Monthly Archives: November 2012

Class notes submitted Nov. 1, 2012

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Much to Celebrate at 45th Year Reunion

Fresh from a fall series of lop-sided triumphs in all his Class Presidential Debates, Tom Weyer spent many weekends basking in the success of his administration’s plans for the Notre Dame football program and the enjoyment of our 45th year reunion in June, 2013.  Supporters are calling the program Weyercare; there seem to be no critics.  The only tender moment for the Class President occurred during the Stanford game debate when his wife Mary Weyer pressed him about the use of household funds for the largesse offered to tailgating friends from the back of the family’s SUV.  Even Weyer backer Jay Schwartz, whose Maryland law firm’s lobbying practice gives him a close view, agreed that “Politics is not supposed to work like this.”  But then Weyer’s answer set everything to rights.  Adroitly, he began by thanking Mary for her question and stepping back for a discussion of class monetary policy since the Minton Administration.  Early in the fall, Weyer burnished his foreign policy credentials during a trip to Ireland, where he attended the Dublin game and rallied supporters in Adare, Killarney and Sneem River before traveling to Normandy for a visit to the Obama Beach memorials of the American and German forces.  With the Weyers were campaign advisers Matt Walsh and Joyce – who arranged transportation – Tom Gibbs and Sheila, Roger Guerin and Jean, and Bryan Dunigan.  Bryan, who competes with Sandy Carrigan for control of the world’s daily stream of welcome emails, learned that Brian Gormley and his wife Kathleen are working for the Army in Germany: she in Stuttgart and Brian a couple of hours distant.  Brian’s email is now brian.gormley2011@gmail.com.

John McCoy started the enjoyable season with an appearance from Washington, D.C. for the Purdue game.  Then the Miami game in Chicago brought Dick Kelly from Portland, Maine as well as many others who gathered with Chicago classmates at Tufano’s on the Near West Side the night before.  John Walsh was present and did all of us the favor of preparing this report: “Tom Gibbs and Bryan Dunigan convened an extraordinary dinner on Friday evening to rev up the Great ’68 members who came to Chicago from all parts of country to Beat Miami!  Among the 44 of us were John O’Connor and Jan, Mike Brennan (Adrienne was visiting her Mom in Sycamore), Gene Cavanaugh and Pat, Bill Gormley and his wife, Bob Ptak and Donna, Denny Toolan, Tom Gibbs and Sheila, Roger Guerin, Bob Timm and Katherine, Pete Farrell, Bryan Dunigan, Tom “Rock” McKenna and MaryPat, Joe O’Neill from Midland, TX, John Walsh and Dia, Dave Kabat, Ted Nebel and Stacy, Ken Howard, Bob Denvir ‘67, John Barry ’69 and Marge, Bill Smoley (ND Law ’71), and John Burke (honorary ’68).”

Paul Zalesky wrote that Steve Van Voorhis and he spent the Purdue weekend at John Longhi’s Niantic, CT home.  In addition to enjoying the game, the former Lyons Hall residents resumed the marathon play of hearts.  Steve is now retired and living what Paul called a “golfer’s dream” in Florida.  John is a former Columbia University professor of Geology and Paul is a medtech industry consultant.

Chicago classmate Mike Minton wrote a note that appears in full on the blog www.ndclass1968.com.  Mike attended the Dublin game festivities with his son Michael, a repeat of attending the 1996 game with his father Bernie.  Mike and his son joined Tom Moore at the pep rally and also met the 2008 Class President Bridget Keating.  Mike’s daughter Melanie married in June, 2012 in Grand Beach, MI.  The law firm received 2012 Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune recognition as “Top Rated.  Another proud parent is Lake Forest, IL’s Mike Obiala, whose son married in October, 2012.

Amid the good news is some of the other kind.  In Dallas, John Hughes and his family are dealing with the illness of John’s wife Trish.  In August, 2012, Eddie Kurtz and New Orleans lost Eddie Kurtz, Sr., 88, who helped oversee the construction of such New Orleans projects as the Superdome.  During spring of 1968, he also sent boxes and boxes of shrimp for the enjoyment of Eddie and his classmates.  We also lost in September and in October two others who were not of our class but, like Col. John Stephens, Professor Frank O’Malley, Father Bernard Lang, C.S.C., Professor John Malone ’42 and other Notre Dame spirits, formed us.  Jim Flanagan, who started his doctoral program in 1964 as the freshman year English teacher of Tom Condon and Mike Baroody, died on Labor Day in New Jersey; the letter of life wisdom Jim wrote to his grandchildren last April appears in the blog and has been reprinted in many parts of the world.  On October 2, 2012, Professor Edward Goerner ’52 died in South Bend.  His funeral filled Sacred Heart, just as his final, stirring lecture of each government course filled his classroom for a rehearing of “mankind going forth to embrace the cross.”

