Link to pictures from 1953-1954 from Mike Giudice[Click]

Link to pictures from Lakewood (from John Burke)[Click]

Recollections of Maryknoll Jr. College, Lakewood, NJ (From Bob Wilson  Maryknoll 1959)

I entered Maryknoll in first year college in September, 1950 at
Lakewood, N.J.  It was called Maryknoll Junior College.  As I recall
the "history" Maryknoll bought the property and opened a seminary
there in 1947, prompted by the large number of World War II veteran
applicants and the overcrowded "Knoll and the Venard".  In the
beginning I believe it had students for the first three years of
college.  From 1950, until its closing around 1954, it had classes for
the first two years of college.  Planning and construction of
Maryknoll College, Glen Ellyn, was underway and opened in November
1949.

Lakewood had seminarians from "the East".  In the 50's we went on to
Glen Ellyn to complete college after two years at Lakewood.

Here's what I recall about the property.  It was originally the Newman
School, a private Catholic boarding school (7th grade through high
school) manged in the "English" system, founded by a "Locke" in
Hackensack, NJ and later moved to Lakewood.  It was a large property
in the mild pine swept area of central New Jersey.  It was adjacent to
a golf and country club.  Newman School closed in 1942 due to a lack
of students and faculty in the early part of World War II.

{We were fascinated by a booklet on the Newman School that was kept in
the library of the seminary.  Among the pictures were a series on the
dining hall where men in white jackets served the students gathered at
small tables.  In 1950 the 150--or more--of us seminarians sat back to
back on long benches at long tables in that dining room---we had to
work in unison to sit down or get up--- In our second year the
"refectory" was expanded to include another room and we began using
chairs.}

Younger Newman students lived in cottages on the property and older
students in MacDonald Hall, a dorm.  The Newman school was supported
by a number of wealthy Catholics including John Jakob Raskob who was a
financial executive and businessman for DuPont and General Motors, and
the builder of the Empire State Building. He was chairman of the
Democratic National Committee from 1928 to 1932 and a key supporter of
Alfred E. Smith's candidacy for President of the United States.  The
gym complex was named Raskob Hall and that name remained into our time
as seminarians.  The faculty residence and library was called Locke
Hall.

In 1942 the Navy had opened either a V-12 or V-7 program on the
property, the accelerated college programs they used to rapidly train
candidates as Naval Officers.  Among the results of the Navy's
occupation of the property barracks were erected for the women WAVE
candidates.  In our day freshmen lived in the barracks and sophomores
in MacDonald Hall a residence with two students to a room.  Newman
school had retained ownership of the property but decided not to
reestablish the school.  Maryknoll bought the property from the Newman
school.

At reunions at Maryknoll I have recently met two excellent teachers
from "those days": Charles Cappel (Biology) and Larry Schanberger
(Chemistry) ---and still an active missioners in Chile.  Recently a
former Lakewood seminarian was in the Lakewood area and could not
"find" the Maryknoll Junior College property.  Alas.

My recollections only---I can stand corrected.

Best wishes,

Bob Wilson  Maryknoll 1959