Sixty-Eight Students Inducted into National Honor Society

On Thursday, October 23, Head of School Brendan Sullivan, Assistant Head of School Mike Nerbonne, and National Honor Society moderator Sean Albertson inducted 68 St. Sebastian's students into the Sr. Evelyn C. Barrett, O.P. Chapter of the National Honor Society.

Mr. Nerbonne welcomed everyone in attendance and shared the following words:

Good morning.

Today we celebrate our students’ adherence to, and practice of the four pillars of the National Honor Society: character, leadership, scholarship and service. And it is fitting and proper that we do so this morning, as these traits and habits can appear to be in very short supply in our times. So, our students give us hope, hope for a better future in which we cherish and value the contributions of all of our neighbors and fellow citizens in building up a diverse yet unified nation.

In 1947, baseball, like much of our country, was segregated along racial lines with major league baseball exclusively for white players and the then-called Negro leagues for black players. Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to break the color barrier when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in the spring of that year.

Some of the white players on the Team circulated a petition threatening not to play or resign if the Dodgers brought Jackie Robinson onto the roster. One prominent player, Pee Wee Reese, refused to sign, although many expected that he would, given his background, having grown up in the Jim Crow culture of Louisville, Kentucky. But because of Pee Wee’s refusal to participate, the petition died.

Jackie Robinson was signed, but in many ways his problems were just beginning. His mistreatment at the hands of fans and players (even some on his own team) is well known and documented. Fans shouted obscenities at him, mailed threats, booed his success, pitchers threw directly at his head, based runners tried to gouge him with their spikes, people spat at him, threw trash at him and exposed him to a type and level of mistreatment which no man should ever have to endure.

One sportswriter at the time wrote about Robinson: “He is the loneliest man I have ever seen in sports.”

At one game that year, the fans and opposing team were behaving in a particularly vile way, cursing Jackie and expressing their view that there was no place for him in the big leagues. That same player, who had refused to sign the petition to keep him off the team, Pee Wee Reese, was now his teammate. In the midst of the yelling and booing, Pee Wee slowly crossed the infield, stood at Jackie Robinson’s side, put his arm around his shoulder and said nothing. He just stared down the crowd and the opposing team.

Gradually the crowd grew silent, and this proved to be a pivotal point in Jackie Robinson’s eventual acceptance as a player in the major leagues.

One lifelong, very famous baseball writer, Roger Kahn said of Pee Wee Reese’s gesture that day, “It gets my vote as baseball’s finest moment.”

Jackie Robinson later wrote about that day: “Pee Wee kind of sensed the hopeless, dead feeling in me and came over and stood beside me for a while. He didn’t say a word, but he looked over at the chaps who were yelling at me and just stared. He was standing by me…it was wonderful the way this little guy did it. I will never forget it.”

And I also sense that Pee Wee no doubt saw and appreciated the dignity, grace, and class with which his friend Jackie was handling such an awful situation and hoped to respond with these same virtues, emulating Jackie’s courage and equanimity.

After Jackie Robinson’s death, his widow, Rachel, said of Pee Wee: “I remember Jackie talking about Pee Wee’s gesture the day it happened. It came as such a relief to him that a teammate and the captain of the team would go out of his way in such a public fashion to express friendship.”

Character, leadership, scholarship and service. I noted right away that Pee Wee Reese’s behavior on that day many decades ago evinces three of our Honor Society’s pillars: certainly, we can all see the character, leadership and service in Pee Wee’s kindness toward Jackie Robinson. But I did wonder to myself, where’s the scholarship in that? When I investigated Pee Wee Reese’s academic background, I didn’t find anything remotely like the academic preparation which you have received here and will most certainly receive at the colleges to which you will before long matriculate. Pee Wee’s formal education ended at secondary school, namely duPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1935.

Then I realized that, for Pee Wee, scholarship didn’t have to be found in a formal education, but took the form of wisdom and his knowledge and understanding of the difference between right and wrong. He didn’t have to go to college to acquire that.

So, our prayer for all of you this morning is that you will embrace that same character, leadership, scholarship and service which Pee Wee Reese displayed when he embraced his friend Jackie, and thereby did the whole world a beautiful, memorable, lasting and most meaningful service.

NHS Inductees

Class of 2026

Paolo R. Castro
Griffin A. Collins
David H. Greaney
Sebastian R. Martinez-Moule
Wachira Njoroge
Dylan C. Van Biert

Class of 2027

Ethan J. Abdella
Nicholas Albornoz
Tristen S. Alexander
Cormac E. Anderson
Joseph J. Bachiochi
Gus C. Baer
Rocco E. Boyle
Demetrios P. Catrickes
Thomas D. Ciongoli
Aidan C. Cleary
Ryan M. Connolly
Rohit Dabas
Henry M. DeBevoise
Nicolas P. Doglioli
John M. Dorsey
Karl A. Edouarzin
John A. Esserian
Matteo L. Fainelli
Jaxon R. Fantuzzi
William T. Finnegan
Connor J. Fleming
Jackson W. Fulginite
William P. Haggerty
James Q. Harney
Derek N. Hassey
Ryan C. Healey
Lukas R. Hiles
John J. Joyce
Rowan G. Koppenheffer
Ryan W. Krummell
Tiancheng Liu
John F. Lynch
Andrew P. MacDougall
Abner Machuca Diaz
Aiden E. Mack
Anthony T. Marcucci
Antonio J. Martinez
Matthew J. McCarthy
James J. McNulty V
John B. McRoskey
Charles M. Melchionda
Noah H. Meyers
Milo B. Mistry
Constantine N. Mitrokostas
Daniel J. Porter
Luke G. Puglia
Quincy F. Quillard
Carter G. Rich
William B. Rowe
Declan T. Schwarz
Wright J. Shinzawa
Jack A. Stavaridis
Benjamin E. Stuart
Akul Trikha
Gavin F. Wainwright
Ryan P. Walsh
Samuel J. Ward
Alexander J. Wasynczuk
Maxwell E. Weber
Samuel J. Weston
Nolan W. Wishart
Nathan F. Yesehak