Notes, ND Class of 1968 Contact: Thomas Figel, 312-223-9536 x 301
November, 2011
Proud Moments
Holy Cross College, which is becoming much more than a dot on the western edge of the Notre Dame campus, has had our classmate Brother John R. Paige, C.S.C. as president since January. John’s installation took place on Friday, September 23rd with ceremonies attended by many of the school’s students along with officials from Notre Dame (Father John Jenkins was a co-celebrant with approximately 20 other priests at the morning Mass), many C.S.C. brothers and John’s friends from local and distant communities. This is no glide-into-retirement role for John, who had returned to South Bend from Rome, where he was vicar general of the Congregation of Holy Cross. The speakers lauding John kept referring to his “acceptance” of the position offered by Holy Cross. Did John have an option? He would have been content to keep teaching in Nairobi, he said, but, yes, he did accept an offer. The remarks that day as well as his own statements attested to plenty of vision: The 150-acre school is going to add another 14 as well as a new center that will train professionals for health services to the aging populations of the U.S. and the world. The full-time student population, which has about 80 percent of the students studying for bachelor degrees, will grow from about 450 to 750 in John’s plan. Bill Giles, the former W. Hudson Giles Observer sports editor, is on the board of trustees along with Kathy Malone Beeler, SMC69.
With John, our class has at least two college presidents. Tom Chema is president of the liberal arts Ohio school, Hiram College.
Father John Pearson, C.S.C., one of the friends who attended John’s installation, is now part of St. Mary’s College, where he is part of the ministerial services staff. A job working with 1,500 intelligent, young women? “Someone’s got to do it,” said Father John.
Activities inside the football stadium took some wrong turns during the early part of the season but, outside, in the area demarked as the Great Class of 1968 tailgate section, the work has been flawless. With Gene Cavanaugh arriving at dawn and Fred Ferlic and others helping preserve space for a cluster of cars, the tailgate area is ready for hospitality (and some post-game ministering) many hours before kickoff. On the sunny weekend of the Michigan State game, class president Tom Weyer represented all of us at the celebration of the 1966 team. The tailgate crowd included Dave Martin, Mike Ryan, John McCoy, Tom (Madison) McKenna and plenty of the South Bend-Chicago regulars: Tom Weyer and Mary; Tom Gibbs and Sheila, Chris Murphy and Carmie, Tom (Rock) McKenna and Mary Pat, Roger Guerin and Jean, and Bryan Dunigan. Gene Cavanaugh said that the turnout for the USC Saturday was great, too: Paul Nowak and John O’Connor were there along with many others from California and the east coast. Dick Kelly came from Maine for Navy and will be back in November for Boston College.
The Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame honored Rocky Bleier with investiture during September. In December, St. Ignatius High School in Chicago will dedicate its basketball court floor to Coach Tom (Rock) McKenna. This will give the Bryan Dunigan golf outing group a chance to gather again in a friend’s honor. Watch Bryan’s emails and the class blog, http://ndclass-1968.lake-effect.com, for details about celebration plans. At the blog, you can see photos and additional messages sent by classmates.
One of the photos is a Vietnam image of Brian Peters, shown with one of the friends who supplied it. The Army friend who re-connected with Brian recently said that Brian was in charge of the cleanup of Ground Zero, maybe when Brian, a New Jersey resident, was with Bovis Lend Lease.
Sandy Carrigan had more than 200 supporters walking and raising money for ALS research, in Sandy’s honor when the Les Turner group held its Chicago area event.
In your prayers, please remember Bill Clifford, who died at the end of May. Bill and Jim Davis were roommates for three years.
Please send news to: Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt. 3-E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 312-223-9536 x 301, tfigel@lake-effect.com.