Life After Grand & Warren

In a recent email exchange, Bill Kretzer said:
"I think there would be a bushel of interest in interviews with each & every ‘58 graduate. I for one, since I went away to college and never returned to NJ, didn’t keep in touch as much as I should have and would be curious to hear how everyone’s life turned out."

Bill started us off by sending in his After '58 bio. Vince did the same, and so did more than two dozen other guys, who you can see in the list. We want to get bio's from the whole gang, and we hope to hear from you soon.
 

While

After 4 years of chasing girls and drinking beer, I somehow graduated four years later in 1962. After a brief bout of commuting from my parents’ home in Ridgefield, NJ to downtown NYC, I signed up for the Army National Guard. Six months later, with the commuting still fresh in my mind, I headed back to Buffalo where most of my college friends still resided. I began working as a county probation officer & eventually switched to being a Fed. I retired at age 57 and for the next 10 years worked as a contractor doing background investigations for security clearances for Homeland Security. I stopped doing this when I determined that it was interfering with my feeble golf game.

I was divorced in 1991, and married Kathleen Trait in November 1993 ( I had to ask her what year it was ). I have two sons and a daughter from my first marriage and ten grandchildren. All are doing well with regard to careers, health, and relationships.

In 1988, I attended the 30 year reunion and reconnected with Ed Wilczynski. We decided to drive down to Florida in search of a beach investment. In 1989, we bought a beach condo in Ft. Myers Beach. Eventually, when I realized that in retirement I was going to spend six (6 ) months in Florida, I sold my interest to Ed & his wife. “Willie“ and I remain close friends to this day and get together frequently at the local restaurants in Ft. Myers.

My sister married Charlie Juelke, a ‘58 graduate from Prep. My brother, an attorney in Jersey City, also was a graduate from Prep in 1962.

As a footnote, Father Bob Reiser, former president of Prep, grew up in Buffalo. “ Bob “ and his sisters were the best friends of my daughter. I ran into Bob at one of the Prep on the road thingies here in Florida. I reminded him of the time that his sister & my daughter stole my car for a joy ride when they were underage. With a wink and a smile, he said “we won’t talk about that, Mister Kretzer “. He still calls me Mister Kretzer. That’s how you know that you are getting old.

Life really was great in ‘58.
Bill Kretzer

Vince Grillo

After Prep, I attended NCE for 2 1/2 years, leaving there in late '61. Went to work in a brokerage firm in '62, and in '64 became part of their brand new computer department. Spent the next 42 years in information processing in the financial services industry, retiring from Citibank in 2005.

In the late 90's, I started a web design company and grew the business to about 25 clients. I slowed down when I retired, and stopped taking on new clients, and currently service about a dozen accounts.

I was divorced in '83, and married my wife Stephanie in 2000. I lived in Manhattan for 20 years, and in 2002, we moved to our present home in Cliffside Park. Stephanie was a VP at Citibank, but changed careers in 2008, went to Culinary School, and now owns a commercial bakery in Bogota, NJ, specializing in custom cakes for weddings, etc. She also has a wholesale business, and provides desserts for a half dozen upscale restaurants in the area.

Two daughters from my first marriage have blessed me with 6 grandchildren, who are the loves of my life.

I drifted away from the Prep after the 25th reunion, but in early 2007, calls from John Connors, Dave Connolly and Walt McInerney got me back in the fold. I attended the 55th Reunion, and the rest is history.

We started the Prep '58 Blog in 2014, as a way to organize all the emails that went back and forth between the gang, and to chronicle the Cuppa Club get-togethers, which started in late 2013. Having fun with that ever since.

Vince
"Life was great in '58"

Bill Wittman

After graduating from the Prep I went to St Peter's College - now University - majoring in History and Political Science. As part of that direction I joined the College's International Relations Club (IRC). In our graduating year (62') the president of our club colluded with his girl friend - the president of Marymount College Tarrytown IRC - to have a weekday evening meeting of the two clubs. The announced 'purpose' of the meeting was to debate whether Fidel Castro was an Agrarian Reformer or a Communist. With girls on the way - all our members were on deck. During the debate I was smitten by Peggy Lalley and found the courage to ask for her address and telephone number. We were married in 65'. Fidel Castro has always been a significant person to us - his politics of lesser concern... (Incidentally the presidents - Bill Kearns and Ellen Butler are also married and we have contact with them.)

