Tag: roman catholic high school

Roman Catholic High School: Veterans Day Remembrance – 2022

Edward A. Duff – Class of 1903

Edward A. Duff hailed from St. Francis Xavier parish and graduated from Roman in 1903.

After graduating from Roman, he was ordained a priest and later served in Europe as a Naval Chaplain during World War I aboard the USS Nevada.  He was also aboard the U.S.S. Olympia during its famous voyage from France to the United States in 1921 to deliver the body of the Unknown Soldier.   Duff was also decorated in 1920 by the king of Italy with the Chevalier of the Crown of Italy for his service aboard the Italian battleship Puglia in the Adriatic, and was promoted to captain in 1925.  In 1937 he was named Chief of the Navy Chaplain Corps, the first Catholic to hold that position.  His lectures on the Unknown Soldier were estimated to have been heard by over 300,000 people.  Unfortunately, a heart ailment forced his early retirement and he died in Philadelphia at the age of 58 in 1943.

John R. Corkery – Class of 1936

John R. Corkery hailed from St. Anne’s parish and following graduation from Roman in 1936, he served in the U.S. Army during World War 2. 

During the Battle of Rapido River in 1944, Corkery courageously battled under furious artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire for more than 10 hours, to establish position so he could maintain constant communications with his battalion. Over 1,300 U.S. soldiers would lose their lives in the battle with more than 600 captured.  Corkery was later wounded in Italy.  For his actions in battle he was awarded 2 Bronze Stars, an Oak Leaf Cluster, and a Purple Heart.

Following the war, Corkery would go on to raise a family of 11 children with a highly successful career with the VA.  He also established himself as a great CYO basketball coach with St. Anne Parish in Port Richmond, and was founder of what became the Port Richmond Boys Club by starting their football program.  He died at the young age of 52, and is beloved by a generation of boys in the neighborhood who to this day speak with love and reverence for him.

Bernard Donahue – Class of 1941

Bernard Donahue grew up on Park Avenue in North Philadelphia, hailing from St. Malachy parish.  He graduated from Roman in 1941.

After high school, Bernard worked at John Wanamaker’s before enlisting in the Army as an Aviation Cadet.  Ultimately, he earned his wings as a B-17 pilot and flew 26 combat missions over Germany and Austria.  Among other honors, then 1st Lieutenant Donahue was awarded the Distinguish Flying Cross for returning his crippled bomber from a raid over Berlin. 

In 1944, he married Rosemary Kirwan, a Hallahan graduate.  He returned to Rosemary, Philadelphia and Wanamaker’s after the war.  Bernard and Rosemary had 7 children, including an Air Force Colonel and a Navy Chief Petty Officer.  Bernard later became vice president of a men’s’ clothing retailer here in Philadelphia. He died at age 54 from complications from diabetes.  He was buried with full military honors in Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon.

Francis J. E. Ampthor – Class of 1942

Francis Ampthor hailed from St. Mary of the Assumption parish in Manayunk and while at Roman he was a member of 1942 city championship crew team, as well as the school band and Cahillite staff.  He attended St. Joseph’s College for one year, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War 2.

He served on the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in the Gunnery Department, witnessing the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.  He received the Victory Medal, the American Theater Ribbon and the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon with 2 Stars. After the war, he was part of the U.S.S. Missouri’s goodwill tour of the Mediterranean Sea region.

Following the war Ampthor was a chemical engineer at Rohm & Haas for nearly 44 years, helping farmers to formulate herbicides and pesticides, and later helping to develop fiberglass panels for Ford and Chevrolet cars.  For many years, he taught Organic Chemistry Lab at night at St. Joseph’s University, was active in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and in retirement drove the Roxborough Hospital patient shuttle and volunteered at St. Bridget’s Church in East Falls.  He died in 1993.

Charles Fuller – Class of 1956

Charles Fuller hailed from North Philadelphia and graduated from Roman in 1956.  Following Roman, he then studied for two years at Villanova University.

