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Fr. Ted Ley '58 - 60-year Jubilee
On Saturday, June 8, Chaminade Chaplain Fr. Ted Ley '58 celebrated his 60- Year Jubilee, in Cupertino, California, with fellow Marianist brothers and priests.
Fr. Ted’s journey began, as a student on the original Chaminade campus in Cheviot Hills. He was the fifth student body president and the first “Mr. Chaminade” (the equivalent of today’s “Regal Eagle”). He directed the music in Chaminade plays and was also involved in speech and debate. He graduated in 1958.
Fr. Ted was the first Marianist “Aspirant” in a new program for students who wanted to join the Brothers but needed to stay home until after high school. After professing perpetual Marianist vows and completing seminary studies, Fr. Ted was the first priest in Los Angeles to be ordained in the new Vatican II English liturgy. Father Ted is the last Chaminade staff member to have taught on the original Cheviot Hills campus in 1960. Throughout his career, he served schools in California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Switzerland.
Photo by: Patricia Fernandez '89
Fr. Ted came from a musical family. In 1963, he won the choir conducting prize of the American Guild of Organists. In 1973, he and co-author Bro. Gary Morris took their student rock opera, Everymania, based on the play Everyman, from Hawaii to Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. In 1976, Fr. Ted produced the 50th State’s Bicentennial Banquet at the Waikiki Sheraton, and his youth choir represented Hawaii in the National Salute to the States bicentennial program. In 1976, Fr. Ted founded the Schola Cantorum of the Pacific, which provides free music education to children in need. Today the Schola supports a school choir program, called the Escolania Pacifica, at Assumption School in Boyle Heights.
He returned to Chaminade in 2000 and currently serves as chaplain and in 2018, he was named a Founder. He has served as a Marianist vocation minister and as liturgy director for national Marianist retreats.
