The Later Years...

The Later Years

(From a commemorative booklet of 25th anniversary of PATS 1990)

  1. E Fr. James Stehr and Rosendo Andrew
  2. E PATS graduates
  3. E In 1986
Fr. James Stehr and Rosendo Andrew

The time came when further progress and planning for the future of PATS required some rather substantial changes. Advisors of PATS decided that to strengthen the future of the school, Father Costigan would have to become a full-time fundraiser and that a new Director of the day-to-day operations at PATS would have to be found. After a long search the Jesuits in New York were able to release Father James Stehr from his work with the Native Americans in South Dakota to come to Ponape. Father Rosendo Andrew Stehr had a long history of work in the trades as a young man before he became a Jesuit. Later he had been and administrator in man y Jesuit insti- tutions. He was a perfect choice for the job. At about the same time Rosendo Andrew from Palau, a former Peace Corps Director in the Marshall Islands, came to PATS to take on the position of Assistant Director and Operations Officer.

photo:Rosendo Andrew


PATS graduates

PATS graduates were now trained and well-experienced. Early graduates Jesse Sidney as well as Oliver Joseph were able to come back to PATS to offer a few years as Principal of the school, continuing the early standards of excellence set by Father Soucie. Others generously offered their talents as chairmen of departments-Albert Augustine and Sebas Amor in Agriculture, John Tiegmai and James Rogol in Mechanics and Cassie Nennis in Construction.

A new volunteer group appears on the scene during these years and becomes a great support to PATS with the number of volunteers that they are able to recruit, train, send and support at PATS-the Jesuit International Volunteers. We were still able to depend on very generous Filipino Mission Workers to come to PATS to work along with the rest of the staff for the development of our young men.

In these later years we saw our first graduates from Kosrae and from the island nation of Kiribati. PATS had decided to reach out and offer assistance to Gilbertese students with the hope of training some young men who might be able to return to their own islands to train others in the way that they were trained at PATS.

In 1986

In 1986, Father Jim Stehr was called back to the States and Father Joseph Cavanagh, S.J., became the Director of PATS. In the same year, Catalino Sam became the Assistant Director and Peter Skipper, a Jesuit Interna- tional Volunteer, took over the Principal's Office, to be followed in that office by other JIV's, Peggy Longo and Joe Whelan. All of these principals had something special to offer to PATS as they met special needs with special programs for the growth of the school and of the students.

By 1989, PATS could proudly speak of 622 graduates-most of them still at work within Micronesia for the development of their island nations. These young people, and how you have helped them, are the real cause of our gratitude for the past and of our hope for the future.

photo:James Rogol, YAP PATS '76, presently chairman of mechanics.

<-previous page ->next page

<-PATS's page ->Home page

Your mail would be very appreciated.

Friends Of Micronesia/a1shima@hi-ho.or.jp