Lessons in Leadership | Fr. Dennis Noelke, CSB '71

On this episode of Slightly Less Scripted, we welcome Fr. Dennis Noelke, CSB ’71, a Basilian priest, former Principal of Catholic Central, and lifelong educator who has served communities across the country. Fr. Noelke shares memories from his time attending and leading CC, offering a glimpse into the relationships, challenges, and moments that shaped his tenure.

Grounded in the Basilian tradition of Goodness, Discipline, and Knowledge, Fr. Noelke reflects on what it truly means to be a Basilian educator, emphasizing humility, accompaniment, and the formation of the whole person. 

This conversation is a meaningful look at vocation, leadership, and the lasting impact of Catholic education when it is lived with purpose and faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Welcome back to a slightly less scripted podcast. We're here with Father Dennis Nelke, class of 1971, and former principal of Catholic Central.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

My principal.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Your principal.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Yeah. Is that was that your final year, 2018?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

No, 2019 was my final year.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

So you had the the cousins.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

As your final year. Yes. Oh, what a great group of guys to have, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Oh yeah. For sure.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

I'm sure you have a lot of memories of being uh principal. Why don't we start with uh with that? What is uh some memorable moments from your time as being principal of Catholic Central?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Ooh. Man, you know, to try and think of things off the top of my head. I um I'm trying to think of the big events we had here at school. Um certainly drive, that's when we beat we went past the um half million dollar mark.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Yeah, I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

I know I know we've gone far beyond that uh since.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Um but that was a big moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Crossing half a million.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Half a million, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

And I think uh hesitantly you gave us quite a few days off for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Well, when I I guess part of it was I look back and when I was a student here, I don't think we got beyond sixty thousand. And uh so to hit the half million point um was significant. What's significant?

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Mind mind boggling.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

I remember as that's a good word.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Yeah. Even as a student, I remember that was quite a quite an achievement for us.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Right. What else was significant? Man. You know, that's part of it. There are probably so many that I would you know just need a little prompt and a refresher about the refresher. Yeah, you know, I should have told me ahead of time, I would have looked in my yearbook.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Did uh did the time fly by pretty quickly?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Oh, yeah, it did. Um partly because, as we all know, this is a 24-7 operation, basically. Yeah, you know, there's something always going on. Um, and it doesn't matter if it's the winter, it doesn't matter if it's a Sunday, it doesn't, there's just so much happening um that yeah, it flies by.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

I think the the community might not fully understand that if you're just a a parent or an alumnus, you might not realize it. But once you work here, you realize it's when you're in the thick of it, as they say. It is a 24-7 operation.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yep, yeah. Now, Father, you came from Rochester right originally to come here. Did you become principal right from that move? Yes. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

So how did you tell me about that process? How did you find out in Rochester? Did they did the Brazilian Superior General the time just say, hey, we're got a new spot for you? How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Well, let's see. Let me trace it back in my own mind for a minute. Oh, well, in some ways it's very simple. Um Father Hubert uh had been principal and he was named president. And he and I had worked together previously, and we've known each other since 1980, I think. And so he moving to be president left that uh position of principal open. And uh I had been a principal in two other places. Um and so he said to me, What would you do or what would you say if I offered you the position of uh principal? I said, Well, I don't think I'd have to think too long to say yes. And uh it went from there. So I mean I guess a dream come true. Um always wanted because I had been many places after graduating from here, um always thought I'd love to come back for a lot of reasons. Uh never thought I'd come back as principal. So that was really kind of significant and special. Part of, you know, my uncle was the ninth principal, and so to uh kind of follow in his footsteps. If you look on the wall of principals, he's right over me uh in terms of the the portraits.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

So there's a your family is very big. I'm I'm learning as I'm putting together this 50th ordination. There's a lot of people involved, and they're all I mean, a lot of them are tied to Catholic Central.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

So has CC kind of always been a part of your your roots?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Yeah. Um my oldest brother of the cousins, he was the oldest. He came here, followed by um two cousins who were two years behind him, then my brother, other brother, and another cousin who were graduated in '69, and then me, I graduated in 71. So the the line of uh legacy, I guess would be the word, um is quite strong.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Yeah. So you've been to a lot of different places. Would you say that C C is is different to those places for you?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah, well, every place is different because it has its own character. Um I think CC just it seems to just extend forever. You know, we kid around that um anywhere you go, you're gonna find someone from CC.

