Joliet Catholic Ghost Anniversary Has Arrived For Kellen Ryan

Joliet Patch Editor John Ferak published the following column on Halloween, 2019. However, the famous ghost of Joliet Catholic High School usually appeared to others around Joliet coinciding with the anniversary of his fiery death, either on March 6 or March 7.

Here's a reprint of Ferak's popular Halloween column:

JOLIET, IL — The story of Joliet's famous ghost, the late Father Kellen Ryan, traces back to the early morning of Monday, March 6, 1972. The jovial dean of students at Joliet's former all-boys Catholic high school was driving back to the Carmelite Order's Priory on Broadway Street. The young priest had visited his parents' house near Chicago. He never made it home.

Around 4:10 a.m., Ryan fell asleep at the wheel. His car left the road along a dark curve near Lemont. His car burst into flames after an electricity pole fell on his car.

A couple hours later, the authorities called the Carmelite Priory in Joliet and summoned officials to a suburban Chicago hospital. Two Carmelites drove to Oak Lawn, but were told little about the crash or the victim ahead of time. When the two made it to the hospital, they nearly fainted when the sheet was pulled back. Ryan was burned beyond recognition. His faculty ID recovered from his wallet and a religious medallion around his neck helped positively identify him.

Ryan was only 32. In the years since his death, his spirit is said to have appeared to numerous people, including members of his fellow Carmelite religious order from Joliet.

Most of the ghost sightings center around the old Joliet Catholic campus, along Broadway and Hickory Streets. Ryan came to Catholic High in 1966 as a history teacher and became dean of students in 1970.

The ghost stories became so accepted that it became a Joliet Catholic tradition for graduating seniors to spend the anniversary of Ryan's death at a lock-in.

On one anniversary during the 1980s, 119 seniors were brave enough to spend the night inside the school. The students chowed down 25 pizzas in 20 minutes as everyone took turns retelling the ghost stories.

The first documented event tied to Ryan's spirit happened days after his sudden death. The jukebox inside the school cafeteria began playing rock-n-roll music even though nobody was around and no record was on the turntable.

"It went on real loud. And I thought, 'Now, who is in there?'" Father John Knoernschild recounted in a 1992 newspaper article from The Joliet Herald-News.

He immediately thought of Ryan because the dean of students often went in the cafeteria to turn down the jukebox when the students played the music too loud. Knoernschild also was the last priest to see Ryan before he died on the drive back to Joliet.

Joliet Catholic French teacher Mike Nadeau was elevated to dean of students after Ryan's death. Nadeau is said to be the first person to encounter the ghost of his former work colleague.

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Nadeau was wakened by a figure sitting in a bedroom rocking chair exactly one month after Ryan's death. At the time, in 1972, Nadeau and his wife lived on Hunter Avenue.

One 1992 newspaper article indicated Nadeau is open to the possibility he just had a dream, but two subsequent events made him think he probably saw Ryan's ghost. The ghost is said to have worn the habit of a Carmelite priest.

First, Nadeau's alarm clock stopped working at 4:10 a.m., the same time Ryan's car burst into flames near Lemont. Second, when Nadeau and his wife got out of bed the next morning, they were startled to find a month-old edition of The Joliet Herald-News containing the priest's obituary on their bedroom floor.

Nadeau and his wife insisted they always get rid of their old papers within a week. Joliet Catholic's 1979 yearbook indicated Nadeau believed he also saw the same Carmelite priest standing in his bedroom doorway on other occasions during the first few months after Ryan died. "I'm very open to the fact that it might have been a ghost," Nadeau told The Herald-News for a Halloween article published in 1992.

Ryan is said to have appeared to the following priests at different times over the years:

• Father Lucas Schmidt was driving back to Joliet one time during the 1970s when Ryan's ghost is said to have suddenly appeared in the passenger seat of his car and began talking to him, giving Schmidt words of comfort, strength and reassurance. "It was a good experience," The Hilltopper yearbook quoted Schmidt as saying.

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• Father Bernard "Bernie" Bauerle, who later ran Joliet Catholic, is said to have been wakened during his sleep to find his former classmate and fellow priest at his bedside. Several people over the years have tried to interview Bauerle about his ghost experience, but he has never publicly discussed it, a number of articles reflect.

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Three of the most talked about ghostly experiences were documented in an in-depth article from the 1979 yearbook called The Hilltopper. The co-writers were Terry Lambert and Rich Salata:

"It was 4:10 a.m. the morning of March 7, 1979. An unusual noise broke the silence of the Catholic High Priory. It was the sound of someone pounding and ringing at the back door. Many of the Carmelites heard this. The pounding continued until finally at 4:30 a.m. John Ley got up to answer it ... He heard the back door open and close. He continued on until he came to the back door. He opened it and saw that no one was in sight."

The strange event happened seven years and one day to the death, the student writers noted. "Many students and faculty of Catholic high believe that this incident is related to the legend of Father Kellen."

Father John Jay Comerford told Patch he was living on the third floor of the Carmelite Priory in March 1979. He did not hear the "door events."

"But several people did because their rooms were above and near the back door. John Ley, then a seminarian not yet in vows, was practice-teaching. He got up and went to the door," Comerford told me.