Fuller joined the U.S. Army in 1959 and served for 3 years overseas in Japan and South Korea.

He later graduated from LaSalle University and was a co-founder of the Afro-American Arts Theater in Philadelphia.  Fuller became a noted playwright and in 1982 he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for “A Soldier’s Play” that centered on the murder of a Black Army sergeant and the search for the culprit.  The play would later make it to Broadway and win two Tony Awards.  The movie version received three Oscar nominations.  He was a member of the Writers Guild of America and wrote numerous short fiction and screenplays, as well as worked as a movie producer.

In 2015, Fuller was named one of Roman Catholic High School’s 125 Men of Distinction.  He died on October 3, 2022.

Al Zimmerman – Class of 1965

Al Zimmerman graduated from Roman in 1965, hailing from St. Bridget’s parish.  Following graduation, he joined the U.S. Army in 1966 and was selected to attend Officer Candidate School.

During the Vietnam War, Zimmerman served as a Helicopter Pilot, Platoon Leader, and Operations Officer with the 1st Air Cavalry Division.  In 1969, during an operation to rescue wounded U.S. soldiers, Zimmerman’s Cobra helicopter was hit by enemy fire and forced down.  He was later picked up by another helicopter crew, where Zimmerman manned a gun and placed suppressive fire on the enemy and called in air strikes against the enemy positions.  The action resulted in the decimation of a large enemy unit, and Zimmerman was awarded the Silver Star for his actions.  His other awards include: four awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and 27 Air Medals.  Zimmerman is believed to be one of the most decorated alumni in Roman’s history and he was recently inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.

Edward Seeburger – Class of 1940

Edward Seeburger was born in Philadelphia and was a member of Our Lady of Mercy parish.  He graduated from Roman in 1940.  Following graduation, he immediately enlisted in the Marines and fought in the Pacific during World War II. 

Seeburger also served as a First Lieutenant in the 1st Marine Division during the Korean War.  During the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, in temperatures that plummeted to minus 20 degrees, Seeburger was leading the remains of his Unit as they desperately fought their way south.  Of the 220 Marines originally in his Company, only about 20 were still fit to fight.  Out of seven officers, only Seeburger remained.  His unit was ambushed by the enemy and, although bleeding profusely from a bullet wound in his leg, Seeburger was able to direct his tank gunners as to where to fire at the enemy positions which wiped out the enemy and enabled his convoy to escape.  For his selfless act of courage during the battle, Seeburger was awarded the prestigious Navy Cross, just one grade below the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

Following the war, Seeburger retired from the Marines and returned to Philadelphia, where he and his wife, Helen, raised a daughter, Dolores.  Seeburger worked as a park police officer and then as an engraver for 32 years at Becks Engraving Co.  He died in 2007 at the age of 85.

Standing Up For What’s Right by Chris Gibbons

Edited version was originally published in the February 20, 2015 Philadelphia Inquirer

It was the late autumn of 1902, Patricia Corkery remembered her Uncles telling her, and twenty-four year old coach William “Billy” Markward gathered his Roman Catholic High School basketball team together at the imposing gothic school building at Broad and Vine streets in Philadelphia.  Markward, a Spanish-American War veteran, was starting his first year of coaching at Roman and had just received a disturbing letter from the scholastic league that Roman played in during that era.  Although his initial reaction may have been to respond to the league on his own without discussing with the team, Markward also recognized the importance of teaching life lessons, as well as basketball, to his players.

The team was primarily comprised of poor Irish-Catholic boys from the inner-city neighborhoods of Philadelphia, and many were the sons, or grandsons, of immigrants.  But there was one boy among them whose background was very different.  John “Johnny” Lee was the son of a former slave, and he was one of the first African Americans to play basketball in that scholastic league.

As the boys sat, Markward, a former pro basketball player himself, towered over them and began to read the contents of the letter.  It stated that the league was notifying Roman that they would be banned from the league if Lee, a “Negro” player, remained on their roster.  Sadly, considering the racial discrimination that was common for that era, this stance was not unusual, but how the team responded definitely was.

