Loyola High School honours its late president with day-long bash
Published in The Gazette (Montreal) on March 3, 2008
By Alan Hustak
Eric Maclean, the Jesuit priest who was instrumental in raising $15 million for an addition to Loyola High School, was posthumously honoured yesterday with a day-long program of activities at the school.
Maclean, the school's popular president, died last year while working out in the school's gymnasium. He was 63.
About 700 benefactors attended last night's gala dedication of the school's $5-million theatre as the Eric Maclean S.J. Centre for the Performing Arts.
Diana Carl inaugurated the 750-seat space with an invitation-only production of the one woman show Late Nite Catechism. Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson of the CBC comedy series Royal Canadian Air Farce, both graduates of the high school, also performed. There was also a memorial mass in the school's chapel, a cocktail party and a banquet in Maclean's honour.
Loyola High School president Rob Brennan said it was entirely appropriate to name the arts centre after Maclean.
"He loved the theatre. Whenever he travelled, he sought out bargain rush seats and delighted in recounting in detail the plays he had seen in London, New York or Stratford.
"On Oscar Awards night, he would set up camp in the TV room with a bowl of popcorn and a drink, and comment on every film that was mentioned. He knew them all."
Loyola High School President Father Robert C. Brennan, SJ and diocesan priest Fr. Bertoli, who taught for over two decades at Loyola
French teacher Madam Michele Nadeau with Loyola graduates Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson of the Royal Canadian Air Farce
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