Salesianum News · Salesianum School Salesianum Honors Casa de Sales Alumni with Diplomas Six Decades Later

In a moving tribute during its 119th Commencement, Salesianum School proudly welcomed back members of Casa de Sales—a residence at 1300 North Broom Street that, from 1961 to 1966, housed 42 Cuban boys who had fled Castro’s revolution. These students, part of the mass exodus known as Operation Pedro Pan, arrived in the United States unaccompanied as their families sought refuge from Communist indoctrination. Though many were forced to leave Salesianum early to reunite with relatives scattered across the country, their bond with the school—and each other—remained unbroken.

Sixty years later, Salesianum conferred honorary diplomas on the Casa members who had never formally graduated. Their return, alongside their families and fellow Casa brothers, served as a powerful reminder that the connections formed through brotherhood and faith endure across time and distance.

Fr. James Byrne, OSFS, who led Casa de Sales, provided unwavering structure, care, and spiritual guidance to the boys and helped shape a remarkable group of men, including doctors, engineers, professors, and even Mike Bezos ’63. Today, their legacy lives on through the Byrne Scholars Program.

Their return to Salesianum, to receive diplomas they once left behind, was not just a ceremony—it was a full-circle moment where bonds of brotherhood truly last a lifetime.