Monday, September 01, 2025

Best Football Team in McBride’s History: The Team of 1969

 

Memories of the Season by Dennis Ganahl (’71)

The Juniors, Class of 1971, felt pretty cocky, coming onto the 1969 Varsity team. The year before, our Junior Varsity (JV) team was crowned CAC Co-Champs. We had a 6-1-1 record with six shut-outs, and our offense scored 129 points. The Varsity team had a 4-4-1 record. We Juniors felt sure we were the better players, and of course, the Seniors felt they were better. Neither class had a size advantage because all of the Micks on our team were bantam weight, but each guy had a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Rainier. 

McBride was the only A-track college preparatory high school in the St. Louis Archdiocese. It wasn’t an all-male athletically oriented school like C.B.C., Vianney, St. Mary’s, S.L.U.H., Augustinian, Chaminade or DeSmet. Micks were admitted because we tested well on an academic test. McBride wasn’t an open-enrollment high school like Rosary, Mercy, Acquinas, DeAndreis either. McBride didn’t give athletic scholarships, but it did admit anyone who excelled on the entrance exam. 

Nobody had a guaranteed position except Dan Bantle, who had started as Varsity quarterback for two years. The coaches made every other guy earn his position starting on the first day of practice. As is the way with young men-in-full, even if they’re smart, it was going to be mano a mano fight. Football is a violent sport, and every player wants a physical challenge to test his mettle, his manhood. 

It took five weeks in 95-degree heat slamming each other with sweaty and bloody forearms, tackling guys running at full speed, and running thousands of hills in Sherman Park to mold us into the most-winning team in McBride’s history (9-1).  When the season finally began, we weren’t juniors or seniors, we were hardened teammates, and we felt, as a team, we could be champions. We held each other to account. We never accepted less than our best, despite bleeding blisters on our elbows, heels, and knees, and concussions. 

At the end of every practice, we’d spread Atomic Bomb on our strained and torn muscles. It was a journey, and by the end, the Juniors won their positions because we fought for them never giving an inch. Jerry Lampe and Greg Beller both won All-Conference honors, and the rest of us played hard every chance we got, and we had starters and backups throughout the line up. It was magical, having won two CAC championships in a row.

Memories of the Season by Larry Giovanni (’70)

It’s been 56 years since that magical high school football season, so many of the statistics and specific games and plays have become fuzzy, but the excitement of that season and the people and personalities on that 1969 McBride High School remain indelibly imprinted in my memory.

In many ways I was eagerly anticipating that season because there has been steady improvement on the class of ‘70’s football seasons from freshman through junior seasons.  Plus, the class of ’71 had been very successful in their two years together.  In other ways I was almost dreading my senior season because as an offensive lineman football practice was absolute sheer drudgery.  The “skill” players got to run, throw and catch the football;  Defensive players got to hit and tackle and try to cause fumbles;  All the offensive linemen got to do was block each other and hit blocking dummies.  And to make it worse, for the first time ever, we were going to have two-a-day practices in the hot, steamy August weather.

We had new coaches that year for varsity football.  Longtime coach Bob Goodwin moved on to the newly opened John F. Kennedy High School to run their athletic programs, so Earl Eilerman and Dennis Moore were elevated to Head and Assistant Varsity coaches respectively.  


There was a new attitude as Eilerman and Moore completely revamped both the offense and defense and it really seemed to fit our personnel.  Collectively we weren’t very big, especially when you consider today’s massive 300+ pound players.  Our starting O-Line was anchored by Rich Harness, who at 195 pounds was by far our biggest offensive lineman.  With me at right guard at 157 pounds, I was definitely the lightest.  However, we were very quick and technically sound.  With all-conference selection Dan Bantle quarterbacking the offense we were really clicking as practices neared the opening bell versus Chaminade – a team the class of’70 had never beaten.  And that defense!  They were also very quick and everyone there has a nose for the ball.

