Lessons Learned From a Fire: 40 Years After the Clarke University Devastation

The May 1984 fire consumes the chapel at Clarke University (CU) in Dubuque, Iowa. President BVM Catherine Dunn recalls, “I started to pray . . . I don’t know how to explain it, but the whole time I was pacing and watching the buildings in high flames, I was filled with hope for Clarke’s future.”

by Associate Norm Freund

One of the true blessings of community support in my life was my 40 years of employment at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. Most people are employed by and in the secular world, but I was fortunate enough to be employed by an institution founded in the Christian faith and the core values of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary who founded Clarke in 1843.

The Clarke community was not just a place of employment for me, but a vocation as well. Never was the power of this community’s support more evident to me than  on May 17, 1984, and in the days, weeks, and months that followed. May 17 of that year was a Thursday, and I was a 30-year-old assistant professor who had just finished collecting my last student’s final exam when the fire alarm went off. Exiting the classroom building from the back, I discovered smoke billowing from the  mansard roof of Margaret Mann Hall, our oldest campus building.

Over the course of the next several hours, this building, the two buildings to which it was connected, and our 1902 chapel would be destroyed. What five generations
of students, faculty, and staff had known as the core of our campus came to an end in the space of an afternoon. I spent most of that day circling the buildings watching flames consume the Clarke I knew and loved.

The Injustice
There is no justice or fairness in a fire. While the greatest destruction was to the upper floors, my office, on the top floor of Rose O’Toole Hall, which burned, was spared. In the course of the then 141 years of Clarke’s history, longer even than the state of Iowa, the lion’s share of sacrifice for the institution had been on the part of the BVM Congregation, who founded and staffed the institution. Things were no different the day of the fire.

Two doors down from mine was the office of Sara (Philip Mary) McAlpin, BVM. Her room was nothing more than a hole down to the first floor. Nothing was left to save out of her office. And her room of residence in Mary Bertrand Hall, one building to the east and also on the top floor, suffered the same fate. In the space of an afternoon, she lost all material possessions related to her personal and professional life. She was not the only one.

Later that day, before the fires were out, many in the Clarke community gathered in an adjoining building for a Mass. Outside the window could be seen one of the chapel spires burning furiously. These spires had been the symbol of Clarke University for the 82 years of their existence. Then, as the priest raised the cup, proclaiming it the Blood of Christ, the spire collapsed!

But the story does not end there . . . community support never does. The other spire of the chapel did not burn, and in the six months before the destroyed buildings could be removed, it became a symbol of our resurgence. That resurgence was led by the BVMs.

Rising from the Ashes
A community full of gumption, there is no word “impossible” in the BVM dictionary. Clothed in faith and secure in the knowledge that all things are possible with God, our University President, Catherine (Michele) Dunn, BVM was on TV that night while the firefighters were still extinguishing hot spots, proclaiming that our board of trustees would, without question, rebuild, that graduation would occur as planned in less that 48 hours, and summer school would start on Monday.
All of this happened!

The community support came from the city of Dubuque as well as within the Clarke community. Firefighters in and outside of Dubuque risked their lives and worked to exhaustion to ensure that no one perished in the blaze. Many of the sisters had lost everything except the clothing on their backs, but the Red Cross, local stores, and many individuals rallied, even on the day of the fire, to provide for their immediate needs.

Because wet books had to be removed from the library and freeze-dried within 48 hours to be saved, we frantically began hand passing over 100,000 books out of the library on Friday. You really never know how many books this is until you try to hand-pass them out in a chain of workers over many hours! With graduation on Saturday, we would never have gotten the books out in time without the help of area volunteers.

Both faculty and graduates in academic attire, including myself, processed by the remains of our heritage buildings as local volunteers worked nonstop to get the final books out. At the end of the commencement ceremony, Catherine received a standing ovation. The memory of all this still brings tears to my eyes.

Recovery
Recovery from the fire was a long and, at times, difficult process, but the strength of the community support received carried us through. As the ripples of faith often work, the resolve and conviction of so many BVMs that day inspired me to eventually become a BVM associate, embracing with them their core values of freedom, education, charity, and justice. Oh, and by the way, Sara, who lost everything that day, recovered very well, thanks to her faith and the support of her religious community.

Then, as now, Clarke lives!

This story was featured in:

SPRING 2024: BVMs on the Run Toward Justice

If you would like to receive Salt, contact the Office of Development for a complimentary subscription at development@bvmsisters.org or 563-585-2864.