Archmere Academy’s First Headmaster, Fr. McKeough By Rev. Joseph McLaughlin, O.Praem.
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n June 29, 1932, Norbertine Father Michael McKeough, O.Praem., serving at Saint William Parish in Shelby, Montana, received a letter from Abbot Bernard Pennings, O.Praem. in West DePere, Wisconsin, appointing Father McKeough to be the first headmaster of Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware. After delaying several hours, Father McKeough responded by telegram at 6:30 PM: “Will do as you wish. Sounds great.” On June 30, 1932, Abbot Pennings wrote to Bishop Edmond J. FitzMaurice of Wilmington, “We have just made arrangements with Mr. John J. Raskob to purchase his estate in Claymont, Delaware. This deal aims to establish a Catholic High School for boys, boarding and day, and to develop in time also a four-year college department. For thirty years, we have been preparing for educational work by sending fathers to different universities, so that now we have several professors with the Doctor’s degree, others with the M.A. or B.A., who graduated from Catholic University. We feel confident that we can maintain a school of the highest standard which will be a credit to Catholic Education. Hereby I ask your Excellency the canonical permission to have our community established in your diocese.” Father McKeough was the perfect choice to head the new Archmere Academy. He was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on September 18, 1891, two years before the Norbertines arrived in Wisconsin from Berne Abbey in Holland. He attended Saint John’s Elementary School in Green Bay and West High School in Green Bay for 9th grade. In January of 1908, he transferred into 10th grade at Saint Norbert High School in West DePere. He attended Saint Norbert College from 1910 to 1914 and was ordained a priest on December 13, 1917. In July 1918, he entered the army as a chaplain. He began his studies at the Catholic University of America in September 1919, receiving an M.A. in 1920 and a Ph.D. in 1926. During those same years, he taught at Saint Norbert College, was chaplain at Saint Joseph’s Academy for Girls in Green Bay, and was Director of Camp Tivoli, a summer camp for boys run by the Norbertines. At Saint Norbert Abbey, Father McKeough also served as Master of Novices and as professor of philosophy. Father McKeough lived well the motto of the Norbertine Order: “Prepared for every good work,” all the while suffering from tuberculosis from 1921 to 1931.
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The Archmerean • fall 2021