SPEAKER_06 6:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Um, I remember one time I was coming home from someplace and getting off the plane, you know, waiting to get my luggage. This gentleman came up to me and he says, Oh, shamrocks. I said, Yeah. He says, I'm from U of D. So I thought, well, even in the midst of the quote unquote enemy, um, yeah, there's a connection. There's a still a connection.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Yeah. 100%. I feel every time I leave the house wearing CC stuff, there's there's someone there.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

So I would love to go back a little bit because I think I think you told your vocation story um uh during one of the the masses, either this year or last year. I can't remember. Okay, but I remember it being kind of uh uh an interesting one, a cool one. So could you could you retell it for us?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Sure. I don't think it was that earth-shattering. I had no visions, I didn't get knocked off a horse or anything like that. Um, I just think that there were people in my life who were influencing me. Obviously, my uncle, who was bazillion, and uh then the bazillions that I had as teachers and got to know. Um, and it just kind of the more I was here and the more I interacted with bazillions, I said, I think this makes some sense for me. Yeah, and I had the important thing for me, and it's true for anybody who's um thinking about this kind of vocation particularly, I had people who said, yeah, that makes sense for you. As we know you, it makes sense for you. And that that was really helpful. Um, but it's not something that happens overnight. Yeah, you know, it takes many months, many years. But again, I had the the appropriate people to um who said yes, this this makes sense. We can see this fits you, basically, is what they were saying.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

What what would you say to a student that maybe is uh thinking about it um but is hesitant for whatever reason or is unsure about my first um thing would be to say to them talk to somebody.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Don't try and do this on your own. Um, it's too big of a decision to just say yes or no. Um have a person that has some experience, especially some experience in spirituality, and talk to them and say, this is what I'm thinking, and this is what seems to be in my mind and my heart. Um, because you know, I think all of us probably at some point in our lives had the thought, like we do about many things. I'm going to be a priest, or I'm gonna be this, I'm gonna be a fireman, I'm gonna be, my father was an electrician. I would have said, I'm gonna be an electrician. Um, when we're young, we say things like that. As we get older, we have to look at things a little more seriously and say, okay, I'm gonna pursue this and this interest. I think for me, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. And then when I began to think of priesthood with that, I said, well, it doesn't it make sense if I'm going to pursue this and think about this in a serious way to join the bazillions, aside from the fact that my uncle was a bazillion. You know, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

And why is it important that we have you know more young men that go into the into the priesthood, into the vocation?

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Well, because there aren't many of us right now, as as you know, I'm sure you know, yeah, here at Catholic Central, there's Father Fulton full-time. I help out when I can, and Father Rob comes over when we have things like today and uh with confessions and tomorrow with the mass. That's it. When I came here in 2014, there were 11 bazillions.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Yeah. I remember them.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Yeah. Yeah, right, right. And you know, some people moved, some people died. Um, those are the realities of life. People say, send more bazillions, and we like to say jokingly, they don't grow on trees. Yeah, um so I would certainly encourage people uh if they've in the slightest way have thought about it to pursue that. Don't and talk to somebody. Talk to it doesn't have to be another bazillion, talk to a teacher that you trust, talk to your guidance counselor, whomever that might be.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

What's the best thing about being a priest, about working with the students, about being a bazillion? The best?

SPEAKER_00 12:11

I know it's hard to it's hard to nail down. Um it just for me I get so much back um than I think I give. Um it gives the being around students especially gives me lots of energy. Um you know, like coming over today because I have I'm dealing with a couple physical things, I really didn't want to come over here today. Yeah, um, but I knew we were having confessions and it wasn't important to, and um so I did, and you know, now I'm real enthusiastic. And it was kind of funny. A couple seniors came to me for confession and they said to me, Father, this is my last time of confession with you. Yeah, and I thought, that's kind of cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

So that's kind of profound that you said, you know, you feel like you get so much back because you basically dedicated your life to serving others, but you feel like in that you got a lot back as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Right. Yeah. And I think that most people who choose this vocation um would say the same thing. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

So you're coming up on uh your 50th anniversary of Profession of Vows. Right. And um, you know, just kind of curiously, uh, when you look back, what has uh what's changed about being a priest over the last 50 years? Has there been some change uh how you do your work?

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Um probably, but it's still the basic. Um being a priest um responsible for uh celebrating sacraments with people, um, that hasn't changed. Um I think perhaps we live in such a complex world now that there aren't easy answers. And so the the issues that people have that they're trying to deal with make sense out of, you know, family issues, whatever those might be, um all kinds of identity issues, yeah. Those, you know, when I was a student here, you didn't talk about identity issues, you talk about them now. Um, so the the the nature of um what's the word I want? Is not that different. The nature of things. Yeah, the topics are different, sure, the focus is different, the the uh questions people are searching to have answers to are different.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

So yeah, and I just saw um a Washington Post article, I want to say it was uh April 2nd, but it it's now more than ever, there's more Gen Zers flocking to the Catholic Church in the 20s and 30s than ever before. Right. And a lot of them are young men, right, which we kind of are seeing a little bit at our own school.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

With 31 in the OCIA program.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Why do you, you know, why do you think that is maybe that the that these people are searching for answers?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, and I think there's so much turmoil in people's lives, whether it's in their personal lives, their professional lives, their family, their family lives. Um and they're trying to sort it all out. And something has sparked in them that says I need to begin to at least begin to find answers to these questions um through my own search for God. And that's my take on it. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Is that your advice to people who are going through tough times or turmoil in their personal life? Is that you know, maybe by searching for God a little bit, yeah, could help you with these issues?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