At the time of the bizarre incident, about 2 to 3 inches of snow covered the sidewalks and lawns outside Joliet Catholic's campus. When the inquisitive seminarian looked around 4:30 a.m. he saw no one outside.

"He noticed there were no wet spots on the steps from a person having walked through the snow to get there and there were no prints in the snow going away from the porch in either direction," Comerford recalled.

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"At supper we talked about it, 'Did anyone hear all the racket in the night at the back door?' Many had, but went back to sleep. Only later in the evening did Fr. Kevin McBrien come to my door and bring me to the bulletin board outside the chapel upstairs to read the necrology, listing by month the death anniversaries of all Carmelites in our Province.

"When I got to March 6, 1972, Kellen Ryan!" Comerford exclaimed.

At that point, the Joliet Catholic High School Carmelites realized the constant banging on the back door was surely a sign from Ryan's spirit he was still watching after them.

A number of odd and unexplained occurrences are linked to Ryan's former classroom, Room 308, before he became dean. The lights would go on for no rhyme or reason in the middle of the night for many years after his death.

The priests and religious brothers would leave the priory, walk next door and turn the lights off. Sometimes, the third-floor classroom lights would go back on, according to the legend.

On a couple occasions coinciding the death anniversary, the burglar alarm went off in the office where Ryan was dean; a human prankster was never found, prompting priests and faculty to wonder if it was another example of Ryan's spirit returning to play one more trick on everyone.

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During his 32 years of life, Kellen Ryan was a true maverick.

One summer, while school was out, he drove a truck. After a long day on the road, he went to the bars and hung out with fellow truckers. Other summers, Ryan lined up work on the road crew for Illinois Central Railroad. Only his foreman knew he was a priest.

One newspaper article mentioned a time when Ryan summoned the other Carmelites out of bed at night, insisting somebody injured was at the Joliet priory. When everyone darted downstairs, the room was replete with party goods.

The young Carmelite priest just wanted to throw a party.

"He was unpredictable," Comerford explained. "I and many other Carmelites saw him do enough crazy things when he was alive, we are not at all surprised that he would do strange things after his death. He was a jokester and prankster. True to form."

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On one anniversary of his death, the church organ of the Carmelites in Washington, D.C., is said to have started playing on its own, according to several news accounts. When Ryan died in 1972, Carmelites all over North America were impacted by his passing. He was ordained a priest in Chicago in 1965 and graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a major in history and philosophy. He studied to become a priest in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

He also studied theology in Washington, D.C. at the Whitefriars Hall, the same place where the organ began playing mysteriously on its own, according to legend.

There is, however, one encounter with his spirit that was scary for one young man in Joliet. He was the janitor assigned to clean the dimly lit hallway floors on the third floor of the all-boys high school where Ryan used to teach. The custodian, in his mid-20s, was busy sweeping the terrazzo floors between 11 p.m. and midnight when a Carmelite priest-looking figure, cloaked with a habit over his head, began walking past him on the third floor.

Being polite, the young janitor exclaimed, "Good evening, Father." The figure returned the gesture by making a murmuring sound. Mystified, the janitor realized he did not hear any footsteps, and when the janitor looked back, the passing priest stopped, and looked back at him.

The young custodian saw no face inside the habit.

Frightened out of his mind, the Joliet Catholic High School custodian gave his resignation the next morning, according to the Carmelites.

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So why do so many ghost sightings center around the old Joliet Catholic property?

"He was respected and liked by his students, both those to whom he was a classroom teacher and those who had to deal with him in the dean's office when they got in trouble. Things happened there because it was the most significant place of his adult accomplishment as a Carmelite priest and teacher," Comerford said.

Since 1998, the old all-boys high school has been a senior living center, Victory Centre. It has 57 apartments.

Last week, for the first time since I graduated from the makeshift Plainfield High School after the Aug. 28, 1990 tornado, I returned to the place I spent my senior of high school.

The inside of the place looks fantastic. The staff seems to be doing a great job.

Practically every apartment unit is rented. I hardly recognized the interior, which now has carpeting throughout the three levels. I asked one of the Victory Centre employees to show me the third floor.

I told him I wanted to see the area where Father Ryan's ghost was known to flip on the light switches and do other odd and mysterious things late at night. He showed me one of the vacant third-floor apartments, which, quite frankly, may have been Ryan's old classroom.

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The employee told me he was fairly new to the Joliet Victory Centre, so I told him a few of the ghost stories. I also suggested if any of the senior citizens report strange or bizarre noises or events, don't be entirely dismissive.

They might really, really, be telling the truth, I stressed.

Interestingly, the employee told me there was a recent issue of the television antenna malfunctioning in only part of the building.

And there had been reports from at least one of the residents complaining of a constant loud knocking on one of the floors.

Is it possible the ghost sightings continue to this day, some 21 years after the all-boys school was converted into senior housing?

According to Comerford, a famous Dominican priest from Chicago was consulted years ago surrounding the strange events after Ryan's death.

"He said that since Kellen died in a sudden car crash/fire, he has been trying to come back home and complete the journey ever since. He also said that the alarms set off in his dean's office at night; lights in his classroom in the night; jukebox going on with a favorite song; all were centered in the building in which he felt most involved, alive and accomplished.

"There can also be a sense that due to the accident, at the time of these events, it may be that he did not realize he was actually dead."