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In Memoriam: Father Raymond Lelii, S.J.
Gonzaga mourns the passing of longtime teacher and coach Father Raymond Lelii, SJ, who passed away on Thursday, October 29. Father Lelii first came to Gonzaga as a Jesuit scholastic in 1955 and then returned for two more stints--from 1965 until 1995 and from 2000 to 2011--totaling more than 40 years of service to Eye Street.
Reprinted below is the citation that was read when Father Lelii was awarded the St. Aloysius Medal in 2014. Thank you, Father Lelii, for your many years of service to Gonzaga. We are forever grateful.
_________________
Father Raymond Lelii, SJ
In 1980 Father Ray Lelii visited his ancestral homeland of Italy. He had been there before and would go again, many times bringing along a group of Gonzaga students and their parents. But that 1980 trip would be the most memorable. Because this was the time that Father Lelii finally got to meet the Pope--Pope John Paul II. In order to greet the Pontiff, Father had to stand in a long line and inch his way along with a throng of Vatican pilgrims, but it was worth it.The experience was the highlight of his priestly life—but as it turns out, not for very long. Because right after he met the Pope, Father Lelii got back in line to greet him again. Only this time when John Paul saw him approaching, he called out, “Here comes that Jesuit again!”
Raymond Lelii was born in Baltimore and attended high school at Loyola Blakefield. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1949 and was ordained in 1961. Now eighty-eight years old and after a long career as a teacher and working as a parish priest, he lives in Baltimore at the St. Claude Columbiere residence, a place most would consider a retirement home for Jesuits, but for Father Lelii it is just his most recent command post from which he conducts his many ministries. Consider the following:
He swims five days a week. He serves as Chaplain at Symphony Manor Senior Living Center and at Keswick Retirement Community, both in Baltimore. At least twice a month he boards the Marc train in Baltimore—alone—and comes to Washington, where he serves as Chaplain for the Legion of Mary. In addition to these ministries, his calendar is full of weddings and baptisms at which he officiates. Just recently, he boarded the Marc train and came to Washington so he could attend the 55th Reunion for the Gonzaga Class of 1959. So, if you think his passion for life and the zeal he brings to his ministry even now in his golden years is remarkable, just imagine what he was like during those thirty-four years he spent as teacher and coach on Eye Street. Yes, he was something else! Let’s look back.
He first came to Gonzaga as a Jesuit Scholastic in 1955 and would serve in that capacity until 1957. It was during this time that he established Gonzaga’s first-ever Tennis team. After ordination, he returned to Eye Street in 1965 as the school’s Biology teacher and for most of the next four decades would teach nearly every boy who came to Gonzaga. To put that into perspective consider this: he taught Dr. Dillon’s son, John, and Marty Tuohey’s son Brendan, and Brendan O’Neill’s sons Brendan and Casey. And he taught Brendan O’Neill!
He was a demanding educator. And let’s just say that Biology wasn’t everyone’s favorite class. And yet whether a boy was predisposed to knowing the difference between meiosis and mitosis or dissecting worms and frogs or not, he was still obligated to participate in the school’s Annual Science Fair. The less scientifically inclined amongst us did not earn medals during those science fairs, but what we did develop was a strong measure of self- respect that comes with learning we were capable of doing things that we hadn’t thought we could. Those who did receive the top awards at the Gonzaga Science Fair routinely went on to capture top awards at the D.C. High School Science Fair. For the very best students he arranged internships with some of the area’s top scientists. Twice, Father Lelii was recognized D.C. Biology Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Biology Teachers.
Honestly, it is fair to say that if all Father Lelii did at Gonzaga was teach Biology that he would be one of the school’s most memorable educators. But he did so so much more.
In the 1970’s, Gonzaga fell on hard times. In the aftermath of the civil unrest of the late 1960’s the school’s enrollment had plummeted and many feared that Gonzaga would not survive. But in stepped Father Lelii, who together with fellow faculty member John Warman visited grade school after grade school and home after home, trying to convince principals and parents to send their students to Gonzaga. Because it was there, in the heart of the city at school set at the crossroads of an urban slum and Capitol Hill that boys would learn and grow. Ever relentless, Father Lelii would not allow the school he so dearly loved to disappear. One can only imagine what all those parents and grade school principals were thinking when they saw Father Lelii approaching: “Here comes that Jesuit again!”
Yes, here comes that Jesuit again.