Please send news or post it at www.ndclass1968.com.  – Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt. 3-E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 312-223-9536, tfigel@lake-effect.com.

Lyons Ghetto friends meet for memories

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After 44 years roommates RON DROSTE, PAUL RITTMAN AND PAUL ROBILLARD finally
 got together in Seattle in August. Among the many stories and memories
 involved our senior year as members of "The Ghetto" living in three rooms over
 the arch in Lyons Hall. Other "ghetto-ites" included: TOM JANSEN, FRANK
 MELEWICZ, TOM THEIS, PHIL MORROW, DOUG HEISLER, JIM MCCOY AND RALPH WHITE.

Best Wishes,  Paul Robillard '68

Pete Kogge Awarded Cray Computer Engineering Prize

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Brian Schanning not only noticed the significance of Pete Kogge’s honor.  Brian also noticed the failure to identify Pete as a member of the Class of 1968 when the news appeared in the November, 2012 President’s Newsletter.  Brian’s email appears after this snippet taken from a newsletter article that lists a bevy of notable achievements credited to ND Professor Kogge:

Kogge Named Recipient of IEEE Computer Society 2012 Seymour Cray Award

Notre Dame computer science and engineering professor Peter Kogge, developer of the space shuttle I/O processor, the world’s first multicore processor, and a number of other important innovations has been named the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s 2012 Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award.

Kogge, the Ted H. McCourtney Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame since 1994, was recognized “for innovations in advanced computer architecture and systems.”

Brian’s note of Nov. 8, 2012:

“Thought I’d mention that fellow classmate Pete Kogge was mentioned in the recent ND President’s Newsletter as winner of the IEEE Computer Society 2012 Seymour Cray Award.  This is a big deal to a geek like me.

http://presidentsnewsletter.nd.edu/2012/November/

” You’d think they might have mentioned that he was part of the Great ’68.  I guess our class has got such a bad rep with the administration that even a straight-arrow EE professor at ND is not to be acknowledged as part of our class in a newsletter article. ”

 

 

 

Eddie Kurtz – serious car accident Nov, 2012

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John Walsh sent this Nov. 4, 2012 email about Eddie Kurtz, who is in New Orleans’ Baptist Hospital after a serious auto accident:

Just got off the phone with John Flemming (who’s at a crafts show in Pensacola, FL). Eddie Kurtz was in a bad car accident in NOLA the other day, is now in Baptist Hospital. 

In addition to injuries from the accident, he was found to have a severe case of pneumonia complicating his breathing and tumors in his throat. Dia and I were with him in NOLA last Monday, before the accident. He’s been fighting throat ulcers and had lost about 40 lbs then. 

John said he expects to be back in NOLA late tonight and will try to find out more info in the coming week. Eddie’s expected to be in the hospital “for a while.” Keep him in your thoughts. 

John Walsh

Hurricane Sandy destroyed Richie Rogers’ tavern

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Jim Hutchinson in western New York learned from Mike Trombetta in Hawaii that Hurricane Sandy destroyed the tavern Richie Rogers owned in Rockaway Beach, New York.  The loss is total.  But we still have Richie. (posted Nov. 1, 2012)

Subsequent to that news, Jim Hutchinson forwarded a November 2, 2012 note from a friend:

The news keeps getting worse from Rockaway and Breezy
Makes you sick
 things are bad. looting going on all over the rockaways.no cops anywhere. not safe for anybody.people cant get gas. no cars available. no time set when power will be back. people are scrambling to rent homes /apts outside the neighborhood. this is going to take a long time. been seeing aditional photos. both sides of 130st. from newport to cronston burned down. houses right up on the beach completely destroyed. there is talk of breezy point being condemned and just bulldozing the entire community.

 

 

Professor Edward A. Goerner died Oct. 2, 2012

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Professor Edward A. Goerner, energetic, warm and inspiring as a member of Notre Dame’s faculty during our years, continued to join us for our reunion events.  Always active – even after retiring, he taught, kayaked on the St. Joe River, reveled in his family and friends – he remained engaged with questions of political theory.  This is the obituary that appeared in the October 5, 2012 editor of the South Bend Tribune:

Dec. 29, 1929 – Oct. 2, 2012
SOUTH BEND – Edward A. Goerner, of South Bend, IN, passed away on October 2, 2012 at the age of 82. He was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He was born December 29, 1929, in Brooklyn, NY, the son of the late Dr. Alfred and Dr. Mary Margaret (Popp) Goerner. He was the third of four children and is survived by his sisters, Dr. Dorothy Ducker of Birmingham, MI and Alice Pike of New Orleans, LA. His brother, Father Basil Goerner, preceded him in death in 2008. Following high school at Brooklyn Prep, he received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame in 1952. Upon graduation, he served in the United States Navy until 1955. He then enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he received a Ph.D. in 1959. He is survived by his wife Iris Mensing Goerner, whom he married in December, 1996. He married the late Marilyn Rohrer in September of 1955, who preceded him in death in 1995. Their marriage produced five children: Peter Goerner of Greenwood, IN, Liza Crisafi (Tony) of San Diego, CA, Meg Collins (Shawn) of Naperville, IL, Kate Munhall (Bob) of Phoenix, AZ and Becky Bach (Troy) of Portage, MI, and 10 grandchildren. After receiving his Ph.D. he taught at Yale University, before joining the Political Science faculty at Notre Dame in 1960. The 1968 Notre Dame yearbook described the reason for his return as “… he felt more interesting things were happening in the government department.” His specialties were Comparative Politics and Political Theory. He is the author of Peter and Caesar and editor of Democracy in Crisis and The Constitutions of Europe. His articles have appeared in the American Journal of Jurisprudence and Continuum. His articles on natural right versus natural law in Aquinas appeared in Political Theory. He was an Associate Editor of The Review of Politics. His interests were many and diverse. He was an ardent camper, canoeist, kayaker and hiker, and a lover of classical music and opera. Edward was also an avid reader, cook, naturalist, and a conversationalist of the first rank. A fan of Notre Dame Football, he never relinquished his opinion that Frank Leahy was their greatest coach. For many years he lived at the Lilacs on Notre Dame Avenue, after having restored it in the early 1960’s. He loved his children and grandchildren unconditionally and believed in their ability to learn and achieve whatever they could imagine. “The political philosopher”, said Dr. Goerner in 1968, “would rather live lucidly and insecure than secure with an illusion. The political philosopher would not, as do power politickers, assume that it is inconceivable one might die, like Socrates and Jesus, for something noble.” Visitation will be from 2-6 p.m. Sunday, October 7, 2012 at Kaniewski Funeral Homes, 3545 N. Bendix Drive, South Bend, IN. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 9:30 AM on Monday, October 8, at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame, with Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C. officiating. Memorial donations may be made to the Center for the Homeless, 813 S. Michigan Street, South Bend, IN 46601; or Sacred Heart Parish, University of Notre Dame, 104 The Presbytery, Notre Dame, IN 46556; or The Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. He will be interred at Cedar Grove Cemetery on the campus of Notre Dame at a later date. To send condolences, please visit, www.kaniewski.com.

 

Dr. James K. Flanagan died September 3, 2012

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Jim Flanagan began his Notre Dame career at the same time we did.  After graduating from Seton Hall in New Jersey, he began his graduate studies and his teaching in the fall of 1964.  His freshman English class included Tom Condon and Mike Baroody, whose liking for this energetic, encouraging force from Jersey City, NJ attracted numbers of us.  While earning his doctorate, Jim began teaching at St. Mary’s College and then continued for a year or two after earning the Ph.D.  He wrote his dissertation and, later, one of his books about the playwright Arthur Miller.  But his achievements and his significant learning were always subordinate to the ambitions he fostered in his students.  After returning to New Jersey, he taught at Monmouth College and settled nearby with his family. Bravely, he and his wife Pat raised their children Kevin, Patrick and Rachel (a future Notre Dame grad) after the two divorced.  Jim wrote the novel “The Crossing” and began teaching in an Asbury Park middle school serving kids with more problems than advantages.  He had found his place for an energetic career of teaching, writing, storytelling, parenting, local politics and community involvement.  At his house, after his funeral, children darted among aunts, cousins, neighbors, siblings and former students telling stories of the great man who died of a heart attack on Labor Day, 2012 at the age of 72.

In April, Jim wrote a letter that his daughter Rachel had coaxed out of him.  His advice to his five grandchildren caught his voice and provoked the attention of his neighbors first, then readers around the world.  The two-page letter included here has appeared in an Irish newspaper and has been discussed on Australian attention.

JimLetter-Photo-102712