She’s worked there for the past 20 years.
Having done all that, “I was trying to figure out what it would be like here if there was no Central at all,” said Millie Vollmer.
As Catholic Central High School prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary, it’s hard for Vollmer to imagine Springfield without something that’s been so central to her life.
The oldest of five children of Izzy Kampman to grow up across from Hallinean Field and attend Central, Vollmer’s associations reflect both the deeper purpose of Catholic education and the annual rhythms of her life.
She’s grown used to the dizzying switch from the elegance of Catholic Central’s Emerald Evening fundraiser to the chaos of setting up Klutter Kloset the next day. And she remembers her father founding the sale in 1974 as a way to raise money for Central athletics and to provide low-priced goods for the needy.
And mixed in there somewhere are her memories of St. Mary’s Sister Mary Alyouisius, who, in teaching her to enjoy reading, “made a big difference in my life,” Vollmer said.
“I think this community has benefitted so much from the graduates” of Central, she said.
Here are stories of a few of her fellow graduates to whom Central also has been central.
John Derr
Although she was the oldest of seven children to go to Catholic Central, by the 1965-66 school year, John Derr’s mother thought the $185 tuition “was outrageous,” he said.
As a result, his brother graduated from Northeastern High School.
That brother, Mark, is now Central’s girls soccer coach. John Derr’s daughter, Stacey Webster, is the volleyball coach who, like her brother, also graduated from Central. So did Derr’s wife, the former Peggy Regouski and both of her parents.
John and Peggy Derr now head Central’s alumni association, which tries to keep the same kind of familial feeling among all graduates.
Having come from St. Mary’s, where he contends the Sisters of Mercy were tougher than the Sisters of Charity he’d have in high school (“They had these big rosaries”), he said, “once you got to Central, you all became one.”
And the bond of Catholic education, he said, has extended into adulthood among many Central grads who have remained best friends.
Fathers Caylor and Hurst
“The bond is that the parish supports and encourages its families who decide to send their children to Catholic Schools,“ said St. Joseph/St. Raphael priest Dennis Caylor, who played junior high football at St. Joseph and spent one year at Catholic Central before heading for seminary in New York.
The parish-school bond may not be as direct as in earlier times, when each parish had its own schools.
“What made that possible for so many years were the many Sisters assigned here, and they worked for almost nothing,” said St. Bernard Church pastor, Paul Hurst.
Hurst reminds people, though, that the Sisters weren’t always at the heart of the school.
“When (St. Bernard School) was founded, it was conducted by several lay men,” he said. “This would be in the 1870s.”
With the days of the Sisters gone, Caylor says it’s good that descendants of German, Irish and other nationalities in now merged schools “share their Catholicism with other Catholics. It isn’t overly parochial any more.”
“But we still need to work at strengthening the bonds” between school and church, he said.
The goal involves “what we would term our Catholic identity,” he said. “It’s helping our students to come to understand and commit to live their lives the way we live our faith out.”
The Hannons
A promising athlete in his youth, the late Tom Hannon was invited to attend Springfield High School to play sports there, said his son, Tony.
“But Patrick Hannon said his kids were going to Catholic Central,” Tony added.
Tom graduated in 1933, the first of four generations of Hannons attending Springfield Catholic Schools.
For Tony Hannon, Class of 1965 and one of four Hannon siblings to graduate from Central, the school and church experience at St. Joseph and Central are mixed into memories of the ritual of Sunday church and family dinners; of attending football games first as a child, later as a player, then as a parent; and of looking forward to doing the same things as a grandparent.
They’re also tied up with the sacrifices of his mother, who rose at 5 a.m. Sundays to do much of the cooking before church; of his father, who always was volunteering in a school or church project; and of many who sacrificed to make his Catholic school experience possible: “You think about the priests and nuns who gave what they gave to us — their life was wrapped around us,” he said.
It’s that spirit, he said, that makes giving to a community a natural, expected thing for Central graduates. It’s a tradition that also has encouraged him and others to discover connections with the Irish heritage that has been a part of strengthening the bonds.
Ever since his dad, who coached for 32 years, asked him to work the down markers for Catholic Central football games, Hannon has done it.
“What a better thing to do on a Friday night, being around the kids and all that,” Hannon said.
And although his father is no longer on the other end of the chains, through Central, Hannon still feels a link to his father; to his children, Carrie, Tony and Tom, all graduates; and to his grandchildren, Sierra and Aiden Thomas, Central grads of the future.
Pete Hackett
He had planned to go to Chaminade Julienne in Dayton. So after his father died, and his mother remarried and moved the family to Springfield when he was a high school freshman, “It took me about two years to fall in love with Central,” Pete Hackett said.
He has been ever since.
“I’m the only one of those 10 kids in Springfield now,” said Hackett, who had pledged never to return after leaving for Notre Dame, then graduate school at Ohio State University.
When he did, he found his Central experience made him feel rooted in the community.
“I still have lunch with my high school friends and stay in touch with them,” said Hackett, a 1955 graduate and a retired accountant. “We’re still a very tight-knit community.”
Hackett played football at Central — including a game against the team from Boys Town.
“My three boys all played basketball and tennis.”
And he has remained active in the Central foundation and fundraising efforts.
“I felt it was important for Springfield to have a Catholic High School in town,” he said, because of “the alternative education and values that can be taught” in that setting.
“There’s something special there that I can’t define really,” Hackett said.
But it remains central in his life.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.
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