When JC’s first art teacher Frank Kelly sketched the school ring on the back of a cocktail napkin in the Redwood Inn in Aberdeen, first principal Ray Wanner was sitting alongside him. The two collaborated to create what would come to be a long lasting tradition of the school.
In his 2008 Ring Ceremony speech, Wanner said, “But it was [school architect] Tom Gaudreau’s original architectural and landscaping design that created a context of physical beauty. His work speaks for itself, and no detail was too small to be considered as part of the environment that we wanted to create.” Part of this detail was then added in the class ring.
Although the ring was created to be unique and to “be a piece of distinctive jewelry that could be worn with pride for a lifetime,” according to Wanner, the first class to receive them didn’t think of them that way. The students openly hated the design. However, Wanner stuck with the rings and said that he is “glad that I did.”
As the views of the rings began to change over the years, so did the ring festivities themselves.
Until former biology teacher and junior class moderator Gregory Kachur stepped onto the scene, the events had taken place in one day, with the ceremony during the school day and the dance that night. “Mr. Kachur decided to turn it into a special event; he gave it class and reverence,” said Fine Arts teacher Michael Gaudreau, class of ’70.
Gaudreau, who gives an annual speech at the ring ceremony, spoke of the ring’s creation to the class of 2011 at last Thursday night’s ceremony. As a graduate of JC, he spoke of the value and quality the ring holds, for it is often recognized around the country by other alumni, according to Gaudreau.
To the class of 2011, those that came before, and the many to still come, Wanner has given words of advice: “But I hold within me a special pride: the pride of having been part of the effort to impart to John Carroll its particular and distinctive values. May your ring remind you of those values, and may you wear it with pride and with honor.”
Taylor Schafer can be reached for comment at [email protected].