Marists All February 1988
ISSUE # 4
Some REPORTING ... ABOUT LAWRENCE:
by David Kammer ('42)
I had long wanted to visit the monks in Lawrence, especially Conan, my friend and faithful summer replacement. I had not stopped in the last seven years, Judy and I found Ken Hogan '64 alone in the principal's office of Central, going over enrollment and budget figures. Most gracious in receiving us, Ken gave up his desk work, and we went out to lunch at a local Lebanese restaurant. Ken insisted that we try several mid-eastern dishes, while, out of respect for his recently lost twenty-eight pounds, he satisfied himself on a fantastic parsley dish called tabooli ... with water and a twist of lemon. And did we talk ...
The original wooden structure of CCHS had to be torn down several years ago, and even though new facilities were built to the left and adjacent to the gym around 1970, there is still serious need for more space. Central is in the process of buying the Franciscan Seminary in Andover, where renovating and building will be needed. Helping this process is the fact that Essex Community College is anxious to purchase the entire present CCHS property and facilities.
Meanwhile, the last of the Brothers are about to move out of the monks' quarters on the top floor of the gym to temporary quarters. :Conan Vincent '39, Ernest Beland '58, Richard LaRose '59, and Tom Petitte '64. In his early seventies now, Conan is still doing some work with freshmen and is taking care of attendance ... with many of the students fascinated by him to the point of "imitation"; he still has his quick and sharp wit. Though there are now no Brothers in nearby Mary Immaculate Nursing Home, Conan continues in his spare time to go there to do what he can for old folks.
Ernie Beland is teaching full time at CCHS, one of six Brothers now on the faculty. Richard LaRose is temporarily in the chemistry department at the Augustinian's high school in Reading, Mass.
Tom Petitte is yet another story. He came to Lawrence to teach at Central, and eventually to be dean of discipline and to get involved with the poor part time; now full time. He has founded Lazarus House, temporary living quarters for those who have been put out, burned out, or are otherwise poor, jobless, and without a place to sleep. His work is so respected in Lawrence that after serious losses from a recent flood, funds came in to recoup and to do even more. Tom also has a clothes exchange center and a drop-in center for the poor. To help the neighborhood, Tom bought up a junky bar next door to his center ... and tore the bar down. (More on Tom, below)
Ken Hogan himself lives on Sheridan Street in a community of six Brothers led by Gerry Doherty, class of '68, Also there and teaching at Central are Ronnie Horbatiuk '62. Fred Sambor '64, and Tom Long '79. Completing the group is Bill Lambert '57, who since leaving the post as principal of CCHS, has been associate superintendent of schools for the Boston Archdiocese.
We also visited Leeds Terrace, one of the retirement residences for the Brothers. Tom Simmons '63 looks over that situation. There we also saw Br. Francis Gerard (Izzy) '21, Daniel Emilian '38, procurator extraordinaire, and Phil Bernard '31, erstwhile bus driver for our Tyngsboro groups; and I was so happy to see Br. Ernest Mary Drolet '20. Ernest was always so accomodating with his duplicating machine when I was teaching math and doing Sodality work at old St. Ann's Academy from 1946 to 1957. During that ten year stretch, Ernest circled my dome many, many times with his barber's clippers and scissors. At the time of our visit to Leeds, Br. Stephen Forgues (Bee) '28, Br. Emil Michael (Micky the golfer) '29, and Peter Chanel '37 were visiting family. It was so nice to see everyone and to share news. Thanks all!
FROM BOB O'HANDLEY ('61): This newsletter is a great idea. As I sit down with pen in hand, already I feel less guilty for not having been more responsive to the correspondence that Len has been so faithful to for more than two decades.
After leaving Christ the King High School and FMS in '67, I returned to graduate school at Brooklyn Polytech. I married Carol Delaney in 1969 and after I received my PhD in physics in 1971, we took off for the Mojave Desert for two and a half years where I had a post doctorate at a research lab. Our first two children, Kevin and Meghan, are California natives.
