Okoboji High School is excited to announce our Commencement Speaker for the Class of 2025, Father Zach Jones!
Fr. Zach Jones is a 2012 graduate of Okoboji High School. He spent his adolescent years living in Milford and attended Okoboji Schools from Kindergarten until graduation. He is the youngest of 3 children and the son of Chris and Connie Jones. After high school Fr. Zach attended Augustana University in Sioux Falls where he double majored in Math and Sociology while running track and being active in several clubs and working at the campus chapel. During his senior year of college he felt a tug at his heart to the possibility of ordained ministry in the Catholic Church. After graduation he would attend Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis studying for the Diocese of Sioux City. After two years of philosophy studies in St. Louis, he was sent by the diocese to study in the Eternal City of Rome, Italy.
Fr. Zach spent five years in Rome studying theology, moral theology, and bioethics at both the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas while living at the Pontifical North American College outside the walls of the Holy See. He was ordained a priest in the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City on June 24, 2022 and after finishing his studies in the spring of 2023 he was sent to serve at Divine Mercy Parish in Kossuth and Palo Alto Counties as well as serving as chaplain of Bishop Garrigan Catholic Schools in Algona.
We look forward to welcoming Fr. Zach back to his alma mater and hearing what he has to share with the Class of 2025 at our commencement exercises at 1 PM on Sunday, May 18 at OHS!