Robert Hamley is the owner of Forever Flowers, a New York City-based provider of floral preservation kits. Before beginning his career, Robert Hamley graduated from St. Benedict’s Preparatory School, a Newark, New Jersey, institution that recently inducted him into its hall of fame.
St. Benedict’s Preparatory School has a long record of providing a quality, well-rounded education to young people from Newark and nearby communities. The history of the institution dates back to the 1850s, when Benedictine monks arrived in the city to find a working-class Catholic community in need of a dedicated school. In response, the monks established St. Benedict’s College, which began welcoming students in 1868.
St. Benedict’s offered both college and college-preparatory courses for the better part of its first five decades. However, upon recognizing a greater demand for the college prep classes, the school eliminated its college-level courses in 1917, and assumed its current name.
Since then, St. Benedict’s has expanded its focus. Along with continuing to educate male students in its preparatory division, it now maintains elementary and middle divisions for both girls and boys. The success of the school, which is operated by the same abbey of monks that founded it in 1868, is seen in its graduates, 98 percent of whom go on to attend college. This is an especially impressive rate in a city where only 12 percent of adults possess a college degree.
Robert Hamley 