LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Dear Rockhurst Community,

For 112 years, Rockhurst High School has served the greater Kansas City community as the all-boys Jesuit school of Kansas City. Part of a national and international network of schools, our heritage from the Society of Jesus has been an integral heritage to helping shape the Kansas City community and beyond for generations.

The school may have existed in different locations and with developing curriculum, but the core of our mission in the formation of the young men we serve, helping them develop as Men for Others, and shaping their competence to serve in every sector of society has been a constant.

As a Board of Trustees, we have spent the better parts of the last two years working with our President, David Laughlin, to consider our future. David has shared with us various points of input from our employees as well as a President’s Advisory Committee which has helped provide valuable input as we dedicate ourselves to the mission of our school in our time.

There has been remarkable agreement on the human priorities of Rockhurst High School: our students and prospective students and the faculty and staff who accompany these young men in the mission of Rockhurst.

Today, we share with you a broad reaching vision statement for our future: Toward a Hope-Filled Future

The Pillars of this vision will guide the detailed aspects of the strategic planning to take place in our near future.

We invite you to read through this vision statement for Rockhurst and to reflect upon these Pillars as we move forward. In the months ahead, you will learn about greater details in planning for our future based upon these Pillars:

I. Jesuit Catholic Identity

II. Formation of the Whole Person

III. Excellence and Innovation

IV. Community Engagement

As we care for present-day Rockhurst, and look toward a future vision, we remain indebted with gratitude to all those families, benefactors, educators, Trustees, and community partners, and most especially, the Society of Jesus, for providing our school such a strong platform to reach and do even greater things in our future.

In hope and gratitude,

Owen M. Zidar ’75

Board Chairman

David M. Staker ’88

Board

Vice Chairman

On behalf of the entire Board of Trustees.

“For me, the impact of Rockhurst has been a family and community experience of good. The love and respect I have for my father Gerald (’48) and my son Scott (’06) and the many life-long friends, good men, that I met at Rockhurst. I’d like to think we were and are all men who at least strive to GOOD. And I really believe that Rockhurst, with its seemingly momentary four-year influence, had a significant role in the formation of each of us. And I hope ‘men for others’ continues to be aspirational!

— Jerry Kelly ’73

Kiawah Island, SC

Board of Trustees, President's Advisory Committee