Donald Phelan’s Family Comes to Visit
In December, family members of one of our school’s great masters, Donald Phelan, visited St. Bernard’s to reminisce about what the school meant to their father and grandfather, and also what he meant to St. Bernard’s.
J. Donald Phelan ’24 undoubtedly carries the record for the longest tenure at St. Bernard’s, having been a student for five years (class of 1924) and a teacher for forty-six. Beginning in 1929, Mr. Phelan wore many hats: a teacher to grades II, IV, VI, and VIII, head of the Middle School, and ultimately, assistant headmaster. He also started the physical education program at St. Bernard’s in 1940, which apparently was a novel idea at the time. He went on to coach many teams and oversaw the boxing program. He left St. Bernard’s for three years to serve in WWII, returning as soon as the war ended.
Two of Mr. Phelan’s daughters, Kate Phelan Bruey and Annie Phelan Richards, and two of his granddaughters, Suzanne Phelan Richards Tanajewski and Kathleen McNamara, were given a tour of the schoolhouse, which looks very different than in Mr. Phelan’s day. But the spirit of the school remains very much the same, which the group was happy to see. After the tour, the family went through photographs and correspondence selected from the school archives. An old Phelan speech was read aloud and many stories were shared.
Mr. Phelan ran a summer camp in the Adirondacks which many St. Bernard’s boys attended. Thanks to a gift donated to the archives by Kathleen McNamara, our archives now include some incredibly charming photos of Mr. Phelan running the “Adirondack Tutoring Camp” which held its classes on an outdoor porch. Mr. Phelan’s daughters worked as counselors in the neighboring girls camp and loved looking through the old pictures of these magical summers. At Mr. Phelan’s retirement party, he was presented with an Adirondack canoe in the backyard swimming pool of a St Bernard's family in Chappaqua, NY, a moment captured in one of the archival photographs from the family.
St. Bernard’s is indebted to people like Donald Phelan, who dedicated his life’s work to the school. We certainly hope he would be pleased to know that his legacy continues on. Many thanks to the extended Phelan family for visiting and sharing their memories. This writer, for one, has thoroughly enjoyed learning about this revered man and this special chapter of St. Bernard’s history.
