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ND Class of 1968

Category Archives: Class notes submitted to ND Magazine

Class notes submitted January 20, 2022

Posted on January 28, 2022 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment

Shifting South

Pat Collins, NBC TV, reporting a winter condition in Washington, DC
A winter condition – Florida here – preferred by many classmates

Certainly, in 1964, A Notre Dame parallel to the US Census Bureau’s decennial calculation would have put the university’s population center in Cook County, IL, perhaps right at 505 Washington Boulevard, Oak Park, IL, recognizable to some as the location of Fenwick High School.  These January days, as winter sets in, the mark moves noticeably south, pulled by classmates’ migration away from chilly weather.  Naples, FL is such a common destination that Roger Guerin has told Class President Tom Weyer that Naple’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade can include not only a Notre Dame float but a Great ’68 float. The parade did not take place in 2021 but in other years, Roger and Bob Ptak and Donna have been three of the high steppers. 

Roger and Chris Murphy will play golf at the area’s Royal Poinciana Club during January.

Paul Dunn, Ken Collins, Eddie Haggar, Bill Sweetman, Steve Grace and Dave Boehnen have their own annual Naples meeting in mid-November for four days of golf.  “This one was an unexpectedly shorter trip,” Paul wrote.  “Dave got a positive Covid test the second morning we were all together and everyone immediately split for home.  Dave holed up at his Naples condo and recovered fine.”  Treating the November trip as a mulligan, the six now plan to reconvene in Naples in March or April.  

Paul Ramsey and his partner Richard Coburn say good-by to New York City and the entire country as they take up winter residence in Cozumel, Mexico.  Yes, they do soak up sun and admire the ocean view – when they are not raising funds and guiding the education program they established for the underprivileged Mayans, www.friendsofpa.org.  While vacationing in India years ago, they established and continue to support another program called The India Group, www.theindiagroup.net.  “TIG has been able to stave off starvation for our families and stimulate vaccination.” 

Pat Hermann and Ellen confer often with Chris Manion from Tuscaloosa, AL, where Pat is retired from the Medieval Studies faculty of the University of Alabama.  Chris, who lives in Front Royal, VA, and the Hermanns share views about Roman Catholicism; Chris writes forceful columns for the Wanderer.  A current project for Pat is the launch of work that will assist whistleblowers in many spheres, including the Catholic church.  On top of that, the Hermanns dedicate much time to ProLifeTuscaloosa.com.  For eleven years, thanks to a recommendation from Houston classmate Ron Kurtz when Ron’s daughter was enrolled at the university, Pat coached the distance runners of the track team. Before joining the Alabama faculty (and contributing to the southern shift of the population center), Pat was a curator at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL.  

On September 25, 2021, date of the Soldier’s Field win over Wisconsin, Brian McManus (at right) was able to hold Tom Gibbs long enough for a photo. Because of the effect of the many bonefish and trout Brian catches, only those testing for Covid’s loss of smell willingly come close to him.

In San Francisco, Richard Pivnicka and his wife Barbara attended the October 7, 2021 Stanford University memorial of George Shultz, whose 100 years included four cabinet-level positions in US government.  Richard’s notes about the event, included in a following post include: “(Henry) Kissinger said he talked to George every Sunday and they promised each other they would each speak at the other’s memorial. Kissinger said George always keeps his promises and ‘the question at hand will be…. how will he do that.’ Kissinger said of all the people he knew, he thought George Shultz should have been President. What a program!”

Jim Woods, alert in Milwaukee, found One Week in America by Patrick Parr.  The history centers on the spring 1968 Sophomore Literary Festival that the late John Mroz and 13 committee members grew into a gathering of writers Ralph Ellison, Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut, Wright Morris, William F. Buckley, Jr. and Granville Hicks. The campus had other visitors: presidential candidates Gene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. For some 1968 readers, the highlight is an account of a protest 50 students headed by Brian McTigue made against the Dow Chemical president’s recruiting visit.  Chuck Nau, Jack Lavelle, Richard Rossi and other names appear in the book, too.  

Bryan Dunigan had sad news December 7, 2021: “(I received) a text from Lloyd Adams that his twin brother Pete Adams passed away peacefully late last night. In 2015 Pete was given 3-6 months to live with stage 4 lung and kidney cancer which Pete then battled for over 6 years! Pete’s wife, Patricia, lives at 42 Apple Way, Marlton, New Jersey 08053.”  Lloyd’s email is davelloyd314@yahoo.com.

Thanks to his former roommate Ken Wejman, we also know of the death of Indian Hill, IL’s Paul Joseph Wallace on April 8, 2020.  After Naval Air Reserve service, Paul made his career at WW Granger, Inc.  Paul and his wife Nancy, parents of four, were married 50 years.

Please keep the Adams and Wallace families in your prayers, and include Dennis Toolan and his family as they deal with Dennis’ sudden health problems.

Gentlemanly Dennis Toolan, sixth from left in this 2019 tailgate photo, is the definition of Great ’68 friendship.

Tom Condon, in a pause between reports for the Connecticut Mirror, ponders starting a new career as proprietor of The Confections of St. Augustine.  Oh, well.

Please send news and photos to: Tom Figel, 455 East Ocean Boulevard, Apt. 202, Long Beach, CA 90802, tel. 312-241-7917, tfigel@reputecture.com.

Class notes submitted January 18, 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment

The Brain Drain

Tom Warner, chief of his Northern California community’s volunteer fire department, defending against the rampaging summer fire.

The year 2021 opens with much of our world off the rails, doesn’t it? 

And what can be the cause of things going so wrong? Has anyone else noticed the consequences of so many class members entering into retirement, their intelligence and good sense lost to the workplaces? The retirement of lawyer Forest Hainline is an announcement in a string of them that includes the age-mandated stepping down of Judge Tom Phillips in Traverse City, Michigan; the departure of Gene Cavanaugh from First Source Bank in South Bend; the sailing away (literally) of Brian Schanning and Susan; Bob Brady‘s departure from the company he founded; Jim O’Rourke’s reduced workload on the faculty of the Mendoza School of Business; Rich Roger‘s absence from the FBI; Pat Furey, John Walsh, Jim Davis disengaging from legal practices. The list is long and certainly coincides with the advent of serious troubles.

Fortunately, though, many slog on, their shoulders to the wheel of insurance agent training (Class President Tom Weyer); journalism (Pat Collins at NBC, DC and Tom Condon at The Connecticut Mirror); law (John O’Connor, Brian McTigue, Bryan Dunigan, Tom Gibbs, Tom Durkin); banking (Chris Murphy); medical care (Dr. Pat Demare, Dr. Rick McPartlin); investing and international relations (Richard Pivnicka); math and statistics (Mike Suelzer); law and general intrigue (Dick Farina); advances in healthcare (Fred Ferlic); tacos (Bob Ptak); national security (Monk Forness). We can be thankful and can be entertained: Rocky Bleier‘s play seen at the 50th reunion is available on BroadwayonDemand.com.

Jim O’Rourke stepped away from his still considerable workload for sending of news received from Tom Warner, Jim’s sophomore year Alumni roommate. Tom, retired CEO of Del Monte International, is chief of a volunteer fire department that was in the thick of Northern California’s fire battles during 2020. Tom and his wife Mary retired to the Shaver Lake area.

Settled in retirement with his Irish wife Aideen in Cairns on Australia’s northeast coast, Charlie Stevenson has written a soon-to-be published memoir, tales of his time in the US Army. Neither distance nor time zones are barriers for Charlie and the other Keenagers (Judy Donofrio’s name for the freshman Keenan residents) who join the regular Zoom meetings begun by Tom Phillips. 

Like many others in retirement, retired family physician and then psychiatrist Jim Druckenbrod, living with Jean, his wife of 50 years, in Chambersburg, PA, makes generous use of his new free time: “Short term medical missions, most frequently to Haiti. These I have done in absolute gratitude to God, by whose grace I was able to attend ND.”

Our news includes new sadnesses.

Steve Kurowski‘s wife Sharon passed away in Merrilville, IN on January 3, 2021 from pneumonia. Steve’s note to his undergrad and law school classmate Bryan Dunigan was a wonderful testament: “Sharon and I started dating at age 16 and married in 1968 at age 22. We would have celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary this year. She gifted me with five children and nine grandchildren.”

Tom Misch‘s wife Linda, mother of their four children, died December 13, 2020 in Northbrook, IL. Grandmother of 14, Linda was a mainstay elementary school teacher for more than 30 years. Linda showed up at many ND68 gatherings, too. 

Tony Frierott‘s wife Beth succumbed to cancer November 25, 2020 in Minster, OH. Classmates join three children and four Fierott grandchildren in grieving.

Warren Smith, yearbook, 1968

Warren F. Smith, Jr. died of corona virus in August, 2020. The father of three, husband of Rosie, held positions with the Chicago Board of Trade before retiring to Asheville, NC. The news came from Jim Burke ’69, a lifelong friend who traded through Warren’s Celtic Commodities Inc. 

Blair LaCour

Jim Knaus sent word of his freshman roommate Blair LaCour‘s death in Medina, OH on July 10, 2020. Retired from 3M and then Sherwin Williams, Blair and Linda raised two sons and a daughter. Jim sent a funny memory: “Blair was mature but fun-loving, tolerant of my behavior, and humble. In the early weeks, I had significant difficulty understanding calculus, which he knew was abstruse. I woke up at 3 AM with a flash — it had finally sunk in! His response? “Great, Jim. Now, go back to sleep.’”

Keep accessing our blog www.ndclass1968.com for full notes and bulletins. Unless you wish to risk concocted histories, please send news and photos to Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt 3E, Chicago, IL 60626, cell: 312-241-7917, tfigel@reputecture.com.

Class notes submitted October 19, 2020

Posted on October 20, 2020 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment
Not so long ago, but far away at this moment. . .friends Paul Nowak, Adrienne Brennan, Bryan Dunigan, Ron Kurtz, Barb Nowak and Ken Howard were able to assemble at Notre Dame and elsewhere. Class President Tom Weyer and Fred Ferlic have a plan.

Group hug, still six feet distant

Class President Tom Weyer says the quarantine and the passing years (termed by Mike Suelzer “the lengthening shadows”) increase appreciation for his father Honest John’s words, “I like how you guys take care of each other.” Tom marvels that anything could have kept him from attending Brian Sullivan‘s funeral or from pushing into a packed Sacred Heart Basilica for Joe Kernan‘s. Tom heard from classmates Chris Murphy, Rocky Bleier, Gene Cavanaugh, and Steve Anderson during a no-tailgate game: “All are lonely, all are in meatloaf withdrawal.” Fred Ferlic has an idea Tom endorses: “Use our 50 year club privileges and piggyback onto the 2021 reunion.” Now, there’s leadership.

Jim O’Rourke forwarded a note that Notre Dame has revised the service that gives us access to online information, including the addresses and telephone numbers of friends from any class. Registration is easy at www.my.nd.edu. The ten-digit number on the mailing label of your Notre Dame Magazine will get you underway. The tool is a good one for contacting friends ahead of the type of reunion Fred Ferlic proposes.

No hiding from someone like Rich Rogers

Retired FBI agent Rich Rogers wasn’t waiting for any online help when he was out for a bike ride in Jupiter, FL and spied another man bedecked in the same Notre Dame splendor, from hat to shorts. Rich introduced himself and, in a manner of speaking, collared a classmate who has been hiding in the shadows for decades: “Fred Franco, a great guy who was a prosecutor in NJ dealing with organized crime.” Rich’s moral: “It always pays to wear your Notre Dame stuff.”

Tom Culcasi, Joe Hale and others who enjoyed swanky Keenan Hall lodging freshman year have begun a regular Zoom session. Tom says the Keenanites so far are Tom Phillips, Mike Moore, Bill Cleary, Tom Curtin and John Soleau. Joe Hale, Mike Obiala, Marty Fino, Rob McDonald, Skip Schrader, Dan Collins, Ted Bratthauer, and Charlie Stevenson (all the way from Australia) have made appearances. “Zoom shows that none of us has aged,” says Tom, “though a few of us do part our hair with a much wider center part.” No doubt the cleverly named Keenanites spend most of their time talking about the rest of us – and maybe about the General Program men who have their own Zoom sessions. (See a following post for Joe Hale‘s unredacted note about the most recent discussion.)

If the Zoom sessions have the nature of a book discussion, plenty of offerings have come from our class. Pat Collins, who is under consideration for receipt of Notre Dame’s Griffin Award for writing, has completed Newsman, $20 per copy from https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292897. Reviewed at washingtonian.com, what Pat has written spans his DC upbringing through his years as a newspaper and television reporter. Telling the stories that intrigue him, Pat describes how news reporting has changed since he was Observer editor. And if news stories are not your game, look in other sections of the ND68 authors shelf. Michael R. Ryan, head of the MFA program at the University of California – Irvine, has been productive and then some: five books of poems, an autobiography, a memoir, and a collection of essays about poetry and writing for which he has won strings of awards. Or try Tom Dorsel for Golf: The Mental Game. Or John D. O’Connor for the Watergate subjects probed in Felt and Postgate. Or Tom Condon for, among others, How to Hire and the sequel, How to Fire. Out in the blogosphere, Jay Schwartz has his One More Thing. . . postings at https://jayschwartzonthegrid.com/category/uncategorized/. Coming soon is the first novel of Gini Waters’ husband Joe Enright, who has dug into his NYC FBI background for a chiller about a terrorism crisis. And using his recent move to Chicago from Detroit as a claim on class of 1968 attention, Peter McInerney, ND69, has published “Tellings of Youth and Age.”

Forrest Hainline, says John O’Connor, has retired from legal practice and is now golfing thrice weekly with his wife Nancy. In a good old days moment, Bill Matturro, Bradenton, FL, remembered attending a post-Stepan Center concert party where Linda Rondstadt was present. Bob Noonan participated in a Veterans Day Panel Notre Dame videoed for alumni group distribution: “With me on the panel was retired Navy Rear Admiral Herb Kaler who was part of our class earning a liberal Arts BA, but also graduated from ND in ’69 with a degree in aerospace engineering. Clearly an overachiever.” Father John Sheehan, S.J., seemingly ever in transit, is now Chaplain at the University of St. Francis, Ft. Wayne, IN.

Dave Graves has his own transition underway: Rich Rogers says that, under the care of Dr. Pat DeMare, Dave is recovering from corona virus. Fortunately, Dave and the rest of us, though in our seventies, are lean and hard, without endangering flab.

Prior to the quarantine, Mike Thompson visited attorney Jim Carfagno and Susan in Atkins, AR. Mike, an accountant, came from Evansville, IN.

Joe Kernan, bust at Century Center, South Bend, IN

Dennis Doherty

Steve Anderson added to the sad news of Joe Kernan‘s death July 29, 2020 and Dennis Doherty‘s death August 8, 2020 with revelation of his own dire condition, a cancer that, Steve says, will not prevent him from joining the class at the 2021 reunion. “I can never thank you enough for what your friendships have meant to me and what each of you individually has taught me,” Steve wrote. (See the following posts for Steve’s letter and for the obituaries of Dennis Doherty and Joe Kernan.)

Our blog, www.ndclass1968.com, has full news reports plus photos. The blog allows you to leave comments, and to reply to comments. Please send news – and photos – to Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt 3E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 312-241-7917, tfigel@reputecture.com.

Class notes submitted July 20, 2020

Posted on July 22, 2020 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment

Fertility, Effulgence and the North Dining Hall Diet

Healthy fare for those with proper dining attire

No one ever has heard of science taking up the impossible challenge of replicating the magnificent, Great ’68. But in this serious time, the need has arisen. While we do have the sadness of deaths among us, we seem not to have any attributable to the corona virus. The universal resistance to the awful disease suggests that we are worth study for more than our intelligence, our muscularity and our attraction for beautiful women. If they are able to replicate us for additional research, the epidemiologists may discover that a diet rich in saltpeter during the years of early adulthood can provide a lifelong resistance to serious disease. Also, despite its reputation, saltpeter seems to have no effect on our fecundity (nor effulgence, in John O’Connor‘s case). Note the prodigious fertility of great-grandparents Mike Baroody and Muff and the five offspring, including triplet daughters, of Rich Rogers and Pat.

Correspondence from two classmates living in Australia should allay the frequent complaint that class news is too Chicago-centric. Mike Crutcher, who is now in Perth, Australia after the loss of his visa caused interruption of the missionary work he and his wife carry out in China, sent a link to a provocative podcast wrapped around a controversial letter to President Trump from a former Papal Nuncio: https://youtu.be/RdTRPOvBYsA. Charlie Stevenson, surfaced in a Joe Hale email string that began with Mike Moore and gained heft as it added the names of Keenan Hall friends, including roommate Tom Voglewede, now retired from optometrist practice. Retired professor Charlie lives with his Irish wife Aideen in Cairns, across the continent from Mike, another former Texan. See our blog www.ndclass1968.com.

Mike Moore, who found Charlie and cranked up his rusty Notre Dame communication skills, received this summary of the missing years:

“My life has been far less settled than yours, it seems, and trying to summarise 50 years in a paragraph is hard.  There are so many essential facts and events that have to be glossed over or left out altogether.

“Still, this is the bare bones.  I left Notre Dame in the summer of 1967, with the intention of working for a year to earn some money and then returning.  As things turned out, I ended up in the Army for 3 years, stationed in Germany from Jan ’68 to Aug ’70.  We might have been there at the same time.  When I got out of the army, I stayed in Europe.  I went to Ireland and did an Honours B.A. and an MA in The English Language and Medieval English and Scandinavian Literature from University College Dublin.  I taught there as a tutor and then as a Lecturer and, in between, also taught as a Lecturer for a year at Trinity College Dublin.  In 1976 I moved to Durham in the north of England, where I taught in Durham University until 1981, with a year (1979-80) as a research fellow at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne (20 miles north of Durham).  Between Jan 1981 and Sep 1983, I lived in Dublin, doing various jobs and trying to get Irish citizenship (my US citizenship made it harder for me to secure a permanent University post in Europe).  In Sep 1983 I accepted a lectureship in the English Department at Monash University, Melbourne Australia.  My Irish wife, Aideen Kelly, and I married in Melbourne in May 1984.  Unfortunately, we are unable to have children and an attempt to adopt came to nothing.  Aideen worked in television in Ireland and later in Melbourne, as a production manager in the Drama Department at the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission – the public broadcaster here).  After 20+ years, we both needed a change and less stress, so we took early retirements in July 2004 and moved to Cairns, a tropical city in Far North Queensland, where Aideen has a nephew who’s a doctor in the local main hospital.  Since we arrived in Australia, we’ve done a lot of international travelling.  While my parents and Aideen’s mother were still alive, we visited them in Texas and in Dublin every 2nd year or so.  My parents died in 2012, mom in Feb and dad in Apr, and between 2010 and 2012, I spent about 8 months total (6 different trips) in Texas helping to look after them (since, being retired, I could).  Aideen’s mom died in the early 2000s.  We’ve been around the world 4 or 5 times, visited every continent except Africa and Antarctica, as well as exploring most of Australia.  Now we are settled into a sedentary tropical lifestyle here in Holloways Beach (a suburb of Cairns), with a beach on the Coral Sea a few hundred metres to our east and rainforest (ie., jungle) covered hills a few kilometres to the west.  This time of year – our winter / dry season – the minimum temp is 18 -20 degrees C (mid 60s F) and the max is mid-20s C (low 80s F), with low humidity.  Our summer / wet season is humid and hot, though the sea keeps our high temps to the low 90s.  Not a bad climate for old fogies like us.” (aandcs701@bigpond.com)

Mike Wolf and Ken DiLaura sent notes that predated the quarantine time and now seem descriptive of another epoch: “Jim Ewing and Bonnie, Ken DiLaura and Ronnie and Mike Wolf and Mary (SMC ‘68) were able to play some golf, enjoy some dinners and catch up on old times in Fort Myers and Naples this winter before the virus shut down festivities. Jim summers in Illinois, Ken in Grosse Pointe, MI and the Wolfs in Williamsport, PA.”

Our blog holds news summarized here: John O’Connor, whose new book is Postgate, discussed former FBI Director James Comey in two interviews with Fox News:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN1AQ_3TIXs. Tom Fitzharris‘ painting “Cross Talk” is in the alumni show of the New York Studio School: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/tom-fitzharris-cross-talk.

At Mother’s Day, her River Forest, IL community remembered Tom Gibbs‘ wife Sheila:https://patch.com/illinois/oakpark/river-forest-family-honors-first-mothers-day-without-matriarch.

Walt Moxham had disappointment and hope in his email: “Our Vietnam Veteran Chapter’s efforts to have Rocky Bleier and his play brought to Western New York on August 8th has fallen victim to Covid -19. Very upsetting as I was looking forward to finally paying Rocky back for his appearances with our Vietnam Veteran’s Photo Shows in 1990 with a Wilson, NY fishing trip. And having Tom Brislin and me show him Wilson’s beautiful Lake Ontario sunsets against the Toronto skyline.” 

Jay Schwartz invites reading of and commenting on his new essay at the blog One More Thing. . . https://jayschwartzonthegrid.com/category/uncategorized/

Unfortunately, three classmates have died at a time when meditation and sorrow, along with pride, must suffice for comforting in person.

John McCoy joined the Class of 1968 following rigorous interviewing by
Class President Tom Weyer and others at many football tailgates

Searchers found the remains of missing Taos, NM skier John McCoy in May: https://www.taosnews.com/stories/body-recovered-taos-ski-valley-missing-skier-mccoy,64112. Class President Tom Weyer, who approved John’s affiliation with our class, wrote “I particularly enjoyed his ..voluntary joining of the Great 68 .. as well as his Boat bum-Ski bum business card.”

Mike Daher, shown in yearbook photo, died June 26, 2020

When General Program member Mike Daher died of cancer June 26, 2020, he was nearing retirement after 40 years as a professor of English and Humanities at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan. The affection expressed on the school’s website resembles the impact of Professor Frank O’Malley‘s life on the Notre Dame community. For example, a student wrote: “Dr. Daher leaves behind an empty space that is hard to fill. But it’s also true that he leaves behind a legacy . . . in the form of the magnificent impact that he has left on so many students. For this impact, I’m truly grateful.” For photos and memorials, please see: https://www.hfcc.edu/news/2020/mike-daher-remembrances-hfc-community

Mike “Arch” McCarthy died July 16, 2020 (photo from yearbook)

John Walsh wrote: “Mike (“Arch”) McCarthy died on July 16 at his brother Patrick’s farm outside Rock Springs, Wisconsin, near Baraboo. He had been living there since his wife, Nora, passed away only weeks after our 50th Reunion in 2018. Mike excelled as a pre-med major at Notre Dame and had an active practice of psychiatry in the Washington, D.C., area after medical school in Chicago. Mike was a lifelong friend. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder in our kindergarten class picture (with Brian Sullivan) in 1952. Mike and I roomed together for all four of our years as undergrads, and for three of those years Joe Brennan joined the mix. For senior year, Tom McKenna, Tom Figel andMike Hampsey joined to make a sixsome in a house on Hill Street down the hill from the then-Senior Bar. Known as “Arch” by almost all his fellow students, Mike rarely shared that the moniker was a nickname from the arches prescribed for his basketball shoes during his years as a high school hoopster. In 1963-64, he and I were two of the starting five on Fenwick’s lightweights division team that went 25-4 and won that year’s Chicago Catholic League championship. After retiring from the practice of psychiatry, Mike took up oil painting as a hobby. Mike and Nora did not have any children..”

May you, your families and your friends be safe. Please see www.ndclass1968.com and send news to: Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt. 3E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 773-764-4898, tfigel@reputecture.com.

Class notes submitted October 21, 2019

Posted on November 4, 2019 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment

50 Years Ago, The Door was Unlocked

(In addition to the main note, please read the following posts: deaths of Geoff Gillette and Tom Knowles, correspondence from Mike Crutcher and Joe Ferry, contents suggestions Richard Pivnicka sent to Notre Dame Magazine, and for a brief time, Tom Fitzharris’ new work at the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the link to Jay Schwartz’s blog One More Thing. . .)

The Engineering Building’s security was no match for Honest John Weyer.

When Honest John Weyer, father of Class President Tom Weyer, pushed at an unlocked Engineering Building classroom door fifty years ago, he only meant to find shelter for a pre-game celebration. At the time, some of us had hair, a military future, and hopes of girlfriends who didn’t come from the center of magazines. What Honest John opened turned into a tradition. Now that tailgate has abutting-the-stadium space arranged by Matt Walsh and tended by a squad of South Bend and Michiana classmates. While no one seems in need of help such as the pampers of early parenthood, we are enjoying the time before we need adult diapers along with our fellowship.

In the meantime, the tailgate is gloriously appointed with classmates.

From Bryan Dunigan – tailgating 1968 Virginia game September 2019: Gene Cavanaugh, Pete Adams, Bob Ptak, Lloyd Adams, Bryan Dunigan, Denny Toolan, Dave Ditmer, Ed Lewis, Fred Ferlic, Chuck Kelsey, Bill Byrne, Roger Guerin, and Tom Weyer.  These were the early arrivals. Judge for yourself whether the addition of Tom Condon, Mike Helmer, Pete Adams, Tom Figel and others improved the mix.

John Walsh and his grandson Vasant Banks were with Roger Guerin, Dennis Toolan and Mary Lou, Tom Gibbs, Matt Walsh and Joyce, Fred Ferlic (the Tayco Boot entrepreneur), Bryan Dunigan, Mike Ryan and Ned Buchbinder at the New Mexico game. The Virginia game drew those friends plus Bob Ptak, Steve Anderson, Tom Durkin and visitors from beyond the Midwest horizons: Ed Lewis, Lloyd Adams, Pete Adams, and Bill Gormley from New Jersey, Rich Rogers and Pat from New York, Tom Condon from Connecticut, Bill Kenealy from Maryland, about three dozen classmates, none in need of anything but friendship and laughs.

Ed Lewis remembered the work required each of the game Saturdays: “Most don’t know that Gene Cavanaugh and Fred Ferlic arrive at the stadium parking lot at 6:30 AM to hold spaces near to Matt’s parking slots. Then the Chicago contingent (Tom Weyer, Tom Gibbs, Bryan, et al ) arrives. They all bring food and drinks for anyone who shows up to enjoy. And, this generosity has inconceivably gone on for 50 years! Wow.”

Ken DiLaura and Veronica made a May Spain and Portugal river cruise the time for their own reunion with Mike Coleman and Gloria. In San Francisco, the Hon. Czech Consul General Richard Pivnicka hosted graduates from the McCloskey New Venture competition winner Resonado at the time of the Louisville game. Rick frequently sees John O’Connor as well as Dennis Withers, who comes from Atlanta for visits with his Napa Valley daughter Boo Withers Berkstoffer.

Mike Crutcher wrote from China, his home since 2006: “Came here to do ‘humanitarian’ work. Met my wife in 2007, married in 2008. Education is our mainstay, mostly teaching English. A little background on me : after ND … USAF/ANG pilot, then lived in DC for a while , back home to Big D, real estate business there , age 31 my ‘born again’ experience which radically changed my lifestyle and priorities. Was led to go to graduate school to study theology/psychology.” In his note, Mike shouted out to best ND buddies Dave Martin and Jan, Dennis Withers, Chris Murphy, Rocky Bleier, Dan Harshman, Steve Anderson, Jay Jordan.

Recognition of Philadelphian Joe Ferry’s first return to campus two years ago awakened a hunger in him for repeat attention and a second return for the 50th reunion. The note Joe wrote (found in full in a following post) has pushed him to the fore with the labeling of John O’Connor as “effulgent” and with this sample: “In 1998, my wife and I went to Annapolis to celebrate our wedding anniversary and my birthday. The Naval Academy Class of ’68 was celebrating its 30th Anniversary and it was headquartered at our hotel. My wife alerted me to this and, pointing to a man who was about my age, said ‘That guy looks like he was in that class.’ I approached the man and asked ‘Are you a member of the Class of 1968?’ He said that he was. I told that I was, also but ‘not here, Notre Dame.’ The entire weekend the Navy Class of ’68 welcomed me like I was one of them because of the ND-Navy relationship.”

Joe Hale called attention to the recognition of Tom Culcasi’s son Phil, an alum who was one of four Illinois educators named in a White House list of the nation’s superior math and science teachers.

Tom Knowles, 1968 yearbook

September, 2019 news included the sadness of two deaths: Geoff Gillette, well-known for his work with the band Captain Electric and then his career in music production, and Tom Knowles, one of the Fenwick High School classmates who expanded the Oak Park, IL friendships with myriad Notre Dame ones. Please remember them and their families, and please read the memories in posts that follow this one.

Please send news and photos to: Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt. 3E, Chicago, IL 60626, tfigel@reputecture.com, tel. 773-764-4898.

