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Page 40 September 2016 The Catoctin Banner Newspaper www.TheCatoctinBanner.com Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com

The Founder of Boys Town
Returns to the Town that
1945 Gave Him His Start

by James Rada, Jr.

The second of his back-to-back His second day on campus Blessed Virgin Mary. The Frederick Father Edward Flanagan
Best Actor Oscars that the legendary was just as noteworthy. “When a News also noted in a 1982 article
Spencer Tracy won was for his role schoolmate challenged him to a that Flanagan was considered the it grew in size, it was renamed Boys’
in the 1938 movie Boys Town. He fight in the gym, the youngster from best handball player on campus. Town.
played the role of Father Edward Ireland proved himself a willing
Flanagan, the Catholic priest who mixer. The battle lasted four hours,” When he graduated in 1906 as While the Spencer Tracy film
founded the pioneering boys’ home in the Frederick Post reported. His the youngest in his class, he was was great PR for the organization,
Nebraska. The boys’ home is credited opponent spent the next week in bed. recognized for his distinguished study the film actually caused cutbacks in
for giving many disadvantaged “I was in worse shape than he was in Latin and Greek and for a speech donations. “Viewers apparently made
youths a better life and helping them and the only reason I didn’t go to called “The Gaelic Revival,” during the judgement that if Boys’ Town
through their turbulent childhood. bed, too, was because I was new in the college elocution contest. could survive all the crises contained
this country and too green to know in the film, Flanagan and his troops
Flanagan was a graduate of that I should have,” Flanagan told His one regret apparently was might then withstand anything else
Mount St. Mary’s College in the newspaper. that he didn’t get into any trouble. that might happen,” according to the
Emmitsburg, and he also experienced According to the Frederick News, Frederick News.
some struggles while there. Luckily, most of his time at the it was a tradition at the time that
Mount was not so exciting. He a boy had to get in trouble with In 1938, Mount St. Mary’s
During his first day on campus, applied himself to his studies and the administration at least once awarded Flanagan an honorary
a schoolmate pushed him into St. developed a focused concentration during his time at the Mount to be Doctor of Laws in recognition of his
Anthony’s Lake. on his work that would help him considered a true “Mountaineer.” work at Boys’ Town.
later in life. “Perhaps I should have misbehaved
“I learned to swim because I had a little,” Flanagan was quoted in one Flanagan died in 1948 at the age
to,” Flanagan told the Frederick Flanagan’s biographers have noted of his biographies. of fifty-two.
Post in a 1945 interview. He later that Flanagan enjoyed his time in
credited that experience, along with Emmitsburg and his frequent visits to He was granted a Master’s “To have actually lived Flanagan
the forced swimming lessons, for his alma mater bear this out. He sang Degree from the Mount in 1911, is perhaps too much the perpetrator
allowing him to save his father from with the glee club and chapel choir while he was working in Austria. of the happy ending, too strong
drowning on a fishing trip at age and was elected to the Sodality of the It was during this time overseas in the personification of the American
seventy-five. Austria and Rome when he was also dream come true,” the Frederick
ordained a priest. News noted.
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This led to his idea of opening a
home for boys in 1917. The Boys’
Industrial Home began with only
five boys. It was more than just an
orphanage, it was a home for boys
that also used new parenting methods
to raise and educate the boys so that
they would be productive adults. As

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