Vision SPRING 2013 Faith and Education - Chaminade Julienne ...

On Campus for 86 Years
Marianists Move in June
In August 1927, twelve brothers and
two priests from the Society of Mary
moved into the buildings and property
of the former Notre Dame Academy, purchased
from the Sisters of Notre Dame
de Namur for $250,000, and opened
Dayton Catholic High School, renamed
Chaminade High School the next year.
Eighty-six years later, the Marianists have
decided to close the residence on CJ’s campus
and the remaining seven members will
join other communities.
Bro. Ed Zamierowski remembers back
to the construction era that took place
when he arrived in the late 1950’s; a
transition that included replacing the
red brick building originally occupied by
the Sisters. Houses on the property were
replaced with school buildings over a
period of 15 years.
“As soon as I moved in, we were making
plans for construction, we had to. We
were over 40 teachers of a school of over
1,000 students,” he said.
He, Bro. Ed Zahn and Bro. Al Grisez
worked with the architects in drafting
plans for the second floor science classrooms
— the same spaces that are now
being transformed into the CJ STEMM
Center. Just like today, construction
caused displacement; unlike today, most
of the faculty and staff lived on property.
“The 40 of us lived scattered in different
buildings, houses and in the former convent
next to Emmanuel Church. I lived in
two places; one was in a room next to the
chemistry lab!” said Bro. Zamierowski.
He credits students with making the
new buildings a reality. “Turkey drives
and penny tickets, then it was Chocolate
Charlie,” he said recalling these and
several other efforts to raise funds for the
construction. “This was a school that the
kids built.”
Bro. Zamierowski taught biology in
the lab he helped design for a semester
before being assigned to teach in Africa
from 1960 to 1974. He and his fellow
teacher-draftsmen had even been asked
by Trinity High School in Brooklyn to
help design its science labs because of
their experience.
Bro. Ed Zamierowski takes a look at the plans
for the CJ STEMM Center which will revitalize
the science classrooms and building that he
helped draft and design over 50 years ago.
“When I came back in ‘74, I worked
at the University of Dayton and lived
there. They did ask me to substitute
teach [at CJ] for a couple of weeks.
Walking in and seeing girls running
around was a shock! It wasn’t the way I
remembered it.”
According to Bro. Jim Brown who served
at the school from 1969-1986 as a teacher
and administrator, there were still 15
brothers involved with the school during
the 1973-74 school year. In the mid 80’s,
the “Brothers’ House” (the annex) was
renovated to accommodate the remaining
Marianists on the top floors, opening
the first floor to a growing school.
Bro. Brown said things began to change
in the 60’s after Vatican II Council
said that everyone should live out their
baptismal promises and use that for
the church — the responsibility should
Each Friday, members of the Marianist community
would join students and faculty for the
celebration of the 7:15 a.m. Mass in the chapel.
not rest alone with the vowed religious to
work among the poor, in hospitals and in
schools. “People began to think, ‘I don’t
need to be a brother or sister to do that.’
They left and did other things; many went
on to business, industry or teaching.” He
points to laity who live out their ministry
as faculty and staff at CJ today, “You see
that at the school now; they can be making
more working at a different place.”
In 1989, Bro. Brown was appointed to
work in the Marianist Mission, and after
spending time living in Cincinnati, at the
novitiate, and in a Marianist community
near UD, he returned to the Washington
Street community in1995. Bro. Zamierowski
had moved back a few years
earlier when there were still several who
were involved with the school, including
Bro. Ed Brink (now assistant provincial
for education in the United States) and
Bro. John Habjan (now working in the
Marianist archives), and through the
time when Bro. Sean Downing was the
last resident of the community to work at
CJ. Though Bro. Downing moved from
campus in 2002, he taught religion from
2004-08, leaving to become vocation director
at UD (he will attend the seminary
next year in Rome, and hopes to return to
CJ someday to teach and minister).
“We were assigned to different roles in
the community, plus many second year
novices and newly professed Brothers
would leave Mount St. John, and come
— continued on page 12
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VISION 9