In a letter to Roman’s Alumni Association detailing the incident, Patricia Corkery wrote that her uncle and team captain, John Corkery, was the first to stand up and speak: “If Johnny Lee doesn’t play, then I don’t play.”  One by one, each of the players, including her other uncle, Maurice, stood up and said that they wouldn’t play as well.  As he watched each of the boys pledge to stand with their teammate, Billy Markward, the coach who always stressed the importance of how to live over how to play, must’ve beamed with pride.  “Roman stood with Johnny and the league backed down”, Patricia Corkery wrote.

From that moment on, a special bond formed between John Corkery and Lee.  Through the years, both men remained active in Roman’s Alumni Association, and their friendship grew.  Lee would never forget the courageous stand that Corkery and his other teammates took for him, and when John Corkery died in 1929, Johnny Lee was heartbroken.  Patricia fondly remembers the touching scene that took place at her home every year on the anniversary of her uncle’s death.  “Growing up in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia in the late 20’s and early 30’s, my world was white-mostly Irish Catholic,” Patricia Corkery recalled in the letter.  “Only one African-American crossed my path.  It was once a year (John Lee) came to our house and I had to be on my best behavior.  Always, I had to be dressed up and with my best manners for this visit.  John Lee came to our house on the anniversary of my Uncle John’s death…and paid a tearful visit to the pictures of Roman’s team still on our walls.”

Over the ensuing years, Billy Markward would consistently turn down numerous college coaching offers and remained at Roman from 1902 to 1942, winning an incredible 20 championships.  He achieved legendary status not only at Roman, but in the entire Philadelphia region, and the prestigious Markward Awards are presented annually to Philadelphia’s top scholastic athletes.

As for Johnny Lee, breaking down racial barriers became something of a family trait.   Johnny’s granddaughter, Sister Cora Marie Billings, became the first African American to enter a community of nuns in Philadelphia, and the first to join the Sisters of Mercy.  She also became the first African American in the U.S. to serve as the leader of a Church parish as pastoral coordinator for St. Elizabeth’s in Richmond, Va.  “My great-grandfather (George Lee)…worked as a slave, owned by the Society of Jesus”, Cora wrote in the July 7-14, 2014 issue of America Magazine.  “I know that our church and our world are not as they once were and they are not where I want them to be.  But my hope is things will continue to get better.”

Lee himself served on Roman’s Board of Trustees, as well as treasurer of the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Holy Name Union.  He was active in the St. Vincent DePaul Society, and, in 1955, Lee became the first African American to receive the prestigious Vercelli Medal of the Holy Name Society, the highest award given annually to the Archdiocese’s outstanding Catholic layman.  He died in 1958 and Lee Park in West Philadelphia is named in his honor.

Another of Lee’s lasting legacies at Roman is readily evident when reviewing the success that the school has achieved in basketball since 1968.  Largely due to the contributions of many great African American players during that span, Roman won an unprecedented 18 Catholic League championships, and their current team is nationally ranked.

When we look back upon this incident from 1902, we can appreciate just how far our nation has progressed in eliminating discrimination.  However, the social unrest resulting from the recent incidents in Ferguson and New York are sobering reminders that far too often our society has a troubling tendency to split opinions along racial lines.  Our inability to determine the reason why we continue to divide this way leaves us angry and frustrated, and we blame each other for this failure.  Perhaps, before we can find an answer and move forward, we need to look back and remember the pledge that was made in the school at Broad and Vine streets over 110 years ago.  For what the Roman Catholic High School basketball team understood back then, but what many of us fail to realize today, is that the primary reason for our failure is ignorance, and the first step in defeating it is to stand together and confront it.

Chris Gibbons is a Philadelphia writer.  He can be reached at gibbonscg@aol.com

More stories of notable Philadelphians, as well as the harrowing stories of America’s war veterans, can be found in the new book by Philadelphia writer, Chris Gibbons: “Soldiers, Space, and Stories of Life”. Amazon.com link is below: