Gerry Straub, an award-winning author, filmmaker and television producer, will be on campus to give a presentation to the students (grades 8-12) and faculty of Notre Dame in the school’s main gymnasium on February 24.
A one-time “General Hospital” producer, Straub had a long and distinguished career in network television and was an executive in New York and Hollywood where he produced a number of dramatic television series that have aired on CBS, NBC and ABC.
He now has dedicated his life to producing films that focus on the plight of the poor. He says the goal of his ministry is to put the power of film at the service of the poor.
Straub has written seven books, the latest of which is the Loneliness and Longing of Saint Francis. He taught a course on television writing and direction at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, and has spoken at more than 230 Catholic churches, high schools and universities across the United States, as well as in Canada, France, Italy and Hungary.
He has been awarded three honorary doctorate degrees in recognition of his work on behalf of the poor and his powerful presentations share the story of his dramatic and compelling conversion experience in which he went from being an atheist and Hollywood television producer to a secular Franciscan who filmed the distressing plight of the poor in the worst slums on earth.
Straub has written and directed 18 documentaries, including Embracing the Leper, which shows a secular Franciscan valiantly bringing support to the lepers of the Brazilian Amazon. He is founder of the San Damiano Foundation, an organization that makes films about the spirituality of St Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan care of the poor. One of these documentaries shows the work of a Capuchin soup kitchen in Detroit.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.