San Gabriel Mission High School is a Catholic College Preparatory high school, located on the grounds of the historic fourth mission of California, which was founded in 1771 by the Franciscan Padres. The Claretians began administration of the parish in 1908. The idea for the high school began in the mid-1940s and was the “vision of Father J. Nuevo, C.M.F., Mission San Gabriel pastor. With the need for a high school and the support of his parishioners, Father Nuevo had collected a sizable $245,000 toward the realization of the project.” He was transferred in 1948 and his successor, Father Eugene Herran, C.M.F. “only enjoyed a pastorate for a few months, as his success in dealing with the complexities of the new school building project resulted in his election as General Treasurer of the Claretian Fathers.” On January 16, 1949, the groundbreaking ceremonies took place. San Gabriel Mission High School opened in September 1949 as a co-institutional school, under the direction of the Claretian Fathers and Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. The freshmen class had 119 girls and boys, temporarily quartered in All Souls Grammar School in nearby Alhambra. In February 1950, the freshmen moved into their new building. The first principals were Father John Schneider, C.M.F. and Sister Mary Redempta Prose, O.P. “The staff numbered three priests, Fathers Schneider, C.M. F., Leo Mattecheck, C.M.F. and Joseph Anglim, C.F.F. There were three sisters, Sisters Redempta, O.P., Columba Davalos, O.P. and Mary Raymond Carmody, O.P., and two lay teachers – Mr. John Hanrahan and Mrs. Leo Ryder.” In October of that year, “Sister Maureen Murphy O.P. joined the sisters’ community as an additional staff member.” Dedication ceremonies took place on January 14, 1951 with Most Reverend J. Francis McIntyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles, officiating. In 1954, while visiting the high school, he expressed his delight that “what a few years ago was a dream is now the flourishing San Gabriel Mission High School.”