The Reverend Canon Ernest D. Sillers, who founded St. Margaret’s Episcopal School 30 years ago, and will be remembered for touching countless lives of students, parishioners and others, passed away October 15. He was 99.
Sillers, Father Ern as he liked to be called, had a passion for his religion and for education.
He was born in River John, Nova Scotia, and the family home was two doors from St. John’s Episcopal Church. His mother taught Sunday school there, his sisters played the organ and he was at first an acolyte, then as a teen, a sextant. According to his bibliography by St. Margaret’s school archivist Lisa Merryman, he would sneak to the pulpit and pretend to preach when he was alone cleaning the church.
He graduated from Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where he met the woman who would become his wife, the love of his life, Aldine. After graduation with a degree in theology, he entered the ministry at First Baptist Church in Seabrook, New Hampshire. He ultimately became an ordained Episcopal priest and served in New England until moving to Los Angeles County.
In 1960, he became rector of St. Mark’s in Downey, where he started his first school. Sillers believed in building complete children, mind, body and soul. A favorite quote, Merryman writes, was “Train a child in the way he should grow up, and when he is an adult, he will not depart from it.”
He retired in 1975 and lived with Aldine in a Laguna Beach cottage. But his passion for religion and children remained strong. When the Diocese of Los Angeles recognized the growing community of San Juan Capistrano had an interest in an Episcopal Church, Father Ern got the call. He gathered with interested families in Capistrano on March 9, 1979 to discuss the possibility of opening a school. Less than six months later, on October 1, 1979, Father Sillers welcomed 79 students in grades K-6 to St. Margaret’s Episcopal School. His beloved wife, Aldine, was the school’s founding librarian.
Shortly thereafter in 1981, The Early Childhood Development Center opened and by June 1986, when Father Sillers addressed the first graduating class, students were enrolled in preschool through grade 12. In 1987, Father Sillers left St. Margaret’s and carried forward his passion for education by founding St. John’s Episcopal School in Rancho Santa Margarita and St. Mary’s and All Angels School in Aliso Viejo.
Today, St. Margaret’s has just less than 1,200 students. A recent study found the campus generates $29 million for the local economy, the school’s chief financial officer David Bush said during a Planning Commission meeting for a proposed campus expansion. The school plans creation of a new middle-school wing, performing arts center, sports practice fields and employee parking lot to ultimately expand the campus from 17.5 acres to 26.5 acres. Additionally, Bush said, St. Margaret’s gave more than $2.2 million in need-based financial aid, including $642,000 in tuition aid to Capistrano residents.
Mayor Mark Nielsen, in dedicating Tuesday’s council meeting to Sillers’ memory, called him a visionary.
“Much has been written about him, but I will take a moment to share a little bit about this visionary man,” Nielsen said. “He once said that ‘every student is a sacred and precious child of God’ and that ‘a solid foundation assists a child to find strength when tested.
“Indeed, Father Sillers left a legacy in our town that will be forever celebrated by the countless people he touched and forever remembered by the fine institution he founded.”
Others agreed.
“We have lost a great champion of the faith…What a visionary—a modern day Junipero Serra,” said Capistrano resident Mark Campaigne, who served as Headmaster at St. Margaret’s before current leader Marcus Hurlbut. “Even at 99 Father Ern was inspiring a group of individuals to start another school in this area. One of his favorite sayings was ‘it is better to build children than to repair men,’ and he set about doing that virtually to the day he died.”
Campaigne said when his daughter Deborah, who graduated St. Margaret’s in 2002, heard about Sillers’ death, she texted “He’s probably already getting a team together to start a school up in Heaven. Been talking to St. Peter for months …God’s Academy—accepting angels and athletes.”
Hurlbut said Sillers and St. Margaret’s will always be intertwined.
“Father Sillers’ vision is deeply imbedded in the life of St. Margaret’s. His lasting legacy is best exemplified in our mission, to educate the hearts and minds of young people for lives of learning, leadership and service, and in our 1,200 students and 1,300 alumni who, when tested, find strength from their St. Margaret’s foundation, just as Father Sillers intended 30 years ago,” Hurlbut said. “This is a profoundly significant moment in the history of our school. We have lost a great person and a great friend but his legacy will be forever celebrated here and in the lives of the many, many people he touched. And most importantly, we will ensure that his great work continues.”
Students at St. Margaret’s are dismissed from classes Friday. A public funeral service was scheduled for Friday, Oct. 23 at 10 a.m. at the church.
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Vol. 7, Issue 25, October 23-November 12, 2009
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