The Blue Books that we have all enjoyed over the years reflect beautiful vignettes that were prepared when we were teenage boys, poised to commence the next phase of our structured development.  Students from only a fixed number of class-years were privileged to view these passages.  Through this website, we now have the opportunity to share these selections of literary style and acumen with our entire alumni body.  Each selection falls under one of the main categories found within our yearbooks.

We extend our appreciation to those class reps and their associates who took the time to search through their senior yearbook and submit the written works that appear below.  For your convenience, the entries have been prepared in class-year sequence.  If an alumnus does not see an entry from his respective senior yearbook or from one of the underclass yearbooks, please perform a review and submit a suitable passage.  Send the selection to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Be sure to enter BPAA at the beginning of the email subject.  Hey guys, we would all derive great pleasure if we can populate those missing years for others to read.  Please, I encourage you to submit entries for those years that are still outstanding.  Thanks.

1929 (Thanks to Bill Kassar '29)

Foreword (Class of ’29)
In these days of experimental and conflicting educational systems, ours has been the happy lot to have taken our training under a system psychologically sound and sealed with the stamp of the Church’s approval.  The whole man, moral, mental and physical, has been developed and our endeavor in this book has been to express in artistic form this threefold development, this special ideal stamped on our seal and flaunted to the world in unhesitating and proud portrayal of Brooklyn Prep’s great aim: SCIENTIA, SANCTITAS, SANITAS.  St Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic scholar, represents “Scientia”, the Good Shepherd, “Sanctitas” and St. Raphael, the Archangel, with his charge Tobias, “SANITAS.”

The opening remarks of three classes of ‘29 appear below.

February 1929 4-B-1
Hear ye!  Hear ye!  By the imperial command of great Jupiter, the gift of Minerva in the guise of diplomas, shall be conferred upon the worthy class of 4-B-1.  And this despite the rumor that Pluto had inspired the examination formulators, to use much starch and make them stiff as never before.  But we have fought valiantly and,

“Our greatest glory consists not in never falling
But in rising every time we fall.”

Jupiter’s edict has been issued in recompense for our numerous achievements.  Throughout the four years our members have distinguished themselves in all Prep activities.  When 4-B-1 was 1-A-1 and bazaars were in vogue we led the school and today we look with pride on the bricks we contributed as our share in the development of a bigger and better Prep.

-Paul Leprohon ‘29

February 1929 4-B-2
The sun sinks slowly to rest and our brief day at the Prep is rapidly taking its place among the “yesterdays.”  The gray streaks of dawn appeared on the day of scholarship exams.  Then gradually the light became brighter, until the class finally arises from the dark horizon of grammar school.  Wide-eyed with anticipation, the class is large enough in its own self-importance to attract passing attention.  Then, after first casual inspection by the higher grades, the class travels on unnoticed in the sky of regular routine.  But before its day is over, it grows huge, gloriously tints the sky and sinks, beautiful in its departure.  Perhaps even then it is not forgotten.  The evening of memory is rosy with the flow of past achievements.

-Archie Collins ‘29

June 1929 4-A-2
The class of 4-A-2 of ’29 is entering on the last lap of its difficult journey through the land of the sages and philosophers.  Studies are taken cheerfully now for the goal is within our grasp.  Even the studies enshrouded in the mists of time live and breathe for us.

In pensive mood we wander back o’er the four long years and seem to live and feel again the first apprehensive vagaries of scholastic life.  Seniors then were gods to us and their lot a covered Utopia.  At the time Brooklyn Prep was an epic told with the deeds of former heroes scattered through its pages.  Little did we realize that soon our names would number among the Dramatis Personae and our deeds be italicized in the pages of Prep history.  Rather abruptly we found ourselves on a higher rung of the ladder of the Arts.  Now we were Sophomores, self styled members of the Literati and bore ourselves as such.  This year, however, gave birth to many trials and tribulations, campaigning with the robust Caesar, interviews innumerable with both Prefects and for many of us our first taste of the sorrows of Greek.  But as the sorrows of this world determine the joys of the next, so the joys of Junior year were foreordained and found awaiting us.  Tangles of angles, oratory of the finest swelling from the lips of Cicero, narration of the memorable journey of Xenophon, intricacies of all sort fell before our onslaught and left us with the self-reliance which was to prove so valuable in coping with the more difficult works of Homer and Vergil.  Now for the first time we began to realize the value of scholastic standing and night after night burned the midnight oil in our attempt to drink deep of the Empyrean spring.

