By Thea Jarvis

Donald T. Sasso, principal of South Catholic High School in Hartford Connecticut, has been appointed incoming principal of St. Pius X High School effective July 1991.

Sasso, 41, a graduate of Holy Cross College, received advanced degrees in educational administration from Fairfield University and the University of Connecticut. He taught high school in Waterbury, Connecticut and Torremolinos, Spain before coming to South Catholic as vice-principal of student life and discipline in 1979.

In 1985, Sasso became principal of South Catholic, “the only Catholic high school within the Hartford city limits,” he said in a telephone interview. There he has served a “basically diverse population” of students from varied ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

Donald Sasso stands six feet, eight inches tall and admits that “small cars and low doorways are downside.” He was drafted by the Cincinnati Redlegs after his high school graduation but opted for Holy Cross in Worchester, Mass. and a full athletic scholarship.

At St. Pius, he is looking forward to good basketball and “the opportunity to participate in Catholic education in a different part of the country.”

“I’ve visited Pius and have been impressed with the quality of people and the quality of the program,” he said.

The current principal of Atlanta’s only archdiocesan high school, Father Terry Young, has served there for the past 15 years and has been part of the search committee formed in 1990 to seek his successor.

“I believe that Don Sasso brings many fine qualities and skills to this job and I am sure that he will have much to contribute to the continued growth of the school,” Father Young wrote in a letter to the St. Pius staff. “His personality, philosophy and experience indicate that he will adjust well to this school and its traditions.”

Father Young noted that Sasso “enjoys a good reputation for spiritual leadership in the school community.” Sister Roberta Schmidt, CSJ, Secretary for Education in the archdiocese, agreed.

“When Mr. Sasso interviewed at Pius in January, I was impressed by his loyalty to the Catholic Church and the profession of education,” she said. “He will be a strong spiritual leader for St. Pius.”

Donald Sasso will be joined in Atlanta by his wife, Janice, and his children Bartholemew, 10, and Rebecca, six. The fact that Mrs. Sasso has been bookkeeper at the Hartford headquarters of the LaSalette order has meant the family has benefited from “a tremendous network of information” local LaSalette priests have offered.

Sasso said his family is feeling “an exhilaration, an excitement” about the move, even apart from the professional opportunity it affords him.

“I’ve heard nothing but good things” about the Atlanta area since applying for the position at St. Pius, he said.

Sasso was scheduled to visit Atlanta the week of February 11, meeting with St. Pius students and faculty as well as becoming better acquainted with the area.

His appointment concludes the diligent work of a search committee which included chairman Whitney Robichaux, Father young, Sister Roberta, Jeanie Brieske, Eugene Brisbane, Carter Stout and Allen Conroy.

Since the school’s founding in 1958, principals of St. Pius have traditionally been priests. Donald Sasso’s appointment marks the first time in the school’s history that the head of the school has been a layperson.