William A. Redmond Memoir - Illinois Digital Archives

I think that - I think that, you know whatever success I've had, I attribute primariJy ta
my high school experiences. I went to a thing called - a school called St. Ignatius, it was
taught by the Jesuit fathers. And I think that they were put on earth to educate young
boys. Most of the - they weren't priests, they were what they called scholastics. They
weren't really that much older than the kids in school. And you couldn't kid them, they
were not far removed from your experiences and what you were going through theyn had
gone through not too many years before. And their scholastic standards were very
high. Even today, they - well I get more people call me now and asked me to - to retom-
mend their kids to go there to school. They have twice as many applicants as they have
vacancies.
We took four years of Latin and two years of Greek, four years of math, and four @ars
of English. And the discipline was really - you know, it wasn't cruel, but it was stern. So
I never had any problem when I went to the navy, you know I was always doing what I
was told, so I had no problem accepting their discipline. And it gave me a - I did fairly
well scholastically there, I was on the honor roll. And I competed and - it was ju8t a aon-
derful wonderful experience and I think that kind of set me straight.
So if I have had any success, why, I attribute it in no small measure to my experipnce
there. I felt so strongly about it that - there are a lot of people here - Mike Madgan
went there, Representative Ted Meyer. At one time there were twelve fellows in the I&&-
lature that had gone to Ignatius. But that is not true now. It was true then. They have
probably 95 percent of their graduates go to college.
Let's see that was high school, Susan Catania has got two daughters there. Her husband
went there. So I, you know, I am indebted to them. I think they set my course pretty g0od.
Q: Did your parents figure that out? Did they decide to send . . .
A: My mother did. I don't know how she knew but she went down and registered me and
came back and told me where I was going to school. (chuckles)
Q: But she had it figured out, she knew what was coming, right?
1
A: Well of course the Catholic schools - high schools, in those days there were d l y not
as many as there are now. And some of those that were run by the Christian Brot ers
started out originally as commercial schools and taught shorthand, typing. Ignatius
primary - you know the paramount school for the kind of academic classes being ta ght
you know. Afterwards Loyola came along and that's run - that's kind of in the same
but it's a . . . that's a little richer. Those kids have more money than the kid at
Ignatius. Ignatius is kind of a mixture, currently there is 24 percent black. I don't remember
what the percentage of non-Catholic, but it was a significant number. And they have
Japanese and Chinese. And of course from there on to the present, Irish, the Italian, the
Pole in ;Catholic ahmls.
I
I think those formative years for a boy are really important. And if you are fortunate
enough to - you know, it puts you in the right environment and the right kind of peaple,
and it is not a, you know, guarantee obviously. The Jesuits guide you, you know, they k p
your nose, you know, where it belongs. (chuckles)
Q: Can you remember how you felt, you know, your first few days there?
A: Awe struck. Just, you know, here I was - you had to take three streetcars to get tbere
William A. Redmond and away Memoir from - Archives/ home Special for the Collections first time - Norris in L Brookens my life. Library I'll - University never forget of Illinois the at Springfield first couple - UIS+ys