A HEARTFELT GIFT EXPANDS THE HEART

Of The Hill

A $500,000 gift from J.P. Bryan ’58 supports St. Stephen’s plans to expand the Chapel into a more welcoming space for future generations.

The gesture of giving is one of the most beautiful expressions of care and compassion that one can experience. And for those with a benevolent spirit like J.P. Bryan, Jr. ’58, giving can bring just as much and sometimes even more joy to the giver. Bryan, who recently committed St. Stephen’s $500,000 toward the Chapel renovation and expansion, expresses a feeling of that exact sentiment: joy. Bryan shares it was his deep faith and coming of age in the school’s earliest decade that led him to make this gift from the heart.

Bryan, a five-year boarding student who later became a successful Texas business and civic leader, acknowledges that during his time on campus, attending chapel frequently could feel like an “obligation” to students. Back then, St. Stephen’s seemed remote in the isolated hills outside Austin, and student activity and free time were limited. All students attended chapel in the morning and evening, the community had a single TV with grainy reception, and students could only leave campus twice a week for trips into town. And that was only if faculty did not cancel the trips to reprimand students for breaking school rules, Bryan remembers. His close-knit class of only 36 students often had to make their own fun. In addition to Bryan’s studies, he was also a boxer and played football, basketball and tennis, and served as a dorm proctor.

Reflecting on why he decided to make a gift many years later, Bryan believes the Chapel became his true sanctuary and a peaceful place in the heart of The Hill that calmed his mind, body and spirit. From a hazy memory of the “repetition of prayers” and the “daily ritual of chapel,” those defining elements stand out in his mind. Most importantly, Bryan remembers the large wooden cross hanging over the altar that he says spoke louder than anything any adult ever said to him about faith.

Originally built in 1953 to seat 300 people, the Chapel’s architectural style remains a celebrated example of Fehr and Granger design. The building appears to rise naturally from The Hill — elegantly unembellished, as though it has always belonged there.

Bryan recalls the cross being “hard to ignore, and not only in your sight but in your psyche or in your soul.” Bryan says he remembers sneaking out of the dorm one night and finding himself in the Chapel. He recalls sitting in the front row and staring at the cross in contemplation. In hindsight, constancy was the comfort Bryan says he needed. Bryan’s gladness in giving is to pass on what he received. St. Stephen’s is no longer as isolated from the world, but the Chapel remains a place where students can find solace. The doors are always open for those seeking private comfort and relief from their burdens. It is also a sanctuary for those who desire to share personal struggles and joys with a community rooted in respecting the individuality and dignity of every human being.

As Bryan thinks about the hundreds of Spartans on The Hill who regularly attend chapel today, his advice is to adopt the building as their own sanctuary and find “messages that you can apply to your own life, because clearly, God did not intend for you to live a sorrowful life. He wanted you to have a joyful adventure of walking through life. It’s going to be full of trials and challenges, of course, but

He’s going to always be there for you; you just need to be available for Him.”

St. Stephen’s will celebrate its 75th anniversary throughout the 2025-26 school year and, in the fall, will publicly launch the boldest comprehensive fundraising campaign in the school’s history. Among the campaign priorities is a $5 million expansion and renovation of the Chapel that will preserve the aesthetics of this sacred space while allowing all Upper School students to gather inside. Bryan notes that his campaign gift to the Chapel honors the constancy of the building’s role at St. Stephen’s and his confidence that its expansion will ensure it remains a meaningful and more welcoming space for future generations of Spartans. Once the Chapel expansion and renovation project is complete, the cross above the altar will remain, and Bryan hopes all who continue to gaze upon it “aspire to grow in grace and knowledge.”

To learn more about making a gift to the Chapel renovation and expansion, please contact Director of Advancement April Speck-Ewer at aspeckewer@sstx.org or 512.327.1213 x 118.

STONE FOR THE SANCTUARY: BUILDING AN ENDURING FOUNDATION

As St. Stephen’s looks ahead to renovating and expanding the Chapel, one of the school’s first alumni says he and other early Spartans had a hand in building the Chapel, which entailed quarrying the stones for the school’s central place of belonging. The stone used on several campus buildings was quarried by hand from the vast landscape.

The Rev. Will Brewster ’51, who lives in Kittery Point, Maine, recently recalled his early days on campus. Will Brewster is the son of Rev. William Brewster, the first headmaster and co-founder of the school with Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Will, now in his 90s, recalls vivid details about coming to Texas as a boarding student from Kent School in Connecticut. His father needed students for the fledgling school in Austin, Texas, so Will and his Kent roommate, Conrad Derdyn ’52, both enrolled.

Even before St. Stephen’s opened its doors, Will lived and worked on campus. His dad hired him to quarry limestone, a Texas staple scattered across the entire state region, to be used in building classrooms, dorms and the Chapel. The property was still a scrubby goat farm encompassing 400 rocky acres dotted with cedar trees and stumps. The summers were much like they are today, hot and dry, as 1949 was the first year of the catastrophic Texas drought that would continue through the 1950s. In summers, the teenage Will hauled the stone he laboriously quarried to the campus construction sites on The Hill in the school’s open-bed Studebaker truck. Other students were sometimes recruited to help.

Will was taught to look for weathered rock that had an unbroken edge to use specifically in walls. “We were very careful when we broke the rock that we kept the unbroken edge. And that was a highly, highly prized part of the construction,” he said. Some of those original walls still stand on campus.

Today, Will remembers the Chapel as not only the site of the labor of his youth but also a sacred place of reverence. His father became ill and died in November 1953; his memorial service and interment was the first service held in the school Chapel. Nearby, Will’s late brother Peter is interred in the memorial garden just steps from the Brewster Memorial cross.

Head of School Chris Gunnin reflects on the importance of Will’s memories from his teen years. “The story of the construction with rock quarried on-site straight from the hillsides helps create a truly Spartan story as part of our history and heritage,” he said.

Now, through the comprehensive campaign, the school plans a thoughtful Chapel renovation and expansion as it looks to make a sacred space even more special.

“The current Chapel building is beloved by many of us in the community; for many, the building is sacred, not just in that it is our place of worship, but in that it reflects and embodies the rich history and heritage of our school’s founding and earliest years,” said Gunnin.

And the stone from the pioneers of St. Stephen’s still remains — simple, dignified and elemental.

Hear more from Woodruff on page 48