The 'Rock' of Bishop Chatard: From making pasta to touching lives, Brother Joseph Umile leaves his mark
Ending his 14 years as the leader of Bishop Chatard High School, Holy Cross Brother Joseph Umile receives a standing ovation at an appreciation night for him on June 3. (Submitted photo)
By John Shaughnessy
Some people associate him with a lighthouse, noting how his office is filled with gifts of that symbol of hope and reassurance—a connection to his childhood on the coast of Connecticut.
Others picture the proud Italian wearing an apron, slaving over a steaming stove to make his homemade spaghetti and meatballs for all the high school’s sports teams, the drama club and the other school groups—his unique way of showing students how much he cared for them and appreciated their efforts.
His best friends recall his behind-the-scenes, heartfelt touch—rushing to see a friend in the hospital or crocheting a blanket for a teacher whose family just had a baby.
And now there is one more image to remember Holy Cross Brother Joseph Umile—the pasta-making, heavy-smoking, sometimes-glaring, always-caring East Coast native who will soon step aside as the president of Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis after pouring his heart and his soul into the place for the past 14 years.
That latest image recently surfaced when a huge boulder was excavated from the site where a new activity center is rising at Bishop Chatard. School officials looked at the boulder and viewed it as a perfect tribute to Brother Joseph.
The boulder will be placed in a prominent spot on the school grounds and a plaque will be affixed to it. The plaque will include Brother Joseph’s name, his years of service, the symbols of the school and the Holy Cross order, and this tribute to him: “The ‘Rock’ of Bishop Chatard.”
“People get emotional when they think about him leaving,” says Bill Sahm, who will succeed Brother Joseph as the school’s next president on July 1. “People come up to me and say, ‘You know, he really has been a rock.’ I know he’s blessed me with his advice and wisdom.”
The emotion has been known to flow from Brother Joseph, too, who also recently received a special honor at the school’s 2007 graduation on May 25. During the ceremony, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein presented Brother Joseph with the “Seek the Face of the Lord” Award in honor of his long years of dedication and work for the archdiocese and the Church. It was just the fourth time the archbishop has given the award.
The tribute was one of the poignant moments that have marked his last days at the school.
“People know I’m not enamored with Indiana as a place because there are no mountains and water,” says Brother Joseph, 58, who was born and raised on Lighthouse Road in New Haven, Conn., with the beach just 50 feet from his
family’s house. “But it’s been wonderful working with the people. To accomplish something with the people and get Bishop Chatard back on the road to where it should be, that’s been incredible. Even though home is always home, I feel like I’m leaving a second home.”
Just as uncovering the boulder was an unexpected discovery, so was finding Brother Joseph as a potential leader of the school. He had led a boys’ school in Rome for 10 years, returned to the United States for another year of education and began to search for a position as a high school principal or president in 1993 when Bishop Chatard was looking for a leader.
He first learned about an opening at Marian High School in Mishawaka, Ind. The opening at Bishop Chatard was listed two weeks later. The provincial of his order pulled out a small map, looked at Indiana and told Brother Joseph that with either job, he could live with the Holy Cross Brothers at the University of Notre Dame near South Bend, Ind.
Brother Joseph gives his characteristically hearty laugh when he recalls the question he asked his provincial after he had to drive nearly three hours from South Bend to his interview at Bishop Chatard: “When I got back to New Rochelle, I asked my provincial, ‘Would you show me the map where
it’s 40 minutes from South Bend to Indianapolis?’ ”
It didn’t matter. Brother Joseph knew he found the right place when he came to Bishop Chatard.
“It just worked from the moment I arrived for the interview,” Brother Joseph recalls. “The first person I met was Dick Powell [a longtime religion teacher at the school]. Of course, within 30 seconds, Dick decided I should have the job.”
So did archdiocesan officials.
Fourteen years later, Powell knows his instincts about Brother Joseph as a leader were right. What Powell has learned during those 14 years is just how remarkable a person and a friend Brother Joseph is.
A teacher at the school for more than 40 years, Powell rarely is at a loss for words and he’s never shied away from standing before a crowd and paying tribute to someone. Yet he says he couldn’t give a tribute to Brother Joseph in front of an audience because his emotions would overwhelm him.
Instead, he privately shares how his sometimes tough-looking friend crochets baby blankets for children and grandchildren of teachers and staff.
He also shares a long list of stories of how Brother Joseph quietly took care of people and situations, including a dedicated teacher whose bank of sick days ran out as she battled challenging health problems. When she worried about her future, Brother Joseph told her to relax, that her job was secure.
“Family is very important to him,” says Powell, who also has shared many battles of barbed sarcasm with Brother Joseph. “One of the hard things for me is his departure. We’re more than compatriots, we’re friends, and his leaving is going to hurt.”
If Brother Joseph inspires loyalty, it’s because he gives it completely. Benedictine Sister Louise Hoeing, the longtime head of Bishop Chatard’s guidance department, appreciates his respect for her religious order’s historic connection to the school—and how he renamed the school’s administrative building as the St. Benedict Center.
“We all want to leave the place where we are better than we found it,” Sister Louise says. “And he certainly has. He’s never quit working to make things better.”
The school’s physical improvements during his tenure include a new art center, a new library, increased technology, the current building of an activity center and the remodeling of the inside of the school.
Still, Brother Joseph says his primary approach to education has always been to have students dig deeper—to make spirituality and service to others key parts of their Catholic education, along with a strong emphasis on academics.
He will add to that legacy through two programs that will begin after he leaves Bishop Chatard, two programs that are stamped with his signature.
One is the Summa Cum Laude program that will begin in the 2007-08 school year. It’s a rigorous three-year honors program for academically gifted students that aims to develop the whole person through extensive service requirements, demonstrated leadership in extracurricular activities, and a commitment to faith-related retreats and projects. It will be one of the first such programs in the United States.
He has also asked that farewell gifts for him be used to fund a new initiative for community service around the country and the world by Bishop Chatard students.
“I’d like to have some kind of funding for kids in the summer of their junior year where they get involved in service projects with direct contact with the poor and the oppressed on a more extended basis,” Brother Joseph says. “We’ve had kids make trips to El Salvador, to Appalachia, to help people in Mississippi. The fund would help with the cost of making those trips so it would encourage more people to do it.”
Brother Joseph’s own future includes a sabbatical at a home owned by Holy Cross priests in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
“I’m not retiring,” he says. “I’ll be there for a year. I have absolutely no agenda but to get myself back into better shape. To quit smoking, lose weight, exercise and also to help my mother, who is 90 years old. The house where I’m going to live is 50 feet from the Atlantic Ocean.”
So his life comes full circle. Back to the East Coast, back to the water, back to life with his religious order, back to family.
He will leave with the love, respect and thanks of his Bishop Chatard family.
“I think of the Book of Micah when I think of him,” Sister Louise says. “It mentions three things we should do: To act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God. Joe does all three well.” †