In fact, I felt so confident that the day before the first game I predicted to Ray Engelmeyer, one of our ruthless linebackers that we would defeat Chaminade by 4 touchdowns.  I felt even more confident when our first play had our sensational running back, Jerry Lampe sprint up the middle for 20 yards.  McBride actually won by 5 touchdowns, 33-0.  After the game, Engelmeyer charged me in the locker room, lifting me up by my shoulder pads against a locker and told me that I must be psychic and to NEVER make another prediction.  Quite a start to a memorable season.  This continued for the next three weeks as we dominated Augustinian, DeSmet and St. Mary’s.

The amazing thing about the Catholic Athletic Conference that year was how dominant almost every team in the conference was that year.  Typically, the CAC was a middle-of-the-road conference in football with DuBourg and Vianney usually leading the way.  However, in the fall of 1969 the CAC had the best non-conference record in the metro area, including the Bi-State, Suburban North and Public High.  At times during the season 6 of the 8 CAC teams (Acquinas, DeAndreis, Mercy, DuBourg, Vianney and McBride) were ranked in the Post-Dispatch’s Top Ten in the area.

Then came the game versus St. Thomas Acquinas, a team just the opposite of Chaminade; the class of ’70 had never lost to them.  It was going to be played on a Saturday night under the lights (my first football night game) and everyone was excited for that game.  Acquinas, with and old grade school classmate, John Gabrisch, at QB was also very good that year.  Still, we knew we would romp…until we didn’t.  The game was played in a driving rain, with the field a swampy quagmire.  Our offense never could get going and we had our first loss, 16-6.  It was the first time I could ever remember walking into our locker room and seeing players openly crying.  It was as devastating a loss as I’d ever experienced and I wondered if we would recover.

Recover we did.  It was so incredible to see an entire team decide on the spot to not lose again.  That attitude permeated everyone on the squad.  I had never been witness to such fierce determination in all my years of playing sports.  Especially since our toughest tests were still on the horizon.

I love to tell the story about how I would often relay the plays called by our coaches into Bantle.  After the Acquinas game, Dan decided that this was his team and he would carry us, so there were numerous times when I would relay the play to him and he would just look at me and say, “No.  This is what we’re going to run.”  Of course, the coaches weren’t too happy with me when the play we ran was not what they called.  I would just point at Dan.  The coaches rarely questioned Dan’s judgment.

The DeAndreis game was next and also played in the rain and mud, but the defense had two 4th quarter goal line stands that clinched the win.  We dispatched Rosary, so then it was on to the co-leaders in the conference with us…Mercy.  They were an excellent team that was ranked ahead of us in the polls and both schools were ready for a bloodbath, and it was just that.   Lampe ran wild and again the defense held on late to give McBride a 12-8 victory.  All we had in front of us were DuBourg and Vianny, who for the last 4 years were easily the top 2 teams in the CAC.

We dispatched DuBourg rather easily, so with every other team in the conference having 2 losses, the championship was ours if we beat Vianney.  A team who in the last four years only had a total of 2 league losses.  Well, everything came together that day and we destroyed Vianney 34-13.  We finished the season at 9-1 overall, the best football team’s record in McBride history; we were 6-1 in the CAC and ranked #5 in the St. Louis Metro area and 8th in the State.  Pretty good for a bunch of “braniacs”.

In my four years at McBride I had never seen the school come together as it did that Fall.  The crowds at the football games filled the stands regardless of home or away, and just walking through the halls at McBride made me feel like a big celebrity.  I was a smallish, mediocre offensive lineman, but everyone seemed to know who I was and during the season I was congratulated and cheered almost daily.

When the football team was honored by being inducted into the McBride Hall of Fame, it astounded me how humble all the players were.  In typical McBride style, the players were much more proud of experiencing McBride, the men it made us and of family and other life successes.  Long Live the Micks!

 









































Sunday, April 21, 2024

The Road From McBride to Malta

Don't let it be forgot 
that once there was a spot 
for one brief shining moment 
that was known as Camelot.*

This is one of several occasional articles on McBride High School: its history, its students, and its impact on the St. Louis area and beyond. This article explores the McBride name, and what it may mean to its alum, its family ancestors, and even to someone from our namesake's hometown Butler, Pa. And remember, everything published here is exactly as it happened, even if it's not absolutely true. Enjoy. Richard 'Dik' Ganahl, PhD, Class 1969 

AUTHOR’s NOTE: What's in a name? For example, the name Wm. Cullen McBride? For some time I've been fascinated by this question as it relates to our revered McBride High School. Do those born as a McBride still celebrate, or remember, their illustrious ancestor? And how about someone from his hometown Butler, Pa? 

PLEASE NOTE: The photographs of the McBride Mausoleum by Richard and Dennis Ganahl. Click on a picture to enlarge then click on the small X in the top right corner to return to the story.                                                                                                      

On first thought it’s hard to imagine a road from our alma mater McBride High School leading directly to the island of Malta and its Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Afterall, it would take at least 33.5 hours, two stops and an overnight layover to travel by airplane the 5,389 miles separating the two places via a 5.30 pm flight from St. Louis on a balmy fall evening.  

If my calculations are correct, the McBride-Malta connection is direct, and alive. But, before we jump to our story’s conclusion, let’s start at its beginning, at the McBride Family Mausoleum in Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Section 018, Lot 0261. The elegantly imposing McBride Mausoleum conveys in granite with its 20 fluted columns the financial fortitude of the country’s largest oil producer and our high school’s namesake at the time of his death.

Calvary Cemetery records seventeen McBride family members interred in the mausoleum beginning on May 7, 1917, and extending to Oct. 29, 1984. These family members include the McBride patriarch William Cullen McBride (1859-1917), his wife Katharine Mangan McBride (1864-1924), their four daughters in birth order Ellen (1888-1937), Laura (1891-1933), Kathleen (1892-1952), and Dorothy (1901-1959), at least the first husband of all four daughters, and seven children-five, listed as ‘infant.’

Various accounts of the patriarch’s last several months say he and his wife moved in Feb. 1917 to a recently purchased house next to their daughter Kathleen (daughter No. 3) in Pasadena, Ca. to help nurse her ailing husband Lacy Love who died soon after the senior couple’s arrival. Senior McBride suffered a slight stroke 10 days after his arrival, slowly recuperating over the next two months. The couple was planning to return to St. Louis when Mr. McBride ‘suffered a relapse on May 16 and never recovered.  

Mrs. McBride, and three daughters Ellen, Kathleen Love, and Dorothy were with him at his death on May 21. His ‘exact’ cause of death was listed as ‘chronic nephritis, aggravated by uraemic poisoning’. The family members traveled for more than three days with his body to St. Louis in a ‘private car Colonial’. Mr. McBride’s funeral was on May 26, nineteen days after the burial of Kathleen’s husband Lacy Love. 

By all accounts Mr. McBride’s burial was grandiose. The funeral services were officiated by Archbishop of St. Louis Msgr. John J. Glennon with the assistance of three other priests in the New Cathedral, at the magnificent marble altar and the baldacchino underwritten by a $100,000 gift from the McBride family made in Oct. 1913 (See McBride Mania March 2016). 

The funeral’s honorary pall bearers numbered 68 nationally prominent bankers, mercantilists, and oil industrialists from Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities including August A. Busch and Edward Mallinckrodt of St. Louis. 

Kevin Checkett (Class of 1969) shared in an email, "My grandmother told me that McBride's funeral cortege came by the school and all the boys stood on the curb in honour of our benefactor." 

His wife Mrs. Katharine Mangan McBride was born in 1864 in Chautauqua, NY, and the couple married in 1886. They moved to St. Louis from Pittsburg, Pa. in 1909 as Mr. McBride’s extensive oil interests increased in Texas and Oklahoma. She outlived her husband by seven years. Admirably, she continued the family’s tradition of substantial financial support to Catholic philanthropies including a $25,000 check on January 1921 to the Endowment Fund Committee of St. Louis University, “putting herself at the head of the women donors…to raise a $3 million endowment,” according to a newspaper report.  

Most significantly, her announcement on June 1921 of a $250,000 gift ($4.7 million in 2024 dollars) in her and her daughters’ name in the memory of her husband for a Catholic boys’ high school on Kingshighway ‘three blocks north of Easton Avenue” resonates still to this day through the history of McBride High School and its illustrious alumni. 

Mrs. McBride “died at 6 a.m. on Aug. 13, 1924, at the family residence at 29 Washington Terrace,” surrounded by her four daughters and their husbands after an “illness of about a year” (See McBride Mania March 2015). The news story continues the 62-year-old Mrs. McBride’s death was, “due to lung disease complications and was not unexpected.” Apparently, she was in, “failing health for more than a year…and became acutely ill a few weeks ago.”

Estate Was Left to the Family 

At his death, Mr. McBride was described as, “a very forceful character and a good fighter for his rights and the rights of others…he was alert and active and never a figurehead…(and) left no doubt as to his meaning (and) once his word was given it was never broken.” His business acumen certainly shaped his devotion to caring for his family after his death. 

Four years before his death he detailed his plans for succession in a letter to his second-born daughter Laura McBride Mahaffey through the creation of the Delk Investment Corporation (DELK: named after the first letter in the names of the McBride daughters). He conveyed all his property to DELK and directed it be managed by a board of directors including himself, Mrs. McBride, and his four daughters. 

At the time of his death at the age of 58-years-old in 1917 Mr. McBride was the largest independent oil producer in the USA, and left an estate conservatively valued at more than $10,000,000 or $264.5 million in today’s dollars. Newspaper reports at the time of Mrs. McBride’s death said, “Mr. McBride directed his estate…be left in a trust…(that) should continue until 21 years after the death of the last of the daughters…for the benefit of the daughters and direct heirs.”  

The McBride’s fourth daughter Dorothy McBride Orthwein was “the last of the daughters” and died in June 1959 suggesting the DELK company continued until at least 1980.

The McBride Family Mausoleum, Section 018, Lot 0261

As you might imagine, a family-tree rooted in four daughters of one of the country’s most wealthy oilman can become quite prodigious and widespread. Certainly, this article isn’t an effort to record in minute detail the family’s heritage-our interest is in the McBride Family Mausoleum and those ancestors most relevant to the McBride High School story. 

So, let’s begin with Thomas J. Treadway, S.M. and his 1938 article WILLIAM CULLEN MCBRIDE: A biographical and character sketch of the patron and donor of Wm. C. McBride H. S. which provides a contemporary summary of the four daughters’ families following the deaths of their parents. We’ll discuss them in birth order and discuss the second-born Laura last as her descendants seem most relevant to McBride High School.  

The first-born daughter Ellen's (1888-1937) husband Ralph Morris, died in the “influenza epidemic of 1918” on Oct. 31, 1918, at the age of 35. The couple’s unnamed daughter died as an infant on July 16, 1918, just three months before her father Ralph. Both daughter and father are buried at the mausoleum.

The second marriage for both Ellen and her husband Balfour Stuart Craib (1887-1949) occurred after their respective spouses Ralph and Molle (who were brother and sister!) died in the influenza epidemic. For a time, the couple lived in New York City, and apparently, did not have any children.

Ellen died at 49-years old and is buried at the mausoleum, 12-years before her husband Balfour who died at 61-years old and is buried near his parents at Lake Charles Park Cemetery, in Bel-Nor, Mo. According to the 1940 U.S Census, he lived with his mother and sister at 5033 Westminster Pl. in St. Louis at 53-years old. 

The McBride’s third-daughter Kathleen’s marriage to Lacy Love was the Archdiocese’s first marriage “before the magnificent altar which her parents had donated to the New Cathedral of St. Louis.” As noted earlier, her husband Lacy died at 33-years old in May 1917, in Pasadena, Ca., less than 20 days before her father’s death who had traveled with Mrs. McBride to California to help nurse Kathleen’s ailing husband.

The young couple’s son William McBride Love was born in California on Aug. 11, 1915, and died at 69-years old in Aug. 1984. President Ronald Regan nominated him in 1982 for a two-year term to be the U.S. Representative on the South Pacific Commission. The press release announcing the intended appointment notes, “Mr. Love is with a family oil and investment business as officer and director/stockholder.” 

The release goes on to say, “he is a director of Brentwood Bank, Mo., Brooks Exploration, Inc. in Co., and the National Investors Corp. in NY. He graduated from Princeton University (A.B., 1938), is married, has three children, and resides in St. Louis, Mo.” He is buried with his mother Kathleen and father Lacy at the mausoleum.

Dr. Issac Dee Kelley, Kathleen’s second husband, was the victim of a sensational, nationally reported kidnapping by four abductors that held him captive for a week before releasing him unharmed in Illinois to a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who published a front-page story with a picture of the doctor upon his release. 

The abductors originally demanded a ransom of $250,000 but later reduced it to $150,000. The New York Times quotes an attorney representing the doctor, “No ransom or reward was paid…either by the family or by anyone acting for the family and none was promised.”

During a rest from the “nervous strain of seven days of captivity,” Dr. Kelley said, “I feel a little rocky…(and)…can hardly believe it now. Those fellows mean business…and don’t think they don’t work hard in their occupation. Kidnapping is a twenty-four-hour-day job…(and they)…had as hard a time as I had.” 

The St. Louis Review published a story on April 25, 1952, headlined “Mass of Requiem Held in Cathedral for Mrs. Kelley.” It reports she, “died (at 60-years old) on Sunday, April 20, in her home at 51 Westmoreland Place…of complications following an operation last fall…she was a graduate of Maryville College of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis and had long been active in Catholic charitable and St. Louis civic affairs.” 

Survivors included her son William McBride Love, and two daughters Mrs. Anton C. Stuever of St. Louis, and Mrs. Thomas R. Shepherd of Charlottesville, Va., and her sister Mrs. William (Dorothy) D. Orthwein of St. Louis. It also mentions her late sisters Ellen McBride Craib, and Laura McBride Mahaffey. There is no mention of her husband Dr. Issac Lee Kelley. She was buried at the mausoleum on April 22, 1952. 

The McBride’s youngest and fourth daughter, Dorothy (1901-1959) seems to have the most family members buried at the mausoleum including her first husband William D. Orthwein (1897-1937) who died at 40-years old, three infants who apparently died before their first birthday in 1924, 1930, and 1936 respectively, and a son Peter McBride Orthwein who died at 47-years old in 1978. 

Dorothy’s husband, “died suddenly…of a cerebral hemorrhage at a hunting lodge near Peruque, St. Charles County, after a stroke which followed a few minutes’ exercise in kicking and passing a football with his 11-year-old son, another boy, and Dr. Issac D. Kelley Jr.” 

He was, “vice-president and treasurer of the Laclede Bond & Mortgage Co. and associated with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. interests.” He was survived by his wife, “formerly Miss Dorothy McBride, a daughter of the late William C. McBride oil millionaire,” three children, his mother, a sister, and two brothers.  

The couple’s fourth son William D. Orthwein III died at 51-years old on April 24, 1977, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Tulsa, OK. His obituary says he was the vice president of the, “St. Louis-based brokerage firm of Stifel-Nicolaus & Co., (and) died…of cancer in Tulsa…(where)…he had worked at the Tulsa office of Stifel Nicolaus…having moved to Tulsa about 25 years ago.”

Prior to his two years with the brokerage firm, Mr. Orthwein had served as a vice president and director of the McBride-Silurian Oil Co., of St. Louis. He was survived by a sister Dorothy Orthwein Bates, a brother Peter McBride Orthwein, two sons, and six daughters. 