ND68 for your viewing pleasure

Posted on April 30, 2019 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment

Class notes submitted April 30, 2019

Marcy Callahan and Dave Graves on wedding day, January, 2019, Delray Beach, FL

Haven’t viewed the video record Dennis Reeder created of the 50th reunion? Enjoy about 40 minutes of unvarnished classmate comments, emotions and behavior with a click here: ND68 50th reunion. If you’re ready for some binge viewing, click to John Oliver’s celebration of Pat Collins’ Washington, DC NBC Channel 4 reporting.
And after reloading the popcorn bowl, click in order to watch the South Bend PBS station’s documentary about Joe Kernan. Among friends appearing on camera is Skip Strezlecki, who was present with many other classmates on March 14th, when station WNIT hosted a viewing. During the reception Matt Walsh and Joyce hosted in the new Architecture Building resulting from their family’s gift, class president Tom Weyer noted the ubiquity of the Great ’68 in the evening’s celebration: not only Joe Kernan himself, but the Architecture Building, then to the Debartolo building and the viewing in the Michael Browning theater. The crowd was strong and proud: Matt Walsh and Joyce, Chris Murphy and Carmi, Tom Cuggino, Gene Cavanaugh and Pat, Pat Barth and Jenny, Greg Downes, Jim O’Rourke, Steve Anderson, Dennis Toolan and Mary Lou, John Walsh, Tom Gibbs, Tom Figel among many. Former track team members Pete Farrell, Ron Kurtz, Ken Howard, Bob Timm, plus Paul Nowak traveled far for Joe’s evening and for a mini-reunion. Still, Matt pointed out that a May showing would have swelled the group to include those then wintering in Naples. As he looked about him at the reception group and the environs, Tom Weyer observed that as some guys age, they carve out a man cave in a basement or a garage. “But Matt Walsh did this,” the grand new building for the Architecture Department.  
The whole visit was a fine time for Ron Kurtz, who wrote, “Four former track teammates attended the Joe Kernan tribute, Ken Howard (San Francisco), Pete Farrell (Princeton, NJ), Bob Timm (Lake Geneva , WI) and Ron Kurtz (Houston), also joined by fellow Badin Hall denizen, Paul Nowak (Nashville). We stuck around until Saturday morning so we could be entertained/educated by two of our Class of 69 teammates who failed to escape Northern Indiana’s clutches, Mark Walsh and Dan Saracino. Lately, in an attempt to lessen the crankiness brought about by the preponderance of night home games on the schedule, our group has been gathering, along with our wives, at remote locations on fall football weekends. This fall we’ll be joined by John O’Connor and his wife Jan in Sedona, Arizona.” Later, Jim O’Rourke wrote: “I think we each imagine going out like Ted Williams to the adoring hurrahs and applause of our friends and family. Few of us, though, will ever get that chance. Joe deserved every minute of (the evening).”

Jim O’Rourke thinks the April, 2019 launch of the sixth edition of his book may give the O’Rourkes the wherewithal for a Torey Pines sojourn sometime.


During January, Dave Graves married Marcy Callahan in Del Ray, FL. At the ceremony were Rich Rogers and Pat, Neil Rogers, Marty Rogers,  Pat DeMare, Mike Carroll and Joan, and Brian McManus, who hosted a reception in his Gulf Stream apartment.

Celebrating with Dave Graves and Marcy at Brian McManus’ Gulf Stream, FL condominium: Rich Rogers, Marty Rogers, Brian McManus, Dave Graves, Neil Rogers, Mike Carroll and Pat DeMare

Left off the guest list of 180 attendees was Jim Hutchinson, despite lab reports he let Dave “borrow” senior year; Jim took out the slight as victor against all comers in a nine-ball pool tournament. Look for future announcements of the Graves’ dog, minivan, and childrens’ soccer play.
  Brian Schanning and Susan cruised in Norway during January for viewing of the Northern Lights “and were on the same ship that got in trouble recently. No problems on our cruise, although we had to bypass a port on the way back due to weather conditions. It’s a good reminder that on the water, it doesn’t take many failures/mistakes to get into big trouble quickly. In March, we travelled to NYC to celebrate Sue’s latest decennial birthday with friends who came up from Baltimore.  Tom Fitzharriswas on hand to offer us his Metropolitan Museum of Art docent services for an afternoon. We had a fantastic time as Tom led us through a tour of Greek, Roman and Egyptian art and architecture. Tom and I have been friends since growing up in Eastchester, NY and attending Immaculate Conception School from K to 8. Needless to say, Tom’s art portfolio has come a long way since we were in Miss Noble’s weekly art class.”
  Jay Schwartz has begun the blog “One More Thing. . . “ for expression of his sentiments on varied topics. Click https://jayschwartzonthegrid.com/category/uncategorized/.

In Scottsdale, AZ, where they have lived for eight years, Bill Kelly and his wife Mary, are happily engaged in grassroots political organizing for their Democratic Party candidates. Bill writes that they also enjoy cruise ship travel, even when schedules run afoul of class 50th reunions. In his letter, Bill said that he and Mary see Bill’s senior year roommate Tom Vecchi, ’69, who has lived in Phoenix more than 30 years. “We are heading off to an Arizona Diamondbacks game next month before Tom and his wife take off for their summer home on the finger lakes of upstate NY.”

James Bigler, classmate and former Miami, FL police detective

In your prayers, remember the mother of Tom Misch, who died in March, and the family of James Bigler, who died in Gainesville, FL Dec. 18, 2018. After studying law for a time, Jim spent a career as a police detective in Miami. Also, remember Tom McKenna, Carmel, IN as he recovers from hip replacement surgery and anticipates surgery on his knees.
Please send news to Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt 3E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 773-764-4898, tfigel@reputecture.com.

Class notes submitted January 17, 2019

Posted on January 24, 2019 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment

True Always

Keenan Hall residents prepping for St. Mary’s panty raid, Spring, 1965

Periodically, journalists begin turning to favorite words and phrases with the regularity of Fed Ex packages heading to Memphis. Examples from recent years include eponymous, iconic and bespoke. Now, there’s true freshman, which, it turns out, means something other than the people we were in the fall of 1964. Or does it? Weren’t our roommates true freshmen? Sure, at age 21 and a former Marine, Larry “Monk” Forness appeared borderline at first, an outlier able to help the true sophomores of Zahm Hall obtain alcohol. But he soon fell into step as a true freshman acquiring knowledge with everyone else of the Norton Anthology and the schedule of buses from Barat or St. Xavier’s. Paul Stulgaitis, Jerry Maglio, Dick Bertel, all of us lived as true freshmen with access to a proper Gilbert’s wardrobe and timed payments. Brien Murphy, equally true, eschewed that look for a sweatshirt with sleeves ripped – or with Brien, bitten – off. Who were truer freshmen than Class President Tom Weyer, Tiger Schaeffer and Chuck Grable as they belly-flopped onto the icy mud of the North Quad? Open our heavily redacted yearbook to any headshot and remember the true freshmen squirting shaving cream beneath doors or getting excited about Ara: Gary Olney, Dave Vecchia, Tom Sherer, John Myers, Paul Widzowski. And what about the poor rectors – Father Matthew Miceli, CSC, and Father Robert Austgen, CSC, for example – who tried to ride herd over the likes of Charlie Schmitt and Brice Parker?

True freshmen must progress to become true sophomores. To their dying days, Chuck Wordell and Eddie Kurtz probably made it no farther than that. As for true juniors, maybe Thomas D. McCloskey, Jr., James Leger, Jr., Thomas L. Bush, Jr., Daniel W. Casey, Jr., Frank Chuck, Jr., and Robert Wildes, Jr. held that station, while Christopher Murphy III, William M. Dewey III and Joseph A. Schwartz III over-achieved.
True seniors are impossible to imagine. Impossible. Jeff Keyes’ liking for 4 pm dining only makes him fiscally prudent, ready for his long true sophomore phase. Even after a half century and some, who can think of one true senior? Senior Class President Mike Minton? Fred Ferlic? Thomas F. McKenna? Boyish John Flemming? Nope.

True is an apt word, just the same: true friendship, true spirt and heart, the Great 68. This includes true loss, the death of Dave Kabat at the end of 2018, shortly after a fall in Michiana led to a rousing reception in South Bend as physicians Fred Ferlic and Steve Anderson led a line of visiting well-wishers; Gene Cavanaugh, Joe Kernan, Bryan Dunigan, and Tom Cuggino.

Dave “Lunch” Kabat

On November 13, 2018, we also lost Dr. Jim Fticsar, USN (ret) of Chesapeake, VA.

Jim Ftiicsar

Bob Ptak flew from FL and Brian Gormley from VA for Dave’s New Buffalo, MI funeral, where friends included Sheila and Tom Gibbs, Mary Ann and Tom McKenna, Mary Pat and Rock McKenna, Skip Strezlecki, John Walsh, Bridget and Pat Herald, Jean and Roger Guerin, Mary and Tom Weyer, Mary Lou and Dennis Toolan, and Patty McPartlin, while Dr. Rick McPartlin tended his own hospital patients. Where did Dave pick up the nickname Lunch? Bryan Dunigan explained: “Often times, Dave, who was manager of the Notre Dame baseball team, could not be located and the team would say he was ‘out to Lunch’”.

Gene Cavanaugh sent news of former Government Professor Donald Kommers’ death December 21, 2019 at Holy Cross Village. The South Bend Tribune obituary appears in a following post.
True also joins with service and brilliance. In a following blog item, read about (mandated) retiring Traverse City, MI Judge Tom Phillips and the wise programs he began for offenders, including drug addicts.

Joe Kernan’s health is not good but the impact of his government service and kindness is powerful. Matt Walsh and Joyce, Class President Tom Weyer and Mary will be among many classmates attending a March screening in South Bend of a PBS documentary about Joe’s life.

Ted Bratthauar, Tom Curtin, Mike Moore and Mike Obiala

During the Christmas season, when Mike Obiala and Marilyn visited their DC daughter Julie, they had an evening of reunion with Ted Bratthauar, Tom Curtin, Mike Moore and their wives.

Tom Culcasi found levity in texts exchanged during Notre Dame’s game with Clemson: “Mike Moore, Tom Curtin, Tom Phillips and I have had a texting conversation going for a year now for each game. Mike starts the countdown by being the first to own and wear the year’s spirit shirt. He then gives us regular updates as to the start of the season. Mike stands and paces for the entire game unless he is at Tom Curtin’s house. There Curtin duck-tapes him to a chair until the end of the game. We start texting each other mid morning of game day with coaching tips etc. Moore is the eternal optimist–we could be down by 30 with 10 seconds on the clock and he still thinks we can win. The rest of us are not quite as positive.. The closer the game, the poorer we play, the more texts fly back and forth during the game. (Judy thinks we are worse than teenage girls with our texting, a feeling that Curtin’s wife also supports). We don’t have a name for our group yet, but it sure made the season even more fun. Almost like having 4 seats together in one of those fancy new skyboxes.”

Tom Fitzharris’ Warm Winter oil

Tom Fitzharris’s art secured another honor, presence in a January, 2019 show put on by the Blue Mountain Gallery Winter Show, Chelsea, NY.

Jim Schindler sent regrets from St. Louis about missing two reunions last year: the 50th and then the Marching Band’s fall reunion. You can imagine his year 2019 resolutions.

