Providence Class of '74 to honor staff, students 50 years after school nearly closes
Aug. 11—CLARKSVILLE — It's been 51 years, and Tom Quinkert still remembers being pulled into the gymnasium at Providence High School, where he and his classmates were informed of an uncertain future.
It was the fall semester of 1972, and the school was close to shutting down. The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, who owned the high school in Clarksville, were struggling with upkeep. Funding was short — they needed more than $32,000, and were on the verge of having to sell the school. Senior students in the class of 1973 feared they would be the last to ever graduate from Providence.
Listening to the announcement that day on Oct. 5, Quinkert, who was a junior at Providence and a football player, thought about how the team he'd played with for the past two years — one of the best in the school's history — could soon be forced to attend separate schools. The realization was jarring.
"If Providence does close, you have no other alternative but to graduate from another high school," Quinkert said. "That's what we were faced with when we were juniors."
But the community came together. A committee, made up of three parishioners from each of the 18 parishes in the New Albany Deanery, was quickly formed and spent weeks discussing the future of the school. The late Robert Larkin, principal at the time, helped rally students, who formed the "SOS" — Save Our School — program, asking businesses and churches to donate money and spread the word.
"It was just students who believed in their high school that really didn't want to go anyplace else," Quinkert said.
On Nov. 29, 1972, the New Albany Catholic Board of Education gathered to decide the fate of Providence High School. The group voted 29-25 to keep the school open. On July 10, 1973, Archbishop George Biskup, of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, signed a $1 million loan that allowed the school to go on.
That legacy is still celebrated today. During an upcoming Providence football game Aug. 25, Quinkert and other members of the Class of 1974 will honor the students, staff and community members who played integral roles in keeping Providence's doors open. Quinkert said he and about 15 other classmates formed a group earlier this year to spotlight the history of Providence during the game.
"It's a very small school, but to be a part of it, to see that, and to think about it 50 years later, it's just a feel-good story," he said.
Ray Day, Providence school archivist, taught drama at the school for many years starting in 1962. He said he can remember the agony of the students when they heard they might be forced to leave. He immediately got another job offer, but was also devastated, he said.
"I really don't think the community as a whole thought we would survive," he said. "I'd been teaching there since 1962, and now here we were in 1972, and talking about closing the place. I mean, we were named Pioneers, for goodness sakes. Pioneers never give up, they keep going."
The Sisters of Providence had spent $750,000 building the school 21 years earlier, Day said, but by the mid-1960s and early 1970s many Catholic schools were shutting down. With most of the remaining Catholic schools located in Louisville or Indianapolis, the fact that Providence was one of the only Catholic school options in Southern Indiana made the threat of its closing especially hard.
"It was a trauma for those who had fought so hard to get public education on this side of the river, and then to realize that it might just suddenly evaporate," Day said.
Sarah Crane, a member of the 1974 class, said she initially attended Providence to take piano lessons after her instructor retired. The school quickly became special to her, and she wasn't alone — her brother graduated from Providence in 1973, and two of her three children, two grandsons and a nephew also attended the school.
"I have a long history there at Providence, and I just thought it would be really special to just tell the story," she said.
At the game Aug. 25 will also be members of the Class of 1993, gathering for their 20-year reunion. Quinkert said he hopes to share the history of the school with those who graduated later than he did and may not be aware of the dire situation the school was once in.
About five years ago, Providence began teaching students about the school's history, Quinkert said, but the story is still lost to time for many people who didn't live it.
"You've got 45 years of people that probably don't even know how close it came to Providence closing their doors," he said.
Quinkert was part of one of Providence's most successful football teams, and players from his team will be present and honored during halftime. The 1973 Pioneers were one of only two teams in the school's history to make it to state finals, he said, but the team was unsure if they would get to continue at all. Ultimately, that year's team was the only team to have an undefeated regular season and enjoyed a 20-game winning streak.
But he doesn't just want to honor the football team. At least one of Robert Larkin's daughters — Roberta or Kim — will be in attendance with Barbara Larkin to honor the work Robert did for the school before he passed away.
Quinkert said he hopes to bring past and present generations of students together to reflect on what happened those 50 years ago and the positive impact Providence has made on so many.
"It's just our way of saying thanks to our fellow students, especially the seniors," Quinkert said. "To the people that are no longer here, you just kind of look at the sky and just 'thank you for what you did,' because you played a very important role in our growing up."
