Fr. O’Rourke, founding St. Aug principal, dies at 94

Josephite Father Matthew J. O’Rourke, the founding principal of St. Augustine High School in 1951 and the former superior general of the Josephites, died March 9 at St. Joseph Manor in Baltimore following a long illness. He was 94.

A native of The Bronx, N.Y., Father O’Rourke was a young associate pastor at St. Raymond Church in New Orleans in the late 1940s when he got the call one day from his superior general, Father Thomas McNamara, that would change his life.

Archbishop Joseph Rummel had launched a fund-raising campaign, called the Youth Progress Program, to build new high schools and enhance the physical plants of existing high schools in the archdiocese.

With New Orleans still separated solidly along racial lines – this was long before the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education – Josephite Father Edward Casserly, the former superior general, had pleaded with Archbishop Rummel to use some of the campaign proceeds to build a new Catholic high school for black males.

Archbishop Rummel agreed, and Father McNamara decided that Father O’Rourke, then in his early 30s, was the right person to serve as the founding principal of the new school, which was to become St. Augustine High School.

On the job training

“The only experience I had about high school was going to high school,” Father O’Rourke said in a 2009 interview with the Clarion Herald. “I sat down and started making plans.”

Father O’Rourke attacked his new challenge with characteristic passion. He went to Loyola University, taking night courses, to earn a master’s degree and fulfill the state’s educational requirements.

But his more valuable experience came through contacts with high school principals in the New Orleans area. One of the most important decisions was to begin with a ninth grade and add a grade every year so that school spirit and unity could be built up. St. Augustine opened in 1951 with 160 students.

“They became Purple Knights,” Father O’Rourke said. “We knew by the time these guys graduated from St. Augustine or from college that the day of integration would finally be here. These kids had to be prepared from the very beginning. Our whole purpose was to motivate these youngsters and ask them to use their God-given talent. They were destined to be leaders in the community.”

Crowning achievement

By the late 1950s, there were 18 Josephites on staff at the school. Tuition was $7 a month, which still was difficult for some families to pay. Father O’Rourke served as principal through 1960, and the school was his crowning achievement.

When Father Eugene McManus took over as principal in 1960, he worked with Jesuit Father Louis Twomey to try to convince the Jesuit provincial to begin accepting black students at Jesuit High School. Eventually, the Jesuits’ superior general in Rome sent the message back to New Orleans that blacks should be admitted at Jesuit.

Father O’Rourke said St. Augustine “made a considerable impact on the whole New Orleans scene. It produced great leadership in every phase of life. It also helped break down the segregation system.”

A funeral Mass for Father O’Rourke was celebrated March 14 at St. Joseph Manor in Baltimore. He was buried at New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore.

Father O’Rourke attended Fordham Prep in The Bronx and graduated from Manhattan College. He entered the New York archdiocesan seminary at Dunwoodie in 1940 but four years later felt called to the Josephite community. He continued his seminary training in Washington and was ordained in 1947.

After leaving St. Augustine, Father O’Rourke was elected in 1960 as a consultor to the Josephite superior general. This was followed by a six-year term as vicar general and two years as acting superior until being elected superior general for two terms.

In his later years, he served a year of pastoral ministry at Corpus Christi parish in New Orleans before again becoming rector of St. Augustine. He then was appointed the first president of the high school.

He spent two years as rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Washington before assuming the rectorship of St. Joseph’s Manor in Baltimore. At his 60th anniversary of priesthood, he was still serving as vice rector of the manor and writing the Josephite history.

Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected]