YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW THAT HE WAS A HERO - Fr. Joseph Ognibene

Anyone who was old enough to be aware of the news on December 1-2, 1958 knows the story of the terrible tragedy of the fire at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic elementary school in Chicago.  It not only made the news around the United States, friends of mine in Europe told me the story was all over their news as well.  Here's the front page of the Chicago Tribune from that fateful day:

   

If you are not familiar with the story of this tragedy you could look it up on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_the_Angels_School_fire

or go to the website dedicated to victims and survivors:

https://olafire.com/home.asp?

This article is not about the fire itself or the victims - much has been written about them in other places.  Instead I will tell about someone who is also part of the story: Father Joseph Ognibene, one of the Assistant Pastors at Our Lady of the Angels.  But before we look at his actions that day as Joseph Ognibene, priest, let's first take a look at Joseph Ognibene, the person.

Joseph Francis Ognibene was born April 17, 1926 in Chicago to Joseph Salvatore Ognibene (1894-1993) and Agnes H. Petrino (1896-1966).  Sometimes Agnes' maiden name is listed as "Petrino", other times as "Petrine".  Both Joseph and Agnes were born in New York but their parents were immigrants.  The Ognibene Family came from Caltanissetta, Sicily; the Petrino Family came from Basilicata, Italy.

Joseph and Agnes married in Chicago, Illinois on June 10, 1920.  The groom was twenty-five; the bride was twenty-three.

Joseph and Agnes Ognibene were blessed with five children:  Rev. Salvatore (Sam) J. (1922-1999), Rev. Joseph Francis (1926-2003), Matilda Agnes/Mrs. Charles Eugling (1930-1998), Agnes/Mrs. Don Love (b. 1933), and Eugene C. (b. 1941).  Joseph Salvatore Ognibene was a Banker by trade, having been employed by the Mid-City National Bank for 40 years, and was a Vice President when he retired. 

Joseph Francis Ognibene makes his first appearance in the 1930 US Census.  The Ognibene family was living at 4025 Menard Avenue in Chicago:

4025 N. Menard, Chicago, Illinois

The family consisted of Joseph Ognibene (35 years old), Agnes (33), Samuel (8) and Joseph (3 11/12).  They owned their home, and said it was worth $10,000.00.  Joseph Sr. listed his occupation as "Teller in a Bank."  He also reported that he had served in the US Military and fought in World War I.

At the time of the 1940 US Census, the Ognibene family was still living at 4025 N. Menard, but the family had grown since 1930.  It now consisted of Joseph (45 years old), Agnes (43), Samuel (18), Joseph (14), Matilda (10) and Agnes (7).  They still owned their home, but now said it was worth $5,000.00 (this was after the Great Depression).  Joseph and Agnes had only gone as far as the second year of high school; Samuel had completed his high school education.  Joseph Sr still listed his occupation as "Teller in a Bank."

Joseph Ognibene started high school at St. Michael High School in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago.  He completed his freshman year at St. Michael's and then in the Fall of 1941 he transferred to one of the minor seminaries for the Archdiocese of Chicago, Quigley North Preparatory Seminary where he began his studies for the Sacred Priesthood.  He was fifteen years old.  

During World War II, even though he was a seminarian, Joseph F. Ognibene was required to register for the Draft.  He did so on April 17, 1944.  His home address was still the house on Menard.  He was eighteen years old.  His phone number was PAlisade 1-3093.  He said he was a "Student" and listed his father as "Person Who Will Always Know Your Address."  He was said to be White, 6 feet tall and 140 lbs.  He had Brown eyes, Black hair and a "Ruddy" complexion.

Joseph Ognibene as part of the graduating Class of 1945 at Quigley North.  Here is his writeup from the 1945 Quigley North yearbook, La Petit Seminaire:

He graduated from Quigley North in June of 1945 when he was nineteen years old.  Then it was off to the Major Seminary for Chicago, St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois.

At the time of the 1950 US census, Joseph Ognibene was living at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.  The Census for St. Mary's was taken April 17, 1950 which just happened to be his twenty-fourth birthday.    

It took seventeen pages for the census taker to list everyone who lived at St. Mary of the Lake.  Faculty, Staff, Students, Maintenence Crews - it was like a city in itself.  Joseph Ognibene was listed on Page 12.  It said he was a White Male, who had Never Married, and was twenty-three years old (he must have been interviewed before his birthday).  He was not working, nor was he looking for work.  He was listed as a "Student."

Joseph Ognibene became Father Joseph Ognibene after graduating from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and being ordained on May 1, 1952 by the beloved Samuel Cardinal Stritch.  Here is a photo of Fr. Ognibene taken shortly after his Ordination:

Fr. Joseph Ognibene

Ognibene's first assignment was as Assistant Pastor at Our Lady of the Angels Parish at 3808 W. Iowa Street in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago.  Some also refer to it as the "Austin neighborhood."  

Our Lady of the Angels, 3808 W. Iowa Street, Chicago

At that time the parish was run by a pastor, Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph F. Cussen.  In addition to Fr. Ognibene, there were five other priests assisting Msgr. Cussen with the day-to-day administration of Our Lady of the Angels.  

As you can imagine, Fr. Ognibene's name did not appear in the local newspapers very often in those days.  He quietly went about his duties as Assistant Pastor: saying daily Mass, officiating at baptisms and weddings, making sick calls to parishioners who were ill and saying Requiem Masses for the departed.  When his name was in the paper it was usually in connection with the performance of his duties, as with this announcement from the Chicago Suburban Economist from March 19, 1958:

Or this from the same newspaper of May 28, 1958 when he awarded trophies to "Typical Teens" 

In those pre-Vatican II days, St. Mary of the Angels was one of many large parishes in Chicago.  The neighborhood had originally been heavily Irish, but gradually developed in the first half of the twentieth century into a largely Italian middle-class community. The area was also home to several other first, second, and third-generation immigrant groups, including Germans, Poles, and other Slavs. Most of the families in the immediate neighborhood were Catholic. 

This brings us up to the fateful day of December 1, 1958.  I will let Fr. Ognibene himself describe where he was and what he was doing:

(He said) It was his daily routine to walk about the schoolyard and near the entrances during recess, the noon lunch period and as the children left the building at 3 p.m.   Monday (Dec. 1) he met an old friend for lunch.  They dallied at the table.  Then he noticed it would soon be time for his young parishioners to leave school for home. 

"I was hurrying to the school in my car.  I saw smoke coming from the upper windows and drove my car the wrong way up a one-way street.  I parked the car and ran into the building.  Some children were leaving the building in an orderly manner.  Others were running about, screaming.  Then everything was ablaze."

Father Ognibene, together with parent Sam Tortorice helped children escape from the rear window of room 209 and into a window in the annex. From there they could flee down a steel internal stairway and out the Iowa Street side of the school.

"I tried...I wanted to...It was the will of God."  When the first bodies began arriving at the morgue, Fr. Ognibene was asked to make tentative identification.  He knew the greatest force of the fire was concentrated in the section housing Rooms 207, 208, 209, 211 and 212.  Scores of these children he knew by name.  All were his friends. 

Yet when had to identify them by name or grade he could only whisper "I'm not sure of this little one...I think this one was in 209...This boy was...I'm not sure."

He pressed a thin shaking hand to his temple.  For a moment it appeared he might collapse.  An attendant pressed a bottle of (smelling) salts to the priest's nostrils and he straightened up, backing away from the pungent odor.  Then he walked among the bereaved relatives.

After all the funerals were over, and all the prelates and politicians had gone home, life at Our Lady of the Angels Parish tried to return to some semblance of normalcy.  Fr. Joseph Ognibene continued to minister to the parishioners - especially to children injured in the fire who remained hospitalized for months of painful skin grafts and therapy.  When he did visit, he did it in his usual low-key way.  Luciana Mordini Kuziw, who was 11 when she was injured in the fire, said "I would wake up in the middle of the night and he'd be standing in the doorway, looking over me.  He was an amazing man, always there for us and for the other families."  

Fr. Ognibene was transferred from Our Lady of the Angels in 1961.  As the years passed, he did not like to talk about the fire, or his actions that saved so many of the children.  Humble and emotionally scarred by the fire, he always downplayed his role in the rescue.  He just said it was part of his job.  He was always very concerned  about the people who lost their lives.  Many were children he had baptized.   

After serving as Associate Pastor at Our Lady of the Angels, he went on to serve as Associate at Our Lady Help of Christians, St. Ferdinand, and St. Francis of Rome parishes.  In 1973 he was appointed pastor of the former St. Beatrice Parish in Schiller Park.  His final assignment was in 1983 as pastor of Our Lady Mother of the Church parish in Norridge, where he led a major renovation project. 

In 1996 Fr. Ognibene retired, and went to live at St. Colette Parish in Rolling Meadows, Illinois where he died on December 19, 2003 of cancer.  Here is his wake card:

As you can imagine there was a substantial obituary for him in the Chicago Tribune of December 22, 2003:

 

Here is his Death Notice from the same day:

He was buried in the Ognibene Family Plot at St. Joseph Cemetery in River Grove:

Fr. Ognibene was greatly beloved by parishioners at all of the parishes he served, but especially by those at Our Lady Mother of the Church.  After his death, the parish erected a memorial garden to his memory outside the church:

  

They also had the portion of Oakview Avenue nearest the church named after him:

We never know in life whether or not we will ever be called upon to be a hero - to perform a selfless act to save another person without any regard for our own life in the process.   On the afternoon of December 1, 1958 young Father Joseph Ognibene got that call - and saved as many children as he could.  His only regret?  That he couldn't save them all.

May Fr. Joe Ognibene and all those from Our Lady of the Angels rest in peace.

My personal connection:  Unfortunately I never got to meet Fr. Ognibene, but I was able to know three people with connections to the OLA Fire:  Father John Kobus, who was a second grader the day of the fire, and Al and Stella Kompanowski, who lost two sons in the fire:  Richard and Kenneth.  I was privileged to call each of them a friend.