Band Pics from 1977 and 1995

This pic from 1977 comes from the high school website. After the school year of 1976, the school changed its name to Monsignor Paul Dwyer High School, so this photo here would have some students who knew the school as OCHS, and Paul Dwyer as well.

There was a bit of a bio of Monsignor Dwyer in the paper at the time. It is reprinted here:

Born in 1898, Msgr. Dwyer assumed the pastorate of St. Gregory's Church in 1949, and by 1957 was named the first Dean of Ontario County.

Within the 1950s and 1960s, growth in Oshawa began to surge with post-war development. Oshawa and the auto industry flourished, attracting new workers and homeowners, as well as the need for parishes. He made many contributions to local parishes, purchasing sites for St. Gertrude's, St. Mary of the People and St. Philip's, for cemeteries and a new parish auditorium at St. Gregory's.

Later he was named a Domestic Prelate to Pope John XXIII and was made a monsignor in 1961.

Msgr. Dwyer had a dream of having a Catholic high school in Oshawa where faith would be openly taught and celebrated. He put much of his time, energy and financial support into overseeing the construction of Oshawa Catholic High School and saw his dream come true in 1962. He died on March 19, 1976.

In September 1976, Oshawa Catholic High School had its last graduating class as the school was renamed in Msgr. Dwyer's honour. The monsignor's commitment to Catholic education lives on in the school's motto, veritas, bonitas (truth, goodness) -- values it continues to teach and inspire in students.

Here is a pic (from the same website) of the school band in 1995: