GILBERTVILLE -- When the final Don Bosco graduate was handed a diploma during last month's ceremony, the Catholic high school completed five decades of educating area students.

Now it's ready to celebrate.

Don Bosco will be the hub of 50th anniversary festivities starting Friday night and continuing throughout the weekend. The events culminate with a celebration mass to be held in the gym Sunday afternoon.

"Primarily, it's a time for anyone from the community, alumni, friends to celebrate the fact that we've been open 50 years," said Kim Rottinghaus, a member of the event's organizing committee. The events will also be used to raise money for the Bosco System's future building plans, which have not yet been determined.

Catholic education was not new to Gilbertville when the high school opened on Sept. 4, 1956. The first Catholic school was established here in 1876. In 1943, Immaculate Conception School started a high school, adding a new grade each year and graduating its first class in 1947.

But the Rev. Wilbur Ziegler was instructed to look at an area-wide approach to high school education when he arrived at Immaculate Conception Church in 1955, according to a 1981 history of Don Bosco. He began working with pastors from five surrounding parishes -- St. Francis, Barclay; St. Mary of Mount Carmel, Eagle Center; St. Athanasius, Jesup; Sacred Heart, La Porte City; and St. Joseph's, Raymond.

The pastors proposed Gilbertville as the location and Don Bosco High School as the name. St. John Bosco worked with youth in Italy and established schools. By April 1956, the Archdiocese of Dubuque had approved the proposal and school was scheduled to open in the fall.

Classes were held in the former Immaculate Conception High School, St. Mary's parish hall and the convent. Two typing classes took place each day in a member's house. The Rev. Donald Sweeney was the school's first superintendent.

A total of 170 students enrolled the first year, with construction of a new building starting shortly afterward. The building opened in March 1957 with five classrooms, a business department, a combined library and study hall, a home economics room, offices, and a faculty room. Twenty-three seniors graduated that spring.

"It wasn't a very big school to start with. We didn't even have a gym," said Larry Klein, chairman of the anniversary event.

That summer, a contract was awarded to build the gymnasium, which opened in March 1958. The cost for the school and gym totaled $282,500.

Klein said growing enrollment spurred the school to build a 24,500-square-foot addition completed in December 1964. It included five classrooms, a library, a study hall, faculty rooms, a chapel, science lab, an art room and home education facilities. A 100-foot canopy was also built over the sidewalk in front of the school.

Klein noted Don Bosco's largest class had 103 students and graduated in 1969.

But by 1971, the school had a deficit of $13,500 and was struggling with transportation issues, according to the 1981 history. Parishioners discussed closing the school before deciding against it.

The school was aided by an archdiocese contingency fund for two years and 1975 legislation that provided transportation funding to private schools. Fundraising efforts were also boosted, most notably through a matching gift program the John Deere Foundation implemented for its employees.

Today Don Bosco is a smaller high school; 40 students graduated this spring. But Principal Matt O'Loughlin said "community and parishioner support" has been essential to sustaining the high school over the years.

"It is a community," added Klein. "Gilbertville, Don Bosco -- it's really one and the same, that and the church."

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.