Celebrating the legacy of Madonna High School this weekend

The 1966 graduating class of Madonna High School will be in evidence this weekend in Aurora, as it celebrates its 50th class reunion.

Madonna High School is no longer a household name in Aurora, although its former graduates abound throughout the Fox Valley. In fact, there are now entire generations of Aurorans who may never have heard of Madonna High School and have no idea where it was located.

Not only am I well aware of Madonna, I am surrounded by its alumni - my wife, my mother, my sisters, not to mention various aunts and female cousins.

The former Madonna Catholic High School is presently the home of District 131's Magnet Academy at Root Street and College Avenue. Madonna held its first class in the fall of 1926 and was run by the School Sisters of St. Francis, with a very firm hand, until 1968. In the fall of 1968, the building was taken over by a brand new entity called Aurora Central Catholic High School, which represented a merger of Madonna with Roncalli Catholic High School for boys.

Prior to its closing, Madonna was generally considered the sister school to Marmion Military Academy, a Catholic boys high school located across the Fox River at what is now Prisco Center and McCullough Park. Known as the "Day School," in contrast to Marmion's boarding school on Butterfield Road, it was frequented by Catholic boys from as far away as Elgin, Virgil and Plano. Many of these far-flung students could be seen daily, hitchhiking to and from the Lake Street campus. I was one of them.

As I mentioned, the Madonna nuns ruled with a firm hand. Not only were the Madonna girls wardrobed in less-than-fashionable plaid and pleated skirts, but those skirts had better be of such a length that they would modestly touch the floor when a student under suspicion knelt down, which, in a Catholic school, was often enough.

Nonetheless, my wife, Marilyn, who was part of Madonna's last graduating class, has fond memories of her alma mater. The '60s were very much a period when sexism was alive and well (the TV show "Mad Men" is a fairly accurate illustrative example), although the seeds of change were beginning to sprout within my wife's generation.

While boys generally "ruled" in those days, at Madonna there were no boys! Thus, every leadership position, from class president to newspaper editor to valedictorian, was filled by a young woman. Whereas, in most circumstances, girls of that era would likely have played a subordinate role to someone from the opposite sex, at Madonna, they learned to be in charge, to make decisions, to lead.

From a personal standpoint, I can't take issue with my wife's assessment. After all, she, herself, has been a superb schoolteacher; an adventuresome Peace Corps Volunteer; the founder, owner and CEO of a successful private business for 17 years; an elected candidate to two different public offices; and the head of Aurora's Interfaith Food Pantry, not to mention an exceptional mother.

I mention her because I am familiar with her accomplishments, but there are hundreds, if not thousands more of Madonna graduates who have made Aurora, the Fox Valley and the rest of the world a better place.

As the Class of 1966 gathers in Aurora this weekend, it has an amazing legacy to celebrate. Happy 50th Reunion ladies ... and welcome back to Aurora.