James Edward Cleland, author of The Silent Sentinel: San Pablo Apostol de Cabagan Church Reveals 300 Years of Secrets of the Philippines

Architectural history has been the main interest of James Cleland ever since he scaled the eighty-story Standard Oil Building in Chicago (then uncompleted) as a student accompanied by his father and architect Edward Durrell Stone. 

As Assistant Principal of Notre Dame de Chicago Academy, a Roman Catholic elementary school located in Chicago near the West Side Medical Center Complex, Mr. Cleland saw firsthand a major architectural restoration. This restoration was for the historic church of Notre Dame de Chicago, a French Catholic church destroyed by lightning a few years previously. It was wonderfully restored by William L. Lavika. Notre Dame de Chicago Church is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture. 

Mr. Cleland completes his twenty-sixth year of teaching as this book is completed. While currently teaching at Loyola Academy, a Jesuit College-Preparatory school in north suburban Chicago, Mr. Cleland moderates the American Institute of Architecture Students chapter at Loyola Academy. Mr. Cleland gives tours of Chicago area masterpieces to area high school students and maintains membership in the Society of Architectural Historians. He is married to wife, Natividad, whose childhood parish was St. Paul the Apostle in San Pablo, Philippines. He has two sons, Scott and Craig. The family resides in Lincolnwood, Illinois.