Fifty years ago this month, graduations at four Dubuque high schools were melancholy and bittersweet. They would be the last classes to graduate from Immaculate Conception Academy, St. Joseph Academy, St. Columbkille High School and Loras Academy.
As aging Catholic high schools became too expensive to repair and maintain, officials of the Archdiocese of Dubuque decided to close them and build a new, state-of-the-art high school for all of the city's parochial students to attend.
Wahlert High School opened its doors in the fall of 1959, welcoming students from the four Catholic academies that closed. Former students from each school shared some memories.
Immaculate Conception Academy
Not many people return to live in their former high schools, but Sister Carol Hemesath did and declares it a "wonderful" experience.
The Dubuque Franciscan sister was a 1955 graduate of Immaculate Conception Academy, now Shalom Retreat Center and residential apartments. Hemesath and two other sisters live in what was once the auditorium of
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"I loved my high school. It was a time to blossom, and I took advantage of it," said Hemesath, 71.
The "beautiful friendships and the happiness" she saw in her Franciscan teachers made a lasting impression on Hemesath, who joined the Sisters of St. Francis directly out of high school, trading her navy blue wool school uniform for a religious habit. Studying music and being part of all the academy's music groups served her well, leading to a long career as a music teacher.
Every year, several hundred former "I. C." students show up at reunions to recall favorite memories like dancing the jitterbug during lunch time while a talented student played popular songs on the dining room piano.
St. Joseph Academy
For Betty Frommelt, her days at St. Joseph Academy were some of the best of her life.
"We could just go to school and be natural. We didn't have to worry about boys. We could be ourselves and learn," she said of her all-girls high school.
Frommelt didn't even mind her daily uniform, a blue serge jumper with a white blouse.
"You got up in the morning and didn't have to worry about what to wear," said Frommelt, 73, of Dubuque.
Life at the academy "revolved around religion," she said. The school was run by Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To this day, collections are taken at the school's yearly reunions to be given to the sisters, who are based in Dubuque.
Loras Academy
Don Freymann's life has been closely interwoven with the Loras College campus. He graduated from Loras Academy in 1956, then earned a business degree from Loras College. Nearly 30 years ago, he returned to Loras, where he is the director of planned giving.
Students came to board at the academy from nearby states and several foreign countries.
"The challenges and disciplines had a unifying influence on us. It created not just collegiality, but shoulder-to-shoulder brotherhood," said Freymann, 70, of Dubuque. At the same time, in an all-male school, "boys could just be boys," he added.
The archdiocesan priests and lay instructors at the academy "transmitted Catholic values," that allowed their students to "grow in faith," he said. More than 2,000 men are listed on the school's alumni database, Freymann said, and reunions attract several hundred former students.
St. Columbkille High School
St. Columbkille High School was Dubuque's only co-ed Catholic high school when Marian Sweeney was enrolled.
"That's why a lot of kids went there," said Sweeney, 77, who graduated in 1949.
Sweeney appreciates the "basic education" and extracurricular activities during her high school years, such as the school newspaper and the school yearbook, because they gave her a solid foundation in life. She joined the Sisters of the Presentation right after graduation and spent many years teaching and working as a high school librarian.
Sweeney is now retired and lives at Mount Loretto, but when she goes past her old school, now part of the St. Columbkille Parish complex, she wonders about "how much things have changed since we were there."
