Walsh Jesuit High School

Walsh Jesuit High School was funded by a generous gift from the late Cornelius and Jane Walsh.

When Cornelius Walsh passed away in 1932, he bequeathed his entire fortune to his wife, who continued to donate generously to the Catholic Church.

In 1943 Jane Walsh worked with her nephew, William A. Walsh, to design her will, which included a large sum of money for a Catholic high school to be built on her estate at 1852 Second Street in downtown Cuyahoga Falls.

William Walsh investigated the various high schools in Summit County and concluded there was a real need for an all-boys high school conducted by an order of priests.
When William Walsh approached the Chicago Province of the Jesuits (the Detroit Province was not founded until 1955) about his aunt's gift, he was told by then-Provincial Fr. Sullivan, , that it was uncertain whether the Jesuits could begin a new school at that time. And so the gift lay dormant in the Chicago files for many years.

In 1958 the Detroit Province decided to begin another apostolate — preferably a high school — and contacted the Bishop of Toledo, Ohio, first. He declined the offer. The following year, the original offer made by the Walsh family was found during a transfer of files from the Chicago Province to the Detroit Province. At almost the same time, Fr. McGrail, Provincial of the Detroit Province, received a phone call from William Walsh who urged him to reconsider the proposal made in his Aunt Jane's will. Under William Walsh's stewardship, her gift had grown to nearly $2 million.

Fr. McGrail (who would become the school's seventh president) took the convergence of all these factors as a sign of Divine Providence in action and decided to set things in motion for Walsh Jesuit.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for Walsh Jesuit took place in 1964, and the school opened its doors to 153 freshmen on September 7, 1965. The school was dedicated in May 1966, and the first class graduated in 1969.