I think so. I think so. You know, if if you have the slightest bit of what you might call relationship with God or faith, um you know, pursue that. Pursue that. Um again, talk to somebody.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

And if if a priest can be the person that can give you some advice, some insight, that's great. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Awesome. And then uh I wanted to, you know, kind of talk a little bit too about, you know, you mentioned you being a graduate of here and um the bazillions that you had in school. What were some things about the bazillions, or maybe a memory you had with a specific bazillion that, you know, kind of was a good memory, or a memory that kind of was like, you know what, I could see myself living that way or doing that.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

I think the biggest thing um is the way we interacted with bazillions and students. Now, you know, Jesuits might say that, um Franciscans might say that they all might claim it. Yeah, they might claim it. It's ours, it's ours. Um but yeah, um that would be my, you know, it and I would think think about things like um, you don't do we don't do it anymore. I don't know when we stop, but we used to make floats for the boys' bowl.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

I remember.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah. Well, I mean, what we did was uh very extravagant, yeah, very, very extravagant, and we'd work on it all week after school, and the bazillions would be around to just to encourage us to um help us out. I mean, they they most of them weren't very good at nailing putting a a nail into a piece of wood, but they'd at least find the nail for you, yeah. Um and uh yeah, I think that's the the biggest thing. They they took an interest in us. Um yeah, and I think though we're few, that's what we still attempt to do to the best of our ability.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

You know, it's funny, that seems to be the prevailing theme with across all the years of bazillions, is that they kind of meet the student where they're at, yeah. They they talk to you as a person. Is that something that is taught to you in in Bazil when when you're when you're becoming a bazillion? Is that something that is kind of hammered in at an early time, or is that something that is just kind of you just kind of adopt it?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

I think we just kind of adopt it. It's it's never said to us, you know, you have to be this way with students, um, you have to be this way with parents or or parishioners or something. I think it's just there. And we kind of know it's there when we're and so we put it over us, you know, um that kind of attitude, that kind of um dealing with other people.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

I mean it's very Christ-like, yeah, in terms of meeting people where they're at, and I would I would echo it too. Yeah, all the bazillions that I knew or know are they very personable people. They, you know, like to talk to you about what's going on in your life or try to figure out what's going on. Right. And uh and very real people too, in terms of like uh um, you know, I think if if I just think back about, you know, my parish priests or something like that, I would just always look at them as like, oh, it's this very um, very holy person that I kind of feel almost far away from. Like there's a wall between you and by kind of being a student and being around priests, you see another, you see another side.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Right, right. Yeah, yeah. And I there's definitely a difference, and it's this is neither good nor bad, this but there's a difference in a bazillion working in a school and a vr a bazillion working in a parish.

SPEAKER_05 20:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Just because the type of work they do is different. Um but we still try and have the same influence, connectedness. Um before I came back here in 2014, I spent two years at the parish we had in Rochester, New York. And while I liked it, it wasn't the same.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Um, you're dealing with a lot of, again, different issues of divorce and family separation and whatever it might be. Um aging parents. Yeah. Um yeah, our students have the same kinds of issues or similar issues, but it's it's got a different feel to it, I guess, is the way to say it.

SPEAKER_05 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

You know, uh obviously our our next principal. Uh, Mr. Mitch Hancock, first lay principal coming into Catholic Central in our history. You have a long history working with Mitch. Yep. Uh, do you have any w words of advice you'd like to share with him as a former principal of Catholic Central for someone stepping into the role?

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Um be yourself. Take what you have and go with it. Um don't try and be something you're not. Um he's not Patrick Fulton, he's not Dennis Nelke, he's not John Huber. He's not, you know, Father Elmer. He's Mitch Hancock. And he has to be Mitch Hancock. Um see now I'm getting teary-eyed.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

That's very sage advice, though. You know, to not try and emulate some of the greats before you, but to be your own person.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

You know, there'll be things he'll say when I was Nelke's Dina students, uh he taught me this. He helped me look at things in this way. When Fulton, I was Fulton's Dina students, the same kind of thing. Um and that's great, but he's got to take that and um run with it as Mitch Hancock. And I think uh the fact that he was a student here, he taught here, he was an administrator here, he's you know, he's kind of had the bazillion uh ethos poured over him. And uh it's it's who he is. So that's good.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

We're we're still very fortunate to have you, Father Fulton still around, Father Rob still around to uh you know keep an eye on on that young man as he becomes principal to make sure he's not as young as you might think.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

And it's sound advice for anyone.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Yeah. I hope so.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

Not just Mitch, but for anyone, be yourself.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Oh, yeah. Right. All righty.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Well, Father, thank you very much for your time. You're welcome. Hopefully, we didn't take too much of it.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

No, no, no. Happy to do it. Happy to do it.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Thank you. Thanks for everything you've done for the school, too. Appreciate it. Thank you.