On graduation I joined a Madison Ave advertising agency - working in media planning and scheduling of advertising. I loved knowing what was going to be on TV six months before anyone else. I eventually moved into client management - working on various Lever Brothers products. In my early thirties I was growing unhappy with the pressure of the NY agency life and took an opportunity to transfer to the Toronto office. After three years New York asked me to return. After discernment - I told Peggy I did not want to go back. So we and our then two daughters settled into cold winters and lovely summers. Two more daughters were born to us. A couple of years later I obtained Canadian Citizenship - and now have dual citizenship - as do Peggy and the girls.

I lasted in the Agency business till I was forty and then set out on my own - developing marketing and communication initiatives and consulting for Not-For-Profits and for the Social Service and Health Ministries of the Ontario Government.

During this time Peggy and I became quite involved with Parish youth groups. We also had the opportunity for a three year graduate level Biblical Study program - Old and New Testament - coordinated by the University of Toronto. This remains an active transforming experience for us.

My hobby of photography was also beginning to be noticed and soon I was publishing photographs in Catholic textbooks and periodicals. In my early 50s we began to devote significant energies to supplying Catholic publishers in the US and Canada with photography. Peggy manages the financial end. Because of the broad diversity in the Toronto area, our involvement in a variety of faith activities and travels to the Holy Lands we soon became a primary resource for the publishers. (Our digital library has over 250,000 images. You can view some of our work at WPWittman.com.)

In 2002 Pope John Paul II brought World Youth Day to Toronto and I was identified as the official photographer which provided some exceptional proximity to the Pope during the celebration. My photos were published in several books. We have since attended WYDs in Cologne, Madrid and Krakow Poland - the birth place of St John Paul II. (I hope you have had the opportunity to see the excellent video of WYD Krakow Vince Grillo prepared and posted on the Prep 58' Blog site - and also on my company website.) We remain active in providing photographs to Catholic publishers.

Our four daughters are married. All live within a half hour drive. Our youngest was married in November to a fine young man from Chattanooga Tenn. They will live in Toronto - he also has been drawn to the magnetic North. (Vince created a wonderful family video for us which was shown at the wedding. See it here)

Peggy and I are also engaged with the lives of our eight grandchildren - ages 20-6.

In writing this I have reflected that it pretty much shows an ascending order of events - everything falling easily into place. For sure there were also some deep valleys and rough storms. Probably the same for everybody.

I find myself occasionally looking back at my eight formative years with the Jesuits. I remember Fr Carr at the Prep telling our parents - 'Thank you for giving us your sons - we will return them men.' I believe they did their job. I have come to rely on the compass bearings they instilled... with abiding gratitude.

May all be good for all.

After Prep, I attended St. Peter’s College, along with several other of my best friends:  Bill Sullivan, Jack Fahy, Jim Beggans, and others. Bill Sullivan and I were academic twins at College, taking all of the same courses toward degrees in German. Ironically, when our “Greek” class was offered a choice between French and German for junior and senior years, Bill, Jack, Jim, and I, plus two others chose French, but we were outvoted. God provides!

 In 1962 I was fortunate to have received a Fulbright Scholarship to study for a year in Germany at University of Saarbrücken, on the French border. (Yes, I did learn some French then.) I was very grateful that Richie McConville and Bill Sullivan visited me during that time.

After the year abroad I attended Brown University toward an eventual Ph.D. in German in 1970. However, because I received an ROTC commission at graduation from college, I had five years of deferments from active duty and eventually was called up in November 1967 before I completed my doctoral dissertation.

I met my first wife, Paulette, while I lived in Providence, R. I., and we were married in April 1968. The Army sent us to US. Army Europe HQ in Heidelberg, Germany and I was assigned to counterintelligence duties in document security and the to special weapons information security.

Upon my return home in late 1969 I interviewed for and was offered a position as chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages and associate professor of German at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville to begin in June 1970 after I completed my dissertation and received my doctorate. I spent 33 years as departmental chairman, with a promotion to full professor in 1974.

My daughter, Lisa, was born in Heidelberg, and my son, Michael, was born in Jersey City shortly before we moved to Tennessee. Lisa and husband have two sons (17 and 15) and live in Danville, KY; Michael and wife have two daughters (6 and 4) and live in Fairfax, VA.

In 1978 my wife left to pursue other interests, and I settled into the role of a single parent, since my daughter and son lived with me. I was fortunate to have help, though, since Paulette chose to live nearby until the children were grown.

Although I received a church annulment a few years after the divorce, I did not remarry until 2005. My wife, Nancy, suffered from a number of illnesses, and in 2003 I resigned the chairmanship of the department and taught four more years fulltime and another four years two-thirds time. I retired in 2011, just in time to become a full-time caregiver for my seriously ill wife. Nancy passed on in March 2012.

While I was serving as departmental chairman, I had to deal with many administrative frustrations, of course. Helping to maintain my sanity was the service work that I did with foreign language professional organizations at the state, regional, and national levels.  Since Nancy’s death, I have busied myself with volunteer work in my parish (outreach program similar to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, banking committee, annual Fall Festival) and other service work through the Knights of Columbus council and the 4th Degree Assembly here.

Other than that I enjoy reading, gardening, my stamp collection, and a very long project to digitize and catalog 100 years of inherited and personal photos and family documents and clippings (over 20,000 done and almost 10,000 more digitized but not yet cataloged, plus several thousand more to go.) It keeps me off the streets!

May God continue to bless all you great guys. I have been blessed to know you.

AMDG!

Pax vobiscum! It's been a long and winding road.
Fortunately I have not had to go it alone.

Life at Prep was life in transition - from long-time altar boy at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Jersey City to hell-raiser, Church drop-out, and quasi-atheist. The hell-raising continued into the first years of college at St. Peter's until I was required to change my school address-- they had had enough of me.

I transferred to Montclair State College, majored in English, played football for two years, modified my hell-raising somewhat, and finally got serious enough to ask Nancy Marcello to marry me. We were married in August of 1963. I needed to complete my student teaching requirement in the Fall of '63 while Nancy began teaching in an elementary school in Tenafly, N.J.

Shortly after I had finished student teaching at Northern Valley Reg. H.S. in Demarest, N.J., one of the teachers resigned unexpectedly, and I was offered her position. That was the start of a twenty five year career at Northern Valley where I coached football, basketball, ultimate frisbee, and was the English Dept. Chairman for twenty of those years, while moonlighting as an adjunct instructor at my Alma Mater, earning my masters degree along the way.

In 1964, our first son was born; we would have three more children before Nancy would succumb to multiple myeloma in 1987.

However, something had happened along the way that brought about a 180 degree turn in our lives in 1976, when a somewhat popular Church "mantra" was "Let the Spirit of '76 be the Holy Spirit". I had not "darkened the door" of any church from the time I graduated from the Prep, with the usual exceptions of weddings and funerals. While my faith had grown ice cold, the unexpected happened. I was team-teaching a Humanities course with two good colleagues- one a secular Jew and the other an ultra liberal Christian. We were showing our classes the film "Parable" which had been popular at the World's Fair. My Jewish partner sneered at the film and said," Oh, another creeping Jesus movie". Something inside me stood bolt-upright, ready to defend Jesus. I realized that in my heart of hearts I had not completely abandoned my loyalty to the Lord, that my faith was not dead, but merely dormant.

Nancy's faith had stirred back to life at the same time, and I found myself tagging along with her, reluctantly, to a "Life in the Spirit Seminar" to keep her happy. It was a Holy Spirit set-up. I was ambushed by the Lord, surrendered my life, my heart, all of me to Him as I was "Baptized in the Holy Spirit". Scripture came alive, I returned to the Church, and in 1977 joined a Catholic, Charismatic, Covenant Community-The People of Hope, an outgrowth of the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church. I ultimately would serve as one of the leaders of the community for many years.

