By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—In 2001 Marist School celebrates “a century of learning and serving” with activities culminating in a closing centennial weekend in October that will include a Centennial Ball and dedication of a new assembly center.

This month, parents and alumni may stroll down Marist memory lane during a tour by school historian Richard Reynolds, class of 1952, in and around its old Ivy Street location in downtown Atlanta.

Other reasons to celebrate are the school’s first graduation to be held in the new assembly center, which is under construction, along with an aquatic center. Both facilities are expected to be completed May 1 and graduation events will be held May 25 and 26.

Father James Hartnett, SM, who has been president since 1989 and has been associated with the school for over three decades, explained the importance of marking an anniversary like this.

“If you’re smart you look back to where you came from and the heritage that has been passed down . . . We stand on tall shoulders of all the teachers and staff that have preceded us . . . What we are today didn’t just happen today; it happened over decades. It’s about honoring those who were involved in their daily educational roles in the classrooms,” he said of the school that serves over 1,000 students in grades 7-12. “The kids are aware of the Marist mission and vision, that they’re part of something very special.”

The year-long affair to remember the heritage of the Catholic school, which was founded in 1901 and is run by the Society of Mary, began last October during homecoming weekend and drew some 1,600 alumni, parents and students. It featured bluegrass and barbecue on Friday and an opening outdoor ceremony on Saturday where third-generation students Thomas Gunning and Louise McMahon raised the centennial flag, designed by Marist mothers who were inspired by a 1920s school catalogue.

Remarks were made by Archbishop John F. Donoghue, Father Hartnett and Father Richard Egan, SM, vicar provincial of the Atlanta province and Marist’s executive vice president who will become president following Father Hartnett’s retirement in June. An honor guard included alumni, 32-year Marist faculty member Joan Raulerson and Col. Neil Meisler, the last military instructor before the school ended that program in 1977.

Noelle Ross, who graduated in 1999 and had written some 500 alumni from various age groups requesting they tell her their feelings about their alma mater, composed an anthem drawing upon their comments. She sang it along with her siblings.

“The whole family sang—the only thing is one went to St. Pius (X High School). She sang too. We’re very ecumenical here,” recalled Joanne Davis, centennial coordinator and director of the annual fund, whose six children are graduates, including one who returned to teach.

Davis mined the school archives for historical gems used to create several panels telling the school’s history which remain on display in the main office. Looking forward, those attending the event could go on a “hard hat tour” of the new centers. “The people who attended were very moved by the ceremony I think, if I’m right. We had a bunch of alumni as an honor guard

. . . I heard a lot of family members reading the archival exhibition and saying ‘I didn’t know that about the school.’”

Also speaking and introducing a new centennial year initiative was Marietta Zacker, who began serving last August as the director of the Reach for Excellence program. The program will begin this June to help youth from diverse backgrounds with strong academic potential, motivation and financial need to become “determined learners and future leaders” and excel in college-preparatory programs throughout Atlanta. The program for seventh- through ninth-graders will accept 25 rising seventh-graders and will expand by 25 each year to reach its total enrollment of 75. Students and their parents will commit to the three-year program involving academic and elective classes and enrichment activities. Youth will attend a six-week summer session and a school year component where they’ll come to Marist for instruction two Saturdays monthly. Marist began planning the program three years ago, looking at ways to serve those it hasn’t served as well.

Supporting that and all other school initiatives, the Parents Club held a centennial dinner dance and auction in February that raised over $200,000. A new fathers’ retreat, that drew 137 men, was held on parenting with Msgr. Richard Lopez and psychologist Sylvia Rimm.

Also to build up the larger Atlanta community, in February students from Marist, which has many service opportunities and typically does projects with St. Pius X High School and other area private schools, partnered with public, inner-city Booker T. Washington High School, to construct a house through Habitat for Humanity.

“The motto for the centennial is celebrating a century of learning and serving in the sense that the kids are not just learning English, math, science, social studies and religion, but they also learn how to serve the needs of other people. In the last 15 or 20 years when community service came into vogue Marist had the first high school charter for Habitat for Humanity” in the United States, Father Hartnett noted.

Once an inner-city school itself, Marist College, as it was known then, opened its doors on Oct. 2, 1901 to 32 boys in a schoolhouse on Ivy Street, now Peachtree Center Avenue, in downtown Atlanta, under the direction of Father John Gunn, SM.

Members of the Society of Mary, a religious order of priests and brothers founded in France in 1836, first came to Atlanta in 1897 to serve the people of what is now Sacred Heart Parish. Soon after arriving they realized that the young men of Atlanta were in need of Catholic education at a higher level. The school was originally intended to confer college as well as high school degrees, conferring one in 1912 before that department was closed. By 1960 the school needed to relocate in order to expand, moving to its present site at 3790 Ashford Dunwoody Road in 1962, where the name changed to Marist School. In 1976 it began accepting women.