I spent nearly seven years at a research lab in New Jersey, then at IBM Research Center in New York. Our third child, Kara, was born in Morristown in 1975. I've been on the research staff at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 1981, the longest I've lived in one place or stayed at one job ... ever! My previous record was four years in Esopus from 9/58 to 8/62.
Over the past twenty years, contact with my MaristBrothers has been too little. I have many fond memories of those nine years. This newsletter will be a vehicle to affirm, validate, and rejuvenate all those good relations.
FROM DONALD (Chris Matthew) EDWARDS ('57): I was surprised at my reactions to the first newsletters. Talk about mixed emotions; sort of like dealing with a lifetime of unfinished business! Really enlightening to realize that I spent twelve years of my life with so many wonderful people, and yet I hardly knew them. Then their voices popped up off the print in the newsletter. It was neat finding out what had happened to so many wonderful guys over the years. So many have done so well!
Of late my only contact with monks has been an occasional letter and Christmas card exchange with Br. Aidan Francis in Florida, and seeing Br. Richard Rancourt, as well as college classmates John Wilcox and John Trainor, at a Marist College reunion last year.
After Poughkeepsie I went to St. Helena's and then to Christopher Columbus in Miami. Almost nineteen years ago, I left Miami to start things over again. The first year I lived in Willimantic, Connecticut. Then Elaine and I got married in July of 1971; got a new teaching job the following September; bought a home in December; and Chris was born the following July. A helluva lot of doings for the second year post-brotherhood.
My teenage son is an athlete personified. Hardly a chip off the old block. He's into basketball, trying to get on the freshman high school team, is on the track team, loves golf, and has been involved in little league baseball. And I couldn't swing a bat without divine intervention; didn't really give a damn about sports actually!
I got a second master's degree several years ago in counselling psychology. My attempts to get into the counseling field did not work out, so I'm still in teaching. Has its ups and downs; I'll say no more; at least pay is improving. Elaine works in the library in Cheshire, and is taking librarian courses at present. She also has an M.A. in Spanish. That's how we met, on an NDEA grant via Fairfield University that brought us to Spain in 1968. We've been living here in Cheshire since 1971, about twelve miles southeast of downtown Waterbury.
BILL BAKER ('77): Br. Dan Grogan sent me a copy of Marists All. Please put me on the mailing list, and may I please have copies of issues #1 & #2.
FROM ALBERT (Felix Michael) SHURKUS ('43): Mike phoned to ask about Berky and to ask for the address of James (Chris Emile) Connelly ('43). We are sorry that we do not have Jim on our mailing list. Can anyone help?
Mike has been teaching theology at Rivier College, Nashua, N. H., for the past twenty years. However, he is now on total disability. Last spring he was diagnosed as having cancer. His wife, a nurse, has had him to Mass General often and everything possible has been done. Mike asks for our prayers, and perhaps for a miracle.
FROM MIKE (Michael Gerard) KRAEMER ('56): As I was raking leaves with my children several weeks ago, I could not help reflecting on my Juniorate days when the Master of Juniors, Brother Joseph Damian, would interrupt the reading at breakfast with an announcement that today is annual Leaf Day. Somehow the day perked up for all of us (despite the gruel that passed for oatmeal and the ghastly peanut-butter, honey and butter concoction that we used to whip up in a frenzy to get us through the day) because that meant that we would have no classes and that Brother Joe and all his Juniors, along with Berky, would don work clothes and rake every blessed leaf from the old Juniorate grounds, now the southern portion of the Marist campus.
What a great void I felt when I learned from Jimmy Maher ('53) about the passing of our beloved Master of Juniors. Too few of the GMA knew Joe well and fewer still had the privilege as I did of having him as a Superior. Those of us who did learn under his tutelage will remember the rigorous asceticism he imposed on his charges and the sterling example he himself gave of religious life. Never did he ask anyone to do anything he himself would not do and that included the most menial of tasks from cleaning the johns to logging the trees in the forest that surrounded St. Ann's Juniorate.
Brother Joe's daily conferences and his Sunday Gospel studies almost invariably lasted forty-five minutes to an hour, but what an inspiring, reflective, and insightful Religious that man was. I still recall many of his daily lessons on practical spirituality and his equanimity on all occasions. Many of you knew of him as a superb geometry teacher, which indeed he was, but Brother Joe was an intellectual who dispensed the fruits of his wisdom and life in his words and example.
Those daily jaunts to the cemetery saying the Rosary for the deceased Brothers and the trek across the Marist Campus to attend Mass at the Scholasticate in all kinds of weather saw Brother Joe leading his flock like the Pied Piper; and all of us who were fortunate enough to share in this man's life know that he is at peace with Our Lady to whom he prayed and dedicated all his life and energy. Rest in peace, Joe, and thank you.
Delighted.to have been included in the mailing list of GMA. Have kept in touch with Rich Shea, Jim Maher, Declan, Hugh Crowe ... over the years, but have lost contact with many whom I still consider friends even though time and geography have separated us. Married Pat O'Connell in the Esopus Mansion Chapel in October of 1971, and since then have moved seven times in three states, being blessed by Providence with six beautiful children: Nora, Michael, John, Matthew, and twins Catherine and David. Now serving as an administrator for the Marianists in the Baltimore Provincial House. Best wishes to so many friends out there especially ... well, there are just too many!
FROM FRANK MORAN ('50): For the record I'm the former Br. Peter Michael. I have been living in Ireland since 1983 with my wife and four kids, three boys and a twenty-one month little girl. We live just south of Dublin, about eight miles from the city center.
People over here always ask the same question: "Why did you move to Ireland?" I'm sure others in the states also wonder why. To begin with, I married an Irish girl and as a result, we spent many summers here on holiday and grew to love the pace of life and the people. I suppose you could say I was able to sit back and compare lifestyles and definitely found myself more at home here in Ireland than in my native U.S. Even the kids seemed happier in this place, and it certainly is an easier place to raise them than in the environs of New York.
However, it was a combination of circumstances which finally made the difference. In 1980 I was one of many school administrators who lost their jobs due to dropping enrollment, and I had to choose between finding another field of work in New York and moving elsewhere in the U.S. to continue in education. Ireland was a viable choice because of family ties and new opportunities for employment.I am happy I made the move, even with the cultural adjustments I've had to make.The most difficult one, believe it or not, is just slowing down and not living by the clock.
My career has taken a slight turn, in that now I am a human resources development consultant with particular emphasis on career development and man problems, working on my own. I have recently ventured into the English market and have teamed up with an enterprising young training firm in London. Since Dublin is only fifty minutes away from London by air, the commute is quite simple.
Many thanks for your unexpected yet thoroughly enjoyable newsletter. It was the most welcome piece of mail I've received from the states in a long time. Please do send on any back issues of the newsletter issued since #1.
And if anyone wants to search out his Irish roots, let me know and I'll reserve a stool at a local pub where we can start the search in a civilized manner. In keeping with the spirit of the times, may the peace of Christ be with you and yours.
FROM FRANCIS GUDYANGA: I am from Zimbabwe, and am currently finishing a doctorate in mineral technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England. If all goes well, I will be joining the academic staff in the department of metallurgy at the University of Zimbabwe in March, 1988. I left the community in 1974 but have maintained very fruitful and meaningful ties with some of the Marist Brothers in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. I value their friendship which is priceless.
I am married to Sarah, and we have two sons: the first is seven years old and was born on the 4th of July! I believe I am still a Marist at heart, and all matters Marist still interest me. I intend to get involved in some apostolate in Zimbabwe, along with such developmental projects as one might expect in a developing country. I hope I can do some justice to the valuable Marist education and training I am grateful to have received.
