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 VOLUME 10 • CHAPTER 4 • October 2010
Foley Horky Horkheimer graduated in 1956 ...
Kevin McCarthy graduated in 1932 ...
In May of 2009 Dave Zamierowski '60 visited Tony Wach, S.J. ('60) at the new "Campion" Jesuit High School in Uganda. He has written a five part essay about that trip .
From: Dave Zamierowski '60 We arrived in Entebbe at night after our long flight on KLM from Amsterdam. But in bright daylight we had crossed the Alps and then Venice with my portside window seat looking at the Adriatic. We entered over the Mediterranean from the instep of the boot, then over the great Sahara. I had never seen any of this before. Awesome! ...Read More! From: Dave Zamierowski '60 When we started our van trip to Gulu from Kampala, I was fortunate enough (but in reality to listen to everyone's "stories" afterwards, everyone was "fortunate" no matter whom they met or what different experiences they had - each and everyone's experience was so telling, so life changing) to sit in the middle row behind the passenger seat. I had missed the orientation so I introduced myself and he said "Hello, my name is Felix" in just perfect English. He didn't elaborate and I didn't pry. Every street corner we came to, every new vista and land feature was just so interesting to me, that I couldn't resist asking him what it was or what it meant. And he was so knowledgeable, so good at explaining. He soon became our tour guide as I would pass his soft spoken comments on to the rest of the van... ...Read More!
From: Dave Zamierowski '60 I was able to make three trips out to Ocer, the "New Campion," during our week in Gulu. I should tell you first of all that my ear for languages is not really good. But it sounded to me like Acholi words spelled with an English letter "c" sound like "ch" to my ear when pronounced. Hence, Burcoro sounds like boor-CHORE-row and the private Italian (religious run and subsidized I believe) Lacor St. Mary's Hospital is pronounced La-CHO (the terminal "r's" seems to be dropped also . almost like in French) and the name of our school is Ocer, pronounced O-CHEY. The word in Acholi means He is Risen. If you remember the story of Burcoro, you realize why that name was chosen for these people. So the full name is Ocer Campion Jesuit College (strictly college-prep secondary schools are referred to as "colleges" in the British-based educational nomenclature here). We may add advanced courses later but the intent now is a boarding college prep for boys and girls. Anyway, best advice probably is to forget how words are spelled and listen to how locals pronounce them. ...Read More!
From: Dave Zamierowski '60
For the sake of accuracy, let me say that (after corresponding with Fr. Tony) the spelling of the honorific for "elder" is "Mzee". The elder who had the vision to donate land for the school, Mzee Abononi Okumu, was elderly and frail and I did not meet him when we were in Gulu in May, 2009. In fact he died this past February. It was his younger brothers Francis and Roger whom I met. I believe it was Francis I stood at the foundation with and it was Francis who fired, not his son, but his nephew for not following orders and instructions. So with that clarified, let us "walk" across the compound of the Ocer Campion school site, from the foundation of the new classrooms at the south side against the fence, north to the existing small but nice classroom on the north side of the initial compound. ...Read More!
From: Dave Zamierowski '60 I stood mesmerized. This was not what I expected. Instead of cascading water, we had an almost ominous still surface, just suggesting the forces and power beneath. We were on a little island, a pile of rocks (Jinja means "rocks") that we had motored out to in the tour boat. Our guide had beached the boat on the west side, the "still" side, and we crossed the island in 10 steps to the "rushing side." There, less than 20 feet away stood the concrete or stone monument that marked the "zero point" of the Nile river, separated from us by a channel of dangerous, rapidly rushing water flowing out of Lake Victoria...... ...Read More!
Book ReportsInequity in Education: A Historical Perspective, Chapter 11; A Change of Vision in Rural Wisconsin Campion Jesuit High School, 1965-1975 by Casey C. Beaumier, S.J. From: P.D. The overwhelming sense I got from the analysis was that an institution such as Campion was caught in the cultural crosswinds of the time as was the entire Jesuit order. An inability to reconcile the renewed mission of the Society of Jesus with the constituency of parents and alumni put it at risk. The drop in the number of Jesuits contributed. The chapter does not address the role of leadership as a factor. I find it difficult to imagine a skill set that could have either reversed or compensated for the drop off in the traditional parent base. Large organizations are surprisingly fragile. What would the place need to look like now, had it somehow managed to survive? I do not think anyone had the vision or the power or resources to realize the vision. I have tremendous respect for those who tried. And decades later I celebrate what Campion was and I mourn. P.D.
From: P.M. 1) Campion appeared to have wrestled with the decision to integrate as early as 1947 (one year prior to President Truman's de-segregating the military services), as described in the unsuccesful two year quest of the River Rouge MI mother to obtain admission for her son. 2) By the mid to late 1960's, Fr. Arupe's vision of what the Jesuit's teaching mission should become appeared to be very different than that in place in Campion. There appeared to be great pressure for change and the school was not ready for it. 3) Experimentation with new teaching modalities leaning to more self/independent study (as laid out in a book described in Fr Beaumier's report - Summerhill ) was not very successful. So there were a lot things happening.............. P.M.
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