St. Louis Alumni Association to dissolve, distribute assets

After serving the Biddeford community and local sports programs for 80 years, members of the St Louis Alumni Association have made the difficult decision to dissolve the organization and distribute its assets.

Roger Normand, chairman of the dissolution committee, said, “The hope and expectation is, those good works will continue in someone else's hands” through scholarships and support for athletics such as Pee Wee football and hockey will continue.

A final decision on dissolution will not be made until all relevant information and recommendations have been reviewed by the Board of Directors, according to the association’s website.

St. Louis High School opened as a parochial school in 1930; the association was founded in 1940. Attendance grew and association members served the community by buying sports equipment and sewing uniforms.

In 1970, the Bishop of the diocese in Portland ordered that the school be closed, but “there was an asset in the alumni,” Normand said.

The alumni association continued to support youth events even after the high school closed. “We created a way to serve the youth of Biddeford and Saco,” Normand said.

Members then bought the land and built a clubhouse at St. Louis Field at 169-179 Prospect St. for the football program, along with all the equipment to support that sport, basketball and baseball.

In the early to mid-70s the alumni association sold the field, clubhouse and all the equipment to fund land and built St. Louis Alumni Hall, which served both as a gathering place and a place for income-producing events.

Normand said between 800-900 people would attend “smokers,” presentations that recapped sports highlights.

When St. Louis High School was founded, only boys were accepted. Girls were later admitted to the integrated classes. Nuns, brothers or teachers instructed the students.

Normand was a member of the last graduating class of 125 students.

According to Normand, the St. Louis Alumni Association donated upwards of $40,000 a year in scholarships and support for athletics, but like many other organizations, “the pandemic dramatically affected revenue operations.”

It was understandably a difficult decision to close the hall on Route 1 and sell it in 2022, he said. Fortunately, the city offered space in the Richard J. Martin Community Center, where the archives are now housed.

Membership is now around 350-375, but that’s not enough. As with other organizations, “there’s a whole bunch of members and a handful do the work.”

Board member Anita Baiguy, who attended St. Louis High School for three years until it closed, is working to dispose of the alumni’s artifacts.

She said disseminating the materials is still a work in progress. Baiguy has contacted MacArthur Library and St. James school, among others, but is “still working through where all the pieces will go.”

Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center took a lot of extra memorabilia, she said, but since the alumni association is dissolving “We’re not sure as far as the community center and whether we can stay.” Meanwhile, she said St. James has not responded to her inquiry. 

Chuck Cote, whose father was a football coach at St. Louis, held an open house at the cultural and heritage center’s La Kermesse room to display historic artifacts.

“He even had mannequins dressed in uniforms,” said Baiguy, who wrote a historical perspective of the high school. “It was so cool.” 

“There’s a lot of history and people don’t know about it.”

For instance, St. Louis Field used to be an ice-skating rink, she said, and supported a team of speed skaters.

Despite the dissolution process, the St. Louis Alumni Association is still doing good for the community.

The organization announced in December that donations totaling $50,000 were awarded to the Biddeford Food Pantry and $25,000 to Biddeford’s My Place Teen Center.

Since then, the Alumni Association donated $5,000 to the Apex Youth Connection program in Biddeford, and in May donated $50,000 to support the renovation of the Don Wilson Memorial Fitness Center at Biddeford High School.

Ann Fisher is a freelance journalist based in Southern Maine. She can be reached at 432-7483.

Publisher's note - the story was updated to correct the school's opening date to 1930.