Class of 1969 McClancy alumni Richard Vetere visited on November 20th, 2025. Vetere provided our current seniors and faculty with an eye opening learning experience and insight into his development as a writer and playwright.
Vetere’s resume is nothing short of impressive. His achievements include, being the former Poetry Editor of Voyager Magazine, a winner of the Edgar Allen Poe Poetry Contest, having 25 published plays, 8 published novels, and multiple screenwriting credits. Vetere credits all of these incredible feats to his upbringing, especially his experience at McClancy. He claims to have first sparked an interest in poetry in grammar school, when he wrote a love letter to a young girl he was interested in. In response, the girl showed him a poem she had received from her boyfriend in Vietnam. This exchange prompted Vetere to begin writing poetry that very night. As for his time at McClancy, Vetere proclaimed that our school taught him the very discipline of writing and his years spent here were the foundation for much inspiration. For example, he stated how watching the 1961 film, The Hustler, at McClancy “changed his life.”
As for his passion post-high school, Vetere went on to graduate with a Masters in comparative literature from Columbia University and pursue a successful and divergent writing and storytelling career. He applied his talents profoundly and expressed his creativity through his art, publishing several poetry collections, including Memories of Human Hands, and A Dream of Angels. Aside from his poetry and studies, Vetere also indulges in theatrical arts, producing Off-Broadway performances both regionally and internationally. Vetere acknowledged how being a writer gave him the ability to travel the world, visiting Paris, Rome, and Ecuador. One of his Off-Broadway productions, The Marriage Fool, went on to be adapted into a CBS television movie starring John Stamos, Walter Mattau, and Carol Burnett. It became the highest rated TV movie of that year!
Additionally, Vetere took an interest in the world of storytelling through film, and in 1983, his screen play titled Vigilante was made into a feature film, starring Robert Forster and Carol Lynley. In the year 2000, Vetere’s religious fiction novel, The Third Miracle, was adapted into a film produced by the iconic filmmaker, Francis Ford Coppola, directed by Agnieszka Holland, and starring Ed Harris and Anne Heche. The story follows a priest embarking on a journey to discover if a particular woman was a Catholic saint. Vetere recalled getting inspired by the ordinary process of canonization for his novel, connecting him with his Catholic high school days. Today, Vetere is currently working on a stage adaptation of the novel and film.
During his lecture at Monsignor McClancy on November 20th, 2025, Richard Vetere went into detail about the reality of his writing career. He displayed the aims of his projects, his largest motivators as a storyteller, and advice for the next generation of writers. Vetere admitted the difficulty in making a solid living as a writer with a lack of connection, which he had to make himself by joining literary groups and attending social events. He also explained how he learned how to further his writing by exposing himself to literature. Vetere stressed the importance of reading, and explained how each story inspired him. Vetere is not new to educating students, as he was a screenwriting professor at the prestigious New York University, and when asked how he deals with procrastination, simply stated “there’s no such thing.”
Richard Vetere’s insight was nothing short of inspirational and the McClancy community looks forward to more informative lectures from our notable alumni!
