The Impact of the Brothers

Patrick Dougherty, Class of 1957

By: T.K. Griffith ’89

March, 2026

When Patrick Dougherty ’57 transferred from an elite Jesuit boarding school in Wisconsin to Archbishop Hoban High School in the summer of 1954, he immediately felt a difference in the air from the Holy Cross Brothers who taught, served and ran the school.

“The Holy Cross spirituality gave you room to breathe, I guess you could say,” Dougherty recounts. “It wasn’t a stifling version of faith; they allowed you to grapple with all of those ideas coming into your mind but did so in a disciplined environment that allowed space to orient your values.” 

Dougherty, the oldest of six children from St. Joseph Parish school in Cuyahoga Falls, grew up in a tight, Catholic family with good and loving parents. “We never missed Mass on Sundays, and my parents loved to take the whole brood up to Michigan to go camping whenever we could…it was a great upbringing.”

Upon his arrival at Hoban, three Brothers of Holy Cross made an immediate impact on him through their unique personalities and gifts. “Brother Jerome was an enthusiastic jack-of-all-trades. He taught me in English and band but also drove the school bus and moderated the Mother’s Club,” Dougherty said.

Then there was Brother Thomas Dillman, who changed the trajectory of Dougherty’s life. “I had him in math class when I first transferred in and he gave me the only F I ever received. I was gifted in math, and could problem solve so well I never needed to do the homework, so I didn't."

That did not sit well with Brother Thomas, who failed Dougherty and told him, “You have to do the little things before you tackle the big stuff.” However, a mutual respect was born and Brother Thomas persuaded Dougherty to enter the wood and metal shop class in the basement of Hoban’s west end. “He allowed me in the whole semester and just let me explore and go on all the machinery…soon I learned that I absolutely loved working with my hands and I knew that the focus of my life would involve something in that vein. I learned I loved working with my hands and that traditional college would not be for me!”

Dougherty wasn’t too bad with his words either, though, as Brother Sigismund, a dour man who rarely smiled, called Dougherty down to his office one spring day. “Patrick, I want to give you a medal as an award for the absolutely beautiful way you speak in speech class and dialogue with your peers and me.” Sigismund knew that Dougherty needed a lift as he was going through a slump at school. “Sigismund was a great observer of others, and he had a gut feel that I needed a boost…he knew me…and that was the gift of the brothers…they got to know their students. I still have that medal.” It was more than a medal. It was the belief in a youngster who needed inspiration.

Dougherty would enter the service after Hoban and serve as a gunner on an 8-inch Howitzer. After six months of active service, he served the rest of his eight years in the reserve. Upon coming home, his dad took him to work at the Akron Beacon Journal where he was fascinated with his dad’s job as a photo engineer, or what they called a half-tone photographer.

Dougherty decided to enter a six-year apprenticeship to become a photo engraver, known as a journeyman engraver. He would spend the next 43 years at the Akron Beacon Journal, never missing a deadline and putting out as many as seven editions a day in the early years. “We often had seven deadlines to meet, but I never missed one my whole time there!”

I guess Brother Thomas was right. It’s the little things that matter.

Dougherty recalled fondly the canned food drive at Hoban, knocking on doors to collect food for the poor and hungry. His group of friends got dressed up and took the food drive seriously. We did so well that the St. Vincent de Paul folks were mad at us because they had to move so many cans...you couldn't walk in the hallway near the central office where we had collected so many.”

Dougherty's other memories may seem familiar to many. His time in the marching band, the concert band, preparing for the Spring Musicale and even making a half-court shot before one of the basketball games and his buddies cheering for him. “It felt so good when they cheered me on in Barry Gym,” he said.

Hoban gave Patrick Dougherty the freedom to explore his passions. The brothers did not pigeonhole him. From music to speech class…to math and metal shop…to concert band to spring musicals…to his faith life and disciplined habits. Dougherty, Class of 1957, is yet another testament to the formative and transformational impact of Hoban. A master engraver, a skilled craftsman who used zinc plates to engrave photo after photo for 43 years. He left his mark on more than those zinc plates. He modeled the values that a Holy Cross education cultivates. The brothers would be proud. He earned his medal.