The couple’s daughter Dorothy Orthwein Bates died at 62-years old on Jan. 21, 1991, and is buried near the McBride Mausoleum (Sec. 018 Lot 0458). Her obituary states she, “died Saturday of cancer at her home in Ladue.” She graduated from Villa Duchesne High School, and “began working as an officer in the 1950s for the old W.C. McBride Co. and continued to work for the firm until it was acquired by A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. in 1987.

Mrs. Orthwein Bates was appointed in 1988 to St. Louis University’s Board of Trustees, and in 1965 her estate established The Dorothy McBride Orthwein Professor of English Literature Chair first held by the Renaissance scholar Dr. Clarence H. Miller renowned for his translations of St. Thomas More and Erasmus. The current chair Dr. Ruth Evans was named in 2009. 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published on Aug. 23, 1948, in the “Social Activities” column a short note that, “Mrs. William (Dorothy) D. Orthwein and her post-debutante daughter, Miss Dorothy McBride Orthwein, will be hostesses at a supper party for Miss Werner and Miss Weld Sunday, Sept. 25, at the Deer Creek Club.” Today the Deer Club is listed as a golf club in Ladue, Mo.

She was, “appointed to St. Louis University’s Board of Trustees in 1988 and worked as a vice president and treasurer of Bateco Properties of St. Louis until her death.” She was survived by her husband, two sons, six daughters, and 11 grandchildren. 

Perhaps the second daughter Laura (1891-1933) was the McBride’s favorite, after all her dad’s letter announcing the formation of DELK was addressed to her and her “good husband” Birch Orville Mahaffey, and he sent both his love and sincere wishes for their continued happiness along with a draft for a substantial amount of money. 

The Mahaffey couple is interned at the mausoleum: Laura died at 42-years old on Sept. 29, 1933, and Birch died at 80-years old on Feb. 15, 1958. They had four daughters all who were memorialized at their deaths for their long lives of public service and philanthropy. They include Kathleen M. Walsh who died at 88-years old (1914-2002), Adelaide Schlafly (discussed last) who died at 97-years old (1915-2012), Dorothy Moore who died at 97-years old (1921-2018), and Elizabeth Mullins who died at 93-years old (1917-2010). 

The intimate bounds between the mother Laura and her four daughters are captured in an undated photograph of the five smiling women and an identified female family friend as they arrived in New York City from a presumed trans-Atlantic trip aboard the S.S. Olympic, a British luxury ocean liner and the White Star Line’s lead ship, built in Belfast by the shipbuilder of the Titanic.

The girls’ father Birch, who outlived his wife Laura by 45 years, was born in Hopkins County, Texas according to his death notice, and was, “reportedly one of the first white men to see the headwaters of the Amazon River.” He was a “former oil company president (and) a West Point cadet.” He was awarded a patent in 1940 for a device that, “greatly reduce(d) the cost of constructing a storage reservoir…used in storing oils…(in) a storage pit dug in the ground.”  

One of Birch’s legacy projects is the River of Life Farm in Ozark County, Mo., which he started in 1928 by purchasing what eventually totaled some 6,000 acres surrounding the spring. Later several of his daughters built a lodge, “directly across from the spring, with glass corner windows for seeing every angle of the spring.” An online article promoted a “nightly rental price, with a two-night minimum, (of) $850 for up to eight people.”

Edward J. Walsh Jr., husband of the first daughter Kathleen, died at 82-years old in 1991 of, “cardiac arrest…after being stricken at his home in Central West End.” He was the great-great-great-grandson of Pierre Chouteau, a founder of St. Louis, and was active in numerous civic affairs including the symphony, St. Louis University, and the Catholic charities. Pope John XXIII named him, “a Knight of Malta, one of the highest lay honors bestowed by the Catholic Church,” according to his obituary. He was survived by his wife, a nephew and five nieces, but no children. 