You might have gathered that I am not very conversant with the U.S. Marist scene, though some of my teachers and confreres did their scholasticate at Marist College, Poughkeepsie. I am still speculating on how you came by my address. I am immensely glad, however, that someone passed it on to you. The newsletter was a pleasant, surprise communication. (410 High Street, London Colney, St. Albans, England, AI2 1HN)
FROM DAVID HEALY ('63): After leaving the monks in August of 1970, I was classified 1A for the Vietnam draft and thus found it tough trying to get a job. Once the lottery was introduced, my number was way down on the list, and several offers of employment came in. However, I decided to emigrate to Australia, arriving in February, 1971. I've lived here ever since, and am now an Australian citizen.
In 1975 I moved to Perth, Western Australia, where I met my wife Kay. We have four daughters: Gina (11), Meg (9), Anne (7), and Terri (5). I did a graduate course in Computer Education between 1983 and 1985, and will be taking up a position next year as a computer teacher at Prendiville Catholic College, a new secondary school in the northern Perth suburbs, about fifteen minutes drive from home.
Len Voegtle has kept us in the picture regarding things Marist for many years, for which I'm very grateful. I've read and re-read the two newsletters you've sent, and will have contacted at least one old classmate by the time you receive this note. Congratulations on your initiative, and keep up the good work.
FROM JACK RYAN ('60): We drove up to Flint, Michigan, yesterday to get together with John and Beth Reynolds ('60) and other old teaching buddies from Luke Powers Catholic High School; we have continued to get together at least annually with the Reynolds and with Mike and Pat McGonigle ('60). Mike and John have both stayed in Catholic education as administrators. My path has led me into selling foundry equipment.
After leaving Powers High in 1974 I taught for a year at St. Ignatius Prep in Chicago. Elaine and I were married in June of 1975, and we moved to Detroit. Maureen was born in July, 1977. I had an opportunity to join Elaine's Dad in his manufacturers' rep agency-. He represented three foundry equipment companies that chose not to establish their own sales office in Michigan. The world of manufacturing and engineered equipment was both interesting and frustrating. Gradually I learned what I was selling and have gotten to enjoy it. We have managed to expand the business to representing ten companies. Elaine's dad retired five years ago, and we have since hired another salesman. There is a lot of traveling, but fortunately most of it is by car, and it is rare that I am gone from home more than one night.
Maureen, Jack (8), and Patrick (6) keep Elaine busy driving them to various activities. I am quite often able to pull up just before game time, pull off my tie, and join the coaching staff. After doing soccer and hockey, it was refreshing to coach baseball, a sport I at least understood. Following our first practice with seven and eight year olds. I commented to the other coach that we had no one who could throw the ball from third to first; he said, "Why does that bother you. We have no one who can catch the ball at first anyway."
Reading Marists All. is a real nostalgia trip, comparable only to going through my old baseball cards: Phil Rizzutto, Otto Krueger, Sal Maglie, Frank Sutton ... ... I can't imagine there is anyone who doesn't finish an issue, take off his glasses, sit back and return to those thrilling days 15, 20, 25 years ago. Thanks for the memories!
DONALD MULCARE ('57): It is nice to be remembered and to be able to share in the news of people who are important forces in my life. I ask that my father, Joseph A. Mulcare, known to many Marists, be remembered through the newsletter. He died on 15 March '87. His date of death was appropriate; he liked Latin and Julius Caesar.
FROM WILLIAM (David Marcellin) QUINN ('44): Many thanks for all three issues of Marists All; it is great reading. After I left Poughkeepsie in 1948, I went to work for the Postal Service. In 1950 I was drafted into the army for two years; I was in the states all that time. In 1952 I returned to the Postal Service and remained there until my retirement in '81. I had many good positions, working with the indoctrination of new employees and with postal inspectors, but never with the general public.
I have always lived with my parents; I now care for my mother who is 96. I have to say that I have been blessed by having a good kinship with the Brothers from the time I left to the present. Many have been so supportive of me. I don't know what I would do without the wonderful letters from Br. Leonard Voegtle, the friendship of Brothers Henry Charles, Aidan Francis, Simeon Arthur, and Brothers Louis Mary, Louis Omer, and Roch Anthony of happy memory.
