Father John Blazek, C.S.C. ’58

With the morning light streaming through the window behind him, illuminating an office packed with the memorabilia of a lifetime of service, Father John Blazek, C.S.C. ’58 gives a beatific smile. “You know, Gilmour is about more than a plot of land or a set of buildings. What Gilmour really is about is the process of ‘becoming.’” Nearly seven decades after he first stepped onto Gilmour’s campus as a student, Father John says that process is still alive  within him.

“We have this image of priests as being sort of frozen in time,” he says. “As though we put on this collar and we suddenly stop growing. But, as I look backward, I don’t think those young versions of me would recognize who  I’ve become.”

The opportunity to study at Gilmour Academy came unexpectedly for the young man growing up on the east side of Cleveland, who spent his days playing sandlot baseball and practicing the accordion. “I was all set to go to Benedictine when my father asked whether I’d be interested in taking the entrance exam for a school out in Gates Mills. And that was how it started.”

A resident student for most of his time at Gilmour, Father John tried to find as many places in the community as he could. After playing as the center on the football team his freshman year, he decided to pursue both cheerleading and tennis for the duration of his education, captaining the tennis team in his senior year. Upon graduation as the salutatorian, the budding theologian attended the University of Notre Dame, immediately joining the seminary. “As a young Catholic boy, I had begged my father to let me go to seminary right out of grade school. He said no. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me—and I was so angry! But, after I completed high school, I went with his blessing.”

Upon graduating from Notre Dame with a degree in philosophy and a minor in math, Father John continued his theology training in Washington, D.C. He was there in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy lay in state in the U.S. Capitol after his assassination. “I stood in line all night to pay my respects. I’ll never forget it,” he remarked wistfully.

This would not be the only brush with history for the young priest-in-training. During his diaconate year, he spent the summer volunteering in Jackson, Miss. for the Civil Rights Movement. “I’ve never been so afraid in my life. One of my tasks was to pick up a black nun at the airport and drive her through Jackson to be hidden at the church. I didn’t think 

I was going to make it out alive. But the image that sticks with me most is attending a speech at the capital and seeing the National Guard deployed with fixed bayonets. The sight of that forever changed me.  Because, you see, I was walking with someone. It wasn’t just an image on TV. When you get to know people, you learn unexpected things. So now, for me, everyone belongs and I will reach out to anybody.”

The essence of that striving for human connection is reflected in Father John’s nearly six decades of service to Holy Cross high schools in Northeast Ohio, first at St. Edward High School in Lakewood and then, since 1979, back at his alma mater, Gilmour Academy. He has taught math, theology and computer science; has coached numerous sports teams; and today serves as campus minister. He has worked with numerous organizations across the state and the country in search of continued impact. But he sees great changes at home, too. “In many ways, that idea of ‘becoming’ is true of the school, too. One of the things I’m most grateful for has been to see the mission really take flesh—to become more than just some words that are spoken, but truly a life lived. The real question we need to constantly ask ourselves is ‘who are we?’ And, no matter your answer, I want to help you become a better whatever-you-are. This is how you treat family and, in many ways, Gilmour is my family.”

As Father John Blazek ’58 continues to recover from open heart surgery performed in early June, he is buttressed by the prayers and support of the members of the Gilmour community:  his family, now and forever.