Meanwhile, after I was widowed with four children, I was blessed to marry again. Eileen had been widowed as well and had three young daughters. We adopted each others' children so we would be one family. Suddenly, I was the father of seven children, three boys and four girls. The number would ultimately grow to four boys and seven girls (as well as our miscarried children already in Heaven).

Shortly after Eileen and I married, I had taken early retirement from Northern Valley to devote my time and energy to writing a series of self-published books called Raising Children For Heaven, while teaching English, religion, and boys' Phys. Ed. at Koinonia Academy, sponsored by The people of Hope. I would ultimately serve as academic dean at Koinonia. I finally retired in June, 2016 after 52 years of teaching and administration. I plan to write a book about people who have been married 50 years or more.

Raising a "blended" family has been an adventure - peaks and valleys, tough days, bright days, triumphs. Eileen and I have experienced having our faith tested, challenged, and ultimately purified and strengthened. I am a seriously blessed man.

Peace, Bob

Grew up in Union City down the block from Vince Grillo and his brother Sal. Vince and I went to the Prep and to Newark College of Engineering (now NJIT) and then we lost touch.

In 1962 I graduated from Naval Officer Candidate School on the same day that President Kennedy announced the Cuban embargo. I reported to the USS Northhampton, the President’s flagship and home to a permanent detachment of reps from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This was a spit and polish ship. We were out at sea for weeks at a time and not allowed to tell anyone of the ship’s movements due to the classified nature of our mission to be an alternate presidential residence and office of the JCS. In those days daily news updates on board were not available so none of the officers and crew realized how close we were to nuclear disaster. In 1963, I transferred to a guided missile destroyer, USS Sampson, and had a great time visiting the Caribbean islands and European ports.

In 1964 I married Arlene and we have stayed married for 53 years. Why she puts up with me is a mystery, maybe because of our two great daughters and two wonderful grandkids. We left active duty in 1965 and I got a job in Livingston, NJ building fossil fired power plants. Great job but the commute was killing me. I then got a job with Bechtel Corp. in MD with a promise to Arlene that we would only be in Gaithersburg (where the hell is Gaithersburg?) for two years. Managed to squeeze in an MBA and a professional engineering license. Thirty seven years later I retired as a project manager after 34 years in and out of Gaithersburg, MD. Travel took me around the globe and several family moves here in the US. During that time I was involved in building nine nuclear power plants, a dozen fossil fired plants and literally hundreds of cell phone sites that allow all of you to call from anywhere to anywhere.

After retiring, Arlene and I moved to the San Francisco area principally to be near to our two grandchildren. We are looking forward to having the older daughter join us this year. Other reasons for choosing California: San Francisco, the excellent weather and proximity to some of the nation’s great coastlines and national parks. We have now seen a lot of them but the list is a long one. We drive down to the LA area to see the grandkids frequently. The drive is about 2.75 NJ turnpikes (330 miles) and we don’t think anything of it. This is the same as driving from NJ to Maine for the weekend.

We live in an “active adult” community called Rossmoor 25 miles east of San Francisco and a short ride to the city on the BART system. Sister communities are called Leisure World throughout the US. Aside from the allergies that Arlene suffers from, we are very active in some of the 200 clubs available in the community. We meet truly great people with an enormous range of backgrounds and interests. I also manage one of the homeowner associations – unpaid of course.

Visited the Prep several years ago and didn’t recognize it or the neighborhood. I remember I could park my ’52 Ford next to the demolished buildings. That’s just a memory. How come we weren’t smart enough to buy a few of those brownstones across the street from Father Murray’s office?

Life is good. I pray that each of the alums stays with us for many years to come. And thanks to Vince Grillo for bringing us together.

Walt Braun 5/24/2017

Gerry Drummond

St. Peter’s Prep (1954-58) prepared me for anything and everything. Trekking 25 miles from Dumont to Grand and Warren and 25 miles back would frame my daily Prep adventure.