-Gerard J. Flynn ‘29



1944 (Thanks to Bill Klauberg '44)
WE, THE CLASS OF '44, present this Blue Book as a survey of the school's personnel, its activities, and its achievements, with the hope that its most attractive offering will be - the Student.
Who is the Student and what does he represent?
The Student is a composite of young America.  He represents the hopes of our country and of our church and after four years of thoughtful, cultural and spiritual training, he at least begins to recognize what his position will be in the world, and thus furnishes the Church and the State with the material for a staunch citizen.  Fortified by a clear concept of discipline, and drilled to respect for authority, he is being prepared now to assume, perhaps in the near future, the leadership of his fellow Americans, as an officer and a gentleman; he is being groomed as a leader of thought and action in the post-war era, and finally, most important of all, he is being prepared to work out the salvation of his immortal soul.  Reducing all these points to a single statement, the Student is in the process of preparation for the twofold office of militant citizen of Church and State.
As the Student faces the future unafraid, let him draw hope and confidence for the crucial days that are certainly in store for him from those words of Archbishop Spellman, "Our love of country and our devotion to the principles for which it stands, principles of freedom, fidelity, and fortitude, have become part of us.  Our faith and our love for God have likewise animated, guided, and guarded us.  In the union of love of God and country is our strength that will enable us, come what may, to win both battles, the battle for the eternal salvation of our immortal souls, and the battle for the triumph of our nation."
We present to you, then, both those who are in the midst of the course, and those who have been tested and found worthy of the school's approval; on whom Prep showers the best she has, and of whom she expects great things tomorrow. The Students.

We owe our noble achievements, our lofty aspirations and our high ideals, publicized in this book, to that tireless group of pedagogues who by their efforts, threats and verbal chastisements urge us along the stony path of knowledge.  By their photographic representations, which follow, you shall see, not just so many Simon Legrees, but rather, a choice assemblage of cultured men, who prefer to attain their aims by reason, rather than by discipline.  We appreciate their perseverance in attempting to impart the maximum degree of learning possible to us in the classroom, and we are honored by their acquaintance and good fellowship after the final bell ends their teaching for the day.  In heartfelt gratitude, therefore, do we allot this well deserved space to the Faculty.


1949 (Thanks to Pete Salmon '49)

ON THE 1949 BLUE BOOK OF BROOKLYN PREP
A GUIDE FROM THE PAST
In the message to Undergraduates – VENITE AD ME OMNES – , the following transcript continues the theme throughout the ’49 year book  The message stressed, based on a citation from Matthew XI, verses 28-30, asks us to seek refuge to help us with sometimes onerous duties The Blue Book excerpt reads:

If someone were to ask upon whom does the burden rest, the teacher or the student, we would reply upon both. For just as everyone would agree that the teacher’s task is not the easiest in the world, so they would admit that the student’s lot is not the most pleasant. Each one is beset with his individual problems, the one with constant and incessant drill, the other with the tedium and possible boredom of the classroom. And yet their trials are not such that they are insufferable, for their problems are lightened precisely in their rewards. The teacher finds his joy in the success and intellectual advancement of his pupil while the student rejoices in the conquest and possession of new found knowledge.



1952 (Thanks to Len Florentino '52)
FOREWORD
The divine mission of Aeneas to found the eternal city of Rome had its origin in disaster. Troy, his home and the home of his fathers, was destroyed by the war-engines of the Greeks and consumed in flames. As he fled with his loved ones.  Aeneas began to see his tremendous new destiny, but at the same time he felt the crushing obstacles facing him along the road pointed out by the gods.

