Founder

Founder

The founder of our school Father Henry Depelchin was born on January 28, 1832 at Russeignies, Belgium and died on May 26, 1900 at 32 Park Street, Calcutta, India. Father Depelchin, in his declining age, was the founder of North Point College and it is as such only, that the North Pointers usually remember his name. The founding of North Point was but the crowning of a long life of hard work. Father Depelchin's earlier years were packed with great achievements and great adventures, which read like fiction. The grand old man, besides being the founder of St. Joseph's College, North Point, was also the founder of two St. Xavier's Colleges at Calcutta and Bombay. He was twice Superior of the struggling Calcutta Mission and later Superior of the Mission at Midnapore. He was, in addition to this, the founder of the Zambezi Mission in Africa. These are the bare landmarks of his career ----- From the 1948 Annual.

The fascinating story of Fr. Depelchin's vision and his determination

to build a College in the middle of the Himalayan foothills :

If you had come across Father Henry Depelchin on a dark January night in 1888 and held up a lantern to ascertain who the dim little form might be, you might have dropped the lantern from sheer fright. Father Depelchin was a wild looking man. His snowy beard, like a jungle run to seed, radiated in every direction; he had shaggy beetling brows; and his clear blue eyes were like the eyes of the mystic who had seen visions, or the eyes of some ancient mariner who had gazed for long across bleak stretches of arctic wastes. In him, indeed, seemed to have been concentrated all the wildness, not only of the Northern Seas, but also of the African jungle and the Himalayan solitudes.

Father Henry Depelchin was no Adonis; yet he possessed a rugged beauty that grew on those who knew him. If he had in his personality the wildness of the Northern Seas, the African jungle and the Himalayan solitudes he had also their bewitching charm, their majesty and their strength. Beneath his rough appearance was the kindness and affability of a grand old gentleman, the iron will and endurance of a seasoned warrior, and the otherworldly spirit of a saint.

The keynotes of Father Depelchin's character were his unbounded trust in God's providence, his tireless energy and his tenacious resolve. He took up the most difficult tasks and when the outlook was blackest, never flinched or despaired. More than once his bodily frame was shattered with the strain and over-work, but with recruited strength he faced his tasks anew. While in Africa. He was almost crushed to death by the overturning of a heavy wagon; yet, before long he was continuing with his work moving about on his crutches. There were moments when his friends advised him to abandon this or that enterprise on the score that the obstacles in the way were insurmountable. Advice of this sort fell on deaf ears. Father Depelchin never acknowledged defeat.

If he had a motto it must have been: "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me."