Put us in, Coach.

In a rehearsal for the 45^th reunion of our class during the first weekend of June, 2013, a group of us met in Canada recently for practice with our recall of each sacred event and connection of our student years.  Dennis Reeder and his wife Elise (Stephens SMC 69) hosted their D.C. area neighbor Carol Ann Dyer (SMC 69), my wife Nancy (Carlin SMC ’69) and me along with our three granddaughters at a grand Ottawa River cabin Dennis’ maternal grandfather and his Canadian buddies built on a small, riverfront farm during the 1950s.  A summer gathering place for the Reeder family during Dennis’ childhood, this lovely spot facing Quebec from Ontario two hours west of Ottawa is now a part of our own Notre Dame histories.  Carol Ann made her visit enroute to see relatives in northern Michigan. The Reeders made room for us among their own children and grandchildren as well as in Elise’s schedule of daily cross-river swims.  For Nancy and me, the days along the Ottawa were a respite from the Midwest sweat lodge where so many classmates led by Class President Tom Weyer are leaning down for the energetic evenings of gatoring and whatever will come along on the reunion weekend.  After the Ottawa, the Reeders, Nancy and I headed to Montreal, where we met with Jim Davis and his Charleston, SC friend Bonnie.  While in Montreal, we impressed the Quebecois with our fluent English and easy management of currency transactions pegged at 1:1.  On the evening of his arrival, Jim was about to enter a store for purchase of bottled water when he paused and asked “Will they take American money?”  A passerby, perhaps a vacationing member of the Development Office, answered, “I’ll take American money.”  The Quebecois are fully bilingual, and virtually all are on Bryan Dunigan’s email list, so we were very much at home as we poked around the city and shared our dossiers on all the people, mischief, hopes and divinities of our South Bend years.  Put us in, Coach.  We are ready for the reunion.

Of course, many others are rehearsing reunion skills, too.  Bryan Dunigan’s annual golf outing on August 9^th gave Chicago and South Bend classmates an occasion for more than one kind of sport.  The emails were a good warm-up for the jokes and banter that make for good retelling at a following year’s get-together.

Early in May, Eddie Hagar hosted a similar weekend in Palm Springs, CA for golfers Paul Dunn, Ken Collins, Tom Roche, Bill Sweetman, and Dave Boehnen.  Says Paul in his report, “We told the same old ND stories, and shared fond memories about how smart and good looking we were back then.”

David R. Lee has retired from his Albuquerque, NM law practice and turned the firm over to other ND talent: David’s son Chris Lee ’96 and Mike Ross ND Law ’96.  David mentioned other interests as well as law: he has published a legal thriller on Amazon titled “The Bail Bondsman”.  Also, his grandchildren Fletcher, 4, and Penny, 2, “can sing the ND Fight Song and have the full ND wardrobe for game days.”

Bob Dunphy kept his own black belt schedule over a weekend in June.  First, he directed a UFC Heavyweight Championship fight in San Jose for Showtime before catching a red eye flight to his daughter’s Notre Dame graduation.  Bob enjoyed hearing the grads serenade 96 year-old Father Ted Hesburgh with “Happy birthday.”

John Walsh happily caught mention of Congressman Dan Lungren in a news story about the simplistic level of Congressional orations; our classmate was the exception with his erudition.  Ralph Neas turned up in more than one story about pharmaceutical patents; Ralph heads a D.C. organization representing the makers of generic medications.  In Milwaukee, John Byrnes is a business leader recently prominent for a regional organization’s $1 million investment in petabytes of computing capacity important for medical research and other technological innovation.  John is executive managing director of Mason Wells Inc.

Tom McCloskey is working on the establishment of June 21^st as National Music Day.  Tom and his wife Bonnie live in Aspen, CO and have another home near their grandchildren in San Francisco.

Paul Arthur Romanski, a good Navy ROTC friend of Brian Schanning, died on May 5, 2012 in Newport, R.I.  Born in Chicago, Paul retired from the U.S. Navy in 1998 as a Captain.  Please remember Paul, his wife Karen and their children in your prayers.

Please note that our class blog has settled at the address www.ndclass1968.com.  There you will find announcements, emails and plenty of photos, including a recent one sent by John Williams.  He was attending an annual lunch with Dan Jordan, John Kukankos, and John McGrath

Send news to: Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt. 3-E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 312-881-7391.

