Features
(clockwise from top left) At the 2006 Alumni Dinner, J.J. Connolly chats with Gary Potts ’71. Connolly checks in with the Upper School office. 1958 Marksmen yearbook photo. The Class of 1959 poses with Connolly at their 50th Reunion. (opposite) Connolly and the iconic lion painting that hung on his office door in Davis Hall.
“Mr. Connolly launched us on our journey from
“He often recognized what we were ultimately
boys to men,” Michael Rawitscher ’86 recalled in
capable of achieving before we did, both in his
his eulogy. “He set standards that seemed almost
class and in our lives,” said Jake Buckner ’93.
insurmountably high, but he refused to falter. His
“He challenged and pushed yet encouraged and
expectations were of our best, and he would accept
nurtured all at the same time, all to ensure he
nothing less.”
got the best we had to offer, and that each of us achieved the potential God gave us.”
The respect and admiration Mr. Connolly’s students felt toward him were solidified when, in
At the end of the school year, after the Class of
2008, a small group of dedicated Marksmen came
2015 walks the commencement stage, the newly
together to honor their former teacher with the
graduated Marksmen will join together for the
establishment of the J.J. Connolly Master Teaching
Alma Mater and sing words that J.J. Connolly
Chair. Once fully funded, this gift will serve as a
penned a half-century ago. As St. Mark’s mourns
permanent testament to a man solely dedicated to
the passing of this legendary teacher, his own lyrics
his craft and his students, who expected as much
become the most fitting tribute: “Ever greater may
from his boys as he gave to them.
you rise. Endless be your fame.”
St. Mark’s School of Texas
Spring 2015 | Features
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