John Allan Ahlers was uniquely prepared to undertake the work of enlarging the Juniorate in Esopus. He had been with the Brothers 1910-1918 and was familiar with the training system for candidates for the Brotherhood. Furthermore, he knew the tradition in the Brothers of doing their own construction using skilled outside labor only when these skills did not exist among the Brothers. He was friendly with Brother Francis Xavier, who had acted as project manager & general contractor to build a small gymnasium in Poughkeepsie. Brother Francis was a year ahead of John in the Brothers' training system, and they maintained their friendship through the years.

photo received 26 March 2006 from Dean Wagner and Stefan Goodwin of Baltimore MD

26 March 2006

photograph