As Tennis Coach, he co-founded the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Tennis League and led the Eagles to eleven consecutive championships, beginning in 1985 when the Gonzaga Tennis team brought home to Eye Street its first championship banner in any sport since Brendan O’Neill caught that game-winning touchdown pass in 1959. There was celebration in old Swampoodle that day. Twice, he was named Washington Post Tennis Coach of the Year, in 1990 and in 1995. In 2002, the Gonzaga Alumni Association enthusiastically inducted Father Lelii into its Athletic Hall of Fame.
As moderator of the Italian Club he taught conversational Italian as well as organizing ten trips to Italy. As Moderator of the Fathers Club for twenty-five years he established the Annual Father-Son Night and Pep Rally on the eve of the St. John’s football game and the Father-Son Communion Breakfast as major school traditions that nearly every boy and his father attended.
In those days there was no email or Facebook or Twitter to help promote events and doubtful Father Lelii would have used them anyway. Because for weeks leading up to Father-Son events his voice would bellow through the halls, “Father Son Night. We Have to Beat St. Johns. And…Father- Son Communion Breakfast. Everybody Come!" And never was he louder or more persistent than when he led two food drives a year on behalf of his friend who to this day he calls his personal hero—that is Father Horace McKenna.
“Food Drive. Food Drive.” He seemed at times a force of nature, his big voice either blowing through the halls or rattling down from his third floor classroom and interrupting every class throughout the entire building.
No one could escape him.
But for as vigorous and loud as he could be in promoting these gatherings, he would quietly but no less relentlessly go about making sure that every boy who did not have a father would feel included. He’d encourage faculty members to bring those boys, or he’d say. “Come with me. I’ll be your father.”
Each year in the Development Office we come up with a theme that is meant to assure benefactors that the school remains deeply rooted with the core values of Jesuit education. This year, that theme is On Solid Ground. It’s a bit of a play on words, since with the Eye Street Renewal Project underway most of the ground in front of the school is gone.
Father Lelii, you have educated us, taken us to foreign lands, opened our eyes to the needs of the poor, blessed us with the sacraments and word of God, you have coached us to be champions, you have taught us to bring love to the world. And all the while you were building a personal relationship between the Society of Jesus and the Gonzaga faithful. In other words, Father Lelii, you have been such a large part of building the solid ground on which Gonzaga still educates its students today and will for generations to come. It is, therefore, with immense gratitude that tonight Gonzaga bestows upon you its St. Aloysius Medal for Service to school and Community.
Back
Reprinted below is the citation that was read when Father Lelii was awarded the St. Aloysius Medal in 2014. Thank you, Father Lelii, for your many years of service to Gonzaga. We are forever grateful.
_________________
Father Raymond Lelii, SJ
In 1980 Father Ray Lelii visited his ancestral homeland of Italy. He had been there before and would go again, many times bringing along a group of Gonzaga students and their parents. But that 1980 trip would be the most memorable. Because this was the time that Father Lelii finally got to meet the Pope--Pope John Paul II. In order to greet the Pontiff, Father had to stand in a long line and inch his way along with a throng of Vatican pilgrims, but it was worth it.The experience was the highlight of his priestly life—but as it turns out, not for very long. Because right after he met the Pope, Father Lelii got back in line to greet him again. Only this time when John Paul saw him approaching, he called out, “Here comes that Jesuit again!”
Raymond Lelii was born in Baltimore and attended high school at Loyola Blakefield. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1949 and was ordained in 1961. Now eighty-eight years old and after a long career as a teacher and working as a parish priest, he lives in Baltimore at the St. Claude Columbiere residence, a place most would consider a retirement home for Jesuits, but for Father Lelii it is just his most recent command post from which he conducts his many ministries. Consider the following:
He swims five days a week. He serves as Chaplain at Symphony Manor Senior Living Center and at Keswick Retirement Community, both in Baltimore. At least twice a month he boards the Marc train in Baltimore—alone—and comes to Washington, where he serves as Chaplain for the Legion of Mary. In addition to these ministries, his calendar is full of weddings and baptisms at which he officiates. Just recently, he boarded the Marc train and came to Washington so he could attend the 55th Reunion for the Gonzaga Class of 1959. So, if you think his passion for life and the zeal he brings to his ministry even now in his golden years is remarkable, just imagine what he was like during those thirty-four years he spent as teacher and coach on Eye Street. Yes, he was something else! Let’s look back.
