Archmere Academy’s First Headmaster, Fr. McKeough

By Rev. Joseph McLaughlin, O.Praem.

On 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.

In a letter to Abbot Pennings from Shelby on July 8, 1932, Father McKeough wrote, “When I received your first letter, the whole proposition took my breath away.” With his chronic lung problems Father McKeough no doubt had been short of breath. Still, shortly after writing his July 8 letter, Father McKeough drove from Shelby, Montana to West DePere, Wisconsin, a distance of 1,311 miles. Meanwhile, Bishop FitzMaurice of Wilmington visited his family in Ireland when Abbot Pennings’ June 30, 1932 letter arrived at the bishop’s office in Wilmington. Delaware. The letter was forwarded to Bishop FitzMaurice, and on August 1, 1932, Bishop FitzMaurice’s approval was received by Msgr. John J. Dougherty, Vicar General of the Diocese. Msgr. Dougherty called a meeting of the Diocesan Consultors at 2:00 PM that same day. The Consultors also approved Abbot Pennings’s ambitious plans for a Catholic high school and a future four-year college. Msgr. Dougherty concluded his August 1, 1932, letter to Abbot Pennings by saying, “I personally welcome you to Wilmington and wish you every success in your venture. If in any way I can serve you, I shall be pleased to lend a hand. Father McKeough arrived in Wilmington by train four days later and stayed at the Cathedral rectory with Msgr. Dougherty, until Monday, August 8, when he moved to Archmere, the Claymont estate of John and Helena Raskob. Father McKeough lost no time in getting started. He advertised the new Archmere Academy in the Wilmington newspapers on August 6. He recruited students, assembled faculty, established the Archmere Corporation, set up the curriculum, and readied The Patio and The Manor to meet the needs of the students. On Wednesday, September 14, 1932, sixteen boys arrived at The Patio for the first time. None of them had ever been to Archmere before - for a shadow visit, open house, entrance exam, interview, scholars’ dinner, spring orientation, fall sports practice, buddy day, family barbecue. None of the boys had parents or siblings who Archmere Academy’s football team in 1932. had attended Archmere. The boys must have been filled with questions, anxieties, but also wonder. Freshman Robert F. Kelly, ‘36, writing in his senior yearbook, had a vivid memory of his first morning at Archmere: “As we stood there watching ... our attention was attracted to the marble stairway. Here we beheld Father McKeough, the Headmaster, approach us. After a friendly greeting, he directed us toward the chapel, where the first school year was appropriately inaugurated with Holy Mass.” First impressions are lasting, and Father McKeough’s friendly greeting and fervent celebration of Mass made the first students conclude: “All are welcome in this place” - the words of the opening hymn we sang at Archmere’s Opening Mass on September 14, 2021. On September 14, 1932, the sixteen boys heard Father MCKeough read, “Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God ...emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, ...humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8), words the 515 current Archmere students heard at Mass this year on September 14. These words perfectly describe the life and ministry of Father McKeough. At Archmere, from 1932 to 1936, he was the Headmaster and taught Latin, Economics, and Religion. From 1936 to 1945, he was principal of Southeast Catholic High School in Philadelphia. From 1945 to 1951, he was an assistant professor of Education at the Catholic University in DC. In 1951 he returned to Saint Norbert College as a professor of Education, and from 1952 to 1957, he served as Dean of the college.

Fr. McKeough at the dedication of St. Norbert Hall on November 8, 1959

Father McKeough made his last visit to Archmere on Sunday, November 8, 1959, to give the Dedication Address at the Dedication of Saint Norbert Hall. True to his life of humble service, Father McKeough made no reference in his address to himself and his role in establishing Archmere Academy. His spirit is evident in the letter he wrote to Abbot Pennings on the evening of September 14, 1932: “We started this morning with sixteen boys ... I feel confident that we shall have twenty before long. This is a small proportion of the fifty we had hoped. However, considering everything, I am satisfied. We shall carry on the best we can this year and trust that we will survive until next year” - confidence, gratitude, hope, trust - words of reverence and wisdom (“Pietate et Scientia”). Every Advent Season long-time Archmere teacher and administrator John A. O’Meara (1948-1990) used to place on his bulletin board these words in red crayon about Jesus: “God cared for us so much that He sent the very best.” We can say that Abbot Pennings cared so much for the new Archmere Academy that he sent Father Michael McKeough—“the very best.” The Psalmist wrote, “Seventy is the sum of our years, and eighty for those who are strong” (Psalm 90:10). Father McKeough died of cancer on June 5, 1960, at age 68 - younger than 70 but stronger than 80, still guiding us in Year 90 with his invincible spirit: “Will do as you wish. Sounds great.” “We started this morning with sixteen boys. I feel confident that we shall have twenty before long. This is a small proportion of the fifty we had hoped. However, considering everything, I am satisfied. We shall carry on the best we can this year and trust that we will survive until next year,” confidence, gratitude, hope, trust—words of reverence and wisdom (Pietate et Scientia).