Jesuit Journeys
Spring/Summer 2005

BY Fr. Greg Lucey, SJ

For Fr. Greg Lucey, SJ, Campion Jesuit High School is indelibly etched in his heart and memory as a significant part not only of his personal history but the history of the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus.

I attended Campion Jesuit High School as a student. I taught there as a regent. I became principal in 1969, school president in 1970, rector in 1971, and was rector and president when Campion closed in 1975.

People have a lot of feelings and impressions about that event, painful feelings that I share. For me it was a most devastating experience, a major source of grief – greater in many ways than the loss of either of my parents and just as unavoidable. My personal and family ties to the school were amplified because my father had given my inheritance to Campion, and so there was even a Lucey Hall on campus, one of three student dorms.

When something bad happens, like the closing of a beloved institution, there is a tendency to point fingers and to simplify the cause and assign blame. That would be as unfair in many ways as the closing was painful given the confluence of events, conditions, and changing times that contributed to this unhappy, inevitable ending. Vatican II, declining Jesuit manpower, racial integration, the Vietnam War, shifting demographics, other education options, and public transportation – all these played a role in the closing, but no one or two of them alone were responsible.

	Fr. Howard Kalb, SJ (left), Fr. Jim Corrigan, SJ (below, left), and Fr. Walt Halloran, SJ, whose obituary appears on the "In Memoriam" page.

I remember riding from Campion to Madison with Fr. Jim Gladstone, SJ in 1973. He told me about a study that Fr. Tom Schloemer, SJ had done predicting a precipitous decline in the number of Jesuits in our province by 1983. I recall too thinking at the time that with enrollment declining, I would need several things to keep the school open in the years ahead – a $5 million endowment (at the time the endowment was $100,000) or at least 350 students, or I needed to have 10 Jesuits under age 45.

Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where the school was located, had a population of 5,600. I think there was one black family in the whole community. Under the leadership of Fr. Bob Hilbert, SJ, Campion integrated in 1967, which I thought was a true statement of social justice. But I don’t know that we could have anticipated the amount of preparation needed for that event. It proved to be very controversial.

Fr. John Scott, SJ dazzles Campion Jesuit High School students with a refracted light show – part of a physics class experiment.

At the same time there was no public transportation – bus, train, anything – from other cities to our area in rural Wisconsin. And there was a movement in urban areas, in the vicinity of Chicago particularly, to build more Catholic schools, creating an alternative to sending a child 250 miles away to a place like Campion. Again, all this was going on in the early 1970s with the upheaval that followed the Vietnam War and the whole turnabout after the Second Vatican Council.

In 1973, there was also a real drop in the economy that made raising money a struggle, and I needed to raise $250,000 a year just to underwrite the operations of the place. We were charging $3,300 for board, room and tuition. I was spending the first $1000 on the basic operation – opening the doors, heating, and lighting. I had $2,300 for everything else for the students – to feed them, to teach them.

I sent a letter to all of the alumni and detailed the situation. Cranwell Prep in Western Massachusetts was going through the same thing at the same time. They challenged their alumni that if they raised a million dollars they’d keep it open. The consensus from our Campion alumni was: We didn’t know you were in trouble. I had been sending them a president’s report every year for the last five years that stated clearly the trouble we were in. I couldn’t understand how they didn’t know.

At one point I went off by myself to write a case statement to raise the $5 million. That’s when I came to the insight that if I wasn't going to have Jesuits there, how could I raise $5 million to support this Jesuit school? How could I have a Jesuit school and not have enough Jesuits? I needed at least three or four Jesuit pillars to hold up the roof and a few others to maintain the Jesuit identity. I wrote a letter to all of the Jesuits who had worked there in the past and said, “We’re in a tough situation; would you like to come back and help us?”

Fr. Bob Lambeck, SJ checks Campion students into the JUG room for detention. JUGs (Judgment under God) were issued for disciplinary reasons, with students exceeding their limit serving JUG time – a tradition that lives on at Jesuit high schools today.

