SALEM — St. Mary’s School presented the Cardinal Cushing Award to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and the Sisters of St. Joseph Wednesday night at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.
At the same celebration, the Price family was awarded the William F. Connell ’55 Service Award.
The Cushing Award is awarded by the school to a vigorous champion of Catholic education whose personal and professional life mirror St. Mary’s mission.
St. Mary’s has a proud legacy of providing quality Catholic education dating back to the school’s opening in 1881. Two groups who played a critical role in that mission were the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
Founded by St. Julie Billiart in 1804, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur came to Boston in 1849. They expanded their outreach from the North End of Boston to Lowell, Salem and other communities and were invited to teach in Lynn in 1881. The Sisters of Notre Dame taught at the elementary level from the school’s opening and at St. Mary’s Girls High starting in 1923. They maintained a presence at the school into the 1990s.
The Sisters of St. Joseph arrived in Boston in 1873. Four days after their arrival in Jamaica Plain, Mother Mary Regis and three companions opened three grades in the basement of St. Thomas Church. The Sisters of St. Joseph staffed St. Mary’s Boys High School for more than 35 years, leaving before the boys and girls high schools merged in 1968.
“There are generations of St. Mary’s graduates who benefited from the outstanding academic instruction and the lessons in life taught by the Sisters,” said Head of School Dr. John F. Dolan. “The strength of St. Mary’s today lies in the support we receive from those alumni, who acknowledge and appreciate what St. Mary’s did for them and the critical role the Sisters played.”
Connell gave St. Mary’s $1 million in 1989 when the school was in danger of closing and he bequeathed the school a $5 million gift, which led to the construction of the Connell Center. While becoming one of the most successful businessmen in the country, Connell was always true to his West Lynn and St. Mary’s roots.
When Patrick Christopher Price died suddenly at the age of 46 in 1961, his wife, Loretta, became a single mother of four children ages 3-12. It was a daunting task, but family, friends and the community rallied around the Prices and made sure Loretta had the emotional and financial support she and her children needed.
“People really stepped up for us,” said Paul Price ’75, the youngest of the four children, who was 3 when his dad died.
One area in which Loretta Price was not going to cut corners was education. She made sure that all four children had the opportunity to attend St. Pius Elementary and St. Mary’s High School.
“We all went to St. Pius,” said Christine (Price) Antaya ’66, the eldest sibling, who was in the seventh grade when her father died. “From there you went to St. Mary’s. That was just what you did. We were very lucky.”
The journey through Catholic education did not end with St. Mary’s graduation, as all four went on to Catholic colleges: Neal ’69, Peter ’73 and Paul to Providence and Christine to Emmanuel.
St. Mary’s has remained near and dear to their hearts, especially Paul, a member of the board of trustees who has had three children graduate: Meghann ’01, Kevin ’04 and Claire ’06. Neal’s son, Matthew, is a 2007 graduate. Paul was asked to sit on the Finance Committee in 2010 and he became a trustee in 2011.
Peter Price said going to St. Mary’s “meant the world” to him and his siblings. “I don’t think there was ever any other option for us. We made a lot of good friends there.”
Neal, who passed away in 2023, started the family accounting business, Neal A. Price & Co., in 1978 when he was 27 years old. Paul went to work for the company in 1982 and Peter came on board five years later. Neal’s wife, son and daughter all work there.
When Loretta Price died in 2000, the family started the Loretta Price Scholarship, which is awarded to a good student with a single parent, who may not have been able to go to St. Mary’s without it.
