 and a total of 10 buildings, not to mention football and baseball fields and six tennis courts.
The campus is surrounded by nice homes with well-manicured lawns, and Bay View Drive Park is next door, as is St. John the Baptist Church, whose pastor is the school’s supervising principal, Msgr. Vincent T. Kelly.
The school is no longer co-institutional, as it was until 1972, with boys and girls studying separately and coming together only for typing and science. In the beginning, the Piarist Fathers staffed the boys’ side and the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate staffed the girls’ side.
Today, Piarist priests and Franciscan sisters remain on staff although the administration and faculty are overwhelmingly lay. The school has gone from an initial enrollment of 176 freshmen and sophomores to a current total of more than 1,200 in grades 9 through 12; from losing its first football game 66-0 to winning state championships in volleyball, tennis, baseball, wrestling and cheerleading.
In 1987, Gibbons also received the Blue Ribbon for Excellence in Education from the U.S. Department of Education.
One thing that has not changed over the past 50 years, according to Mullen: “It was a family then and there’s evidence that is still is today.”
She expressed nothing but admiration for the people who taught her at Gibbons — including her former teacher, Franciscan Sister Janet Rieden, who has been there since 1963.
“They were the ones that instilled in so many of us a sense of service, a sense of giving back. We were very lucky to have been in this environment, and I think it shapes you,” said Mullen. “I already can see the same thing happening with (my children). This was their foundation.”
Jack Seiler, Fort Lauderdale’s mayor, is a 1981 graduate of Gibbons. He and all his siblings went there, one of his own children already graduated, two more are currently enrolled and a fourth will be there in a couple of years.
“It’s very rare to find a school that can combine the academics, the spiritual, the social and the athletics,” Seiler said. “It all comes together so nicely here.”
Circuit Judge Martin Bidwill, a 1983 graduate, praised “the values that all of these teachers instilled in us and the work ethic.”
Carlos Perez-Cubas, activities director and a 1979 Gibbons grad who also began teaching there right after college, remembers being student government president when the school broke ground for what is now known as Building M.
“I was a person with the shovel representing the students. Now I’m teaching in that building. So talk about fate,” he said. “I laid the sod in the priests’ house. We always were working around the school.”
“It is a family,” said Ryan Saunders, class of 2002, who now works as director of liturgy for the archdiocesan Office of Worship. “Even as an alum coming back, you still feel part of a family.”
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO| FC
Sophomores Patricia Solenski, left, and Brittany Crouse, right, sing along with their classmates during the opening of school Mass marking Cardinal Gibbons High School's 50th anniversary.
“I think the story is that she’s still here and she’s still our principal, and how blessed we are,” said Mullen. “She’s amazing.”
Perez-Cubas described Sister Schramko as the “quiet power” behind the school.
“She’s the rudder,” he said. “She’s very quiet. But she is one of the major steerers of the school.”
“She has set an unbelievable example of leadership by service,” said Ott. “She worked incredibly hard; took absolutely no credit for anything. But if you want to know who the backbone of the school is, it’s Sister Marie.”
Ott sat next to a beaming Sister Schramko at the Aug. 30 Mass to mark the opening of the school year. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who reminded the faculty, staff, alumni and students that “Cardinal Gibbons High School exists not only to produce champions. It exists to produce saints.”
By that measure, Ott is sure that Gibbons will continue to live up to its motto, “Excelsior” (higher).
“All you have to do is take a look at the student body,” he said. “They’re the best evidence of whatever we’ve succeeded at here.”
JOIN THE PARTY
Cardinal Gibbons High School will continue to mark its golden anniversary throughout this school year, beginning with a “once in a lifetime celebration” set for Saturday, Oct. 2, 7-10 p.m. on campus, 2900 N.E. 47 St., Fort Lauderdale. The celebration will include historical highlights, music and campus tours. Cost is $40 per person. R.S.V.P. by Sept. 20 to 954-491-2900, ext. 215 or [email protected].
