Judge Memorial graduate: 'Catholic education is everything'

Courtesy photo

+ Enlarge

Benjamin Bombard

SALT LAKE CITY — As Benjamin Bombard, a 1999 Judge Memorial Catholic High School graduate, looks back on his career, he attributes his success to his Catholic school education.

Bombard served numerous internships in the KUER newsroom before becoming a co-producer of RadioWest. He aspired to the position for years, he said, and worked as a print and radio journalist in Utah, Wyoming and California, as well as held various other jobs.

As Bombard got older and was around people younger than himself, "I realized how valuable my Catholic education was," Bombard said. "I was raised in a strict Catholic home and mirrored what we were taught. I learned to respect my elders and others and I was given respect as well."

During a recent talk between Bombard and his mother, she pointed out that if the family had not received help from the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Special Needs Program, "there was no way we could have afforded a Catholic school education," said Bombard. "I didn’t know how much it cost, but I know my mother had to take us out of hockey for a few years because we couldn’t afford it, and we loved playing hockey."

Linda Simpson, Judge Memorial English teacher, remembers Bombard was a "terrific hockey player – quick and smart," she said. "He also was a very good writer and gifted story teller. I remember telling him that I could picture him someday sitting on a big porch in a rocking chair and telling stories. In my class, he loved learning and immersed himself in literature and poetry.

"After he went away to college, he wrote me a note and said that ‘he valued his Catholic education more than anything,’" said Simpson. "That said a lot to me about his character."

Despite his talent, his high school years weren’t all easy. In his senior year, Bombard was struggling both at home and in school when Simpson "saw something in me that nobody else had, and she showed such love and concern for me," he said. "She gave me such encouragement in my writing that it made me want to impress her and it made me want to work hard for her. My senior project was a replicated Sports Illustrated hockey layout of me, which led to my being able to graduate and jumpstarted my journalism career."

His Catholic education came at a key point in his life, he said. "I don’t think I would be in a good place right now if I hadn’t been taught order and respect at a time when I most needed it," he said. "I went to public school in the eighth grade for one day and saw kids running around, not wearing uniforms, even though I was tired of them after attending Kearns-Saint Ann, and there didn’t seem to be any order. I realized it wasn’t for me after one-half day; it wasn’t an environment in which I would do well."

Bombard valued the Catholic school environment of small class sizes, individual attention and the structure it provided for him.

"It was something I needed and wanted and were the major reasons I chose to go to Catholic colleges," he said. "They provided a loving environment and felt like family. There were some of the most loving people I’ve met in my entire life at Kearns-Saint Ann, and I was a handful; I wasn’t the best kid, and it was really important to me."

Bombard received a bachelor’s degree in English from Saint Michael College in Vermont and studied at Boston College in Massachusetts.