Brother William Nick

“Originally I enrolled in the seminary program for the Diocese of Kansas City but wasn’t able to settle down and keep focused, so I left two years later. The Benedictine monks encouraged me to keep pursuing the idea of a vocation. I worked for a while, then connected with Holy Cross because my pastor said, ‘You ought to check out that Holy Cross outfit. They’re modern, on the move.’ The rest is history.”

Ever since he finished his degree at St. Edward’s University, Brother William Nick has helped keep our “outfit” progressive by taking on successive challenges. Initially he thought he would be involved in a farm ministry, but his life as a Brother of Holy Cross illustrates his guiding belief: It’s better to risk than not to risk.

“My first 15 years in San Antonio was a very exciting time,” says Brother Bill. “After teaching for a while, I became vice principal and principal — not positions I sought, but now I see they were the best things for me to do.”

During this period he also pursued his M.Ed. in educational administration, then became business manager of Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward, California. In 1983, Brother Bill became principal of St. Francis High School in Mountain View, south of San Francisco.

“I came in with a mandate from the Board and the school community to change the school,” he recalls. “We set 14 major goals and spent a tough eight years achieving them. As a result the school moved off the dime, conducted a successful fundraising campaign, and built a building. When I left, St. Francis appointed its first lay principal.”

In 1991 the native Midwesterner moved further south to Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, where he became a groundbreaker for reorganization. In a unique relationship, the Brothers of Holy Cross lease the property to the school’s Board of Trustees, who run Notre Dame as a Catholic school in the Holy Cross tradition.

Having led the school through a successful campaign, Brother Bill and the Board are focusing on leadership development and mission enhancement.

“When I first came here we would ask members of the school community, ‘What is our foundation or history?’ and they would say, ‘We’re connected with the University of Notre Dame.’ Now they say, ‘We’re a Holy Cross school.’ Working collaboratively to further our heritage and mission at first got us excited, then we formed programs to teach it to the students and teachers.”

In looking at concrete ways to enhance the heritage of Holy Cross, Notre Dame is setting up a leadership plan to make new Board members — and the school’s next leader — stakeholders in the mission.

“In running institutions,” says Brother Bill, “if we impose the master plan from the top down, that is not bringing hope. By helping it emerge from a collaborative process, we do everything in our power to remain relevant to the world. And people will recognize Holy Cross schools by how we love and relate to one another in community.”