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August
4, 2005
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Twenty
years after rebirth, Messmer continues to celebrate |
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Community
recalls how it overcame challenges
of the mid-’80s |
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| POINTING
TO THE PAST — Messmer High
School alums Audrey Gieg Kellner, class
of '46, Ev Shaughnessy, class of '41, and
Jim Eichenseer, class of '65, look at a
roster of classmates attending the Messmer
all-school reunion July 16. Also pictured
is Eichenseer's wife Gail, a Dominican graduate.
(Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero) |
MILWAUKEE — A blue and
white sign hangs from the second story of a beige,
brick building that is the academic home to more
than 500 high school students. Its message is
as simple as the architecture of the building
that dons it and of the yearlong celebration it
has undertaken: Still Standing Proud.
On July 16 and 17, members of the Messmer community,
past and present, celebrated at an all-class reunion
what the school’s president, Capuchin Br.
Bob Smith, calls an “oasis of hope.”
Down, not defeated
In 1984, Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland announced
that the archdiocese could no longer subsidize
Messmer. It had a declining enrollment and was
costing more than the archdiocese could afford.
Shutting down the school seemed like the only
option.
The archbishop’s decision raised the ire
of the Messmer community. Students, parents of
students, and alumni and alumnae felt abandoned
by the decision. They wanted Messmer to remain
open. There were petitions, protests and marches.
There were raffles and donations. The community
did everything it could to keep the school open,
and to keep it Catholic.
A 15-member Save Messmer Committee comprised of
a lawyer, educator, building inspector, several
parents, a banker, a Capuchin Brother and public
relations specialists headed the school-saving
effort.
On May 25, 1984 Messmer was closed a week ahead
of schedule. Students were told to pack up and
leave. The classrooms, the auditorium and the
pool were abruptly closed. The archdiocese was
not just closing the doors, they were putting
padlocks on as well.
Bill Desing, a member of the Save Messmer Committee,
recalled two decades later, “It was a good
move, so to speak, by the archdiocese because
it lit a fire under us.”
At the reunion, Carol Rauen, another member of
the committee, described Messmer’s situation
in 1984.
“They were literally in the
process of taking things out of the building,”
she said
That’s when Peter Salza, a local lawyer
and member of the committee, got a temporary injunction
to stop the pillaging of Messmer.
Facing an uphill battle, the committee took its
fight to the media.
“The media was
instrumental in our fight to save Messmer,”
Salza said.
He and Rauen went on television with Sr. Michelle
Olley, the delegate for archdiocesan Department
of Christian Foundation. Salza appeared with Sr.
Olley on Dave Begel’s talk show while Rauen
debated Sr. Olley on Carl Zimmerman’s television
show.
“That’s when the tables started turning,”
Salza said in reference to the TV exposure.
“We kept ourselves in the news and it helped
tremendously,” Rauen said.
Finally, the committee had a deal with the archdiocese.
They could buy Messmer for $375,000. However,
the committee needed to find the money. Capuchin
Br. Booker Ashe, another committee member, went
to the now defunct De Rance Foundation. At one
time, the De Rance Foundation was the largest
Catholic philanthropic group in the world.
Harry John and his wife Ericka agreed to purchase
Messmer and pledged $100,000 for day-to-day operations
of the school. The struggle appeared to be over,
but the committee received devastating news.
“The De Rance Foundation started having
financial problems,” said Rauen, “and
they told us two days before school started there
was no $100,000.”
This gave the committee its greatest challenge
yet.
“Somehow, we managed,” Mary
Anne Borowski, another committee member, said
of keeping the school open through the first years.
“We always got the right donation at
the right time,” Rauen said. “Somehow,
we made it work.”
Current principal Jeff Monday was a teacher at
Messmer in 1988 when the school was still struggling.
“I remember having to use and reuse staples.
That’s how tight the budget was for awhile,”
he said.
Looking back on their accomplishment, Borowski
remembers exactly why the committee and the community
fought so hard to save the school.
“Here
was a school that exemplified the Christian Church
so well,” she said. “Closing that
school would have been unforgivable.”
’Messmer was
the best I could remember’
Messmer opened in 1926 with the help of the School
Sisters of Notre Dame. In a homily given during
Mass at the “All Years Celebration”
July 17 at the school, Fr. John Pulice called
the sisters “pioneers” in Catholic
education. Christian Br. Basil Rothweiler, a 1934
graduate, said the sisters “made Messmer
a special place.”
In the 1930s it was the only Catholic high school
with a gymnasium, a pool and an auditorium on
its premises. It was the first Catholic high school
to use modular scheduling.
Sr. Mary Eric Militzer was a Latin teacher at
Messmer from 1964 to 1968. She also served as
a vice-principal of Messmer High School from 1967
to 1968. In those five years nothing seemed more
special to her than the students who worked their
way through high school.
“I loved the students who came in even though
they had to work to put themselves through school,”
Sr. Militzer said. “You’d have to
fight to keep them awake though.”
Br. Rothweiler summed up his four years at Messmer:
“There were other schools, but Messmer was
the best I could remember.”
‘Messmer stabilized
the neighborhood’
Talking about Messmer comes easily for Br. Smith.
He has been part of the Messmer community for
18 years, arriving two years after the school
was saved.
In the mid-’80s we saw a major demographic
shift in the community. It went from primarily
middle class families to primarily lower class
families in terms of economics,” Br. Smith
said.
That is, he said, one of the reasons he has fought
so hard for the school voucher program. Between
75 and 80 percent of the students at Messmer are
part of the school choice program. Br. Smith,
the nephew of Br. Ashe, uses Messmer as an example
of what good the school choice program can do.
“In the ‘50s and ‘60s, this
was a bustling school. We are all well aware of
the stories from the ‘80s. Now Messmer is
bustling again,” Br. Smith said. “This
place has been very important for the community.
Messmer stabilized the neighborhood.”
Messmer has seen more than a shift in demographics
since its closing and subsequent reopening in
1984. In 1998, a wing was added to the high school.
In 2000 Messmer Preparatory Catholic School opened.
Last year, Messmer’s graduation ceremony
had to be moved from the auditorium to the gymnasium
because the auditorium was not able to accommodate
the crowd.
Br. Smith knows school choice isn’t the
only reason students can afford Messmer. He is
quick to recognize the generosity of private donors.
Besides its comeback story, there are other things
that make Br. Smith proud of Messmer: no graffiti
on the walls; no metal detectors or security concerns;
so many people are involved with the life of the
school.
“People respect Messmer,”
he said of the support the school receives.
Anthony Kamer is a senior at Messmer who is willing
to tell his school’s story.
“It’s
a very welcoming school,” Kamer said. “You
feel like you are part of a family here.”
He is planning to attend University of Wisconsin
in Milwaukee as an undergraduate. He also plans
to pursue a master’s degree at Marquette
University, “probably in criminal law.”
That is the attitude Messmer tries to instill
in its students, according to Br. Smith, who attributes
that attitude to, “Love, courage and God.”
Monday concurs, crediting the attitudes to the
“gratifying hope Messmer provides.”
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