Star Journal — Father Campbell

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Back to School

Mater Christi Principal Anxious

There’s a twist in back-to-school fever around Queens already.

A principal and his prospective pupils are racing neck to neck in eagerness for classes to begin next month.

The school is the $6 million Mater Christi High School, 21st Avenue and Crescent Street, Astoria. The principal is the Rev. Thomas P. Campbell, six footer who last year was pulled away from 17 years of parish priestwork especially to train in school administration.

The pupils are 1,500 boys and 1,500 girls, all admitted to the spanking new school on the basis of hard-sought, hard-earned competitive examinations.

Part of the Brooklyn Diocese’s massive building program, Mater Christi is the first “co-institutional” high school in the diocese. This means the entire administrative setup will be centralized and combined, although the boys have a Brother principal and the girls, a Sister principal, of their own. Father Campbell will supervise both programs.

The students will share common library facilities in the new school which, with 30,000 volumes, boasts the largest facilities of any high school in the city, Father Campbell said. They also share the gymnasium, partitioned by a curtain, and auditorium. Classes will be completely separate, but some extra-curricular activities will be co-educational, he said.

The priest will be in the school right at its beginning, along with September’s entrants. He will have a strong hand in forming school policies which will be closely scrutinized by the diocese’s other co-institutional schools-to-be.

The 44-year-old priest, popular, with adults and children alike, was eyed for the job over a year ago although his appointment was announced only July 1. He had been a curate for 17 years in Brooklyn until June, 1960, when orders came for him to engage in full time studies in educational administration. He now holds an M. S. degree in education from Fordham University.

“I knew before I was out of elementary school that I wanted to become a priest, “Father Campbell said. Born in Manhattan of Irish-born parents, his family moved to Corona, when he was 7 and he grew up in Our Lady of Sorrows parish where his parents still live.

He attended Cathedral College and Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington and was ordained in 1943. His father’s brother became a priest in Ireland, but had little influence on his decision to enter the priesthood.

“I didn’t even meet my uncle until 10 years after I was ordained,” he said. “But my mother’s sister is a Dominican nun, Sister M. Winifred, stationed at Giasco N. Y., and she often visited us,” he added.

Though he describes himself as quiet and retiring. Father Campbell discusses his vocation and religion with the force and sincerity which appear to have come from years of dealing with parishioners and the skill he acquired in giving instruction to non-Catholics.

“Never let questions stay in your mind unanswered,” he said emphatically. This is one of the reasons many people get so little out of life . . . they settle down without seeking answers.”

For the past year, the priest has lived at the Immaculate Conception Church residence, Astoria. In the fall, he will move into new quarters at the school which provides one residence with for the 43 Brother, another for the 37 Sisters and rooms for Father Campbell and two fulltime spiritual counsellors.

Father Campbell a former New York Giants baseball fan, keeps trim as a seven-handicamp man on the golf course when he can fit it in, and enjoys fishing too.

He has two married sisters and two brothers, Peter, a patrolman assigned to Manhattan headquarters, and John, a fireman in Queens.