Memoir records Jesuit priest's contribution to education

The enthralling memoir of Jesuit educationalist Fr George Hess was published last week in Jamshedpur.

Titled "Once upon a time", the book delivers a thorough account of Fr Hess' life as he toiled to establish some of the most prominent institutions in the city.

Born to a devout Catholic family in New Jersey in 1919, Fr Hess came to India at the age of 32, leaving behind a doctorate course at Stanford University.

As Fr Hess says, he does not know what he may have discovered in Physics, but he gained the opportunity to give thousands of students the confidence to face the future.

His first assignment was to set up Loyola School in Jamshedpur, which he took up in 1952 with 285 students.

By the time Fr Hess left, in 1963, the school had moved to a new building and had housed about 1500 students. Today Loyola School, Jamshedpur accommodates over 3000 students.

"The author has taken pains to describe his method of running a school, planning new projects and dealing with difficult students and staff," says Ronald DCosta, a proud alumnus who organised the launch of the book.

"He has also been quite candid about his conflict of interest with his superiors and about how he had to adjust to the need of his province. Some of Fr Hess' innovations still exist like having green boards instead of black," he adds.

Fr Hess developed De Nobili School, Dhanbad, which was just a small family house on the grounds of the Central Fuel Research Institute with five rooms, to another institution that rivalled Loyola School. He stayed on for seventeen years and developed long standing relationships in that city.

Later, Hess moved to take over the Loyola B.Ed. College, Jamshedpur, when its founder, Fr Ken Judge, had to return to the US due to ill health.

After establishing the college in its new premises on the outskirts of Telco Colony, Fr Hess moved on to Bhubaneshwar to help in Xavier Institute of Management, teaching communication. There he managed to secure a $100,000 grant to establish the only Jesuit hospital in the country.

"This narrative is about an American Jesuit priest who could have been an outstanding scientist, who volunteered to work in India and burnt all the bridges behind him," says Ronald.