The DRAGONMagazine - Bishop O'Dowd High School

The bench is located in a peaceful setting, by the pond in the Living Lab. Inset photo shows
the detail of the mosaic. Photos by Tom Tyler.
In celebration of the pioneering alums of the 1950s, a special reception was held
for about 100 ’50s graduates and guests in Dominican Lounge. The ’50s folk got
a big kick out of having a party in what they remember as the Dominican Sisters’
community room in the convent!
“It was a pleasure to meet so many grads from the ’50s, hear their early O’Dowd
stories - especially the ones about the mischief they got into that earned them treeplanting
detentions - and thank them in person for their ongoing support of our
beautiful campus,” former faculty member and Chair of the Steering Committee for
the CES Tom Tyler said. Read more about this project on page 24.
1959 – Tuition
and fees $150
1962 – O’Dowd
becomes part of
the newly formed
Diocese of Oakland.
7 THE DRAGON
Frank '56 and Jean Hudson McNamara '56
were the first to test out the new bench.
“I found it most memorable when
we were taken to the north side of the
grounds where there before us, stood
the 60-year-old trees that we planted
as a detention punishment (boys only
of course!). Who thought they would
become such giants?
And then, it was down to the
Living Lab where students, 55 years
our junior, were also planting trees
... but for an entirely different and
perhaps more noble reason.”
1963 – The school’s
second (and current) alma
mater is written.
Frank McNamara ’56