The Mahaffey’s third daughter, Dorothy Jane Mahaffey Carpenter Moore, called D.J., died “peacefully at home” at 97-years old and outlived both of her husbands: Clarkson Carpenter Jr. and Walter L. Moore, MD. Her obituary lists numerous civic and outdoor activities centered around the family farm and its riding stables. Interestingly, D.J. is credited with winning a contest and naming the Khorassan Room at Chase Park Plaza. Khorasan is Persian and means, “where the sun arrives from” according to Wikipedia. 


She was survived by four children and two stepchildren. Her youngest son Birch Oliver Mahaffey Carpenter died at 34-years old in August 1992 of AIDS-related pneumonia at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond Heights. He graduated in 1980 from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and was appointed to a two-year term with the Viennese Academy of Diplomacy. A graduate of the Washington University School of Law in 1986, he was fluent in five languages. He was completing a graduate degree in film at the time of his death.  

The Mahaffey’s fourth daughter Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Mahaffey Mullins who died at 93-years old in 2010 enjoyed a 56-year marriage to Herman Fristoe Mullins who died at 84-years old of cancer at their Ladue home in 1997. The couple had two daughters, two sons, and 14 grandchildren. Betsy’s obituary says she, “took a special interest in the St. Louis Priory, Thomas Aquinas College, Central Catholic St. Nicholas School, the St. Louis Symphony, Crudem, the United Way, and Catholic Relief Services.” 

Her husband Fristoe had a lifetime passion for flight, founded Midcoast Aviation, had a commercial pilot license for 60 years, owned a large working farm in Pike County Mo., and was a member of a variety of agricultural and wildlife organizations. He was a founding member of the Greater St. Louis Orchid Society, and an active supporter of Catholic higher education and a supporter of anti-abortion and child welfare organizations. Born in Mayfield, Ky., he graduated from the University of Mo. at Columbia in 1935 with a degree in economics. 


Adelaide Mahaffey Schlafly (Mahaffey’s second daughter) and her husband Daniel Schlafly's three adult children (Daniel, Ellen, and Thomas-listed in the order of their mother’s obituary), seem most, albeit loosely, associated with the McBride High School legacy through the long-time, dues-paying “honorary” membership in the McBride Alumni Club of brother Thomas, and their mother Adelaide until her death in 2012. Also interesting, the senior McBride’s great-granddaughter and daughter of Ellen listed her name as Katherine Margaret McBride Shafer in her wedding story published by The New York Times on Aug. 1, 2004.

In a sense, Adelaide and Daniel’s marriage on Dec. 2, 1939, by Archbishop (and later Cardinal) John J. Glennon represented a union of two prominent St Louis families with substantial wealth both representing liquid-based national dynasties: one in the oil industry and the other in bottled water through the Schlafly family’s ownership of the Mountain Valley Water Company recognized in 1928 as the only nationally distributed bottled water, including its availability in the U.S. Senate.  

Adelaide’s laudatory obituary by Gloria S. Ross in the now closed Beacon, a St. Louis-based online-only news site, reflected she, “spent a lifetime advocating on behalf of people whose voice are diminished by poverty, social injustice racial discrimination and educational deficiencies.” She died at 97-years old at her home in the Central West End on Sept. 30, 2012.

Her husband Daniel Schlafly died at 84-years old of a brain tumor at his home in the Central West End on July 16, 1997. An equally laudatory obituary by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Cultural News Editor Robert W. Duffy characterized Daniel as, “a man whose life was distinguished by an intuitive understanding of the concept of noblesse oblige.” He was president of the family-owned Mountain Valley Water Company when it was sold in 1967.

Noblesse oblige, a French term translated as ‘nobility obligates’, means those with great wealth bear great responsibility to give back to the less privileged and unfortunate. And certainly, this captures the overriding spirit of the Schlafly couple’s philanthropic and civic duty activities. Frankly, it would be easier to list the St. Louis organizations that didn’t capture the couple’s interest.  

