Fennwick High School received an early Christmas present in mid-December: a gift from an anonymous donor in the amount of $3 million cash! “This is the first leadership gift toward the second phase of our Centennial Campaign,” praises President Fr. Richard Peddicord, O.P. “The money will be used to help construct the Centennial addition,” Father Peddicord explains, “and the new dining hall will be named for alumnus Arthur Dalton, Jr., who was a proud member of the Friars’ Class of 1942.” Mr. Dalton passed away in 2003 at age 80.
Who was Art Dalton? According to the ’42 Blackfriars yearbook, he was a member of St. Eulalia Parish in Maywood, IL. A versatile student-athlete in high school, Art participated in basketball, boxing and track for three of his four years at Fenwick; he played tennis (doubles) as a junior and senior and tried football and track as a freshman. He also wrote for The Wick student newspaper as a junior and was a member of the Pan-American Club as a senior.
Later in life, Mr. Dalton became a resident of Western Springs, IL. He was a husband and family man: married to Regina (nee Frawley) for 56 years; the couple had four children — Thomas, Cathie, Nancy and Daniel. The latter, a medical doctor, is a parent of three Fenwick graduates: Ryan ’03, Kyle ’05 and Katie ’06. (Art’s younger brother, Ray, also was a Friar: Class of ’44.)
Professionally, Art Dalton was president of Park Corp. of Barrington, IL, and executive vice president of Jewel Food Stores. Civically, he was Chairman of the Board at Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, IL, and chairman of the Westlake Health Foundation. In his spare time, Dalton also was an avid golfer, with memberships at La Grange Country Club and the PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
This $3 million gift made in honor of Dalton matches the largest gift in school history. The new Arthur T. Dalton, Jr. ’42 Dining Hall (see artist’s rendering, below) will be housed within the proposed Centennial Building addition. The new building is estimated to be a $25-million construction initiative that will dramatically expand and enhance the facilities at Fenwick. One of the most visible and beautiful of all spaces within the new building, the dining hall will provide not only a much-needed new dining area and healthier environment for students, but it will also serve as a gathering space for alumni events, board meetings and community social events.
For more information, please go to www.fenwickfriars.com/fenwick2029/.