St. Joseph’s Prep will receive $74 million — the biggest gift ever given to a U.S. Catholic high school
The gift from Nick Howley will go toward expanding the campus to add an outdoor classroom, athletic fields, an amphitheater, prayer garden, outdoor dining terrace, and below-ground parking.
A billionaire St. Joseph’s Prep graduate is donating $74 million to his alma mater — the biggest donation ever given to a U.S. Catholic high school, school officials believe.
The money will extend and elevate the venerable Jesuit school’s North Philadelphia campus and expand the school’s enrollment through a program designed to help students from underserved communities attain a Prep education.
Donor Nick Howley publicly announced the gift Friday at the school. Howley is a 1970 Prep graduate who founded TransDigm, a Cleveland-based aerospace manufacturing company.
“This is a transformative gift,” said John Marinacci, the Prep’s president. “This allows us to sustain and grow our mission.”
The Prep will use the money for a “total transformation” of the North Philadelphia campus where it has been located for 160 years, officials said. The new-look Howley Campus and Howley Athletic Complex will have an outdoor classroom, athletic fields, an amphitheater, prayer garden, outdoor dining terrace, and below-ground parking structure.
“It’s going to provide opportunities for our students that we’ve never had before in 175 years,” Marinacci said.
The campus will mostly be built on existing Prep land, though the acquisition of some new land is being finalized. Officials said the campus will expand two blocks north onto newly-acquired land. The parking garage and field for rugby, Ultimate Frisbee, lacrosse, and more will occupy the new land.
The all-boys school, which has a vast and tight-knit cohort of alumni, has been dreaming of a campus expansion for 30 years. Its location on Girard Avenue means the school has had to get creative in finding spots for its teams to play.
“We had 35 different home fields for practices and games,” said Marinacci. “Every time we played a field sport, we got on a bus or in a car.”
The Prep has met with its neighbors to understand potential concerns and to keep them informed of its plans, officials said.
“Nobody’s been displaced — we haven’t seized land, or grabbed, or moved anybody who didn’t want to sell,” said Marinacci. “We’ve always been very proud of where we are, and the fact that we’ve remained in the city, and we want to do this the right way.”
The $74 million will also expand the Prep’s Howley Scholars Program, providing full-tuition scholarships to 80 students, with 20 in each grade. Howley Scholars are high achievers whose families lack the resources to pay Prep tuition, which is currently $28,300 annually.
Howley previously gave $5 million to establish the Howley Scholars program at the Prep in 2021. In 2024, he donated $15 million to fund scholarships at Drexel University.
Howley and his wife Lorie have seen how supporting Prep students has impacted their life’s trajectory, he said in a statement.
“As a trustee, I’ve developed tremendous confidence in the school leadership’s vision for the future and know it is worthy of our investment in the mission,” Howley said.
