Celebrating A Century At Seattle Prep

It began Sept. 19, 1891, as an all-boys Jesuit high school.

Now 100 years old, Seattle Preparatory School boasts nearly 7,600 graduates - many attending school in an era when discipline was by the seat of the pants.

The paddles are long gone now. So are most of the Jesuits. And the old brick school, on a hill off East Roanoke Street at the north end of Capitol Hill has gone co-ed.

But the traditions live on, and will be remembered at "The Party of the Century" at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Westin Hotel. More than 800 alumni, parents, faculty and friends of Prep are expected.

One is U.S. District Judge Walter T. McGovern, who attended Prep more than 50 years ago. He recalls it as "a disciplinarian school," but one that helped transform a shy, gangly 6-foot-tall basketball star into a confident future jurist, with classes in elocution and debate.

McGovern said the priests and lay teachers were "more like a parent," with an interest in each student that went beyond a one-hour class.

"I'll tell you what I can thank the Jesuits for - teaching me to have respect for others," McGovern said. "You're not going to have the respect of others unless it's a mutual thing."

A half-century later, the Rev. Thomas Healy, S.J., who banished the paddle when he became Prep's president in 1973, said that traditional Jesuit values of education will continue at the Capitol Hill school.

"Basically, we want students to be thinkers, critical thinkers," Healy said, "to recognize that all creation is good and to be used with care, and that everyone should use his education to serve mankind and give glory to God - in other words, a Catholic school in the Jesuit tradition, that education should be used to lead people to God."

Founded by the Jesuits in the fall of 1891 when they took over Father Francis X. Prefontaine's financially strapped St. Francis School in downtown Seattle, Prep moved to Broadway and Madison three years later and to its present site at 2400 11th Ave. E. after Thomas and Ella McHugh donated the property to the Jesuits in 1919.

The Jesuits operated Seattle College along with the high school. But in 1931 the college, now Seattle University, moved back to Broadway and Madison. In 1933 Seattle College High School became Seattle Preparatory School.

In 1975, Prep charted new educational waters when it admitted girls and adopted the Matteo Ricci program, which permits a student to earn a bachelor-of-arts degree in general studies in six years - three at Prep and three at Seattle University.

Ten years later, however, responding to parent concerns that many children were not ready for college so soon, Prep offered a fourth-year option.

About two-thirds of the students opt to stay for the senior year, but all get the three-year Matteo Ricci curriculum, which focuses on integrating learning, with much of the teaching done by teams.

Enrollment is at an all-time high, with about 610 students. That compares with about 450 when Healy became president. About 72 percent are Catholics.

This year 180 openings drew more than 450 applicants. About 17 percent of the students are minorities. Prep says 99 percent of its graduates go on to college.

Students are enthused about the 100th anniversary year, said 17-year-old John Lane, student-body president. "We just want to make it an exciting and spirit-full year," he said. The great thing about Prep, he added "is that teachers want you to succeed. They're there when you need help."

Once largely made up of teaching members of the Society of Jesus, the 45-member faculty includes only six Jesuits now.

A pressing need for the private school is to build up its endowment to raise teachers' salaries, now about 90 percent of what Seattle Public Schools pay, Healy said.

In the fall of 1983, after a $3 million capital fund drive, the school opened a new 600-seat McHugh Gymnasium, remodeled laboratories, a new student dining room and cafeteria and new administrative offices.,

But there wasn't enough money to convert the 1929 gymnasium into a theater-chapel.

That project, and finding more parking, will be part of the next capital-fund drive Healy said. There are no plans to expand enrollment.

"We'll stay at approximately 600," Healy said. "We could have built up to 1,200, but part of our philosophy is to stay smaller. It's what gives it the community spirit."

At Saturday's dinner, McGovern, 69, who set records for the Prep Panthers and went on play at Santa Clara and Gonzaga, will be among five alums inducted into Prep's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Others will be McGovern's 1940 classmate Art McCaffray of football fame; the late John Goodwin, football, basketball and baseball coach from 1948 to 1967; tennis star Tom Gorman, class of 1964; and Don Kardong, track star, class of 1967.