Another thing I did with Fr. Bruce Biever, SJ, the provincial at the time, was look into the possibility of making Campion co-ed. There was no Catholic education for women 60 miles in any direction from Prairie du Chien. Even if we only had day students, we could still serve an educational need. So I petitioned that, and I got turned down by Rome. My grapevine over there told me the general sentiment was that if the inevitable is to happen, why delay it?

So the question persisted: should we keep Campion or not? We addressed it seriously at a consultors’ meeting in Milwaukee during Holy Week 1975. We weighed all the options, considered all the factors, and decided we should close. The only real debate was whether we should wait one more year or close immediately. We concluded there was no sense in drawing out the process. We might as well close now.

I visited a couple of Jesuit friends on the way back from the meeting and without my saying anything about where I had been, the talk turned to Campion. One said, “You know, we really ought to close that place.” Another added, “Ah, that will never happen. The people who would make that decision are too invested in seeing it survive.” To which I replied, “Well, let me give you an update. I met with the provincial and the consultors this morning and they decided that it will close at the end of this year.” All they could do was shake my hand and wish me well. I felt confirmed.

Many fine Jesuits served at Campion in a variety of capacities over the years, including Fr. Gus Giunta, SJ

But then I remembered having coffee earlier with Fr. John Sheets, SJ, one of the consultors. He looked at me and said, “It’s one thing to decide to pull the plug; it’s another thing to pull it.” I got back and started to pull the plug.

I met with the Jesuits after I got back. It happened to be Good Friday. I can still see Fr. John Scott, SJ walking out of the room, crying. Br. Sylvester “Stabes” Staber was in about the same mood. Ninety-five years that school had been in existence. Many of us had invested a tremendous amount in that mission.

Later on, thanks to the help of Fr. Floyd “Buck” Stanton, SJ and some underwriting from the province, I was able to say to the lay faculty: “There are three options. The first option is to continue to work here next year at the same salary; you may be doing security duty; you may be helping us move things. The second option, if you get a job somewhere else and it pays less than you were being paid here, we’ll make up the difference. The third option, if you say you want to make a transition, we’ll give you half your salary in a lump sum in August.” I felt very good that we were able to be that fair and just and that we were able to close without being down and out. We had an asset, and the province was able to lend us money to work with until we were able to sell the property.

Another thing I remember discussing with Fr. Stanton was what to do with the money from the sale of Campion. We determined Red Cloud High School, Creighton Prep, and Marquette High could receive $250,000 in scholarship money each year from the endowment that was set up when the assets were sold. So the spirit of Campion continues to live on at those schools in a very positive way.

Campion students sit hard at work under a watchful eye.

People reacted differently to the closing. I went around and visited all of the living former presidents: Fr. Tom Stemper, SJ, Fr. Gus Giunta, SJ, Fr. Howie Kalb, SJ, Fr. Jim Corrigan, SJ, and Fr. Hilbert. I sensed a real sadness in them all.

I had a very interesting conversation talking to my father. My father is the most prejudiced man I have ever met – anything I did was OK. That was his prejudice. “Dad, we are going to close Campion.” He looked at me and said, “If it is not in the cards, it is not in the cards.”

I met with my class for a 50th reunion four years ago. I had Mass for them. In the penance rite I asked their forgiveness. The alumni meet in Florida every year. Unfortunately it conflicts with the alumni reunion at Spring Hill where I am president. But I have wanted to go, just to let them vent at me if they are still carrying that around..

When I first arrived at Campion as a student, I was 14 years old. When I closed it at 7 a.m. on June 15, 1975, I was 42. I got into the car and drove away. I went back to the campus 10 years later in 1985 and spent a half day just walking around the grounds continuing to try to bring closure to that chapter of my life. Now, at 72 years of age, I continue to write about it.

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