On Oct. 17, 2023, the students, faculty and staff of Owensboro Catholic High School gather in the courtyard to pray the rosary. Prayer in the courtyard has been a longstanding tradition from early in the school’s history. COURTESY OF OCS

BY RACHEL HALL, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC

2026 marks the milestone of 75 years for Owensboro Catholic High School. “Whoever or wherever you are, you’re standing on a lot of history you don’t even know about,” said Harold Staples, who was principal at the school for 19 years.

The school’s history stretches back before it took its current name. Once named St. Frances Academy, an all-girls school founded in 1849 by Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, it became coed in 1914. Outgrowing their original space in the year 1951, together with the Ursuline Sisters’ St. Joseph High School, it combined to one location at 1524 West Parish Avenue, where leadership decided to change the name to Owensboro Catholic High.

“It was mostly religious there for years,” said Marylin Pace, who started a year after Harold Staples and retired as librarian after 50 years in 2023. “The Sisters of Charity lived there on the third floor and ran the school. They were committed. A lot of sacrifice.”

To that sacrifice she spoke of the sisters in their wool habits, “It was ‘92 before central air was put in.” To make best out of the situation, they took advantage of the days when they could use the fresh air.

Pace went on, “When the weather was nice, Mass was in the courtyard with the altar on the steps. We would line the kids up along the steps. Everyone enjoyed it.”

It was Sr. Ann Whitehead, an English teacher at the school, who convinced Staples, a fresh graduate, to interview with principal Fr. Gerald Calhoun. Within a week, he was moving to a town he knew little of with his young wife. Quickly, “it became our family.”

Staples was quick to credit others for the school’s success, a repeated theme in interviews. There was a legacy of leadership, and it left a lasting impression on those who followed. In a testament to the late Fr. J. Edward Bradley, “he was principal and brought a new level of professionalism to the school.”

“The focus became on education,” said Staples. “And has continued to build ever greater. Whenever parents send their kids to Catholic, a good education is just expected.”

“Increasing consistently as an attempt to compete with the world,” Staples reflected on how the school has changed over the years, “the scope of education has come a long way.”  

Pace echoed the sentiment of change, “First year there we bought a VCR, and the first camera recorder. In the 80s came our first computer.” Eventually the library expanded into a full media room.

Pace held off retirement and saw the Covid-19 pandemic through, with the adjustments to education, which meant Chromebooks for every kid: “They had to be labeled and organized into bags, all sanitized. Marked and checked out before the school shut down.”

For many, Owensboro Catholic High School is more than a place of learning; it is a lifelong community.

“It’s a family,” said Staples, giving the example of seeing the generations of past students filing in and filling a football stadium. “Friday nights at the football game, wearing their green and gold.”

Pace understands this well. Her father, Harold Mischel, was with the school system himself for 47 years and best known for his years as the athletic director. As a little girl, following him and OCHS sports, Pace said, “Mom took the six of us on a passenger train to Louisville to go watch tournaments. It was just what we did.”

Ann Flaherty, who began in the school system in 1982 and later became superintendent of the Diocese of Owensboro’s Catholic Schools Office, said, “To have a school that excels in academics, extracurricular activities and athletics that is so deeply grounded in the Catholic faith makes it a gift beyond belief!”

She credited Staples for his mentorship, “He worked round the clock, seven days a week for OCHS. He is the one that trained and encouraged me to take the next step in administration.”

Flaherty, who had moved from North Carolina, was so impressed with a school that treasured families and faith, “To be able to immerse students in an environment that encompasses all that Jesus taught through word and action, helps to form not only the young men and women that parents send us, but also deeply affects the faculty and staff who then become great witnesses of Christ’s love through sacrifice.”

“Because of the witness of faculty, staff and coaches in the classrooms, halls and playing fields my faith caught fire! And for that and my time serving at OCHS I will be eternally grateful,” she said.

Fr. Brandon Williams, from the senior class of 1998, “graduated in May and went into seminary in August,” he said. “My parents sacrificed. Took their vocation as Catholic, Christian parents serious. They knew that the Owensboro Catholic School system would assist them to help us grow our faith.”  

Fr. Williams is now the pastor at Blessed Mother Parish in Owensboro and chaplain at the OCS 4-6 Campus. “I am so honored and grateful their parents chose to put their faith into their education. To help form their children’s faith.”

“I am reminded of what I am today because of my parents and school. I am grateful to both, as a Christian man and as a priest,” he said.

“It is my hope and prayer,” Flaherty said, “that the seeds of faith be planted in the students’ hearts, minds and souls, and that their love of Jesus bear fruit not only for them, but for those whom they encounter.”

For Staples, the mission has always been simple, but profound. “The goal,” he said, was to “get these kids to heaven.”

Each morning, over the intercom he would begin the day with a Gospel reading and a prayer. He would ask the students to pray for what he called, “the school family.”

When asked his hopes for the next 75 years, Staples kept it simple, “When I retired, I prayed that they would continue to improve, get better.”

It is a prayer he never stopped saying.

Even now, he still begins his day with the same intention, holding the Owensboro Catholic School family in his heart.

Staples ended with, “And I still do.”

Originally printed in the April 2026 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.