Mobile to Holy Name

Promptly after his election last March Pope Pius XII tossed a lifeline to a sinking friend, once-honored General Umberto Nobile. Mussolini had busted Airman Nobile out of the service when his 1928 Polar expedition ended with the crack-up of the dirigible Italia which killed eight crew members, ended Italy's lighter-than-aircraft dreams. In his small flat near the Tiber, where few friends dared visit him, Umberto Nobile silently endured the usual fate of Fascism's failures--ostracism. Only honor left was his membership in the Pontifical Academy of Science, conferred by the late Pius XL

Not long ago Pius XI's thoughtful successor appealed to George William Cardinal Mundelein, asked him to find good Catholic, bad Fascist Nobile a U. S. job. Few weeks later Cardinal Mundelein found one barely twelve miles southwest of his own Chicago Archdiocese. The job: head of the aeronautical engineering department of Lewis Holy Name School of Aeronautics near Lockport, Ill. Last week, lonely, greying, but still vigorous at 54, Umberto Nobile boarded the Conte di Savoia for the U.S.

No less extraordinary than the appointment and the appointee is the institution to which he is going. It is the only Roman Catholic aviation school in the U. S. It is also free. Proud setting hawk of unique Lewis Holy Name is Founder Bishop Bernard James Sheil of Chicago, who nursed it from a fledgling (in 1932) in one hangar, one building and a cow pasture to lusty, soaring adolescence. A pious local farmer donated 620 flat acres; rich Chicago Manufacturer Frank J. Lewis financed 14 roomy buildings (the gymnasium is a memorial to son Joseph, killed in a plane crash). By this year's end, air-minded Bishop Sheil expects to have three more big runways, a 180-acre improved landing field, an approved CAA flying school rating and an Illinois State license to confer Bachelor of Science degrees on his first graduating class in 1940. Current expense money comes partly from Holy Name's own farm produce, partly from the coffers of the Catholic Youth Organization (also founded by Bishop Sheil).

Every fall some 350 youngsters hammer at Holy Name's gates, about 35 get in* (present student body numbers 93). The curriculum includes technical high school and scientific college courses of four years each. High school students study conventional courses with emphasis on mechanics, little or no aeronautics.

For the advanced college courses, high-school graduates must take stiff competitive examinations (about 20%, pass). On these picked few, Holy Name's faculty (non-Catholic Superintendent John Wilson, seven lay instructors, one Viatorian brother, one Carmelite priest) lavish care not to be found in many U. S. scientific colleges or U. S. aviation schools. Although they get 250 hours' solo, the students are prepared for careers in aeronautical engineering rather than commercial flying.

Tickled pink with his four juniors is Superintendent Wilson. To an aviation tycoon who tried to lure students away with lucrative jobs, Superintendent Wilson boasted: "It can't be done."

*Though non-Catholics are not excluded, only one has been enrolled.

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