View From Above: Fr. Bob Reiser, S.J.

President: 2006-13

Also: former trustee, faculty member

No matter how many times a Prep man crosses the street at the corner of Grand and Warren, he cannot help but be awed by the magnificence of the Statue of Liberty. The view down Warren from Grand can stop even the most harried freshman or nostalgic alumnus in his tracks. Living in her shadow is one of Prep’s greatest treasures as she beckons our students and adults alike to imagine a future unthinkable without her.

As I reflect on my seven years as Prep’s 26th President, the mandate to imagine our future describes my experience best. Very early on, we began our imagining by enhancing an already storied school experience. We upgraded academics, cocurriculars, and religious formation experiences. We enhanced our curriculum with additional Advanced Placement courses and complemented that by introducing a student support resource center named for John E. Browning, S.J., ‘46, one of Prep’s heroes. We also strengthened our unique Jesuit mission of “educating the whole person” by introducing initiatives such as the Kairos retreat program, Vox student choir, and the robotics and crew teams. Imagining the future of academics and student life quickly became an important focus of my time as president of Saint Peter’s.

With the winds of Jersey City’s growth at our backs, we ambitiously developed a multi-phased facilities master plan that would transform Prep’s entire downtown campus. Construction began almost immediately with the renovation of Saint Peter’s Church into the O’Keefe Commons. We next transformed Burke Hall into the Moriarty Science Center and finally set foundational stones for the Perkins Athletic Center. At the same time, we increased our endowment in support of underserved students and introduced the Sheehan Scholars Program. In all of this, we were joined in our imagining by women and men committed to our Jesuit mission through their generosity of spirit and resources.

Community has always been at the core of the Prep experience, and so we boldly imagined a Grand Gala that could bring families together in the Prep spirit to support other families in need. Our first Gala began as a dream, and it really did not come true for me until I walked onto the dance floor for a dance with Seton Ahearn, who along with her husband Bill served as our first co-chairs. One of our finest Gala evenings saw Celeste Holm, one of Hollywood’s golden stars, join us for dinner and dancing. For me, the Gala became the highlight of my year as we not only worked together for a greater good, but we also enjoyed one another at the dinner table and on the dance floor. Along with the Gala, we also imagined the future by introducing community Masses and enjoying traditional Prep favorites such as the Mom Prom, alumni reunions, and beating Don Bosco. It was in these moments of community that I forged friendships and memories that I will hold for a lifetime.

As we know from the stories of our forebears who emigrated to America and from those new migrants who journey toward liberty today, the dreams of Lady Liberty are often forged in setbacks and trials. The same can be said about the story of my days at Prep. In the fall of 2012, Superstorm Sandy raged up the East Coast and slammed into the New York - New Jersey metropolitan area. Sandy wreaked havoc on our Jersey City neighborhood, including the main sections of the Prep campus. It left seven feet of water in the basements of our West Campus buildings, buckled the turf and destroyed the team locker room at the field, carried cars and vans from the parking lot, and rendered a portion of the East Campus unusable. Yet, in the first hours after the waters of the Hudson River began to subside, the Prep community jumped into action, attacking what was in front of them with the type of commitment and professionalism I had come to know every single day. I soon learned that in the face of challenge, a person cannot dwell on the destruction that surrounds him or her, but they must look toward the future and imagine what it holds. I was so proud of the Prep community as we emerged from the crisis of Superstorm Sandy ever more convinced of Jesus’ promise to Simon Peter, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18)

In an interview as I was leaving the school in 2013, Chris Casazza, Prep’s Chief Advancement Officer, asked what I felt Prep’s future held. I remember remarking about how optimistic I was about the prospects of Prep’s next phase of imagining the future. There were so many pieces in place for “Prep’s moment,” and I was satisfied in departing. After all, the shadow of the Statue of Liberty was still looming over us at Grand and Warren, as it had for what is now 136 years, and what it will be for generations of Pride and Glory to come.