It's not surprising that many of the students of the former Fontbonne High School in Bethel Park devoted their lives to helping others, Maribeth Walsh said.
"All of the nuns did social work," said Walsh, a 1978 graduate of the school. "When I was a junior, I did candy stripping at Baptist Homes (a nursing facility in Castle Shannon). The sisters knew the importance of community service, and that's what made me want to work in the aging field."
Walsh, a psychotherapist now living in Gaithersburg, Md., and about 220 students and faculty of the all-girls school, gathered for a reunion Nov. 26 at Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Mt. Lebanon.
"We saw the reunion as an opportunity for graduates to share their fond memories of Fontbonne," said Sister Karen Stoila, director of development at the school from 1972-74.
The importance of community service and education were stressed to the 1,163 students who attended the school from 1961 to June 4, 1978, when it closed "because it became increasingly difficult for the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden to subsidize the cost of running a private academy," said Stoila, who served on the reunion committee.
The school was named for Jeanne Fontbonne, who was born March 31, 1759, in France and entered the Sisters of The St. Joseph in 1778. She served in LePuy, France, during the French Revolution.
"You never appreciate the value of education until after you receive it," said Mary Anne Schneider, of Mt. Lebanon, who attended the school from 1962-66 and spent 15 years helping special needs children in the Mt. Lebanon School District as a volunteer. "The sisters prepared us well for college, and they taught us how to serve our communities. It amazes me that many of us have devoted ourselves to helping others."