True or not, please send news and photos, epiphanies and fatwahs to Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt 3E, Chicago, IL 60626, tfigel@reputecture.com, tel. 773-764-4898.

Class Mass Sermon, Father John Pearson, CSC

Posted on July 6, 2018 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine • Leave a comment

Father John Sheehan, S.J. and Father John Pearson, C.S.C.

Homily for Notre Dame Golden Reunion, 2018

Welcome to all of you, members of the Class of 1968 (known in all humility to ourselves and even some others as the Great 68), members of the 50-Year Club, and any other alums and connected folks who think this is a great time to attend Mass! I am Fr. John Pearson, CSC, assisted by Deacon Bob Smith, and concelebrating is Fr. John Sheehan, SJ, all members of the Class of 1968.
As a student I lived at Moreau Seminary, and when I returned to teach in the law school I lived in Sorin Hall, right above Fr. Monk Malloy. It is there that I learned that Sorin is the greatest of halls!

All of us in the Class of 1968 are in some awe that it has actually been 50 years since we were students here, 50 years since we sat out on the quad roasting in the sun at our graduation, looking ahead to what our lives would hold. Some of us may remember the wisdom given us by our Commencement Speaker or at least remember who our Commencement speaker was (I don’t). I am sure we were told to be grateful for what we had received here and to go out eagerly to change the world (those are words given by nearly all Commencement Speakers, mainly because they are true).

We’re also in awe at the alums we meet who are members of the 50-year club ahead of us and have had experiences similar to and very different from our own. I’d like to suggest that as we cross the 50-year line, we are just like we were when we graduated high school and moved on to college. We went from the being the oldest and most-experienced to being the youngest and least experienced. As we join the ranks of those gone ahead of us, we are once again the youngest and least experienced. And there’s something nice about saying we’re young again!

We’re back here now 50 years later, in part elated by the lives we’ve led, by the works we’ve done, by the friends we have made and kept, by the spouses we were fortunate to wed, by the children we may have brought into the world, and at the same time sobered by the moments when things have not gone the way we had hoped. As we share stories we see variations of ourselves in the faces of those classmates we’re meeting once again. I don’t mean taking stock of who seems to have aged better than others, or in comparing careers and works and so forth. I mean we hope to see some sort of hint to what kind of person we’ve become and they’ve become, based on the blessings we’ve received here.

We have a hint how to do that, one that involves looking into our own hearts, and it comes from our readings today, that come from the Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Sacred Heart is the symbol of the love that the Lord has for us, and it is the name given this church we pray in now. We hear from two readings, a letter from John and the Gospel of John. Both of those readings are dripping with love, the love of God for us and the love we’re called to return to God by sharing it with one another. “Everyone who loves is begotten of God,” we hear from the First Reading, and from the Gospel, “God is love and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you,” Jesus says. “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain….This I command you: love one another.”

Those are comforting and challenging words. We don’t make God love us, by loving one another. We don’t win God’s love. It’s because God already and always loves us that we want to love one another, that we find the strength to love one another. It is the fruit of God’s gift to us that bears fruit. Sometimes it’s hard for us to think like that – so much of what we do is by our own efforts, individual or collective. But the Gospel tells us that what matters most, what is the foundation of everything, is God’s love for each one of us.

Remembering that is a little bit of what college reunions are for, why we come back 50 years later, or even more. Something happened to us here; something touched our hearts in a way that makes us want to relive it. The mentors we admired, the rectors who cared for us even when tried to find ways to keep the lights on at night, the friends we made, the classes we studied, the long hours of conversation where we talked of war and peace, love and the hunger for meaning, and how to change the rules at Notre Dame, the excitement at the miracle that Ara wrought. (I remember “Ara stop the snow”). All of those things and more contained enough seeds of the love God has for us that we can’t help but come back and try to touch it and feel it again.

And so, we’re back. “We love thee, Notre Dame”, Our Lady and the university bearing your name, because it was here that we had experiences and relationships that could blossom elsewhere and enrich our lives. Keep teaching us to love one another as your Son commands us!

John H. Pearson, C.S.C.
Basilica of the Sacred Heart
Notre Dame, Indiana
June 1, 2018

Ralph Neas presentation, ND 50th reunion

Posted on July 5, 2018 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine • 1 Comment

Ralph G. Neas, University of Notre Dame, Class of 1968
50th Class Reunion Speech:
“Making America Work Again: Lessons Learned from Father Theodore Hesburgh and Republican Senator Edward W. Brooke”
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
June 2, 2018

Introduction
Good morning! Wonderful to be here with you. I am honored and humbled to have this opportunity to share some thoughts at our 50th class reunion.
This morning I want to discuss how, as Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, we can make America consistent with the values we learned from our beloved Father Ted Hesburgh and his colleagues at Notre Dame and reinforced by the political lessons I learned from Republican Senator Edward W. Brooke, my first boss and lifelong mentor. Their deaths in early 2015 left a huge void in my life, but their integrity, courage and patriotism endure and inspire. I will also discuss how the spirit of Notre Dame and Notre Dame graduates have played a key role in virtually every aspect of my life.
But first I want to salute:
The members of The Great 68 Reunion Committee. Special plaudits to Chairman Fred Ferlic, Tom Figel, and Tom Weyer for their tireless efforts and effective leadership.
All my Notre Dame classmates, especially my Notre Dame roommates David Cortright, Fran Lenski, and Jim Franczek. Jim, incredibly, not only went to Notre Dame with me, but also the University of Chicago Law School and Marmion Military Academy in Aurora, Illinois. For 54 years, Jim has been my best friend.
And finally, Katherine Neas, my wife of 30 years, my partner in every way, and the mom of our miracle daughter Maria. Katy has had an extraordinary career, first with Senator Tom Harkin, then 23 years with Easterseals, where she became one of the nation’s leading advocates for children with disabilities, and currently as the Executive Vice President of the American Physical Therapy Association, where she is perfectly positioned to assist us with the next stage of our lives.
If it were not for Notre Dame, Katy and I would never have made it far enough to become a married couple. We met in early January of 1986. For me, supposedly a permanent bachelor, it was love at first sight. For Katy, no reaction at all. Somehow, I managed to get her to join me for lunch at the Senators’ Dining Room in the U.S. Capitol. I was hoping to impress Katy with my friendships with Democratic and Republican senators. A real power lunch. Perhaps more importantly, I hoped she would meet the servers who had promised my mother after my near death from Guillain Barre Syndrome in 1979 that they would provide me with extra fried chicken and mashed potatoes to help regain the 65 pounds I had lost during my 140 days in a hospital.
The lunch did not start well. Like many people during those awkward introductory moments, we talked about where we had gone to college. I proudly stated that I was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, class of 1968. Katy, growing paler by the moment, told me she graduated from Georgetown, class of 1985. We were both undone by the 17 year age difference. But Katy was almost as upset when she learned that I was a Republican. If lunch had not already been ordered, we both would have politely said goodbye and left.
But then came divine intervention. Katy, trying to keep a conversation going, said to me “so you went to Notre Dame. Well, my father went to Notre Dame. My uncle went to Notre Dame. And all my aunts went to St. Mary’s. Then the coup de grace: “and my grandfather played next to Knute Rockne in 1913 when Notre Dame upset Army with the Gus Dorais to Rockne forward passes.” Immediately, the clouds parted and a shaft of bright light entered the dining room. I thought to myself, “She may be too young. But she has royal blood!”
About two years later we were married in Des Moines, Iowa, Thanksgiving weekend at St. Augustine’s Church by a priest who had been Katy’s father’s Notre Dame roommate. That day, before the wedding, Notre Dame defeated Southern Cal on its way to the 1988 college football national championship. Kneeling at the altar, just after Communion, I asked Katy if she had heard the score. Rather dismissively, she replied that she had been too busy with her bridesmaids that afternoon to know what had happened. With a huge smile, I told her that Notre Dame had won 27-10. Katy replied “That’s just great.” To which I responded: “But honey, don’t you understand, it was a 17 point difference. What a great omen!”
Tumultuous and Dangerous Times
After Fred and Tom extended the invitation to speak at the reunion, I had a chance to reconnect with many classmates and ask them what I should talk about. Almost to a person they mentioned two things. First, the spirit of Notre Dame and what it has meant to us in our lives. And second, the current political environment. Everyone thought the times were chaotic, excessively partisan, and dangerous.
Internationally, there was serious concern about the North Korean situation, the Iran Nuclear Accord, the Paris Climate Treaty, the Middle East, possible trade wars, and, of course, Russian intervention in the 2016 elections and possibly in future elections.
Domestically, there was unease around health care, immigration, gun safety, race relations, the nation’s debt, environmental protections, reproductive rights, income inequality, and numerous other issues. Many brought up their fear that our 230 year constitutional system of checks and balances and the rule of law were endangered. Regardless of political persuasion, everyone was deeply worried and skeptical about the ability and willingness of either party to do anything constructive about the mess we are in.
But several of our classmates pointed out that the Class of 1968 is no stranger to tumultuous times. And they were not alone. Earlier this week, CNN broadcast a documentary, produced by Tom Hanks, entitled “1968: The Year that Changed America.” Consider just a few of the momentous events that occurred that year:
In late March, President Lyndon Baines Johnson startled the nation by announcing that he would not seek re-election.
On April 4th, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, precipitating major riots in many American cities.
January and May saw the bloodiest months of the Vietnam War.
Four days after our graduation, on June 6th, moments after winning the California presidential primary., Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.
More race riots occurred in the summer.
In August, the Democratic Convention in Chicago was engulfed by chaos and violence and battles in the street with police.

Richard Nixon won the presidential election, narrowly defeating Hubert H. Humphrey, with arch-segregationist George Wallace capturing more than 13% of the vote.

Several days before Katy and I left for Notre Dame, Jim Franczek emailed me that I should purchase Jon Meacham’s new book, “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels.” Great advice as usual. The award winning presidential historian points out that America has experienced numerous events that tested our nation’s soul and our very existence, including the revolutionary birth of our country; slavery and the Civil War, which took 500,000 American lives; World War I; the Depression; World War II; and the Cold War, especially the precarious days of the Cuban Missile Crisis and 9-11. Each time a resilient America has regrouped and rededicated itself to the fundamental American values of hope, optimism, faith in our future, patriotism, and, while not always immediately, a commitment to guaranteeing all of our citizens not an equal result, but an equal opportunity. I believe strongly that we will do it again.
Ara Parseghian
The Class of 68 was exceptionally lucky to have several of the country’s better angels guiding us at Notre Dame and preparing us to be good citizens in the future. First, they made sure we had the finest Catholic (with a large and a small “c”) education possible.
Second, they reinforced what helped propel us to Notre Dame in the first place, the “Spirit of Notre Dame’: “Notre Dame as a place of teaching and research, of scholarship and publication, of service and community.” But there are intangible characteristics that also help define Notre Dame graduates. One of those is never giving up, “what though the odds be great or small.” That indefatigability has helped us through life’s most challenging personal and professional moments.
My first introduction to Notre Dame occurred in 1954 during the summer after second grade in 1954 when I read “Knute Rockne: All American” (every afternoon at around 2 p.m., my mom would interfere with my baseball playing and give me a choice: a nap or read a book). From the outset, I was hooked on the Fighting Irish, absorbing all the stories about the upset of Army in 1913, the deathbed remarks of the Gipper to Rockne, and the dominance of Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen: Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller, and Layden. Ten years later, even after some exceptionally lean years on the football field, the only university I applied to was Notre Dame. Little did I know what was going to happen next.
Ara Parseghian came to Notre Dame in 1964, the same year as the Class of 68. In my judgment, he was among the greatest college football coaches ever. Not only did Ara win football games, but he also demonstrated daily total integrity, the spirit of Notre Dame, a sense of fair play, and most importantly a commitment to a Notre Dame education for every one of his players. Indeed, one of the most impressive accomplishments of the undefeated 1966 football championship team, perhaps the best college team ever, was that its graduation rate was one of the highest in the country.
Like you, I can also remember vividly the national football championship seasons of 1973, 1977, and 1988, as well as the women’s basketball national championships of 2001 and 2018 (thank you,Title IX!). And will anyone of us ever forget Dwight Clay’s last second basket ending UCLA’s record 88 game winning streak. Or Joe Montana’s pass to Kris Haines as the clock ran out in the 1979 Cotton Bowl against Houston, coming back from a 34-12 deficit in the last 7 minutes and 37 seconds. Or Arike’s Ogunbowale’s unprecedented last second game winning shots against both Connecticut and Mississippi State in this year’s Final Four.
But my most memorable Notre Dame football game was not a victory, but a loss. As you remember well, Ara and the 1964 team had won nine games in a row and were ranked number one in the nation going into the Thanksgiving weekend Southern Cal game. Leading by 17-0 at the half, we lost the game with one minute and thirty-three seconds to go when Craig Fertig completed a touchdown pass to Rod Sherman. Absolutely devastating.
However, two days later, I was about to find out what Notre Dame was really all about. My true baptism as a Notre Dame man occurred in the dilapidated old Notre Dame Field House as we welcomed the team back from California. For almost two hours, 10,000 students and supporters applauded, yelled, cheered, and cried, as Ara and team captain Jim Carroll talked about the Southern Cal game, their love of Notre Dame, and how much the student body meant to them. The experience was beautiful, magical, and inspirational. And in that field house, after a crushing loss, we were united in solidarity, sad but optimistic about the future. From that moment on, I felt that I was a full-fledged member of the Notre Dame family.
Father Ted
Father Ted Hesburgh was a role model for me even before I arrived at Notre Dame and for many decades after my graduation. After the 1957 enactment of the first new civil rights law in almost 100 years, President Dwight David Eisenhower appointed Father Ted to the newly created United States Commission on Civil Rights. He later became chairman and helped lead the Commission through historic and controversial times. Indeed, under Father Ted’s leadership, the Commission conducted comprehensive hearings in D.C. and around the country, gathering meticulously the documentation of racial discrimination that helped enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the landmark laws prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, education, employment, voting, and housing.
Time and again, Father Ted demonstrated considerable courage and independence, especially when chairing the Commission hearings in the heart of Mississippi in 1963, contrary to the wishes of the White House and Department of Justice. He demonstrated that courage again in early July 1964 when he came to the assistance of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  While King is considered by almost everyone today, and deservedly so, an icon of the civil rights movement, in 1964 he was a polarizing figure who did not have the backing of most Americans. The day before King held a major civil rights rally at Soldiers Field in Chicago, on behalf of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he called Father Ted and told him that Mayor Richard Daley and Catholic Church leaders would not attend. He asked Father Ted whether, as a renowned and respected religious leader, he would join him. And Father Ted did, giving one of his best civil rights speeches. Forty-five years later, in his Hesburgh Library office, Father Ted gave me an inscribed picture of himself and King arm in arm that day in front of Soldiers Field. That picture will always hang in a special place in my home and in my heart.
Father Ted’s independence, not surprisingly, sometimes hurt him. In 1972, President Nixon fired Father Ted from the Civil Rights Commission for daring to criticize the Nixon administration for not fully enforcing the civil rights laws. As a second year law student at the University of Chicago, Father Ted’s moral courage left a lasting impression on me.
Senator Edward W. Brooke
After working for Nelson Rockefeller’s 1968 presidential campaign, graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, and serving in the U.S. Army, I was asked by Republican Senator Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts in December 1972 to join his staff. I was overjoyed. Finishing his first term as a senator, Senator Brooke was already an historic figure — the first African American popularly elected to the U.S. Senate. In his second year as a senator, Senator Brooke, along with Senator Walter Mondale, cosponsored the 1968 Fair Housing Act. In 1969 and 1970, Senator Brooke was the Republican leader of the successful bipartisan efforts to defeat the Supreme Court nominations of Clement Haynsworth and J. Harold Carswell. To oppose the nominees of the president from your own party, someone you had campaigned for, was not an easy thing to do.
Senator Brooke’s courage and political independence continued unabated during my six years as his Chief Legislative Assistant. Early in my first year with him, Senator Brooke assigned me to cover the Watergate scandal. Right after the “Saturday Night Massacre” in October 1973 (when President Nixon fired Special Counsel Archibald Cox and then accepted the immediate resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus), Senator Brooke was the first senator to call for the resignation of President Nixon.
After the election of archconservative Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina in 1972, Senator Brooke, working with a bipartisan coalition, spent the next six years leading the opposition to the relentless and unsuccessful efforts of Helms and conservative southern Democrats to weaken the civil rights laws enacted in the 1960s. With Democratic Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana, he led the 1975 defense of Title IX (prohibiting gender discrimination in education) and in 1978 the effort to extend the time period for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
And then also in 1978, he defied the conservative wing of the Republican party, by supporting the Panama Canal Treaty, a vote that contributed to his re-election defeat later that year.
Senator Brooke was a Republican in the mold of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Nelson Rockefeller. He taught me everything about the legislative process, especially the importance of bipartisanship. Repeatedly, after all the ideological and political arguments had been exhausted, Senator Brooke would help craft the timely bipartisan compromise that would catapult a bill into a law that advanced the nation’s interests. And like Father Ted and Ara, he taught me about integrity, courage, independence, and perseverance. For 42 years, Senator Brooke was a superb mentor and close friend. He even made the closing arguments in my long campaign to persuade Katy to marry me.
Battle with Guillain Barre Syndrome
After Senator Brooke’s tragic defeat, I started working with moderate Republican Senator David Durenberger of Minnesota. Six weeks into the new job, while on my first visit to Minneapolis with Senator Durenberger, I contracted Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) which would take over my life for 140 days. The first week went pretty well. On my first day, I met the chaplain of my new home, St. Mary’s Hospital, who was a Notre Dame graduate. I then met another Notre Dame graduate who would become my gastrointestinal doctor and subsequently insert a feeding tube through my nose and into my stomach that would help keep me alive. Most importantly, I met Sister Margaret Francis Schilling, a 73 year old nun from the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph. She had Guillain Barre in her 25th year as a nun and met me as she was celebrating her 50th anniversary as a nun. Sister Margaret became my guardian angel, psychologist, and all-around advisor. Perhaps you can understand why I turned down a strong recommendation from my parents, Senator Durenberger, and the U.S. Surgeon General to transfer me to the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Within three weeks, the paralysis (usually reversible over time) which had started in my face and extremities, had spread throughout my entire body. On March 5th, I had a tracheostomy, surgery that cut a hole in my neck allowing me to be connected to a respirator, a machine that would breathe for me over the next 75 days. The tracheostomy also eliminated my ability to speak. I could only communicate by blinking my eyes, once for “yes,” twice for “no.”
On Sunday, March 18th, a priest came into my room wearing his vestments and giving me what I assumed to be general absolution or the Last Rites of the Church. I knew then with certainty that I was in serious trouble.
Two days later, things became much worse. The pneumonia, which most patients get when lying on their backs for a considerable length of time, was literally drowning me in my own liquids. The pulmonary doctor and a team of nurses hovered over my body until midnight, constantly using a straw-like medical device to suction out massive amounts of watery green mucus from my lungs and nasal cavities. I thought the end was near. At midnight, I silently said goodbye to my mom and dad and prayed many Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Acts of Contrition.
The next morning, to my pleasant surprise, I awoke.  And then around April 1st, slowly but surely, and initially unknown to me, the painful reversal process started kicking in. I learned anew how to sit up, kneel, crawl, stand up, and walk.
Several months later, while beginning my rehabilitation at my parents’ home, Mom and I were reading a number of the 2,000 letters and get-well cards I had received while at St. Mary’s. Suddenly, I yelled out: “Mom, you are not going to believe this! Remember on March 21, when the nurses called you after the night that we all thought I might not make it? Well that same night, at Universal Notre Dame night in Washington, D.C., Nordy Hoffman, then the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and an All-American guard on Knute Rockne’s last football team, asked the several hundred Domers present to dedicate that night to my recovery, say prayers on my behalf, and had everyone sign the get-well card I now have in my hand.” You can well imagine my deep and incredible feelings of gratitude, loyalty, and love.
I am so happy to see our classmate Rocky Bleier in the audience today. In March 1980, Rocky helped me, Senator Durenberger, Senator Brooke, and others launch the Guillain Barre Syndrome Foundation. A year later, the foundation merged into what is now the GBS-CIDP Foundation International. Under the phenomenal leadership of Co-Founder and former long-time Executive Director Estelle Benson, the Foundation has now become an international organization of 30,000 members with 182 chapters in 33 countries.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
While with Senator Brooke, I worked closely with the nation’s oldest and broadest coalition, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), “The Lobbying Arm of the Civil Rights Movement.” Founded in 1950 by legendary civil rights leaders Arnold Aronson, Roy Wilkins, and A.Philip Randolph, LCCR has played a leading role in the enactment of all the civil rights laws over the past seven decades. Along with Notre Dame and the U.S. Senate, LCCR is one of my favorite American institutions.
After the dramatic 1980 election of Ronald Reagan and the Senate turning Republican for the first time in a quarter of a century, LCCR asked me whether I would be willing to consider becoming the first full time and paid executive director of LCCR. I responded that of course I would consider it. Coincidently, that same week in March 1981, John Sears, the campaign manager for the 1968 presidential run of Richard Nixon and the 1980 presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan  and a 1960 graduate of Notre Dame, took me out to lunch to ask me to join his law firm. I mentioned to him the possible Leadership Conference offer. John immediately responded, “Forget my law firm offer and accept the LCCR position.” I was taken aback. I asked him why a conservative Republican would urge me to be the CEO of the Leadership Conference. John was direct. He told me that “his friends who had just been elected would do everything possible to undo many of the things that my friends had accomplished since the New Deal. There is going to be an epic battle. Our nation will need the best people to represent both sides. In addition, you should never turn down an opportunity to be on the front lines of history.” I am not sure I have ever received better advice. Nor more patriotic. John knew that disagreements over political and judicial philosophies were not fights over “good versus evil.” They were constitutional debates over the proper role of government that have been hard fought since the founding of our nation.
Ten days later, the LCCR Executive Committee offered me the executive director job. I can tell you that choosing me was not a unanimous decision. Indeed, one civil rights leader with a smile on his face congratulated me after the decision and told me: “I like and respect you, Ralph, but as far as I am concerned, you are 0-4 in certain qualifications. You are white, male, Republican, and Catholic.” A quote that I would never forget, especially when trying to forge a consensus coalition position for the next 15 years among 180 national organizations representing minorities, women, labor, older Americans, people with disabilities, LGBT communities, and many religious denominations,
During the Reagan-Bush administrations, despite steep odds, the national organizations in LCCR managed to help enact legislation to strengthen all the major civil rights laws, overturn more than a dozen Supreme Court decisions that had weakened those laws, and enact the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. All these laws passed with, on average, 85% bipartisan congressional majorities, something that seems unthinkable in today’s polarized political environment. And in 1987, in perhaps one of its most important efforts, LCCR helped the Senate defeat the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork by a bipartisan vote of 58-42, the largest margin of defeat for a Supreme Court nominee in our nation’s history. Currently, I am writing a book about how all this happened.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has been successful in large measure because of its ability to harness and direct the resources, constituencies, and skill sets of its member organizations, especially with respect to grassroots organizing, media outreach, policy expertise, and legislative advocacy. But most importantly, LCCR’s success over the decades has depended on its unwavering commitment to bipartisanship. Bipartisanship matters not just because of a commitment to good government or because it is necessary to garner majority votes in the House and Senate or super majorities to overturn a presidential veto or a Senate filibuster. Bipartisanship is necessary because it is important that our citizens understand that a newly enacted law reflects support from both parties. Only then is there a high likelihood that law will be sustained over time.
To achieve a bipartisan result, LCCR members knew that at some point in the legislative process they had to support their congressional Democratic and Republican champions in their efforts to craft a principled and timely bipartisan compromise that would enable a bill to become a law. No organization or coalition has been as successful as LCCR at doing this over the past seven decades. Whenever I am asked by journalists, students, or any participant in the legislative process what is the basic LCCR legislative strategy, I always respond: “to help put together the strongest possible bipartisan bill that would advance the nation’s interests and can be enacted into law.”
A week ago, at the request of my daughter’s political science professor, Larry Gerston, I gave a lecture to his class at the University of California at Santa Cruz. It was a special moment to have the opportunity to watch the reactions of my daughter and her classmates as I discussed coalition building, bipartisanship, and making government work.
The day before I had a comparable moment when I met with my friend Leon Panetta at the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Public Policy Institute in Monterey. As many of you know, Secretary Panetta has had an extraordinary public service career, serving in the Clinton Administration as Secretary of Defense, the Director of the CIA, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, and President Clinton’s chief of staff. In addition, he served 16 years in the House of Representatives, compiling an impressive legislative record, in large part because of his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans.
I have two memorable take-aways from that meeting. Number one was at the end of the meeting when Leon showed me a brick from the wall of Osama Bin Laden’s house in Pakistan, a gift from the Navy Seals who found and killed Bin Laden. It made me shiver with respect, awe, and gratitude.
The second was a framed letter on an office wall that Leon, then the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, had received from President Ronald Reagan after long and arduous negotiations had produced an historic budget compromise. The letter on presidential stationary thanked Chairman Panetta for all his hard work. It went on to state that President Reagan had not gotten all that he wanted from the compromise bill and he knew that Leon had not either. But President Reagan said, “the American people got what they needed.” That sums up a government working as the Framers of the Constitution intended. I walked out of Leon’s office on Cloud Nine.
1994-2018: Collapse of Bipartisanship Leading to Government Paralysis and Dysfunction
During my eight years with Senators Brooke and Durenberger in the 1970’s, the government worked well. During my 15 years with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, including the 12 years of the Reagan-Bush presidencies, I saw our constitutional system of checks and balances succeed time and again. Not only were all the civil rights laws strengthened with strong bipartisan support, but the Congress and the Republican administrations worked out historic compromises on Social Security reform and a comprehensive and fair 1986 Tax Reform Bill, as well as paving the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism and the ending of apartheid in South Africa and the ascendance of Nelson Mandela to his nation’s presidency.
But things started to change dramatically after the 1994 elections. Over the past 25 years, we have regrettably seen the rapid rise of excessive partisanship and political polarization in our country. This disturbing trend has led to government paralysis and dysfunction. While I believe there are bipartisan majorities outside of Washington favoring health care reform, the rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure, immigration reform, environmental safeguards, gun safety, civil rights, and many other domestic and international issues, Washington has been incapable of getting things done. Our political system is broken.
As a result, the confidence of the American people in their government has plummeted drastically. Consider:
In 1958, according to Gallup, 73% of the American people had confidence in the federal government in 1958. By 2015, that number had dropped to 19%.
In January 2018, The Economist’s annual “Democracy Index,” for the second year in a row, described the United States not as a “full democracy,” but as a “flawed democracy.” Twenty nations were ranked ahead of us.
In the past two years, several polls have showed that among millennials less than 30% believed democracy was essential for our form of government.

That, ladies and gentlemen, constitutes a crisis of confidence. Democracy is in trouble. Steps must be taken. Now.
“Let The Voters Choose” (LTVC)
About two years ago, a number of Democrats and Republicans approached me about putting together a nonpartisan effort to address the extreme partisanship and political polarization that besets our nation. Key leaders from the beginning have been Bernie Aronson (senior official in the Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush administrations and most recently President Obama’s Special Envoy to the Colombian Peace Accords), Mary Frances Berry (former chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, co-founder of the Free South Africa Movement and distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania) , Leslee Sherrill (communications aide to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush), Paul Kirk (former Democratic Senator and Chair of the Democratic National Committee), former Republican Senator David Durenberger, and John Shattuck (former Assistant Secretary of State and Ambassador to the Czech Republic). After several hundred meetings, many others have signed on, including senior officials from the past seven presidential administrations. Everyone agrees that we have to do everything possible to fix our broken electoral system in order to strengthen our democracy. That includes maximizing citizen participation in primary and general elections, rewarding candidates who appeal to a broader spectrum of an expanded electorate, and providing incentives to elected officials who are willing to craft timely and principled bipartisan compromises — without the fear of being “primaried” by a narrow segment of their party’s base in the next election cycle.
Operating principles agreed to include:
Nonpartisan project with Republican, Democratic, and Independent support. It must not be perceived as an effort to benefit any political party.
Feasibility: Let The Voters Choose will commit its time, energy, and resources to efforts that promise realistic and meaningful success in the near term. No federal constitutional amendments.
State-Centric; The primary focus over the next 6 to 10 years should be on building election reform movements in the states that will lead to successful ballot initiatives and state laws.
Help lead a public education campaign at the national, state, and local levels to explain the need for electoral changes that will increase political participation, diminish excessive partisanship and political polarization, and help restore public confidence in our democracy.
Seek support from business, labor and former military leaders. Very importantly, include religious leaders representing all denominations.
Work with strategic partners across the political spectrum.

Everyone agreed that a top priority should be eliminating extreme gerrymandering by setting up fair and independent redistricting commissions in the states. Voters should be choosing their representatives, not the other way around.
Another priority was supporting automatic voter representation when a citizen turns 18 (with a provision to “opt-out”).
While needing evidence-based research and a consensus process before taking a position, supporters want to take a close look at Ranked Choice Voting, opening up primaries (perhaps the “top four” model), and other possible initiatives that would optimize citizen participation, increase civility, decrease negative advertising, diminish the cost of elections, address the serious problem of “dark” money, and very importantly encourage elected officials to seek bipartisan compromises.
I am pleased to report that the New Venture Fund has agreed to incubate “Let The Voters Choose” as one of its projects. We should begin full operations in the fall. I hope many of you will choose to participate.
Conclusion
Before concluding my presentation, I would like to make three brief points.
First, I would like to underscore how vital the Constitution is to us as a nation and to us as individuals. Every day, I am in awe of the brilliance of our founders and those who passed subsequent constitutional amendments, especially the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments immediately after the Civil War.
And we must always remember that the Constitution was the result of many compromises. Equally important is that, thanks to James Madison and his allies, the Constitution encourages compromises in order to make our government work. Dividing constitutional powers among three separate and coequal branches of the Federal Government was a stroke of genius. Perhaps nothing has held our nation together and made our government workable more than our system of checks and balances. In the days and months ahead, Republicans and Democrats must respect and adhere to these checks and balances. And above all, they must act consistently with the rule of law.
Speaking of the rule of law, I would like to say a few words about Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Having observed this conservative Republican for almost two decades, I believe Mr. Mueller’s life, first and foremost, has demonstrated that he is an American patriot. Robert Mueller has been:
A war hero, having earned in Vietnam a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with the “Valor” designation;
An Assistant United States Attorney and then U.S. Attorney in California;
An Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department and an Acting Deputy Attorney General in the administration of President George H.W. Bush; and
A Director of the FBI for 12 years. Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 for a 10 year term and reappointed for two more years by President Barack Obama in 2011.

