The St. Pius X High School Class of 1960 enjoys the permanently unique status of being St. Pius X’s first graduating class. During the 2021-2022 school year, these alumni celebrated important milestones, 80th birthdays. 

St. Pius X High School and Connections magazine wish to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the members of the Class of 1960 as they celebrate their milestone 80th birthdays. They are all treasured members of our St. Pius X Family and they are always remembered fondly by the faculty, staff and students at St. Pius X. 

The Class of 1960 was unique in many ways. By the time they started as freshmen in the basement of St. Charles Borromeo Elementary School in 1956, those fourteen and fifteen year-olds had lived through many of the major events of the 20th Century. Some of them were born within a few months of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Before their freshman year they had already lived through the Holocaust, the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Trinity Site in New Mexico, and the Korean War. For these young teenagers the Cold War was in full force in 1956. 

In 1956 there were 48 States. The Dodgers played at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and the Giants played at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan. Pope Pius XII was the Pope. The Mass was said in Latin and the priest celebrating the Mass faced away from the congregation. The American South was totally segregated. 

In February of 1956 a young singer by the name of Elvis Presley first entered the music charts in the US with “Heartbreak Hotel.” The Beatles did not yet exist. 

The City of Albuquerque was growing at a dizzying pace. It grew from a population of 96,000 in 1950 to over 200,000 in 1960. The opening of a new Catholic high school seemed to fit right in with that rapid growth.

The first principal of St. Pius X High School was Sr. Mary Thaddea, a Sister of Charity. The faculty consisted almost entirely of priests and nuns and they held their students to high academic standards. However, on the science side during that first year there was no such thing as a biology, chemistry or physics lab at the school. The parents of these students were taking a big risk to send their children to a brand new school that was so lacking in the science resources available to the public high schools in Albuquerque at the time. The plan was to build a new campus in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights which would accommodate the students as they progressed to their sophomore, junior and senior years, with new classes cycling in behind them. The new facility would have up-to-date teaching and learning resources. 

While in the basement at St. Charles, the new school flourished, although on a small scale. The 1956 freshman class consisted of a little more than 100 students. Enrollment increased at each successive year, and the students were eventually packed in like sardines in the limited available space. Finally, for the 1959-1960 school year, the school moved to the new facility on Louisiana Boulevard in the Northeast Heights. There were very few other structures on Louisiana at that time. Monroe Junior high was across the street to the South. Winrock Center and Coronado Center were yet to be built. The Class of 1960 spent one year at the new campus before graduating. 

For the 1959-1960 school year, Joe Abbin was the Senior Class President. By the happenstance of the alphabet, he was also the very first graduate of St. Pius X High School. Sixty-two years later, Joe is still involved with our school. He recently had a plaque honoring his class installed on the base of the statue of St. Joseph in the quad at St. Pius. 

Joe has many fond memories of his four years at St. Pius from 1956 to 1960. Fr. John FitzGerald was his favorite teacher. Fr. FitzGerald had served in the Army-Air Force in WWII and had plenty of worldly experience before becoming a priest and a teacher at St. Pius. According to Joe, “Fr. Fitz” was an excellent English teacher and Joe benefited greatly from his class. Fr. FitzGerald also spoke Spanish well. He once shared with Joe a dicho: “poco a poco se anda lejos,” meaning “little by little one goes far.” Joe says he has never forgotten that wise saying and it has served him well over the years.  

The Class of 1960’s second graduate, Charlene Armijo Knipfing, also remained involved with St. Pius X for many years. She was one of the founders of the St. Pius X High School Foundation, which manages the school’s endowment that Charlene and others started in 1984. Charlene has been featured in the school’s Hall of Honor. She also was a key organizer of the Archbishop’s School Fund Dinner which has raised funds for all the Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe for many years.

Another member of the Class of 1960 who has been crucially involved in our school is Bart Chiminti. For the 1959-1960 school year, Bart was the Student Council President. He, too, has remained very involved with St. Pius X over the years. Bart helped to line up classic cars which were used as prizes for the annual student raffle. He and Ralph Balduini (also from the Class of 1960 and now deceased) found many classic Ford Mustangs which drew tremendous interest for the raffle. Bart was a key organizer of the construction of the Alumni Scholarship Circle which is located outside of the gym at the “new” Coors Boulevard campus. Bart also started, with his mother, the Chimenti Family Endowment which is an important component of the St. Pius X Foundation.

“Ralph Balduini and I had a lot of fun tracking down and restoring those classic Mustangs,” says Bart. “Once they were finished and parked at the school for display while the raffle ticket sales were in process, Ralph and I enjoyed watching the kids at the school, and faculty and staff, for that matter, checking out those vehicles. It was rewarding to see how much interest those Mustangs generated.

“One of the great joys connected to my involvement with St. Pius over the years has been experiencing the enthusiasm of the students at the school,” Bart added. “That age group is just full of energy all the time.”

Another interesting fact about the Class of 1960 is sports related. Outside the St. Pius X main gymnasium is a message board which lists the school records and record holders for track and field events.

Amazingly, Mike Wegmann, a member of the Class of 1960, set the record for the javelin throw at a distance of 179’ 11” while he was a senior at St. Pius X. The record still stands. Mike tells us that he has been patiently waiting for over 62 years to congratulate the St. Pius track team member who breaks that record. A very outstanding athlete, Mike went on after graduation from St. Pius X to receive a scholarship offer from the legendary Hugh Hackett, coach of the UNM track team. The UNM track team in those days was nationally ranked. Instead, Mike went on to compete in track for the College of Santa Fe, where he had a successful athletic career. 

Friendships among the members of the Class of 1960 have been rich and enduring. Two members of that class who have sustained a close friendship are Mary Kay Todesco Cline and Terry Reynolds Quinn. After 62 years they still have lunch regularly. Mary Kay was very involved in her high school class. She served as Student Council Treasurer as a freshman, Student Council President as a sophomore and Student Council Vice-President as a junior and senior. Mary Kay tells us: “I’m very grateful that I’m turning 80, and I’m even more grateful that I have friends like Terry to share it with.” Terry Quinn echoes that sentiment. 

While attending St. Pius, the students in the Class of 1960 were witnesses to even more history. Following are just a few of the major events they lived through.

Freshman year

October 23, 1956: The Hungarian Revolution began, led by pro-democracy students who wanted Hungary to leave the Warsaw Pact. The revolution was eventually crushed by the Soviet Red Army which invaded Hungary.

Sophomore year

 October 4, 1957: Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union. Science and technology curriculum at the high school and college level took on a greatly heightened importance.

Junior year

July 12, 1958: The Quarrymen (later The Beatles) paid 17 shillings and six pence to have their first recording session, where they recorded a Buddy Holly song.

September 1, 1958: The University of New Orleans began classes as the first racially integrated public university in the American South.

October 28, 1958: Pope John XXIII succeeded Pope Pius XII, an event which would lead to major reforms in the Catholic Church. 

January 3, 1959: Alaska became the 49th State. 

February 3, 1959: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa (“The Day that Music Died”)

Senior year

August 21, 1959: Hawaii became the 50th State.

February 1, 1960: Four Black students sat at a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

March 6, 1960: The United States announced that 3500 American soldiers would be sent to Viet Nam.

June 5, 1960: The St. Pius X High School Class of 1960 graduated with 81 students. 

June 7, 1960: US Senator John F. Kennedy won the California Democratic Party Presidential Primary