Consider: The Catholic Church from St. Louis to Rome, St. Louis University and High School, Georgetown University, the Jesuits, the City of St. Louis Board of Education, human rights, social justice, poverty, and the evils of racism and segregation as some of their major beneficiaries. The St. Louis Art Museum, the Zoo, and the Symphony, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Cathedral Basilica, and St. Louis Priory were just some of the specific organizations they were dedicated to. 


The Schlafly’s children, while seemingly not comparably driven as their parents by the obligation of noblesse oblige, all are remarkably noteworthy in their personal endeavours. 

Daniel Schlafly, with a doctorate from Columbia University (1972), is a Professor of History at St. Louis University, with an historical focus on the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural aspects among the Russians and East and West Europeans. His vita lists seven languages (German, Russian, French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Polish) in addition to English. He’s published translations of Russian and Italian historical works, and most recently focused on, “the survival of the Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire in the suppression era (1772-1820).”

Brother Tom Schlafly is a graduate of St. Louis Priory School and has a law degree from Georgetown University. He’s Senior Counsel at Thompson Coburn, a law firm founded in St. Louis in 1929 with currently over 400 attorneys in at least seven national offices and revenues of more than $234 million. He’s on the board of directors of several companies and organizations including a financial company with combined assets of $50 billion, the St. Louis Art Museum and Public Library, and is a minority owner of the St. Louis Blues hockey team. He’s also the co-founder and chairman of The Saint Louis Brewery, brewer of Schlafly Beer. 

All right already…certainly by this time you must be asking what about the road from McBride High School to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta…and what the heck is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta anyway?

I get it! 

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) is recognized under international law as a sovereign entity, some refer to it as ‘the smallest sovereign state in the world’. It’s headquartered in Rome as a Catholic lay religious order. Founded around 1099 as chivalric order, it has a membership of about 13,500 Knights, Dames, and Chaplains, issues its own passports, maintains diplomatic relations with more than 100 countries, and has tens of thousands of employees and volunteers providing humanitarian assistance in more than 120 countries. 


And now the connecting road…sister Ellen Schlafly Shafer and her husband Robert L. Shafer reside on the east coast. Ellen is past President of the International Catholic Organizations Information Center at the United Nations. The ICO Center, founded in 1946, ‘provides access, references, and briefings on current UN affairs, on Church teachings in fields related to the UN and on initiatives undertaken by ICOs.” Also, Ellen is a Dame of Malta. 

Her husband Robert earned his law degree from the College of Law at Georgetown University and served as vice-president of public affairs and government relations at Pfizer, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company during his more than 30-year career. He was appointed in 2004 as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta’s Permanent Observer at the UN and served for 11 years until 2015. Currently he is listed as the SMOM’s Permanent Observer

Not long ago, at a time only fate could determine, I found myself seated next to the general manager of the Butler Eagle, the daily newspaper in Butler, Pa. during the quarterly board meeting of the PA NewsMedia Association’s Foundation. 

I introduced myself as a graduate of McBride High School in St. Louis, and then asked what she knew about William Cullen McBride, once the country’s most wealthy independent oil producer and a native of Butler, Pa. She smiled and said, “Wish I did know him, the only McBride business I know in Butler is the McBride Station Bar and Grill.”     

So, what does the name William Cullen McBride mean nearly 110 years after his untimely death? Little it seems to those still living in his hometown in Butler, Pa. Certainly, his ancestors seem to have honoured his accomplishments through deeds in their own stellar lives while staying true to his devotions of entrepreneurism and the Catholic Church. 

And to us, the McBride High School alumni, the name will forever carry a special and very personal meaning. Amen. 

Alone on the stage of the musical ‘Camelot,’ King Arthur realizes his dreams for his beloved Camelot are no more. Richard Burton played King Arthur opposite Julie Andrews' Queen Guenevere in the original 1960 production. The Broadway musical was President John F. Kennedy’s favorite and he played the LP soundtrack often in their personal quarters at the White House.