To me, Robert Mueller is a combination of the incorruptible Elliot Ness of the “Untouchables” and Sergeant Joe Friday of the T.V. series “Dragnet.” Like Sergeant Friday, all Mueller wants is: “Just the facts, ma’am.”
I would recommend that we all withhold final judgments about the Russian investigation until Mr. Mueller has had an opportunity to pursue the facts wherever they may lead him and then submit his report to the Department of Justice. Then as citizens we can examine with the Justice Department and Congress the evidence that Mr. Mueller and his team have produced.
It is imperative that Republicans and Democrats do everything possible to ensure the independence and completion of the Mueller investigation.
And finally.
I mentioned earlier that in April 2009 I had an opportunity to spend time with Father Ted in his Hesburgh library office. I had been invited to Notre Dame to deliver the annual Otis Bowen lecture and had asked for a private meeting with Father Ted. At that meeting, we discussed our mutual commitment to civil rights and some of our favorite civil rights memories. During the conversation, we were interrupted by a phone call from Father Jenkins who wanted to discuss the upcoming commencement address by the nation’s new president, Barack Obama, and the request by some that Notre Dame withdraw the invitation because of Obama’s position on abortion rights. That request was of course rejected.
After the call, Father Ted started talking to me about the Obama controversy. He believed strongly that Notre Dame should honor an invitation to the President of the United States. He also discussed his views on the university being a place where differing points of view should be discussed. Father Ted told me that while he supported the Church’s position on abortion, he always learned something from a discussion with someone who held contrary views. I will never forget that moment.
As I prepared for this presentation, I did a little research.
I discovered a marvelous quote from a fundraising video that Father Ted made in 1975 entitled “The Endless Conversation,” I would like to read it to you:
“Notre Dame can and must be a crossroads where all the vital intellectual
currents of our time meet in dialogue, where the great issues of the Church
and the world today are plumbed to their depths, where every sincere
inquirer is welcomed and listened to and respected by a serious consider-
ation of what he has to say about his belief or unbelief, his certainty or un-
certainty; where differences of culture and religion can
co-exist with friendship, civility, hospitality, respect, and love.”

The quote is also a wonderful description of how our nation and our citizens individually should act with respect to differences of opinion.
Please know how profoundly grateful I am to be with you today and to be one of your classmates.
God bless America. God bless the University of Notre Dame. And God bless every member of the Class of 1968.

Class notes submitted April 27, 2018

Posted on May 17, 2018 by admin • Posted in Class notes submitted to ND Magazine, Main Page • Leave a comment

The Great ’68 in Force!

Smoochies to the Great ’68 from

Miss June 1968

(See following post “Reunion Plans as of mid-May” for a reunion schedule and other information.)

Notre Dame’s efficiency will have the trash removed, the broken glass replaced, the furniture set back upright, the carpet stains erased by the time these notes appear in a printed magazine. Before then, for three or four sweet days at the beginning of June, we will behave as if we are young and middle-aged again.

Confident of a clean election in June, Class President Tom Weyer is also confident that Special Counsel Brian Sullivan will complete his examination by then of alleged Russian interference in some voting during the late 60s and early 70s.

Fred Ferlic, frothing to his planning committee through calls, texts and emails right up to the time of the weekend, has activities gelling into one good time after another: nights of dinners and dancing, days of programs, memorials, Mass, and being together. Handball player Mark Lies continues to trash talk Bill Cleary. South Benders Fred and Mary Jane will take up residence in a hall, a chance for Fred to obstruct any big government/big university regulations affecting free living. Many others, acting on Joe Hale’s discovery of good rates, will stay at the Doubletree. While attempting to make his own reservation for himself and Marilyn, Mike Obiala happened on a loophole: when the “nice young lady” (Mike’s term) found all 1968 rooms taken, she located space under the 1958 class heading – and at a price $1 better than ours. Bryan Dunigan and Roger Guerin, who made the reservations as they graduated in 1968, chose the Morris Inn.

Registration by the end of April had regular campus visitors and infrequent visitors returning: Rocky Bleier will perform his one-man show several times. John O’Connor, Ralph Neas and maybe Jim Stoffel will give presentations. Mike Suelzer is coming from Iowa City, IA, Jim Davis from Charleston, SC, Dick Faherty from Austin, TX. Wally Moxham had little trouble luring Tom Brislin. Jim Hutchinson and Eileen have their peeps Jerry Murray and Rich and Neil Rogers attending, maybe even camping with the Hutchinsons in a gaudy, Grateful Dead type of RV behind the Bookstore. Paul Higgins and Jim Chapman are coming from Oregon, Bill Clark from California, Paul Ramsey from New York.  Think of a name and you will find that friend among the merry-makers of the weekend. Female readers may wish to note that John McCoy is still single!

Freshman year, Keenan Hall bunch in photo

found by Tom McKenna (Chicago cuz)

The reunion will test the truth of what Bob “Rabbit” Noonan wrote as he retired from his consulting position in 2017: “After retiring from the Army, I joined Booz Allen Hamilton here in Northern Virginia and led a business unit supporting defense intelligence agencies, organizations, and units. On Oct 31, 2017, I retired from that great company as an Executive Vice President and now it’s all about travelling and catching up with old friends and spending more time with family. Diane and I live in Herndon, VA, just outside D.C. in Northern VA.”

The infrequent visitors such as the Noonans, most of them from the coasts, will have the thrill of face-to-face encounters with the Chicagoans whose names appear so regularly in the class notes, usually because Chicago classmates have a propensity to provide news about themselves.

While a 50th reunion is special, it is not the only reunion opportunity. Bill Maturo, Chris Manion, Brian McTigue, Pat Hermann, John Schmelzer, Jerry McCabe, Dick Farina, Michael R. Ryan, George Kelly and the rest of you, Joe Blake, Bill Kelly, Dick Kelly, Dennis O’Dea, Tom McCloskey and all of you who are unable to come back the first weekend of June, know that you are missed and cherished. Remembering someone? Reunite by phone, by email, by arrangement of a lunch, of a mini-gathering at a destination or on a cruise.

Bryan Dunigan, Ted Nebel, Jim Woods, Tom Figel, John Walsh, Tom Gibbs, Tom Weyer and Mike Heaton, just after departure of Mike Tyrrell and Mark Lies and just before presentation of lunch check

A mostly Chicago group proved the reunion-everywhere-often theory in late April, when Jim Woods came from Milwaukee. Chicago area native Jim flew right into the lunchtime comparison of the high school alma maters attended by Mike Heaton, John Walsh, Bryan Dunigan, Tom Weyer, Mike Tyrrell, and Ted Nebel. Afterward, Mike Heaton summed up the debate: “I have come to appreciate the difference between those who grew up on the ‘South’ side, the ‘West’ side and the ‘North’ side. In the words of Brian Shannon, the South side guys think they are the toughest, the West side guys think they are the smartest, and the North side guys think they are English.”
During February, Paul Zalesky and Steve Sullivan chose a Florida location for their own reminiscing over several conversation-stimulating drinks.

Steve Sullivan and Paul Zalesky, in prepartion for 50th reunion

Mike McCullough re-discovered his report of Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign stop in South Bend, “To Make Gentle the Life of This World”.

Ray Munchmeyer

The deaths of Ray Munchmeyer March 26, 2018 (see obituary in following post) and of John Hughes’ wife Trish during January, 2018 are sadnesses that make us grateful for the time these important friends were with us. Please remember the families and pray for them. In addition, remember Dave Hirschboeck’s family. The April death of this friend from the 1969 class produced a gathering of classmates from many years: John Walsh and Dia, Kevin Daly and Helena, Kelly Baruth and Ruth, Shaun Reynolds and Susan, Nancy Carlin and Tom Figel.

Dennis Reeder will repeat the favor he did the class at the previous reunion: he will video classmates who wish to send greetings to absent friends.  Once completed and placed on a hosting service, the video will be available on our class blog and will have a link for sending by email or text.

_________________

April 27th email from Mike Burgener:

  
Son beau comes in on may 28th and will be here for 5 days…..cannot wait to see
 him…..so i will not be at the reunion…please pass on my best to all our great
 class of 68!!!  tell rocky, dave martin and all the other great men i will
 miss them.  

we are back in the house….still lots of work to do rebuilding but it will get
 done.  the best is that my gym is up and running and i am coaching and 
training as hard as ever……my style now is:  GEEZERS RULE!!   the geezer group
 ranges in age from 83 down to the youngest buck being 62!!!   the geezer
 categories are:  50-59 you are a geezer in training.  60-64 you are a geezer.
  65-69 you are a super geezer.  70-74 and i designed the tee and made
 the groups so we are:  stud geezers!!!!  75+ since hopefully we will
 make….we will then be SUPER STUD GEEZERS!!!

SEMPER FI TO ALL MY CLASSMATES.

MIKE
_________________

Please visit the rest of www.ndclass1968.com for photos and other items. And please send news and photos to Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt 3E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 312-223-9536, tfigel@reputecture.com.

Bonus from 1968 yearbook:

Received from Bryan Dunigan May 9, 2018: During the reunion, Joe Kernan will receive the Sorin Award.  Joe will receive the award during a special presentation following the Reunion All-Class Mass on Saturday, June 2. Mass will begin at 4 p.m. inside the Joyce Center Fieldhouse, and the ceremony will start at 5 p.m., immediately following Mass.

Also, Bill Kenealy says that Bob Noonan will receive the Corby Award in November.

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