Page 25 - Priorities #71

Al cherished small moments of downtime, some with Father Martin, who was always a good sport. “One night we were walking through Kowloon, outside of Hong Kong,” Al remembers, “And Father Martin goes, ‘Hey look! Pizza!’ and points up to the second floor. And we go up there, and we had a great meal.” It felt good to relax together, he says, after days of non-stop admissions work.
Al continued as Admissions Director at Priory for a total of 26 years. Three years ago, he transitioned to a brand-new role, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives. Since then, he’s overseen planned giving, worked with Head of School Tim Molak on issues of Catholic identity, and networked with Benedictine schools around the world. He also managed Priory’s 60th anniversary, looking back over the school’s past just as he himself was reflecting on his own long tenure here and preparing to move on. “It was fascinating diving into the history of this place,” he says. “There was the beginning of a classic college prep school by the founding monks of the 1960s and early 70’s, the affiliation with Saint Anselm’s that defined the later part of the 1970s, enrollment struggles in the 1980s, and the move to co-ed provided visions of a stable future of the 1990s began under Brother Joachim and a recommitted Board. Finally in a new century, a secure future emerged under the appointment of Tim Molak as Head of School.” What he doesn’t mention is his own important role in the school’s history, and in particular, the way his hope and hard work during a critically uncertain time helped the Priory become the thriving place it is today.
Al will wrap up his career at Priory at the end of the current school year and move up to Novato where he and Peggy have bought a house. To honor him, the Board of Directors has established an endowed scholarship in his name, and Priory has dedicated the new Alumni courtyard jointly to Al and to the school’s alums, so many of whom he welcomed into Priory as brand-new students long ago. “I get to share that honor with them, which is really cool,” he says. “I don’t need a big dinner. My legacy are those names on the wall.”
For Al, this, more than anything, defines his time here: the students he has welcomed in and their journeys through the school. “I will singularly miss Tuesday morning chapels,” he says. “Standing in the back of the chapel, looking out and saying, ‘I have watched the students go from 6th grade and move
all the way to graduation. Thinking, and look what’s happened, lives have been transformed.’”
Way back in 1990, both Al Zappelli and Priory were facing uncertain times. Today, thanks in part to his hard work, Priory is more solid than ever. Meanwhile, for Al, retirement presents its own kind of uncertainty. “I’m not sure what’s behind that door,” he admits, though he imagines it will include travel, more time with family, maybe some volunteer work in education. “Always we begin again,” he says with a smile.
The Zappelli family left to right: Anne Zappelli Reed, Stephen Zappelli, Jake Reed, Danny Reed, Julie Zappelli Noble, Tom Noble, Al Zappelli, Sawyer Zappelli, Peggy Zappelli, Lucia Zappelli, Jeff Zappelli, Elin Zappelli, Veronika Zappelli.
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Al Zappelli Endowed Scholarship Fund
At the January 17th meeting of Priory’s Board of Trustees, Chair of the Board, Mike Calbert, announced Al Zappelli’s retirement from Priory effective June 30, 2019.
Recognizing all that Al has given over the course of his 29 year career, Abbott Mark Cooper, O.S.B. established the Al Zappelli Endowed Scholarship Fund with a $50,000 gift from the Benedictine Directors. The endowed gift will be directed to financial aid with a student will be named the Al Zappelli Endowed Scholar annually.
Abbott Mark, said he hoped “to show some measure of appreciation for a man who has given himself heart and soul to the well-being of the hundreds of young men and women he has both encouraged and accepted, and who now call Priory their alma mater.”
In recognition of his service to the school, the community is invited to honor Al with a gift to the Al Zappelli Endowed Scholarship Fund.
FAREWELL