1954
1960
1972
April 10: Options on acreage adjacent to Priory land secured by Pan American Refining Corporation, subsidiary of Standard Oil Company. Eventually withdrawn after objections from Priory.
June 1: Dedication of new church by Dom Ansgar Nelson, Bishop of Stockholm, and attended by Governor Del Sesto as well as by church and state officials.
Oct. 2: Student mock presidential election: Nixon 62% – McGovern 2l%.
Sept. 17: Appointment of C.J. Acheson of Ampleforth as associate headmaster.
1951 Jan. 15: Dom Gregory resigns as Prior in order to help in founding a contemplative monastery in Elmira, New York. Aug. 8: The Abbot President, Herbert Byrne, appoints Dom Aelred Graham, a monk of Ampleforth Abbey, to be Prior. Sept. 18: Opening of St Bede’s House, a dormitory for 28 boys, using money donated by Mr. Siragusa, originally intended for a swimming pool.
Oct. 4: Lecture on “The Menace of Communism” by Louis Budenz, a convert to Catholicism and former editor of The Communist Daily Worker. Oct. 27: Opening of campaign for $l,000,000 for construction of the Priory Church and Monastery.
1955 April 20: A second threat to build a refinery in the Arnold Point area by Commerce Oil Company, which secures options on 500 acres.
1957 Proposed refinery defeated after two years of litigation.
1952 Aug.: Graduates Thomas Hubbard ‘48 and Thomas Price ‘47 reported killed in action in Korean Conflict. Oct. 22: Mock student presidential vote: an Eisenhower landslide over Adlai Stevenson, 99 to 49. Dec. 8: Visit by Pietro Belluschi, dean of Architectural School at M.I.T., to propose a new direction in architecture for future buildings.
Aug. 1: Acquisition of 75 acres near Arnold Point to prevent further industrial development harmful to the Priory. Sept 15: Dom Leo van Winkle ‘37 appointed headmaster to replace Dom Aelred Wall ‘36.
Oct. 16: First Broadcast of FM Radio Station WJHD under the management of Dom Geoffrey Chase.
Oct 22: Mock student election of U. S. President: Nixon defeats Kennedy by an overwhelming margin.
Nov. 17: Opening of Indoor Hockey Rink.
1962 April: Creation of Zen Garden beside Church.
June 10: First meeting of newly formed Board of Consultants.
1963
Sept. 23: Committee formed to consider coeducation.
Jan. 10: Priory is named recipient of estate of Renee Cortazzo of Newport, providing funds for construction of Administration Building and the creation of a student scholarship fund.
Jim and Deb celebrate the birth of their first son, Matthew.
1967 June 4: Graduation address by Senator John Chafee. (His son, Lincoln, now Governor of Rhode Island, was the wrestling coach of Peter Fitzgerald ‘78, elected senator from Illinois in 1998.)
1978
June 7: Retirement of Dom Aelred Graham as Prior and election of Dom Matthew Stark.
May 1: First Elizabeth Seton Lecture by Senator Eugene McCarthy.
Feb. 4: Blizzard delays School’s winter recess for three days.
Nov. 23: Memorial Requiem Mass in Priory Church for President John F. Kennedy, assassinated the day before in Texas. Mrs. Hugh Auchincloss, his mother-in-law, attends.
Aug. 28: Reenactment of The Battle of Rhode Island on the school grounds to commemorate its bicentennial.
1965 Aug. 14: Sale of Arnold Point property to the Kaiser Aluminum Company.
Dec. 3: CBS-TV broadcast of 25 minute documentary on The Portsmouth Abbey School.
1973 1958 Jan. 6: Dom David Hurst awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for research on St. Bede the Venerable.
Opening of three dormitories, St. Aelred’s, St. Hugh’s, and St. Leonard’s.
1969 Oct. 23: Elevation of monastery to abbatial status and appointment of Dom Matthew as first abbot.
1970
1959 Dom Aelred Graham, author, lecturer, and retreat master, is elected Prior for a further eight years.
1977
1966 Sept. 31: Dedication of Auditorium and Science Building. Among the speakers is Dr. Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb.
Jim and Deb welcome their second son, Stephen.
Feb. 10: E.J. Dionne ‘69 becomes Portsmouth’s first Rhodes Scholar.
April 15: Lecture by Walter Kerr, theatre critic of The New York Times.
June 8: Retirement of Dom Leo after l6 years as Headmaster and appointment of Dom Gregory Floyd as his successor.
1971
Sept. 18: Jim and Deb DeVecchi arrive at Portsmouth to begin their teaching careers.
March 23: Introduction of first Digital Equipment Corporation computer on campus.
1979
1976 June 5: Portsmouth Abbey’s Fiftieth Anniversary celebration at Rosecliff Mansion in Newport.
1959
1960
1968
1969
1973
1974
1976
March 12: Hawaii becomes 50th state in the Union.
Nov. 9: John F. Kennedy elected President.
April 4: Assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis.
July 21: Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.
Aug. 8: Nixon resigns in wake of Watergate scandal.
July 4: Celebration of United States Bicentennial.
1962
June 6: Robert Kennedy shot in Los Angeles.
Aug. 15: Woodstock Music Festival held in Bethel, N.Y., attracting over 500,000 spectators.
Jan. 27: Vietnam Peace Pact signed in Paris, ending America’s longest war.
Oct. 22: Cuban Missile Crisis.
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July 20: Viking robot lands on Mars.
Sept. 9: Death of Mao TseTung, leader of Communist Chinese Revolution.
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