Father Egan noted that non-Catholics are a large part of its legacy, as Georgia for decades had few Catholics. “There were like three Catholics. I think their presence was really courageous at that time. It was counter-intuitive. It would be like buying tech stock today.”

For the tour of the Ivy Street site, a bus will depart Marist at 3 p.m. on April 28 and will also visit sites including the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Wrens Nest, home of Uncle Remus author Joel Chandler Harris, whose son went to Marist.

The tour will include attending the 5:30 p.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Church celebrated by Father Hartnett and concelebrated by Father Jim Harrison, class of 1946, and Father Tom O’Donnell, SM, who taught at Marist on Ivy Street. Afterward there will be a reception. All adults

of the Marist family are welcome, particularly pre-1962 alumni.

The first event in the assembly center will be the Baccalaureate Mass on May 25 at 10:30 a.m. followed by graduation exercises there on May 26 at 2 p.m.

The assembly center, to seat 1,600, will also house athletic events, assemblies and extracurricular activities. Previously, in order to have an assembly of the entire school community, Marist has had to rent a facility.

The aquatic center will have an Olympic-sized pool and allow Marist to offer swimming and diving courses. Funds were raised through its Second Century Campaign aimed at raising $25 million.

Other projects included the $1.2 million renovation of the science labs, completed in 1998, construction of the alumni and development office, displaced by the assembly center, and renovations to the rectory and Kuhrt Gymnasium. The drive also increases endowment funding for tuition assistance, faculty enrichment and plant maintenance.

“Did you ever hear a cat purr? That’s what I’m doing now,” said Father Hartnett. “I first walked on this campus in 1962 and the only structures here in ‘62 were classroom buildings and the cafeteria, period.”

He recalled wondering then what 20 years would bring for the school.

“It’s just wonderful. We’ve had just amazing support from parents, alumni and friends to help us achieve what we’ve done—the commitment of the Marists who have served here, of the lay staff who have worked here, the commitment of parents who support our programs and the commitment of the board of trustees to have the courage to undertake the various projects.”

The president said it’s “awesome” to see the springtime of the school with the motto “under the name of Mary.” “The school is doing exceptionally well. We’re blessed with a good number of applications, strong students. Overall, it’s just been the blossoming, you might say, of an institution that has had a long history.”

It remains essential, he said, for the school to maintain its Catholic identity and the essence of its Marist mission. That involves forming the whole person in the image of Christ by pursuit of academic excellence (last year’s SAT average was 1211), the heritage of Catholic education and the spirit of the Society of Mary.

For him the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, exemplifies that spirit. Mary, told by an angel she will give birth to Christ, gives her consent and, not retreating to her room for nine months to meditate, instead goes out immediately to visit and serve Elizabeth.

Father Egan looks forward to continuing to nurture the school’s growth.

“I’m trying to not let it settle in, so I don’t get scared. It certainly is an exciting time for us. To have a school around for 100 years is just amazing,” he said. “I’m just totally amazed by the fierce loyalty of people who’ve gone here. I’m sure it has a lot to do with the success of the school. The kids who have graduated, they’re our best representatives. The province is in awe for the number of leaders we have put into the Atlanta area.”

As president he hopes to raise awareness of its top-quality academic curriculum and service and retreat programs, which are less well known than its high profile sports programs. And a top priority is to increase the school endowment to slow the rate of tuition increase while maintaining the high quality faculty and low teacher/student ratio.

“If we keep raising tuition can middle-income people afford to send their kids here? Yeah, they can, if we can grow our endowment,” he said.

As Mary’s soul magnified the Lord, Marist supporters will finish celebrating the school’s century of glorifying God through education on homecoming weekend Oct. 5-6.

The archbishop will celebrate Mass with the student body on Oct. 4 and there will be an alumni dinner on Oct. 5 before the football game. On Oct. 6, Marist parents and alumni will come together for Mass and the Blue and Gold Centennial Ball. The building dedication will also be held that weekend.

“When people see . . . all the changes in the campus, they’ll know we’re prepared for the next 100 years to be as excellent as the first 100 years,” Davis said. “It’s just a very lively place.”

Father Egan added, “I think it’s going to be an exciting time, a time to celebrate. Some things are so important that you can’t not celebrate. I think alumni are anxious to celebrate what they’ve received from Marist.”

For information on the Ivy Street tour call the alumni office at (770) 454-6149. For other centennial questions call Davis at (770) 936-2282.