He
nurtured ‘opportunity
to change’
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
BENSALEM — There’s a difference between a job and a vocation.
A job you can quit at any time; a vocation you never really let go.
Take Frank White, who worked in various capacities for 34 years at St.
Francis Homes for Children. Officially, he retired a month or so ago but
he’s still there, part-time.
St. Francis, he said, “is part of the Good Samaritan mission of
the Church, serving our brothers, regardless of cultural, ethnic or religious
differences. It’s not a place for clock-watchers because we are
offering ourselves.”
Social services was not one of White’s goals when he was planning
his life. A product of St. Helena School, Cardinal Dougherty High School
and La Salle College, he earned his master’s degree in political
science at Notre Dame University, then taught for seven years at Clarke
College, a Catholic college in Dubuque, Iowa, before coming home to his
roots.
Back in this region, he went to work at what was then the St. Francis
Vocational School, expecting that sooner or later another job opportunity
would turn up.
Meanwhile, the school was an institution in transition. Founded by the
Drexel sisters in 1888, for most of its years it had served about 250
Catholic adolescent boys, who came from the former St. John’s Orphan
Asylum and similar institutions.
When White arrived in 1974, the population was down to 65 or so boys,
most of them non-Catholic, and although their stays at the school were
shorter, their needs were no less urgent.
Part of White’s job was placing the boys in various public and Catholic
schools. It was not always easy, but it was work he warmed to. Most of
the boys came to St. Francis from chaotic environments and were poorly
disciplined, with histories of truancy. Many schools didn’t want
them.
“Last night, I dreamed St. Francis burned down,” one local
public school administrator told White, in dead seriousness.
White did not see the boys as a problem — he saw them as a challenge.
How could he and the rest of the staff help?
Through the course of his work there, White saw St. Francis evolve from
a central institution into scattered, houseparent-led group homes. Those
gave way, in turn, to most of the group homes back on the main campus,
where a highly trained professional staff can give each boy the support
he needs.
Then another component was added: supervised independent living, which
eases the older boys into community life.
In recent years, White served as intake supervisor, evaluating prospective
candidates for the unique care provided by St. Francis, which now has about 135 youths in group homes or independent living.
“When I interviewed kids, they were invariably polite — but
they were wary because they had been promised help before,” White
recalled. “I always emphasized [the school] wasn’t punishment.
It was an opportunity to change their lives.”
For White, who is a member of St. Jerome Parish, satisfaction has come
over the years in “the opportunity to meet young men who have, in
many cases, hidden gifts and abilities — and to be able to help,
and realize their potential.”
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.