At the end of freshman year, our young Principal Neil Carr, SJ invited me to join the Greek class next year. I told him that I wanted to be an engineer and not a Jesuit and take science. My brother Greg ’60 would follow me at Prep and made varsity tennis with me. My younger sister Marilyn would play girls' varsity basketball at St. Cecilia's High in Englewood. As senior year closed, Fr. Shaloe suggested I apply for the Jesuits, which I did, along with friends like Hank Wefing, Gary Wiley and others. My cousin Denis Dwyer ’58 would head for Notre Dame.

My dad, a Regis grad, was my first coach and often would get me up for early mass. Aside from my mom and dad, the Society of Jesus played the most formative role in my life. A good outfielder, I learned to catch ground balls in the infield, which we built. (Our master of novices let us use a pneumatic drill to remove the shale at shortstop.) I also learned to catch behind home plate, play hockey, pray, work and handle tough questions tossed to me by men smarter and more spiritual than I’ll ever be. Their training has helped me focus on lasting values while wrestling with freedom and purpose, good and evil, in a distracted and distracting world. Eventually, without taking major orders, I left the Society of Jesus to marry and raise four boys.

While a Jesuit Scholastic in the Philippines, mid & late 60’s, with an MA History from Fordham, I taught high school and college socio-economics and history and did some coaching and studying Theology. Thanks to Filipino Jesuit organizers, I took students to live with re-located squatters outside Manila, even refereeing basketball games for opposing gangs. I helped with earthquake rescue at Ruby Tower Manila in 1968. I lectured, by invitation, on democracy to Southeast Asian military attaches.

Back in the states, I volunteered one year with Cesar Chavez’ Farmworkers lettuce boycott in NYC. I studied theology. Saul Alinsky’s organization once loaned me to a federal union as a trouble shooter. I helped democratic Filipinos in the USA deal with Marcos’ Martial law which began in September 1972. I drove a Yellow cab in Manhattan. (Once Diane Keaton.) I earned my Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from Rutgers and started working with Bergen County in late ‘79. By the summer of 1986, my Filipino friends were inviting me to Manila to meet their new President Cory Aquino, whose husband “Ninoy,” assassinated in 1983, had addressed my college history class in 1967 when he first ran and won a nationwide senate seat.

Most important, 40+ years ago, I married a beautiful and super-organized Filipina “Toni” whom I had met in NYC. We raised four wonderful boys whom I initially coached in track, baseball and basketball. All four ran varsity for Prep. They have already given us five grandchildren with another on the way. (I’d say “fantastic” but my NYPD son Frank would tell me, “You criticize Trump BUT you sound just like him!”) Luke got Prep’s Wellington Davis Award. And Peter’s times would edge out those of his older brothers.

Of note: In 1994, former Prep Coach Bill Sharlow (then coaching DePaul) called me for the first time, 36 years after our ’58 graduation. Bill’s reason: to congratulate me about my son Alex’s great running performances and to rib me that Alex probably got his legs from his mother!

From December 1979, I worked 35+ years as a contract administrator with Bergen County Human Services, helping older adults and individuals with disabilities. My last 12 years , I was also the county’s white collar union president. I believe that honest unions help bring justice to the workplace and greater fairness to society. I retired from the county as of July 1, 2015.

Writing and/or reporting is a not-so-hidden part of me that calls me, even to poems. At home and abroad, I have gotten into and out of some tight situations. I’m grateful to be alive and am still struggling to nurture a faith that sees God in all things and in all persons. Whatever my limitations, I’m also drawn at times to speak truth to power, hopefully, for the greater good.

I’m not alone.
Gerry Drummond June 4, 2017

Dave Connolly

Shortly after attainment of 48 years of life, I went to my internist for my annual check up and was advised to get more exercise and start a more formal program of physical activity. Being a runner-Sprinta during my years at The Prep and a few seasons at St. Joe’s, in my mind that meant getting back to running twenty-five years later… but now it would be distance running of the 5K variety. Ugh! I never could stand distance running … I start to “whine like a Two Year Old" if it was a meter beyond 200!

