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It’s like mana from heaven!
St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens has been gifted with a $1 million donation from an anonymous graduate — the largest windfall in the storied institution’s history.
The Fresh Meadows school — which counts NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi, former Yankees manager Joe Torre and famous NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico as graduates — will use the money to fund scholarships for future students, officials said.
“I had never seen a personal check of that size in my life,” said Brother Leonard Conway, who leads the school. “We are very thankful.”
Conway said the donor is a successful businessman who credited St. Francis with his early development and wanted to provide opportunities for others.
“He said he just wanted to be known as one of the boys from Brooklyn from the class of 1955,” Leonard said. “That was it.”
The money will bolster the school’s Thomas Sheehan scholarship, which memorializes a former St. Francis track star from the donor’s graduating class who died in 1985.
Leonard said scholarship recipients are briefed on Sheehan’s background and the motivations of the alums who continue to fund it decades later.
“When they receive the scholarship they say they will never forget what has been given to them,” Leonard said. “They say that when they get out in the world and are successful that they will give back.”
St. Francis, which enrolls roughly 2,400 students, is the largest Catholic school in the country.
“This is an example of tremendous generosity and commitment to Catholic education,” Leonard said.
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