Hermosa Beach’s Catholic school turns 50
Second graders gather for first communion in 1965. Father Samuel Bonikowski, the school builder, stands at right. When parishioner Daniel L. Villa attended Hermosa’s Catholic school a half century ago, the teachers wore habits. The nuns were warm and caring, and his favorite, Sister Ann Marie, seemed to glide the earth rather than walk. “We always thought she was a floating angel,” he said. “She was very kind,” Villa remembered. “She was a very young nun back then, and we thought in those days she floated, because of the way she walked. We couldn’t see her legs, just her feet. She was very angelic. She was a great teacher. We always thought she was a floating angel.” As Our Lady of Guadalupe School turns 50, Villa is among many early students and stewards reflecting upon the determined man who built it, their iconic images of nuns variously warm and strict, and the tight-knit feel of a cozy educational community bonded by devotion. But the jubilee at Our Lady of Guadalupe School looks to the future as well, celebrating recent campus renovations including a modernized technology program, and preparations to open a preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds next fall. When the auxiliary…
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