‘He's the right guy,' says Holland man who went to school with pope
HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — The fields surrounding the Felt Mansion once stood the halls of St. Augustine Seminary High School. It would be these grounds where Pope Leo XIV would forge the building blocks that would take him to the Vatican.
Former classmate Dan King remembers those same buildings.
'They were just raising good, intelligent, productive males for society,' he said.
King attended the school as a high school freshman from Dalton, Illinois, in 1969, just blocks away from a young Robert Prevost. It was a challenging yet worthwhile experience for King.
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'Everything was scheduled and a lot of prayer, a lot of mass, every day education and you had to do physical work and all the rest of that kind of stuff. It was competitive grades,' King said. 'You had to really, you know, do your work. And it was tough. So, the people were not making it for that reason. Or they left because they said they didn't have the calling anymore, right? They didn't feel like they wanted to go to the seminary anymore.'
His class of 50 students would graduate as a group of 10, something common for the school. While the work was competitive, King said it prepared him for life. It also prepared him in being part of the steering committee creating Corpus Christi Catholic School in Holland, where King serves as a Board of Education member.
'They were just raising good, intelligent, productive males for society,' he said.
King remembers Prevost arriving at the school during his sophomore year.
'Down the hallway, I remember some guys, they were two other kids in my class. They came running down the hallway and they said, 'Dan, Dan, guess what?' And I said, 'What?' 'We just met somebody who's smarter than you.' And I'm like, 'Really?' And I went down to meet him. And I walked away from it saying, 'I think he's smarter than me,'' he said.
Yearbook pages are filled with photos of King and Prevost. In one, the young teens gather around a table as part of the club that published the 'Encounter,' the seminary's yearbook. In another, the two stand in a group as part of the National Honor Society chapter. In another photo, Prevost is seen playing tennis.
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King said Prevost was dedicated to the competitive academics of the seminary.
'I remember him being, he was very humble, very, very humble, very quiet. But he was really nice, and I think 'That guy's going to, he's going to go someplace,'' he said.
King couldn't guess that one of those places would be as the head of the catholic church. He said his wife was anxiously waiting for the announcement, as white smoke billowed out of the Sistine Chapel, signifying that a pope had been elected.
'She's hoping it's going to be, she knows, she feels. 'I hope it's Bob, I hope it's Bob' And I'm thinking, well, that would be nice, and she says 'No, I feel it.''
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There's still some shock as he remembers Thursday's announcement.
'It's just an amazing, amazing that I would know a pope. You know, that I would have even gone to school with a pope. You know, a normal guy, grows up a normal kid just doing normal kid stuff, and he's now in charge of what, 1.8 billion Catholics,' he said.
Looking back at Prevost's volunteer work around Holland, Douglas and the lakeshore to the years of mission work in Peru, King said the new pope will guide the church through shifting waters.
'I think he's going to be a good guy for it. He's the right guy. I can tell. When I saw him walk out of the balcony, he was about to cry,' he said.
King hopes telling his stories and experiences with Pope Leo will inspire the next generation of Catholics by showing the highs a person can reach from humble beginnings
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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