Thursday, October 1, 2026
A time capsule was buried outside St. James Catholic School, in Seaford, for the past 50 years, quietly preserving the memories, hopes and voices of students who roamed its halls during the United States’ Bicentennial celebration.
Nearly 200 alumni, parishioners and community members gathered outside St. James Parish on May 2 as the capsule was unearthed — just days before the 50-year anniversary of its burial in May 1976.
Inside were more than 600 letters written by students and teachers, school uniforms and handwritten reflections from another era, many remarkably preserved thanks to the craftsmanship of Ronald Whelan, a skilled builder who later owned his own construction company and helped engineer the capsule decades ago. He died in December of 1997.
For Whelan’s daughters, Janice and Monica, the ceremony became something far more personal than a reunion.
“When the time capsule was opened, the first letter to be found — and the last item placed in the capsule before sealing — was my father’s handwritten letter of love to his wife and children,” Janice Whelan said. “It was like him speaking to us from heaven.”
Event coordinator Kelley Sommerville, a St. James alumna who helped organize the celebration, said that discovering Whelan’s note was one of the ceremony’s most emotional moments.
“It was just a white piece of paper enclosed with a quarter in it,” Sommerville said. “It listed all his family, his wife, his children and their dog, and it just said ‘love.’ I teared up with that because I know the Whelan family.”
The capsule was buried during the nation’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976, when St. James students dressed in Colonial-era clothing and wrote essays imagining what life in 2026 might look like.
Sommerville, who attended the school from first through eighth grades, recalled the excitement surrounding the ceremony, when she was in first grade. “I remember dressing up in Colonial garb,” she said. “It was a huge celebration.”
The unearthing was part of what is another milestone year for the parish, which is preparing to celebrate its 75th anniversary this fall, after commemorating America’s upcoming semiquincentennial.
The Rev. John Derasmo, the pastor of Saint James Catholic Church, watched the capsule excavation from a second-floor window overlooking the crowd.
“To see the concern and the love, the joy that they had just being together, was very heartwarming,” Derasmo said. “Many of them have said the same — what a great event that was.”
The capsule contained tubes filled with letters from every grade level, along with boys’ and girls’ school uniforms from the 1970s. Monica Whelan’s uniform was among them.
“Our father was all about community,” she said. “Everything our dad did was about enhancing the neighborhood.”
She described her father as a proud Marine, a Boy Scout leader and a patriot who embraced the future long before modern technology became commonplace.
“He was so advanced in his time,” his daughter said. “He kept saying to us that everything was going to be on video and phones someday.”
According to the family, engineers involved in excavating the capsule were stunned by how well the structure held up after five decades underground. “They kept saying, ‘How did he know how to do that?’” Monica said.
Many of the student letters reflected both the innocence and anxieties of the mid-1970s. Sommerville said that older students wrote about pollution, drugs and concerns about society, while younger students focused on everyday school life and hopes that St. James would still be thriving in 2026. “Life has changed — but then some of it hasn’t changed,” she said.
Three letters from faculty members were read aloud at the ceremony, messages from beloved teachers and nuns whose words still resonated five decades later. One warned of growing moral decline despite advances in technology, while another expressed hope that future students would continue growing into “good citizens.”
After the capsule was opened, alumni gathered in the school’s Delaney Hall to search through tables organized by graduating class, many discovering childhood letters they hadn’t seen in half a century.
“There were tears and hugs everywhere,” Sommerville said. “People reconnected with friends they lost touch with years ago.”
For many attendees, the event was less about nostalgia and more about preserving a shared sense of faith, family and community.
“I would tell future generations to keep the community strong and the faith strong,” Sommerville said. “Stay together and keep the parish going.”
Derasmo agreed, saying the event reflected the welcoming spirit that continues to define St. James today.
“I just hope younger parishioners can see that our parish is deeply loved by people,” he said. “That will stir in them a desire to want to get involved and be part of it.”
