Xavier High School posts yearbook photo of 1953 graduate Antonin Scalia

CHELSEA, Manhattan (WABC) -- After news of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death, Xavier High School in Chelsea posted a photo of Scalia, a 1953 graduate, in his ROTC uniform.

In 2011, students invited him back to his Alma Mater, and he spoke at an ROTC awards ceremony. The school was a part of his Roman Catholic upbringing.

"There are nine high schools in America with Supreme Court Justices who can claim them as alums, and it's been a real honor and gift to be one of them," said president of Xavier High School John Raslowsky.

Justice Scalia was the only child of an Italian immigrant father who was a professor of Romance languages and a mother who taught elementary school. After attending Xavier, Scalia graduated first in his class at Georgetown University and won high honors at the Harvard University Law School. He taught law and served in Republican administrations before Reagan made him an appeals court judge in Washington in 1982.

Scalia and his wife, Maureen, had nine children.

Scalia's impact on the court was muted by his seeming disregard for moderating his views to help build consensus, but he was held in deep affection by his ideological opposites Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. He persuaded Kagan to join him on hunting trips. While on his high school drill team, Scalia carried his rifle in a case on the New York City subways. Decades later, he taught the Upper West Sider Kagan how to shoot a gun.

Scalia and Ginsburg shared a love of opera, and their contrasting views inspired the opera Scalia/Ginsburg by composer Derrick Wang, who said he got the idea while a law student at the University of Maryland.

(Some information from the Associated Press)