Then by sheer serendipity, I ran into a fellow Montclairite, my same age who also claimed to be a Sprinter. With that, I began my second athletic career as a Masters Track and Field athlete. After a period of about two years of increasingly intensive training, I started competing regularly in my five year age category in Masters T&F meets that were scheduled on weekends anywhere from Providence, RI to Baltimore, MD. On more than one occasion, I would rise early on a Saturday morning, put on my track outfit and advise Betty Ann that "I'm off to a track meet at Swarthmore.” To which she responded “Swarthmore? … That’s outside Philadelphia! … You’re going to drive more than 100 miles to run for 13 seconds?”

Sheepishly, I said “Yeah … I guess I am … but I’ll also be doing the 200m, 110m Hurdles, Long Jump and, maybe a leg on the teams 4 x 400m Relay.” In true spousal fashion, the conversation ended with, “You’re Crazy! … Have fun! … Don’t hurt yourself!”

And that’s pretty much is what I've been up to until until age 57, when on the Sunday before my prostate surgery, I won the State, Age-group Hurdles Championship. Of course, during convalescence I pretty much lost my competitive conditioning.

During those years, I also got to run the lead off leg on our team's 4 x 100m relay team at the prestigious Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia; attained All-American, age-group status in the 100m and participated in the Masters Track and Field World Championships in Buffalo NY, having been held two years previously in Turku, Finland. I remember my reaction… “There are some pretty fast old guys out there!”

Currently, after a number of years of getting old and surviving some rather seriously significant surgeries, I get out of breath running to the bathroom, but still can perform as Coach GrandPa for my Grand Daughter's Grade School Track and Field team.

Chas DeSantis

After graduation from the Prep in 1958, I went to St. Peter’s College (SPC.) It was easy to get to, had a decent reputation and, above all, was not too expensive to afford (thanks for the help, Mom and Dad. Rest In Peace.) Eventually, I learned to drive and got a car (Wow, a ‘60 Valiant! With stick!) but for a while, I was still busing it. A lot of us from the Prep went to SPC. Having so many friends from high school there made the transition easier for me, but college was a shock to my system. The Jesuits were still at it with their liberal arts education approach, i.e., theology, philosophy, English, history and social studies and, of course, a language class, all, more or less, mandatory.

Having declared my interest in pursuing a Physics major, a few other classes were added: calculus (UGH!), chemistry and freshman physics. Oh yeah, the military also got a piece of us with mandatory ROTC classes and one day a week marching drills, in uniform, with an M1 rifle (I think that thing weighed as much as me) The Velvatones were still going strong; and I joined the Glee Club and the ROTC band, so music was still a big part of my life and it continued to offer a good escape.

After 4 tough years, I got a BS in Physics (1962) and got my first for-real, job down the Jersey Shore at Ft. Monmouth, working for the US Army Electronics Research Lab. That wouldn’t start till Sept. of ‘62, so I had a free summer. I was a member of the American Legion Post 15 marching band in West New York and every year, in late summer, there was a band competition in Wildwood, NJ. A last fling, before reality set in...

That Summer down in Wildwood, I met my future wife, Annette (Bunny) Bourgeais. She was from West New York, like me, but we had never met; she had gone to Memorial high school (remember them?) Two years later (1964), we were married. Our first son, Michael, was born in 1966 about the time we were moving into our first house in Neptune, NJ. Our second son, David, was born in 1968. We had the usual compliment of cats and dogs; Dad was finishing up an MS degree in Physics (1970), part-time, while still working for the Army; and we all grew up together. Another nine years passed as my kids went to college and I completed a PhD in Electronic Engineering, part-time, at Rutgers. Was school ever going to end?

After 22 years with the Government, we moved to West Long Branch, NJ and I decided to try private industry. I was lucky to find a small company, affiliated with Canadian Marconi, close to home. That lasted seven years. Then, it was on to Cincinnati Electronics, also at a local Lab in NJ, for another five years before that office closed too. Finally, I went to work for Bell Labs in Holmdel NJ. That lasted 10 years before I closed them down, as well! After another 10 years of private consulting, I decided I’d had enough.

