Old boys' salute to Fr Bouche

Fr Camille Bouche

The St. Xavier’s School Old Boys’ Association (ALSOC) has decided to honour former headmaster Father Camille Bouche on Saturday, his 90th birth anniversary, by organising a free health check-up camp.

The camp, under the leadership of Dr Kunal Sarkar, will be inaugurated on the Park Street campus by Father Benny Thomas, the headmaster of St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, at 8am.

Father Bouche, more commonly known as “Father Prefect”, breathed his last on March 5, 2002. Countless Xaverians fondly remember him as a guiding force during their formative years, “an institution within an institution”.

Old boys observe his birth anniversary on November 10 each year as ‘ALSOC Day’. On that day, they visit Dhyanashram near Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas — where Father Bouche and other Jesuits are interred — to pay tribute to them.

Father Bouche was also Mother Teresa’s spiritual guide. The last position he held was president emeritus, ALSOC.