Jamshedpur, Dec 15: Loyola School, ranked among the country’s top 100 schools, was founded in January 1947, by two Jesuits from Kolkata, Father Cecil Leeming and Father Robert Drugman. Loyola was given 3.5 acres of land which once housed the Chota Nagpur Regiment Club (CNR). Hindi classes were held in a small school bus while the CNR Club hall housed several classes at the same time.
The Tatas had requested the Jesuit Fathers from Maryland, U.S.A., to come to Jamshedpur to manage Loyola. Five American fathers come from the United States under the Rector Superior Father Caroll I. Fasy. The fathers are given the Chotanagpur Regiment Club (CNR Club) and the land around it to ‘build’ the school on. The boundary walls of the school are the same from the time when the CNR club existed.
The Fathers lived in 43, Circuit House Area. Each year, one class was added on each side. So, originally, Loyola had 4th and 5th only. The next year, 1948, it had 3rd and 6th. To provide for extra classes, new classrooms were built. But this too, was not sufficient. So a new building came up. It was raised on the ‘once upon a time’ tennis courts of the CNR club. It is the present Loyola building.
The school premises were the Chhota Nagpur Regiment Club (CNR) situated on the property now belonging to Loyola School. This was adjacent to two football fields which became attached to Loyola. The school ran during the day, but at nightfall the Club members took over in the bar, the billiards room and the card room. The building was never meant for a school, Classrooms had to be put in nooks and corners and were often separated by nothing but curtains. There were 44 boys altogether in Stds 4 and 5.
One year after the Calcutta Jesuits had started the school, a group of Americans came to help out in January 1948. They were Fr. Fasy, the Superior, Fr. Dineen, a Maths teacher, Fr. Enright, a Labour Relations man, and two Scholastics, James Keogh and Anderson Bakewell. They had made a month and a half journey by merchant ship through the Suez Canal from New to Bombay. In that year the works of the Catholic Church in Jamshedpur began to be taken over by Jesuit Missionaries of the Maryland Province, U.S.A. It seems that the intermediary whose influence brought the Jesuits from was a Steel Company. His name was Neil Haley of Gary, Indiana. Backing him was Sir Jehangir Ghandy to have a Jesuit School here since many of them were products of Jesuit Colleges.
Over the years the school has achieved several milestones. Father Pius, who was the principal of Loyola from 1992 to 2002 during the Golden Jubilee era of Loyola was the person behind making Loyola School Co-Education. He rejoined Loyola in 2017, and is playing a key role in the platinum jubilee this year.
His passion for teaching has not ceased even after holding the post of principal. He still teaches his students under his tutelage, and brings accolades to the school by achieving excellent results every year.
Sharing his experiences as the principal of the leading school of the state, Father Pius said that he had served as principal of Loyola from 1992-2002 but now felt humbled to be back at the school. “Honestly speaking, education is more than just scoring marks. I believe in making every child capable of being a responsible citizen and contributing to the nation’s progress,” said Father Pius with a smile.
Some prominent Loyoleans: Percy Siganporia (1967) MD, Tata Tea Limited, Zubin Irani (1991), MD, Carrier India, Shomone Chatterjee (1982), MD, Lewis India, Padma Shri Astad Deboo (1965), Modern dancer and choreographer, Mahesh Aney (1971), National film award winning cinematographer He won the Best Cinematographer award in 2005 for his work in the movie, Swades. Academia Dr. Yashwant Gupta (1978), Chief Scientist at National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, at the Pune University Campus, Dr. Amit Chatterjee (1960), Metallurgist of international repute, Fellow of Imperial College, London, Dr. Abhinav Kumar (1998), Stood first in IIT JEE 1998
Gold medalist, International Mathematics Olympiad 1998 CS from MIT and PhD from Harvard.
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God bless Loyola School and the Jamshedpur Jesuits… Im happy the boys of our family studied at Loyola.
Maryanne Ekka
I was at Loyola also, pretty much throughout the 50s. Went on to North Point in Darjeeling for a year, then to engineering in Ranchi, and then on to Madison in the US.
The thing is, that at one level, my own career was rather simple, and relatively uneventful in terms of glamorous things like the development of new technologies, or ground breaking fundamental research.
And yet, I feel that I had a fab and fun journey over the decades, much of whose momentum and flair came from our fabulous formative times at Loyola😎.
And if i were to put my mind on describing the amazing things that just ten of my contemporaries at Loyola got into, within their rich careers, it would make a truly colorful and exciting tale😎.
So I have often wondered. What if we got back to our Personal class alumni, on a Personal basis? And had a couple of our fellas put together the fun aspect of the career stories that surround just Our particular set of classmates😎? In my case, we just had 17, who passed out in 1959. If I were get together with two blokes I remember well.. Red Narayan😎who lives in Washington DC, and Chandra Mehta😎 in Baroda, who excelled in the art of writing.. and we’re to ask them to put together a ‘life story’ of just Our classmates from ’59? It would make a delicious tale.
And what if we had each ‘Class Tale’ be put together in this way? And sent back to Loyola, and placed in a special archive😎? The tone wouldn’t be stodgy, but light hearted😎. Methinks, we would have an amazing ‘Collection’😎, which the newer kids at Loyola could delve into now and then, even if just as a lark.
My guess is, that such a Collection.. which would be a light and informal narrative of the ‘life achievement’ of nearly Eighty Groups of Loyola classmates.. would be a remarkably colorful and intriguing body of a kind of History. And in its own unique way, be a testament to what a Jesuit education managed to do for us😎. I wonder, if anyone even among my Class of 59 would give this fine thought, and add things to this idea😎?