Annette and I just celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary. We now live in an over 55 (way over!) community called Shadow Lake Village in Middletown, NJ. It has a little golf course which I frequent as often as the weather allows. Both of our sons are married; both live in Fair Haven, NJ, a town next door to us; and we have four beautiful grand children, all of whom are starting high school. (Someone once said that grandchildren are God’s gift to you for not killing your own kids!) Oh yeah, we have lots of grand dogs and grand cats too!

Thanks for keeping ‘58 alive. I wish all of you a happy life. Chas.

Eddie Burke

I graduated somewhere in the middle of the class. I didn't have much interest in college, and wasted much of my abilities. Eventually got a job, through an employment agency, starting at $55 a week on Wall Street as a clerk. I liked the job, but immediately realized that only a college education would lead to advancement.  

I wasn’t sure that Wall Street was for me long term, although I did like it, so I opted for pre-med at Seton Hall. Once again I squandered my education, struggling through barely, with a 2.00 cum.  

I decided to go back to Wall Street. Armed with a degree in Biology, I was offered a position as a Preferred Stock Trader, at $8K per year. My boss quit, and I got his job, and $40K! Averaged about $300k for the next 30 years.  

I met my wife, and we had two kids. Happily married to Jeanne for 25 years. Served on first SPP Board of Trustees about 20 years ago.

Living as a semi retired stockbroker and a snowbird in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, playing golf. My game is constantly improving as I'm only losing 3 balls a round (down from 6). 

I'm happy and healthy!

Soon after graduation, I met the love of my life, Carol Muller. She was introduced to me after Mass at St. Paul’s Church (Greenville, Jersey City) by my cousin, who tried to arrange a ride home (so she said). We kind of fell for each other, and continued to date through my four years of college. We married in ’62, and the rest is history.

I commuted to Stevens Tech in Hoboken for four years, majoring in mechanical engineering. Though I was fascinated with what I was learning, it was a struggle and my grades were mediocre. I also enjoyed playing lacrosse as a freshman, but decided to give it up in hopes of improving my grades. My four years also included Air Force ROTC, and joining Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, which provided a great social outlet for Carol and me, along with very competitive inter-fraternity touch football.

After graduating from Stevens in ’62 and being commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the US Air Force, I had hoped for a 1-year delayed assignment to let me gain some experience in an engineering job and earn some cash, so Carol and I could marry before I would start my first assignment in the USAF. However, Uncle Sam had other plans. I received orders assigning me to temporary duty at Chanute Air Force Base Tech School in Rantoul, IL in August for four months of aircraft maintenance officer training, followed by permanent duty as a field maintenance officer at Selfridge AFB in Michigan (about 20 miles north of Detroit).

This meant that, if I were to take Carol with me, we would have to push up our wedding plans by about a year. Uncle Sam was kind enough to grant me a 2-week leave after Tech School to accomplish this, meaning that Carol and I had to communicate by mail and phone about wedding plans in NJ. Thanks to heroic efforts by Carol and our families while I was learning all there was to know about aircraft maintenance, we married after Christmas ’62 at the church where we had met. We briefly honeymooned in the Poconos, then drove, undeterred by lots of snow, to Michigan to start our wonderful life adventure together.

My assignment involved maintenance of engines and other mechanical components for F-106 fighter interceptors and other support aircraft – a job I really enjoyed and might have considered as a career. However, Viet Nam was beginning to rear its ugly head and, with a wife and two AF brats (sons), that would have been very imprudent. So, after completing my commitment in ’65, I landed a job as an experimental test engineer at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford, CT, working on testing fixes for the same engines that I had worked with in the AF. That job lasted 10 years, after which I was the victim of a major layoff.

Thanks to Divine Providence, an ad appeared soon after for an Assistant Director of Engineering at nearby Manchester Memorial Hospital (where our two daughters had been born). It involved plant maintenance, and I had enjoyed my maintenance experience in the AF. Long story short, after collecting one unemployment check, I was offered and accepted the job I felt drawn to (despite a significant pay cut). I enjoyed the technical work, and working in a hospital was very fulfilling despite the long hours and being on call. (The administrative part was not my favorite, though.)