ND Class of 1968                 Contact: Tom Figel, tel. 312-223-9536 x 301

February 1, 2012                  tfigel@lake-effect.com

Tragedy Averted

By the narrowest of margins, a mere whisker of four decades and some years in the timeline of human existence, our class and western civilization itself, escaped the calamity that befell a favorite South Bend address last December 5^th.  On that night, the original Corby’s, vacant and unprotected, fell victim to a careening pickup truck in a reported hit-and-run crash.  What if this had occurred in the 1960s time when the flower of Catholic youth, male and female, was accustomed to moments of conviviality and relaxation there?  Imagine the leadership vacuum today in South Bend if Fred Ferlic, maybe in the company of eminent physician Steve Anderson and the late Iowa legal luminary Bob Kohorst, had been in the destructive path.  Not only would we lack Fred’s presence on the South Bend Council but the second member of the bloc, son Gavin Ferlic ‘04, would be absent, too.  And what if Senior Class President Michael Minton had stopped by at that very time for a quick moment of companionship with some other student leaders, with head of the Hall President’s Council Jay Schwartz, Observer Editor Pat Collins, and St. Mary’s Student Body President Therese Ambrusko?  By means of a wormhole entered in early 21^st century Rochester, NY, Jim Hutchinson, younger than the legal age during our years, has been able to insert himself in groups that some remember hanging out at the old Corby’s.  What if Jim, along with Neil Rogers and Richie Rogers, Dr. Pat DeMar, Bob Santalocci and Pat Furey had chosen that very moment for a study break, a decision that would have deprived us all of law enforcement talent, medical and legal talent?  What if future Class President Tom Weyer, in a celebratory mood after a rugby club victory, had led future New Jersey State Senator Bill Gormley, future Philadelphia surgeon Brien Murphy and innocent Tom Gibbs into the path of tragedy?   When the damaged shrine was torn down by city authorities in following days, the outrage was quick.  Tom Condon, who had praised Corby’s for its “tolerance and convenience” during a brief tenure as the Observer Cuisine & Corkage columnist in 1967, fairly shouted in an email: “No landmark preservation office?  What’s up that one-horse burg?”  Amid the debris at the scene, officials found some Tiger Jim Schaefer identification showing that he is now 69 years old, and still looking younger than his years.

Tom (Madison) McKenna interrupted the indolence of his retirement for a chance to argue and to be pictured  in a New York Times article against Indiana right-to-work legislation.  A few weeks later, Tom and Mary Ann were in West Hartford, CT as babysitters for three grandchildren and dinner companions of Tom Condon and Anne.

Amid the letters that came from John Schmelzer in Falls Church, VA, Larry Forness in Granger, IN, and others was a remarkable football play Jim Hutchinson unsuccessfully recommended to Coach Brian Kelly for bowl game use.  See http://www.dump.com/2011/02/22/end-zone-angle-of-the-final-football-play-of-trinity-vs-millsaps-video/.  Mike Helmer called from Napa, CA, where he keeps in touch with Fresno lawyer Al Berryman and Hawaii pizza chain owner Mike Trombetta.  Mike Helmer included visits to Shiloh, Corinth and Vicksburg Civil War sites and a Tucson stay with Dana Hart and Mary Ellen Flynn in a sweeping loop home from helping his daughter Mary’s family relocate to the Midwest.  Bryan Dunigan hopes to play golf with Naples, FL winter residents Roger Guerin and Bob Ptak in mid-March , then go to Tampa with Jerry Goetz, Joe Kernan, and Tom Cuggino for the former players’  team “Spring Training”.  Bryan says that Joe Kernan will receive the Moose Krause Award at the time of the Blue-Gold game.

Brian Sullivan is recovering from knee surgery in Miami.  Ed Walker, recently retired from the practice of law and still thinking fondly of Professors Richard Otter, John Derwent and Darwin Meade, is thinking of making his home in Paris.  Ed and his wife Janet Eyler went to Italy for a month, then to Paris for another three.

Dia and John Walsh enjoyed dinner in New Orleans with John Flemming while taking a break from the 2d birthday celebrations for their granddaughter, Lucia Walsh.  Flemming, a renowned leather mask maker, leather sculptor, and proprietor of Flemming Studio in New Olreans, was observing Carnival season, preparing for Mardi Gras, and celebrating the birth of his third grandson, Rex.  The Walshes also caught up briefly with Eddie Kurtz, who was busy promoting three of his novels that were published last year: Sex & Gravity, August in New Orleans, and My Casanova. (See full announcement, including link to publisher, in a separate “This Just In” note.)

In September, Bryan Dunigan, Tom Gibbs, Tom Weyer and his son John, Skip Strzelecki, Fran Mentone, Paul Dunn, Tom ‘Rock’ McKenna, Tom ‘Cuz’ McKenna, and John Walsh joined Rocky Bleier at a dinner in Chicago marking his induction into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame as the 2011 recipient of the George Connor Lifetime Achievement Award.

The fathers of Mick McKeon and Mike Ryan have passed away.  Please remember them and our classmates in your prayers.  Jerome Ryan ’41 was a WW II pilot, a father of 11, who often flew his own plane to games.

Please note a new address for our class blog: www.lake-effect.com/ndclass1968.  Send news to: Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt. 3-E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 312-881-7391.