Historical June 1991 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Sister Leo Ann Bub, C.S.J.. long-time principal of St. Roch’s School and fervent booster of the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood, is leaving that post now that the school year is ending.
Also leaving will be Sister Charles Helaine Feckar, retired from full-time teaching but parttime tutor to students needing assistance. Asked about her plans for the future, Sister Leo Ann replied that she had received several attractive offers but would wait until classes were finished before making a decision. Sister Leo Ann first served at St. Roch’s when she taught first grade there from 1951 to 1957. At that time it was an all-white school with classes overflowing as the first wave of the baby boom entered school.
She returned as school principal in 1967 when white flight and neighborhood changes threatened the school. Realizing that her students needed a safe and stable area, she and former pastor Msgr. Robert M. Peet threw their support behind efforts to integrate the neighborhood successfully. At present St. Roch’s enrolls students of many races and nationalities.
When the Block Watcher movement began, Sr. Leo Ann’s daily walk with her dog made her not only a block watcher but a neighborhood watcher.
She has three citations from the Police Department for her assistance in fighting neighborhood crime. “I know a whole generation of students will remember Sister,” said one long-time resident, “but I hope our newer neighbors realize how much of their current stability is based on her work in the school and the area.” Other residents recall that the children were always Sister’s prime concern.
She began her tenure at St. Roch’s when lay school boards were new to the parochial school system and worked successfully with a series of boards to improve education at St. Roch’s. Under her supervision the library was expanded, regular art classes became standard, and physical education classes pointed toward the goals of the President’s Fitness Program.
The Junior Great Books Program was available to students and other innovations like the parent-student handbook. the all-day kindergarten, optional minicourses for students and parents began during her administration.
Some of her happiest memories, she said, are of visits from former students, invitations to their class reunions, letters and cards keeping her up-to-date on their lives. Asked about a difficult problem, she instantly named her first bouts with the computer in her office. “I’ve always had to be my own secretary, so I couldn’t pass that chore on to someone else.
I had to learn to use the computer for records and class lists.
Now I can enter information on new students in the right categories with no problem and wonder how I got along without it.” A native St. Louisan, Sr. Leo Ann attended St. Luke’s Grade School and St. Joseph’s Academy.
She is a graduate of Fontbonne College and received her Master’s in Education from St. Louis University.
She taught at a number of local elementary schools, as well as in Chicago and Ste. Genevieve. Missouri before coming to St. Roch’s.
The current pastor. Msgr. Salvatore Polizzi, recently announced the hiring of Mrs. Gloria Openlander as the school’s first lay principal.
Original photograph caption
Sister Leo Ann Bubb with several students on the St. Roch School grounds. Photo by King Schoenfeld.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, June 1991.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Article surnameBubvsphotoBubb; printedvariantretained. Historical racial composition/white flight statements attributed1991 profile.
Original source: SD_Times1991_06.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
