In his decades as a teacher, administrator and now chancellor emertius for San Jose’s Bellarmine College Prep, the Rev. Gerald Wade has signed plenty of papers, diplomas and certificates. But this week, he got to do something different and put his name on the final steel beam that’ll frame the Wade Academic Center on campus.
Wade was the first of several people to sign the beam, and he added the names of his late parents, Walter and Clara, as the new 44,000 square-foot building is being named in honor of his family. Wade, 86, was born in San Jose and grew up in Santa Clara where his father owned a pharmacy. He graduated from Bellarmine in 1955, returned to the school as a Jesuit scholastic in 1962 and again as president in 1979.
According to research done for his 80th birthday celebration, Wade’s family roots in the Santa Clara Valley go back to the Alviso family — for whom the community in North San Jose is named — in the 1700s. His great grandfather Charles Wade arrived in 1849 and married into the Alviso family. Others whose names will be enshrined on the beam include current Bellarmine President Chris Meyercord, Principal Rod Jemison; the Rev.
Mike Mooie, rector of the Bellarmine Jesuit community; Devcon Construction President Gary Filizetti and Project Manager Adrienne Crawford. The new building, which will house 21 classrooms and other facilities, is expected to open in fall 2025, and if you remember, it was this building that required the relocation of Berchm.