Brother Clarence Schenk, FSC Philosophy and Collegiate Seminar

Retired - Alemany Community

Brother Clarence has retired from teaching communications at Saint Mary’s, but the little movie theater he has set up on the Saint Mary’s campus not only illustrates his interest in movies but also his keen skills in electronics.

If the marquee is up, it can mean only one thing. Brother Clarence Schenk is hosting movie night on the Saint Mary’s campus. With 300 to 400 films in his private collection, Brother Clarence is known as the resident movie buff. What he doesn’t own, he rents, to show in the comfy nine-seat theater he built himself. It’s got surround sound and a 25-foot digital projection screen, not to mention padded seats.

Brother Clarence’s love of the silver screen dates back to his youth, growing up in Los Angeles. “What else was there to do in the 1940s and 50s?” he says. “Our entertainment was going to the movie theaters.”

Brother Clarence even worked in a movie house after school and on weekends, but by high school he was being groomed for something more serious – the life of a Christian Brother. He made the commitment soon after graduation in 1950 and six years later found himself back at Cathedral High in Los Angeles, this time as a teacher with his younger brother as one of the students.

“Students who knew we were related would try to set us up to see how I’d react,” says Brother Clarence. He remembers the time the kids started making a less-than-joyful noise during his typing class. “We had the old Royal typewriters. All over the room they were moving these levers to the end of the margin to make them ding. I had to send for the vice principal to come in and put the fear of God in them,” he laughs.

Now retired from teaching, Brother Clarence still lives by the motto “You have to prove yourself.” As an engineer and handyman, he made his mark at both De La Salle High School and Saint Mary’s College, where he taught for 12 years in the Communication Department, when he wired the classrooms for television. It’s a skill he plans to use again in the Brothers’ movie theater. “Eventually, I want to change the projector to 3D,” he says. “You’ve got to move on.”