“The world has never needed womanly intelligence…so much as it does today.” M. Joseph Butler, RSHM
Moving the Junior School and College brought changes to the Westwood Campus. High school students now occupied all the buildings. Since 1960 additions to the campus have been made to enhance the students’ educational experience: an Olympic size swimming pool, classrooms in Butler Hall, the Terry Leavey Lemons Pavilion, Marian Hall Library and Digital Resource Center, new Science Labs, and Art Space for the Centennial Project. Acknowledging the beauty of the campus and its importance to Los Angeles, the Administration Building, Chapel, and Cantwell Auditorium are listed as Los Angeles Historic – Cultural Monuments.
From the earliest days of Marymount School, the RSHM has been blessed with the collaboration of excellent lay advisors, women and men from different fields and faiths. In 1977 a Board of Regents was established and years later a Board of Trustees. In 2007, the RSHM transferred the school property and handed on the mission of Marymount High School to the Marymount High School Board of Trustees.
The principles of service, ethical leadership, and empowerment underpin the curriculum. Students have excelled academically, in athletics and in the performing and fine arts, to name a few fields. Marymount High School is a member of the Global Network of RSHM Schools and educates for a global consciousness and an unshakable commitment to the common good.
First Community Marymount School, Los Angeles 1930s
Back Row (L-R): Francoise O’Hare, Alphonsus Foley, Eucharia Lenehan, Dominic McHenry, St. Jude Cassidy,
Aquinas Brown, Emmanuel Gallagher, Carmelita Elliott.
Middle Row (L-R): Rose de Lima Kiernan, Gertrude Cain, Gerard Phelan, Mother Joseph Butler (Superior General),
Ignatius Kearney, Theresa Phelan, Aidan Keating
Bottom Row (L-R): Lucy Thorpe, Dympna Carroll, Christopher O’Keefe, Bernadette Murphy, St. Jude Mann
Student Activities 1930s – 1940s
Mother Butler Guild, 1955 – Marymount High School, Los Angeles
Mother Butler inspired and shaped a tradition of education that has transcended the boundaries of time and culture, an educational tradition that continues to inspire young women and men globally so that they may have life to the full and share that life with others. This education included identifying and calling forth the best in each student, as well as forming their hearts in gospel virtue and opening their minds to the broad spectrums of culture and academic discipline.
Her constant prayer was to know and do God’s will and her favorite aspiration, “Live Jesus, live in me so that all I do be done by thee.” Mother Butler’s zeal for the work of the Kingdom was reflected in her kindness and mercy, her generosity and selflessness, her boundless energy and exceptional will power and her missionary spirit.
This education included identifying and calling forth the best in each student, as well as forming their hearts in gospel virtue and opening their minds to the broad spectrums of culture and academic discipline. She modeled this in her charity toward all and in her passion for the missionary work of the Church. It is because of Mother Butler’s concern for the world’s poor and her desire to set an example that, participating in and supporting the missions came to be a part of RSHM sponsored or related ministries.
