Bergan High School was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is a city in Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Illinois River, the city had a population of 113,150 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Ill ...

. It was founded in 1964 by the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria The Diocese of Peoria () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the north central region of Illinois in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese within the ecclesiastical province of the metropolit ...

in what was then the northern part of the city. The school was named after Archbishop of Omaha

Gerald Thomas Bergan Gerald Thomas Bergan (January 26, 1892 – July 12, 1972) was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Des Moines in Iowa (1934–1948) and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Omaha in Nebraska ( ...

, a Peoria native. Peoria already had Catholic high schools at the time in Spalding Institute and the Academy of Our Lady High School, located near downtown Peoria. The school was originally run by the Christian Brothers, but they left the school in 1979. Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, later rector of Mount St. Mary's Seminary, served as chaplain of the high school after their departure. In 1988, Bergan merged in

Academy of Our Lady/Spalding Institute Academy of Our Lady and Spalding Institute were Catholic high schools across the street from each other in downtown Peoria, Illinois. The academy (AOL), a girls' school, traced its lineage back to 1863. The Spalding Institute (SI), the boys' scho ...

and became

Peoria Notre Dame High School Peoria Notre Dame High School is a Catholic parochial high school in Peoria, Illinois. It is the largest school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria with approximately 815 students. It has a college preparatory curriculum, and according to the ...

Notable alumni

* Dave Alwan - ABC TV ''Shark Tank'' winner * Tom Gilles - Major League Baseball pitcher * Michael C. Maibach - the first American elected to public office under 21 years of age in U.S. history (April 12, 1972), former Vice President of the Intel Corporation (1983–2001) and former President & CEO of the European American Business Council (2003–2012). * Bart Shatto - Broadway actor * Suzie Tuffey - NCAA cross country champion

References

{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1964 Educational institutions disestablished in 1988 Defunct Catholic secondary schools in Illinois Defunct high schools in Illinois Education in Peoria, Illinois Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria Schools in Peoria County, Illinois 1964 establishments in Illinois 1988 disestablishments in Illinois