FROM RONALD MULHOLLAND ('60): Taken from promotional literature ... Ronald is Executive Director of Youth Services, Inc. serving Wheeling and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. The system provides shelter for youths ages 12-17 caught up in crisis situations where the alternative is incarceration in county jails or juvenile detention centers. An independent living program offers older adolescents training in practical skills in dealing with daily life, and prepares them to assume responsibility for the daily conduct of personal life. The Ohio River project is designed for delinquent boys and girls ages 15-18 to use the river through boating and various related activities as a base upon which to build positive attitudes toward life and each other. "Because we believe that children are our greatest natural resource and that we, as a cormunity, have a responsibility to care for one another, we have established a network of services that sustain and advance human dignity, particularly among abused and abandoned children."
FROM GERALD (Patrick Stephen) GALLAGHER ('55): As you know, I'm running my own business providing services and training to law enforcement agencies and public officials and risk managers.The travel season is upon me, and training sessions with different police departments will take me to California four times, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Tennesee, Oklahoma, and a couple other places.through my work with policing in Britain, I have now been named a columnist for a British police review, and I'll be turning out articles for them on a regular basis.
I had some British police chiefs to my home for dinner, and one of them, a deputy commandant at the Police Staff College, told me about his fond memories and experiences with the Marist Brothers in England.
My nephew a recent graduate of St. Joseph's College in Philly, has chosen to make a two year commitment to a Jesuit program teaching in a high school in Samoa; well, it turns out that the school is a Marist Brothers High School. All I could remember was Br. Geranus Gerard, in the accent that included remnants of four or five languages telling us in the novitiate about his beloved Samoa.
I am happy to see that you are now putting the addresses in the newsletter of those who write in. I would appreciate Gene Zirkel's address ... 6 Brancatelli Court, West Islip, 11795.
FROM BILL GILLIGAN ('39): The most recent copy of Marists All was most welcome, much news on old timers whom I knew. Many thanks! Some Marists, present and past, may have known my brother, Father Declan (Joe) Gilligan, S.A. Joe died Thanksgiving, 26th of November. That might be worth passing on to others; a prayer or two ...
FROM GENE ZIRKEL ('53): Dear Lenny and Dave: It is 10 p.m. I just returned home, tired from teaching a night course. Pat is away in Boston at a theology conference; she is presently writing her thesis in theology, Fordham, and will be Doctor Pat next fall, we hope. My son George, 17, is working at the local Carvel store. And so the house is empty. When I opened the mail and found the Marists All newsletter, I sat down and read the entire ten pages. It was great. It buoyed my feelings of loneliness, and I had to sit down and write to you. Lenny, you were mentioned so often; it reminded me that I owe you a letter. I was jolted by the number of young guys who are principals. And I was surprised to see that Kevin O'Neill ('53) is back in the states from the Philippines. Even the lists were interesting. The newsletter was just superb.
Recently I went to Dick Masterson's liquor store'and bought a bottle of scotch; Dick was Luke Francis, ('53). He's one block away: He located me via a previous newsletter.
As for me, a few years ago I was meditating on my life. I was a full professor with a good job. No promotions in sight. Life seemed as if it had no more hurdles for me. Suddenly all that changed. I was invited to make an "Investment in Excellence" seminar. I did, and the world changed. Now I myself have been devoting every spare minute to running these personal development seminars both at Nassau Community College and in the local community. The seminars are wonderful. I have used the technique to lose over thirty pounds, improve my teaching, get over my fear of ladders, etc. Now I can easily do anything. I'd be glad to give such seminars to the monks or to anyone in the GMC. Right now I am selling stuffed animals to raise money for our parish outreach program. I walk around campus with a teddy bear under my arm. When questioned about it, I respond with something like: "Oh, I'm selling it to you to help feed and clothe God's poor." It usually works.