His divine call and the overwhelming obstacles were much the same as those of every man since the day Adam and Eve were forced to leave Paradise and work out their salvation by the sweat of their brow. We come into life in a fallen state and all along the journey to the City of God we are met by weariness,  pain, the longing for any kind of security, if only we may have it at the present moment. We are faced by the temptation to settle for less than the destiny that God has planned for us and to seek our happiness at a point where it can at best be temporary and unequal to our infinite capacity for beatitude. But Aeneas was the son of a goddess, as we are the sons of God; and the gods of Olympus saw to it that these obstacles, great as they were, should not blot out Aeneas vision of his destiny, and that they should not overwhelm his human weakness.

In these pages it will be our effort to portray how our heavenly Father, with His Mother and the whole heavenly court, works to supply and restore the vision of our divine destiny and build up in us strength and grace to overcome every obstacle along the way to our home with Him in the Eternal City.                             

ACTIVITIES
Having reached the shores of Italy, Aeneas learns of long battles that must be fought before establishing his city. Once again heaven provides the new vision and fresh courage he needs. Miraculously admitted to the Elysian fields, Aeneas sees his father, Anchises, who shows him the shades of all his illustrious progeny and tells how they will serve heaven and make Rome great by glorious deeds.

Long battles are ahead of us on our way to the heavenly city. Sources of new perspective and fresh courage are always ready for our use. Prayer and the sacraments, retreats and Sodality activities provide for us greater Vision and Will than the voyage to Elysium provided for Aeneas. Academic activities supply a detailed and practical knowledge of the future, such as Aeneas had from his tour of the realm of death and immortality.



1955 (Thanks to John Tutunjian '55)
The Legend of the Classes
From the mist and gloom of the Senior Smoking Room, we, the men of 4B-6, who are about to die, from a rapidly spreading epidemic of smog poisoning, salute you.  Though our little Stalig 212 might look like London in February when we saints come marching in every morning, the fog is soon dispelled by frequent blasts of hot air from the cream of BP's Speech and Dramatic Societies, many of whom reside here under Finnerty's Rainbow. [Fr. Joe Finnerty was our Home Room Teacher, may he rest in peace!]

First we have Jim Harrington and Joe Kett, who will tell you, at the drop of a hat, why they definitely should have won the last debate on Saturday ... and three more men who have shoveled their way to the top in the ranks of debating and oratory: Howie (What-Kind-Of-An- Ablative-Is-It) Kelting; Kenny DeLuca, a VEEP (for the Student Council) and a VIP (for BP in general); and, finally, his inseparable (or is it insufferable?) debate partner, "Schnitzel" Smith.  And then we hear the dulcet tones of John Battles [Macduff], who, together with "Lady" John Tutunjian and "Macbeth" Gilheaney (4B-6's answer to Dorothy and Dick) give you three living proofs that all hams are not to be found in butcher shops . . . We in 4B-6 are masters of the written as well as the spoken word.  Down in O'Brien's Old Office, we find the Editor of this little opus, Johnny Ormond, who still wants to know, "How ya doin'?"  Around the corner, in Ryan's Rumpus Room, we find our pipe-puffing Class VEEP and mag editor, Dick ("Hi Guy!") Dilworth, our master of belles-lettres, Vocabularian John Collins, and that intrepid member of the "Jean", Joe (Brioschi) Fratantoni.  Meanwhile, back at Culkin's Cozy Corner, Frantic Frank Luongo, boy editor, is busy organizing the BP news sheet, even though he can't seem to organize himself in French class . . . and how about The Mad Genius, Joe Malone?  Our lexiconscious linguist speaks about six languages fluently, but is least intelligible when speaking English . . . There wasn't much of 4B-6 on the Varsity Football Squad this year, but what there was, in the person of Rocky Joe Phillipp, really did a job of work on the faces of opposing linemen . . . and . . . Well, there goes the 2:25 bell, and pretty soon, every weed fiend in fourth year will descend on Old 212 to wrap it once again in a Marlboro Mist.

And so, with these words of wisdom we leave you, and as we walk down Carroll St. for the last time, you can hear us uttering ecstatic cries of joy at being able, as it says in the Vicks ads, "to bre-e-e-athe again!"


