A Greek Legend Retires

Dr. Schreiber, third from left, on his college rowing team.

After 13 years of service to our school, Classics teacher Dr. Scott Schreiber has retired. Not many high school teachers can boast about their military intelligence service during the Cold War. Not many can say they took the Benedictine vow. Dr. Scott Schreiber can, and he’s shared stories of these times with his student in between Greek lessons. “Everything he told us was like...out of a movie,” senior Patrick Radosta recalled.

It’s true that Dr. Schreiber was originally a U.S. military intelligence officer serving in Europe during the Cold War. He left the service after four years, enrolling at Magdalene College, Cambridge, to study philosophy. There, he met the Benedictines, and when he finished his studies, Dr. Schreiber entered St. Anslem Abbey in New Hampshire, where he lived as a novice for the next six years. “I’ve always wanted a deep prayer life,” he explained. “As I look back at everything I’ve done, I can say my happiest years were at the monastery.”

After his time at the monastery, Dr. Schreiber followed his call to be a teacher: “When you love something, you want to share it. I fell in love with ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and literature from my first years in college, and the only way I know to share knowledge is to teach it to others.” Dr. Schreiber taught philosophy for over two decades at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin before joining the faculty at Holy Spirit Prep.

For many years, Dr. Schreiber hosted the annual Delneo Cup, a contest in classics trivia.

Dr. Schreiber’s intelligence work included jamming radio transmissions, and, as his students tell it, he accidentally caused a national security incident in France while tinkering with frequencies. “He unknowingly tinkered with the frequency used by the French train system,” Patrick Radosta recounted, apparently shutting down trains across the country. Dr. Schreiber narrowly avoided arrest by French officials after an intervention by the U.S government. “How does that even happen?" Patrick asked.

Students remember Dr. Schreiber’s class fondly. “Being in class with him, you learn to love him,” Patrick said. “He really cares about what he does, and that makes everything more meaningful.” His love for Classics was apparent, from his stacks of Greek bibles, to his wristwatch marked with Greek numerals, to the Greek Our Father his students prayed at the start of each class.

Dr. Schreiber had a knack for making the ancient history he taught relevant and alive for his students. “Whenever we learned about a new place,” explained senior Jack Bohling, “he’d show us pictures from his trips to that place, hiking through Naxos or up Mount Olympus.” Patrick added, “If we’re learning about Greek foods, he’ll bring in baklava. He tries to show us real Greek culture.” Well-traveled to the area himself, Dr. Schreiber led several student tours to Greece. “When they return... Greece is no longer a textbook abstraction,” he explained. “They have walked the archaeological sites, visited different Greek islands, eaten Greek food, haggled with Greek shopkeepers, and learned about Greece from native Greeks.”

During his tenure at Holy Spirit Prep Dr. Schreiber also hosted the annual Delneo Cup, a contest quizzing students in their knowledge of Classics, and supervised the National Latin Honor Society.