The ‘Stang’ in Dartmouth’s Bishop Stang High School

Bishop Stang High School is a private Catholic high school in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Stang opened in 1959 "as the first coeducational Catholic secondary school in the Fall River Diocese."

Bishop Stang High School is located at 500 Slocum Road. With its current 500-member student body, it represents more than 30 southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island communities.

The Diocese says, "Bishop Stang High School has stayed true to teaching strong moral and principled values to young men and women in pursuit of their dreams and ambitions."

But who was Bishop Stang, and why is there a school named after him?

The Most Reverend William Stang was born on April 21, 1854, in Langenbrucken, Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany. Stang studied at the Sint-Niklaas minor seminary and completed his theological studies at the American College of Louvain in Leuven, Belgium.

William Stang served as the first Bishop of the Diocese of Fall River from 1904 until he died in 1907.

In 1878, Stang was ordained to the priesthood and was recruited by Thomas Hendricken, Bishop of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, to minister to German-speaking Catholics.

Stang also served as a curate and later rector at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Providence. In 1884, he was named Pastor of St. Anne's Parish in Cranston.

Stang was a "driving force" behind St. Joseph's Hospital in Providence.

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On March 12, 1904, Pope Pius X appointed Stang Bishop of the newly created Diocese of Fall River. During his short tenure, Stang established 11 parishes, including the German St. Boniface Parish in New Bedford, and founded St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River.

Bishop Stang died on February 2, 1907, from an infection that developed following the removal of a tumor at the Mayor Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Bishop Stang High School was named in his honor, as was a street in Stang's German hometown.

Bishop Stang postcard from Fall River Public Library Collection via Digital Commonwealth / CC BY-SA 3.0