NEW ORLEANS — The Rev. Paul Schott, S.J., a former president of Jesuit High School whose pastoral assignments in New Orleans also included Holy Name of Jesus and Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church, died Thursday. He was 97.
Jesuit High School said on its website that Schott died on Thanksgiving Day at the Jesuit retirement community in Grand Coteau, La., where he had lived since 2012.
Schott served as president of Jesuit High School from 1974 to 1979. He was a Jesuit for 70 years and a priest for 60 years.
“He is one of the five most important people in the 20th Century at Jesuit,” said Rev. Anthony McGinn, S.J., who also served as the high school’s president and is now pastor of Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church on Baronne Street.
“Paul Schott brought financial stability, encouraged parental involvement and exercised pastoral care in a dynamic and personal way that fit the needs of the Jesuit community at that time,” McGinn said. “Jesuit would not be what it is today without Paul Schott.”
Prior to serving as Jesuit’s president, Schott was president of Jesuit High School in Dallas. He also worked at a Jesuit retreat house in Texas and the Jesuit school in Shreveport.
After leaving Jesuit High School in New Orleans, Schott directed the popular Manresa House of Retreats in Convent, La., from 1979 to 1983. For seven years, he also served as the executive assistant, or “socius,” to two Jesuit provincials, or regional administrators.
Schott was a 1940 Jesuit High School graduate who earned a degree in finance and economics from Loyola University New Orleans.
He was starting his sophomore year in college when the U.S. entered World War II on Dec. 7, 1941. He joined the Navy after graduation and was sent to Europe just before the Allies landed in Normandy.
He was in charge of a landing craft that was destined for the invasion. Two weeks before D-Day, the Germans dropped mines into the harbor where it was moored and the next day a ship bringing sailors to his landing craft hit the mines, prompting an explosion that blew up the engines.
“My (craft) was dead in the water, a week before I was supposed to load up and go to Normandy,” he said in a profile for the magazine of the Jesuits Central and Southern province. “God saved me. No telling what would have happened if I had gone to Normandy.”
Schott spent more time in England and France before being sent to the Pacific.
He returned to the U.S. after the war and spent 10 years working in his family’s business, Schott Meat Packing Co. He was one of seven children whose siblings included Judge Patrick Schott, retired Chief Judge of the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal; noted Louisiana baseball historian Arthur Schott; and Jesuit Brother Stephen Schott.
As a young man, Schott made annual retreats at Manresa, the Jesuits’ popular retreat house in Convent, La., which he said helped him develop his spirituality. Eventually, he felt called to join the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits.
His first assignment after being ordained a Jesuit in 1960 was Montserrat Retreat House in Lake Dallas, Texas. In 1965, he was named rector and president of Jesuit High in Dallas (now Jesuit College Prep).
“We had a brand-new school and no money to do anything,” he recalled.
Schott initiated an annual fundraising event and alumni drive, which he said were innovations at the time.
When he came to New Orleans, he said he was asked to replicate that success. He assembled a fundraising effort at Jesuit, including an alumni drive. “Now those programs have developed so much,” he recalled.
After leaving Jesuit High School, Schott directed the Manresa House of Retreats from 1979 to 1983. For seven years, he also served as the executive assistant, or “socius,” to two Jesuit provincials.
From 1989 to 2012, Schott served in three church parishes: St. Rita in Dallas and Holy Name of Jesus and Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans.
“When I entered the Society, I deliberately made the choice that I did not want to be a parish priest,” he said. “And I ended up in my career spending 25 years as a parish priest, which was a great experience. I’m convinced that’s where it really begins. If you want to touch all the crossroads of all the people, that’s where you’re going to meet them, in the parish. Birth to grave and all that happens in between. I enjoyed the parishes very much. I was very blessed. I enjoyed my career.”
Survivors include a brother, Matthew, as well as several nieces and nephews.
Jesuit High School said plans for a local memorial are being arranged.