1956 (Thanks to Charlie Ruland '56)
A vigil under arms
Characterizing the spirit of a saint’s sanctity is never easy. Even when that spirit has permeated Christendom for four hundred years, as it most surely has in the case of St. Ignatius; it is most difficult to reduce all the color of God’s grace to a simple paragraph or two. It is something like trying to catch lightning in a bottle.

To us, though, St. Ignatius can best be typified by a vigil and a sword, the flavor of the man was military and his flavor is reflected in the Order which he founded. The many vigils he kept on the road to greatness began with an all-night vigil under arms in front of Mary’s statue.

All his life, he was to remain close to her and this devotion to Mary is reflected, too, in all who have come in contact with his sons.

In this book, we pay tribute to this Soldier-Saint on the four hundredth anniversary of his death. We ask his prayers for us in all the vigils we will be called upon to keep. We seek his intercession and enlightenment in wielding a lifelong sword in defense of the things of God.



1964 (Thanks to Bruce Buono '64)
A sign stands not for itself, but points to something else. The school seal is our sign, and stands for all of Brooklyn Prep.

The coat-of–arms of the noble family of Loyola tells us that this is a Jesuit school. It is therefore a school backed by the tradition of four centuries of education, part of an area wide, nationwide, and worldwide system. Run by a Jesuit administration, and taught by both Jesuits and lay teachers dedicated to the same goals. Brooklyn Prep strives to fulfill a unique function. It attempts to begin the long process of forming effective leaders in the spheres of religious, intellectual, and social activity. In cooperation with the parents, whose place they take during the school day, the members of the Brooklyn Prep faculty strive to impart to their students a Christian view of the world, a culture and open-mindedness that correspond to the needs of the times, and a competence in the arts of expression

Scientia

The class of 1964 now brings down the curtain on four years of activity aimed at gaining true knowledge, the basis of all effective living now and in the future. The truth of our liberal education, the truth which sets men free, has not come to us neatly packaged and ready for prompt delivery. It is rather the result of an enormous variety of the activities in and out of the classroom, many of which were seemingly unrelated. From the time that Father Henle said in Lesson 1, “Open your Grammar to No. 31. Here you see the declension of TERRA,” until Shakespeare told us about Macbeth, “this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen,” we have labored at great cost to acquire the knowledge offered to us at Brooklyn Prep. This, we trust, will be our solid foundation, for we know now that graduation is just the beginning.

Sanctitas

We are men who live by faith. We believe, for example, that everything we do each day, except for sin, of course, is a prayer very pleasing to God. This is so because every day before class we offer to Him all our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings in union with Jesus Christ, His Son, in Whom He is well pleased. It is perhaps easier to think of the work of the classroom in this way, but in reality the activities after class are just as much a part of our daily offering and important stage of sanctification. With our lives centered on Jesus Christ, every newspaper article written, every roll of film developed, every debate judged, every poster drawn, every line of Shakespeare memorized – every one gives us a firmer grasp on our final goal, the sanctity of union with God.

Sanitas

The school seal proclaims that bodily well-being is one of the goals of Brooklyn Prep. This goal is implemented primarily by the physical education program of the curriculum, but for the students we will see in the following pages this goal has much more meaning. Many hours of grueling practice have resulted in the perfecting of many athletic skills on field and court and in the pool. These skills were tested again and again in rugged competition. The results? More victories than defeats, and more reason for being proud of Brooklyn Prep. By all calculations, this has been an unusually successful year for our extracurricular athletic program.

Demonstrated excellence in many different sports, together with some pleasant surprises, outweighed the inevitable disappointments of defeat. The class of 1964 can be justifiably proud of its part in this year of athletic success.

By its very name Brooklyn Preparatory School announces its purpose. It is one of preparing its students. This means, of course, preparing them for entrance into college, since the program of studies works toward that end, but it also means much more than that. In this high school, preparation is a synonym for development of the student, a development harmoniously carried out on many levels. Guided by the school, we are to develop our many talents – intellect, will, body – so that we may think and act intelligently and wisely. We are to develop as loyal and knowledgeable American citizens, aware of our obligations and ready to fulfill them. We are to develop an appreciation for things cultural, respecting the past and contributing to the future. Most important, we are to develop as true Christians who strive to love God and all men in Him.