Al Preisser

The son of German immigrants, Al Preisser was a Bronx boy through and through. He attended St. Frances de Chantel for grammar school, and he and his older brother Walter were encouraged to attend Fordham Prep through the influence of Herman Dengler( Class of 1916). Dengler and Preisser’ s parents were part of the Kolping Association, a Catholic lay association founded by the German Catholic priest, Blessed Adolph Kolping. It was through the association that Preisser’ s parents met Dengler; it changed the course of history for the Preisser boys.

“ All the teachers at Fordham Prep were fabulous,” says Preisser.” The teachers fostered intellectual curiosity and developed a diversity of opinion. That is a Jesuit education.” A few teachers stick out in Preisser’ s mind.“ I was a history major in college because of Frank Holbrook. He made history fun. I also don’ t want to forget Al Kirscher and Rudy Hanish.”

During his time at the Prep, Preisser was involved in intramurals, the Ramkin, the Dramatic Society as a member of the stage crew, but did appear on stage as a judge in the production of The Caine Mutiny.

Many of Preisser’ s classmates matriculated to Fordham University, and he was no different.“ The college adviser, Fr. Hennessy, asked me where I was looking to go after Fordham Prep. Since my family couldn’ t really afford me going out of state or boarding, I would have to‘ day-hop’ for college, so I told Fr. Hennessy I was looking at commuting to Fordham University. He had me fill out an application and said I was in! It’ s a different process today!”

Preisser joined the ROTC program at Fordham University. Through that program, he was able to go to Munich, Germany and visit relatives. After graduation, the father of one of his classmates, George“ Bunty” Joiner, asked Al what he was going to do for work. Al did not have a definitive plan, so Mr. Joiner sent Al to the employment office where he was offered“ the perfect job” in the buyer program at JC Penney. Preisser was hesitant at first, but his classmate’ s father was right. Preisser worked at JC Penney for 34 years. In his last assignment, Preisser worked out of Florence, Italy for three and a half years. When JC Penney relocated to Dallas in 1988, Preisser went along with the company and has been there ever since.“ It was a great company and Mr. Penney looked out for his employees.”

Preisser retired from JC Penney in 1998 and, needless to say, he is enjoying the retired life.“ I travel a lot to see my kids and grandkids. I also do a lot of church work with my parish, St. Rita’ s, where I am in involved in the bread ministry. Preisser has also been involved with many other non-profit organizations in the Dallas area.

Even though Preisser is in Dallas, he is still in contact with many of his Fordham Prep classmates.“ We made a lot of lifelong friends during our time at Fordham Prep and we make sure to stay in contact with each other. My wife and I are reunion people, so we go up for reunions as well. It’ s a good group of guys and we’ ve gotten together on a regular basis. In fact, I’ ll be spending New Year’ s Eve in New York with the Reillys!”

Preisser has also made sure he still gives back to Fordham Prep.“ One of the major reasons I give to the Prep is because at that time the teachers were not well paid and Jesuits made up much of the faculty. Now, we need to support the faculty to make sure they are compensated for the work they do. Also, financial aid – when I went to the Prep, the tuition was $ 300 and could be afforded by the parents who were bus drivers or manual laborers. Today, with the tuition over $ 19,000, it’ s a huge burden. We need to make the education accessible to the sons of immigrants, like my parents were. They should have the same opportunity that I had. Giving back comes from my dad. He was a very generous person, and I feel I should do the same. I hope the younger classes will do the same.”