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Priory Magazine Fall 2024
Making a Lasting Impact
Priory Students Benefit from the Establishment of Endowed Faculty Chairs
It was all about enabling “a lasting impact.”
That’s why the Fair and Billhartz families –and others – have made generous financial gifts to endow faculty chairs at Saint Louis Priory School.
“It’s for the benefit of the students,” they say.
“We, collectively as a family, decided that it was important for us to endow a chair to have a lasting impact on future generations,” says Greg Billhartz, father of Evan Billhartz ’24.
“It is important to have something that’s going to have a lasting impact on many, many kids,” agrees Bill Fair III, a member of Priory’s Class of 1981. “The underlying rationale for why we, as a family, chose to do this is to try to make a difference in people’s lives.”
“It was important to have something that’s going to have a lasting impact on many, many kids.”
— Bill Fair III, ’81
The Fair Family Story
Priory certainly made a difference in Bill Fair’s life.
Fair’s father, Dr. William Fair Jr., was a prominent urologist who developed new surgical techniques, treatments, and diagnostic tests for prostate cancer. His wife, Mary Ann, was a nurse. The family had been living in California, with a short stint in England, when Dr. Fair accepted a position as head of the Department of Urology at Washington University in St. Louis.
“My family moved to St. Louis literally the day before my 7th-grade year started at Priory,” Fair recalls.
“I remember walking into my 7th-grade classroom and seeing a stack of books on the ground next to my desk that was almost as tall as I was.”
That first year, Fair says, “We had study hall periods every once in a while, and there was a senior who would come and proctor our study halls – a guy named Jim Mohrman, who you probably know as Abbot Gregory.”
The early connection between the 7th grader and the senior has led to a lifelong connection for the two Priory alumni.
Fair’s liberal arts education at Priory influenced him so much that he matriculated to Stanford University, where he majored in Classical Studies.
“Have I used Classics in the business world at all? Not one iota,” Fair chuckles. “But it really helped me to be grounded…, to be a more complete thinker about issues.”
A few years after Bill Fair’s Priory graduation, his parents made a financial gift to establish the Fair Family Chair of Classics. Fair says his father was “a big believer in a classical education,” and that both of his parents “had a really strong belief in education and the academic mission of the school.”
Dr. Fair passed away in 2002, but the Fair family’s support of Saint Louis Priory School continued. During Priory’s Sharing the Promise, Shaping the Future Capital Campaign, the family made significant contributions that led to the establishment of the William Fair, M.D., Science Classroom and the Mary Ann Fair Medieval Arts Classroom – both located in Priory’s new Arts and Science Center.
Even more recently, Bill Fair ’81 established another endowed faculty chair, this one in his mother’s honor: The Fair Family Chair of Medieval Arts. Fair says he and his mother, now 85, view Medieval Arts as “unique” and “mission critical” for the continued success of Saint Louis Priory School, just as Dr. and Mrs. Fair did with Classics more than three decades earlier.
“We are deeply appreciative of the partnerships between family, alumni, and benefactors that are so crucial to the ongoing mission of the school,” says Assistant Head of School for Intellectual Formation, Tim Malecek.
“The endowed chairs send the message, ’We believe in your work. We trust what you are doing with these young men. We want to see you succeed.’”
“It’s an important part of our rich liberal arts tradition that our young men be well rounded,” Malecek notes. “We study the Classics – Latin and Greek – to look backward to understand our historical western civilization roots. The modern languages – Spanish or French – allow us to move forward in an increasingly global society.”
“There are even fewer schools – if any! –with an endowed chair in Medieval Arts!” he emphasizes. “Yet consistently our students and alumni reflect upon their time in the Medieval Arts workshop as some of the most formative hours of their time at Priory.”
The Billhartz Family Story
This fall, Evan Billhartz ’24 began his freshman year at Tulane University in New Orleans. There, he is studying cell and molecular biology, continuing an interest in science his parents say was piqued during his time as a Priory student.
“We’ve seen his interest in science really flourish,” says Evan’s father, Greg Billhartz. “It’s been exciting to see him take that initiative.”
Through their family foundation, Greg Billhartz and his wife, Jennie, have committed to making impactful financial gifts – not only out of a sense of gratitude for the educational experiences of each of their three children, but also to help “have a lasting impact on future generations.”
Because of their son Evan’s positive experience, Billhartz says, “We clearly wanted to focus on science” at Saint Louis Priory School. Earlier this year, the family established The Billhartz Family Science Chair.
Billhartz hopes the earnings on the corpus of this perpetual gift will grow enough to enable the chairholder to travel and interact with contemporaries and others across the country. “They would bring back best practices, ideas, innovation, and development in a way that frames future curriculum, learning, and student experiences,” he says.
“I think what we’ve learned over the last five years in particular through the pandemic is that many of these areas – whether it’s technology, science, math – are developing and changing so rapidly that it wouldn’t take long for curriculum to get stale in today’s environment,” Billhartz says. “This endowment is really intended to make sure that the curriculum and the faculty at Priory are at the forefront of the latest thinking for high school-aged students.”
It is also important, he notes, that “students are studying and working in a more collaborative way, which I know is a big part of some of the workspaces and classrooms” in Priory’s innovative Arts and Science Center.
That is all music to the ears of Nick Kheriaty, Priory’s science department chair and, thus, the school’s Billhartz Family Science Chair.
Kheriaty has been a member of Priory’s faculty since 2022 and a teacher in Catholic high schools for 20 years. He also happens to be the father of two current Priory students – Jacob ’28 and Daniel ’30.
This academic year, Kheriaty is teaching honors chemistry to Form IV sophomores and physics to Form V juniors.
“The best way for our young men to learn science is to experience it firsthand,” Kheriaty confirms. The Billhartz family’s endowment helps cover the salary of the chair, thus freeing up other funds to pay for equipment and experiences. “This allows Priory students to engage in cutting-edge, hands-on learning.”
“Our new dissection equipment for biology, [and] our new photogates and projectile launchers in physics,” he says, “help bring concepts to life in the classroom and foster curiosity and passion about science in our students.”
“Gifts that endow chairs are really important,” Kheriaty says, “because they free up resources for the school to invest in the student experience.”
“This endowment is really intended to make sure that the curriculum and the faculty at Priory are at the forefront of the latest thinking for high school-aged students.”
— Greg Billhartz
You And Your Friends Can Make A Difference”
Bill Fair ’81 is on a mission to see even more endowed faculty chairs at Priory.
Such endowments, he notes, “can fundamentally change the course of generations of students’ lives.”
At Priory, “there’s a tradition of fraternity in terms of brotherhood; there’s a tradition of academic excellence and a dedication to teaching,” Fair says. “That all could be called upon to get more endowed chairs in place.”
Fair says he would like to see alumni and friends of Priory work together to establish endowments. “Don’t be limited by [perceived] pre-set endowment opportunities,” he says. Alumni should “think about working with your classmates,” from the same class year or even across class years.
“You and your friends can make a difference.”
For more information on endowing a chair at Saint Louis Priory School, contact Director of Advancement Natalie Covey at 314.434.3690, ext. 325 or ncovey@priory.org.