He first came to Gonzaga as a Jesuit Scholastic in 1955 and would serve in that capacity until 1957. It was during this time that he established Gonzaga’s first-ever Tennis team. After ordination, he returned to Eye Street in 1965 as the school’s Biology teacher and for most of the next four decades would teach nearly every boy who came to Gonzaga. To put that into perspective consider this: he taught Dr. Dillon’s son, John, and Marty Tuohey’s son Brendan, and Brendan O’Neill’s sons Brendan and Casey. And he taught Brendan O’Neill!
He was a demanding educator. And let’s just say that Biology wasn’t everyone’s favorite class. And yet whether a boy was predisposed to knowing the difference between meiosis and mitosis or dissecting worms and frogs or not, he was still obligated to participate in the school’s Annual Science Fair. The less scientifically inclined amongst us did not earn medals during those science fairs, but what we did develop was a strong measure of self- respect that comes with learning we were capable of doing things that we hadn’t thought we could. Those who did receive the top awards at the Gonzaga Science Fair routinely went on to capture top awards at the D.C. High School Science Fair. For the very best students he arranged internships with some of the area’s top scientists. Twice, Father Lelii was recognized D.C. Biology Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Biology Teachers.
Honestly, it is fair to say that if all Father Lelii did at Gonzaga was teach Biology that he would be one of the school’s most memorable educators. But he did so so much more.
In the 1970’s, Gonzaga fell on hard times. In the aftermath of the civil unrest of the late 1960’s the school’s enrollment had plummeted and many feared that Gonzaga would not survive. But in stepped Father Lelii, who together with fellow faculty member John Warman visited grade school after grade school and home after home, trying to convince principals and parents to send their students to Gonzaga. Because it was there, in the heart of the city at school set at the crossroads of an urban slum and Capitol Hill that boys would learn and grow. Ever relentless, Father Lelii would not allow the school he so dearly loved to disappear. One can only imagine what all those parents and grade school principals were thinking when they saw Father Lelii approaching: “Here comes that Jesuit again!”
Yes, here comes that Jesuit again.
As Tennis Coach, he co-founded the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Tennis League and led the Eagles to eleven consecutive championships, beginning in 1985 when the Gonzaga Tennis team brought home to Eye Street its first championship banner in any sport since Brendan O’Neill caught that game-winning touchdown pass in 1959. There was celebration in old Swampoodle that day. Twice, he was named Washington Post Tennis Coach of the Year, in 1990 and in 1995. In 2002, the Gonzaga Alumni Association enthusiastically inducted Father Lelii into its Athletic Hall of Fame.
As moderator of the Italian Club he taught conversational Italian as well as organizing ten trips to Italy. As Moderator of the Fathers Club for twenty-five years he established the Annual Father-Son Night and Pep Rally on the eve of the St. John’s football game and the Father-Son Communion Breakfast as major school traditions that nearly every boy and his father attended.
In those days there was no email or Facebook or Twitter to help promote events and doubtful Father Lelii would have used them anyway. Because for weeks leading up to Father-Son events his voice would bellow through the halls, “Father Son Night. We Have to Beat St. Johns. And…Father- Son Communion Breakfast. Everybody Come!" And never was he louder or more persistent than when he led two food drives a year on behalf of his friend who to this day he calls his personal hero—that is Father Horace McKenna.
“Food Drive. Food Drive.” He seemed at times a force of nature, his big voice either blowing through the halls or rattling down from his third floor classroom and interrupting every class throughout the entire building.
No one could escape him.
But for as vigorous and loud as he could be in promoting these gatherings, he would quietly but no less relentlessly go about making sure that every boy who did not have a father would feel included. He’d encourage faculty members to bring those boys, or he’d say. “Come with me. I’ll be your father.”
Each year in the Development Office we come up with a theme that is meant to assure benefactors that the school remains deeply rooted with the core values of Jesuit education. This year, that theme is On Solid Ground. It’s a bit of a play on words, since with the Eye Street Renewal Project underway most of the ground in front of the school is gone.
Father Lelii, you have educated us, taken us to foreign lands, opened our eyes to the needs of the poor, blessed us with the sacraments and word of God, you have coached us to be champions, you have taught us to bring love to the world. And all the while you were building a personal relationship between the Society of Jesus and the Gonzaga faithful. In other words, Father Lelii, you have been such a large part of building the solid ground on which Gonzaga still educates its students today and will for generations to come. It is, therefore, with immense gratitude that tonight Gonzaga bestows upon you its St. Aloysius Medal for Service to school and Community.
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