Michael D. Orrsini, a graduate of the St. Angela's Academy, takes a piece of the school with him during the school's reunion Saturday afternoon. CHRIS THELEN/STAFF

Private school reunion successful

Web posted August 2, 1998

By Margaret N. O'Shea
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- St. Angela's Academy closed before computers in classrooms were commonplace, but nearly 200 of the Catholic School's alumni, found mostly via the World Wide Web, came back this weekend.

But then, St. Angela herself was known for gathering her students from the streets in 16th-century Italy. So two former students of Aiken's old Catholic school were just following tradition when they decided to hold a reunion for all the alumni they could find from 1900 to 1988, the beginning to the end.

Villanova astronomy professor Frank Moloney started thinking about his school while searching for a private school in the Philadelphia area for his 10-year-old son. ``I tried to put myself back at his age, and all these vivid memories of St. Angela's started to flood back. I decided to get back in touch with people I hadn't seen or heard from in years.''

Mr. Moloney put out an Internet inquiry for Paulette Vardell, whom he remembered dancing with -- until a teacher he won't name except as students knew her, ``The Drill Sergeant'' -- decided dancing was worldly and cut it from the curriculum.

A few days later, although she had not seen his inquiry, Paulette Vardell Demko, now living in Bartow, Fla., sent an e-mail to Mr. Moloney at Villanova: ``Are you the Frank Moloney who once attended St. Angela's Academy in Aiken, S.C.?''

She said that she, too, had been thinking about the old days and wanted to find classmates.

Sheila Boulineau laughs at a note she found in one of the old classrooms at St. Angela's Academy during the reunion Saturday for all classes. The school, which closed in 1988, is scheduled for demolition in a few months. CHRIS THELEN/STAFF

Months later, the contents of dozens of yearbooks are on the St. Angela web site, supported by Villanova, and alumni and faculty from 15 states and going back more than 50 years are winding up their big reunion today.

The tardy were still arriving in Aiken on Saturday afternoon for the evening's dinner and dance, but many made a point of coming early enough to gather on the grounds of the old academy, which is about to be torn down.

In fact, Pat Cunning of Aiken, chief loan officer of Regents Bank, is in the eerie position of selling the school he graduated from in 1965. Palmetto Federal, recently bought by Regents, acquired the property in foreclosure. There is still straw in the gymnasium, which had been used as a stable and barn after dwindling enrollment caused the academy to close in 1988.

In its heyday, at mid-century, the school had more than 250 students from up and down the eastern seaboard, and into Canada. The large brick house next to the old academy on Berrie Street was used to house boarding students.

Only 60 percent were Catholic. The others were drawn by the school's reputation for solid academics and stern discipline.

For those who brought picnic baskets to the grounds Saturday afternoon, it didn't matter that paint is peeling and cobwebs hang from the door sills of the building.

Jules Schwerin of Charleston, Class of '66, didn't remember the date but he recalled every detail of the moment he and Pat Cunning took out a chunk of the wrought-iron pillar in front. They were double-heading on a motor scooter that neither of them quite knew how to ride.

``We careened off that tree over there,'' he said, pointing. ``We flew off and the scooter kept going. It hit right here.''

``Here'' is still a gaping hole.

``We really paid for that one,'' Mr. Schwerin said. ``We had to paint the school that summer, and then we had to paint the house where the sisters lived.''

The sisters, during most of the academy's history, were the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy, although the school was founded by another teaching order, the Ursulines, and named for the saint who began their work centuries ago.

Sister Mary William was principal then. She held that job from 1957 to 1967, starting when she was only 27 years old and had no clue what to do with a school that was struggling and a quarter-million in debt.

``The first thing I did was hire the best teachers from Aiken High School, hoping that students would follow the teachers,'' she said Saturday, between gleeful hugs and joyful recognition of young faces that have aged.

`Luckily they did, and by the time I left, the debt was down to $10,000. The owner of Joanna Mills, who had three daughters at St. Angela's, paid that, and we were debt-free.''

The debt was for the new brick building among the trees on Berrie Street.

But paying for it was not easy as Aiken's winter colony declined and many people began opting for public schools. The first December as principal, the former principal -- no longer a nun and named Dot Gnann -- couldn't meet the payroll and talked to a banker about a loan, but didn't take one out.

``I wrote all the checks on faith,'' she said. ``None of them bounced.''

Ms. Gnann came to the reunion as both a former teacher and a former student. She came from a large farm family in Beaufort to attend St. Angela's from 1944 to 1946. The sisters so touched her life that she became one of them and looks today on those years as some of her best.

Now she is in politics, a member of the Beaufort County Council and director of that county's economic development. She also served on Beaufort's school board for several years.

Being part of a religious order and in charge of a school was good preparation for political life, she said.

Sister Marie Daniel, who lives and works in Louisville, Ky., now, also said the St. Angela years were pleasant to recall. She was director of the residence hall from 1960 to 1970 and principal from 1967 to 1970.

She taught world history, American history and political science.

Sister Mary William taught religion, but said Saturday she learned from students more than she taught them.

During the years that most reunion participants could remember, the academy students wore uniforms, which meant blazers and ties for the boys and starched blouses for the girls. At one time their skirts were maroon, later plaid. And their athletic teams were, of course, the Saints.

The sisters wore black habits with long skirts.

Families did not just send their children to school. They were active participants in their children's education.

Mrs. Demko attended the school only briefly and did not graduate from it. But she said St. Angela's has been one of the strongest influences in her life. ``And some of my happiest memories, too,'' she said.

The weekend in Aiken is not the end of this reunion either. The web site will remain and eventually include addresses, e-mail and otherwise, of a growing list of people connected with the academy.

``The school is static now, like Latin,'' Mr. Moloney said. ``So we've created a virtual St. Angela's on the Internet. We're going to keep going to our school as long as we can.''