The DRAGONMagazine - Bishop O'Dowd High School
The DRAGONMagazine - Bishop O'Dowd High School
The DRAGONMagazine - Bishop O'Dowd High School
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On This Rock I Will Build My School
This photo of the O'Dowd campus in 1951 was discovered by Siegel & Strain architect
Karen Richards during her research to determine the siting of the new Center for
Environmental Studies. Read about the CES project on page 24.
Jack Dold
1966 – Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate assume administration of
the school, with Fr. Frank Wagner, OMI,
serving as principal. Jack Dold is the first
lay vice principal of the school, serving
O’Dowd through 1975.
Tuition and fees $210
8 THE DRAGON
Before O’Dowd was a bustling high
school campus, the school property was
a rock quarry, owned by Joseph Catucci,
an excavation, grading and concrete
contractor.
Joseph’s wife, Bella, took over the
company after her husband’s passing in
1939, and kept it going until the mid
1940s.
In 1946, she sold off part of
the property to EBMUD for the
construction of the Seneca Reservoir.
Bishop O’Dowd High School was built
in 1951 on the balance of the Catucci
property.
Aerial view of campus in 2007.
1967 – The boy’s basketball
team, coached by Frank
LaPorte, posts a 37-2 record
and is voted the designated
state champion.