Inducted in 2013
Prep Maintenance Staff (1931-1962)

Induction Video

Paul Carielli was born Paolo Carielli on June 4, 1900 in New York City to immigrants Nicola "Nick" and Giovanna "Jenny" Carielli. Nick worked as a blacksmith and Jenny was a homemaker. Paul grew up with two brothers and seven sisters — Sarah, Mary, Anthony, Antoinette, Jean, Louise, Rosie, Anna and Dominick — and they lived for a time on Villa Avenue in the Bronx where the family attended Mass at St. Phillip Neri Church, newly founded in those days.

As was common enough in the early 1900s, Carielli would only attend grade school before beginning his working life — though it has been said that he was an avid reader and wrote in a most elegant script all his days. Working as foundryman, Paul married Carmela “Millie” Ricciardi on June 25, 1925. They would have a son, Paul Jr., and settle in the Belmont section of the Bronx, just across Fordham Road from the campus.

At a young age, however, Paul developed a heart condition, and his days as a coremaker were over.

Carielli arrived at the Prep in 1931, the same year that Rev. Arthur Shea, SJ, returned to the Prep after his ordination to continue serving as prefect of discipline, or as he was later known, dean of students. Looking back, one might wonder if Paul actually thought the Prep with all its adolescent energy would be a less rigorous, more relaxing workplace than a foundry.

As described by fellow Hall of Honor member and school historian Gus Stellwag, Class of 1949, small, wiry Paul was "the Prep’s janitor, repairman, painter, proprietor of the Candy Room, and general all-around jack-of-all-trades." Stellwag’s notes go on to reveal that Paul was reliably present in the school five days a week, twelve months of the year, from 7 am to 4 pm — as well as many weekends. He would maintain Hughes Hall — as well as the Prep fields and science labs in Collins Auditorium — single-handedly, except during some summers, that is, when his son Paul, Jr., would lend a hand.

As an interview in the school newspaper reveals to be Carielli’s own preference, everyone simply called him “Paul.” Few students even knew his last name. And every time he rounded a corner or appeared in a hallway, the Prepsters of yesteryear greeted him with a typical chant of “Hello, Paul!” In an article published in Rampart in early 1942, Paul admitted that even though he had worked at the Prep for more than decade, he never grew tired of their greeting. After that 1942 Rampart article, features about Paul appeared every 10 years around the anniversary of his start date at the Prep — a nod of respect not offered to any other member of the Faculty or Administration.

In the words of Gus Stellwag: "The basis of Paul’s dedication to the Prep was the love he had for the school and for the generations of students whom he saw pass through its corridors, stairwell and classrooms. During his tenure at the Prep," Stellwag's notes conclude, "he undoubtedly saw many things that escaped even the eagle eye of Fr. Arthur Shea. Yet he always knew when to look the other way and when to intervene. Prep students over the years loved Paul as much as he loved them."

Another Prepster from the Carielli years would write, "His image is still in my head, the stoic, businesslike appearance, pencil moustache, skull cap, all never changing. Paul represented an important break in my scholastic day. I have fond memories of waiting on line for my Milky Way! He was a quiet, lovely man."

In When September Comes, the official history of Fordham Prep, there is a chapter entitled "A Golden Age of Prep Teachers" which details the arrival in the 1930s and '40s of some of the greatest figures in school history, men who would shape the course of the Prep to this very day.  The list includes such names as Rudolph Hanish, Al Kirchner, James Melican and Harry McDonough. These extraordinary men came together at just the right time in the Prep’s history to take an institution that had been born in the 19th century as a college’s lower division and reforge it into a high school unto itself, with all that high school implies. In addition to these legendary subject teachers, two others are given a place of honor in this chapter:  Fr. Shea, and none other than the caretaker of Hughes Hall himself, Paul Carielli. The chapter refers to a time when Paul was asked, “Is the Prep as good as it’s cracked up to be?” Carielli’s quoted response: "Well, when a boy comes into the Candy Store and buys a piece of candy, if he likes it, he comes back for more. It’s the same way with the Prep. When a boy graduates from here, it seems that either his brother or his son usually comes back for more."

Paul retired from the Prep in 1962. Upon his retirement, he was granted an honorary Prep diploma — an appropriate tribute for a dedicated and compassionate man who had spent 30 years in high school.

Paul A Carielli, Sr., Class of 1962 honoris causa, died two years later as a result of the heart condition he had battled since he was a young man.

In Carielli's day, Bene Merenti medals were granted to teaching faculty only. Administrators, clerical and maintenance staff were not elegible — a practice changed after the Prep's move to Shea Hall in the early 1970s. At his 2013 induction into the Hall of Honor, the Prep posthumously awarded Caretaker Carielli with a Bene Merenti medal for his years of dedicated service to Hughes Hall and the generations of young men who trod its well-kept corridors. Paul, Jr. was on hand to accept his father's award.