By the way, send my brother Vic a copy of the newsletter. He and his wife Kathy and their two sons are at 218 West Kathleen Drive, Park Ridge, Illinois, 60068. He was in clocks and watches for years managing the world's largest clock store. Now they run a White Hen grocery franchise. He was Brother Jogues Michael. Finally, does anyone know how to say Ordinary Resource in Spanish? ...
FROM JAMES GAFFNEY ('49): Thanks for your Marists All #3. It is great to hear that Bill Cowie, Br. Luke Driscoll, Emil Denworth, John Tobin, Ed Castine, and other friends are doing well. I am on a leave of absence, and currently teach French, Spanish, and Italian at Iona Prep in New Rochelle. Please ask all my friends to pray that I make the right decision and that all goes well for me.
JIM MORRISSEY ('54): I thoroughly enjoyed reading the latest edition of the news on the older monks in and out of the order. Please keep me on the mailing list. I will forward an entry shortly.
ABOUT BR. TOM PETITTE ('64): From Reader's Digest, December 1987, p. 223
"Mother Teresa's Work of Grace", by Courtney Tower.
"One who came to Calcutta was Marist Brother Thomas Petitte, a high-school teacher from Lawrence, Mass. He often cried himself to sleep at night because of the suffering. At the end of his third su'mmer's stay in Calcutta, Mother Teresa thanked him and eight others but said, very seriously, 'You should stay home and find the poor in your own neighborhoods ... 'At first I was disappointed, Brother Tom says, but he returned to Lawrence, a mill town of 59,000, and found its hidden poor, people who had been the working poor, and had fallen off the edge and become the very poor. Determined and eloquent, he sold Lawrence on the need for a temporary refuge for homeless people.
Melchite Eastern rite Catholics raised $10,000 for the down payment for a 15-room Victorian home at 48 Holly Street. Service clubs donated money. Merchants and institutions gave food and materials. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians volunteered to refurbish the building, and Lazarus House opened in the spring of 1983. 'It's been one miracle after another,' says Brother Tom. 'We survive through the generosity of God's people, the grace and intervention of the Holy Spirit, and plain.old hard work.'
What Brother Tom and the people of Lawrence have done serves as an example of what co-workers and followers of Mother Teresa do in many hundreds of towns and cities around the world. Today Lazarus House shelters people referred by (any denominations) and by social-service agencies. It feeds them and many others who come during the day seeking food. It helps them find lodging, sometimes jobs ... Brother Tom, now 42, still tramps the streets in his habit, walking under the Central Bridge to find homeless outcasts huddled there and in abandoned cars and burned out buildings, as he did to start Lazarus House."
FROM TOM KIRKMAN ('61): Like so many others who have already written, I have many fond memories of my Marist years, and it's good to know that the Marist family is interested in how we are doing. I was fortunate to serve in both provinces, having taught in Roselle, Chicago, and then Lawrence.
When I left in 1977, I was able to secure a fourth grade teaching position in a local grammar school. In 1978 I was hired as Personnel Manager at Mary Immaculate Nursing Home where I am still employed. I became actively involved with a local community theatre group, and in 1985 became Resident Artistic Director of the Merrimac College Dramatic Society. So recruiting during the day and rehearsing at night keeps me busy.
I would like to thank the many Brothers who took the time to ask for me when they were visiting monks who were patients at MI. You should know the tremendous witness value hour visits have on our staff. Many are aware of my Marist roots, so they take the time to comment on the many visitors the sick Brothers have.
A special thanks to Dave and Gus for making this newsletter possible. I have included help to defray expenses. I also support the idea of starting a Marist Retirement Fund. We have received much from the Marist family, a good education and communal support to name just two. I'm sure that we can do something for those from whom we learned and with whom we taught and lived.
EDITORS' NOTE: As a follow-up to Tom's last thought ... It is known that some are in a position to have written their wills to include the Marist Brothers.
Source: Original Marists All Site