Kearney’s name will live forever after street renaming

Gone but not forgotten.

The corner of Bay Parkway and 60th Street will get a new name this weekend: “Bishop Kearney Way.”

The all-girls Bishop Kearney H.S. occupied the corner from 1961 until it closed in 2019. The school was named for Raymond Kearney, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn from 1935 until his death in 1956.

The renaming ceremony begins at noon on Oct. 16.

Councilmember Justin Brannan sponsored the bill to rename the street and the City Council approved it two years ago.

“For 58 years, Bishop Kearney gave generations of young women a solid Catholic education,” Brannan said. “I look forward to honoring the entire Bishop Kearney alumni family, students, teachers and parents with this great street co-naming so the school’s legacy, the memories and the friendships made on this corner will never be forgotten.”

Msgr. David Cassato, pastor of St. Athanasius Church, called the school a local treasure.

“It served thousands of young women and it was a very sad day when the school closed,” Cassato said. “It’s a terrible loss to the community, but to memorialize it by naming the street is very appropriate and we’ll never forget the greatness that came out of Bishop Kearney High School and how it affected the lives of so many people in the neighborhood.”