I continued at MMH for 21 years, wearing (too) many “hats”. By ’95, between expansion and “making do with less” (Les?), plus a personality clash with my latest boss, I was feeling quite burned out. I was seriously considering a career change, and sensed a very strong calling to patient care. After much research and consultation with co-workers in several disciplines, along with lots of prayer for guidance, respiratory therapy felt l ike the right fit. It involved much needed patient treatment, along with a very satisfying technical aspect. After taking some prerequisite evening classes, I enrolled in a full time respiratory therapy program at a local community college, and took an early retirement from the hospital in ‘96.

I graduated from the 2-year program with an AS degree, and was hired by W.W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, CT in ’98. My new career was very satisfying, much less stressful, and had me working only eight hour shifts with NO administrative responsibilities. It felt incredibly relieving just being a “grunt”! After eight years I retired for good at age 65. Carol and I spent the next few years between relaxing, getting our house ready for sale, and looking at houses and property near our younger daughter in Maine. We eventually found a nice wooded lot in Wayne, ME, a lake resort community, and eventually had our dream house (for aging in place) built on it. Our CT home was eventually sold, and we moved to Maine full time in 2013. We love it here!

Now, still happily married for 55 years, we are still blessed with reasonably good health, are enjoying our retirement together in this lovely state, are getting more involved in our new parish, and look back gratefully on the wonderful life we’ve been sharing with all its blessings (including four grandchildren). The Lord has certainly been good to us! .

Graduating from Prep was an anxious time. Where to go to college. I wanted to be an engineer – go to a good school. St. Peter’s would only give me a letter of recommendation if I went to a Catholic college. My second honors cards were more numerous than those first honor certificates. I was by design a mediocre student. Stevens Tech in Hoboken seemed as if it would be a struggle. So, I chose N.C.E. Newark College of Engineering.

Location – up on a hill not far from McGovern’s pub. Campus – city blocks of mixed racial buildings, a local high school, some greenery, 3% female student body. Hard courses, hard teachers. Engineering drawing, physics and chemistry – not what I envisioned. Ever try to “print on a smooth mylar sheet” with a stylus filled with black ink – one lousy drop and you had to start over again – Ugh!

So, it took me 5 years, I became an industrial engineer getting A’s in history and English. You could see where I was heading. Became president of the Society for Advancement of Management, president of the debating society and editor of a departmental newsletter. Found out I loved to write. Got some awards, founded a fraternity and graduated with an appointment to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Aha…now I needed a job. Wound up writing for McGraw-Hill. Traveling around the country visiting companies that turned production lines of widgets from “300 per day to 500 per day”. It was fun and I had my own by-line and my own secretary – that was a blast. But after two years I realized that the ladder upwards was clogged with more experienced writers. Promotions were slow and I was filled with piss and vinegar. A four day work week and free meals got tiresome, Really!

Got hired by Uniroyal – U.S. Rubber – designed air conditioning ducts – definitely not a WOW! Job. Spent time working in the mills in South Carolina where education meant a good job and short shorts were the rage of teenage production lines. When they wanted to send me to Shelbyville Tennessee to head up an 18 month project, I said good bye! Still looking for my niche.

Another good interview and I wound up at the Port Authority touted as “the best managed company in the country.” I spent 30 years at the “Port” heading up some great projects. Involved in the original construction of the twin towers – was very exciting. Some of my projects over the years: Where to put 30 tons of garbage that was going to be generated per day, per tower; How to design and fabricate an emergency evacuation stair from a Path train that was stuck in a tunnel under the Hudson River and had to make it light enough to be carried by a female conductor – maximum weight 22 lbs. – all Path trains carry them now. Headed up a $27 million communications control center project with dozens of TV monitors and integrated turn stiles and verbal communication into each Path station to chase away farebeat offenders and ….did a lot of work in the transportation planning area for future Path extensions, freight routes and transit interfaces. During my years at the Port, I was appointed to the Governor’s Commission on the upcoming omens of a rising sea level – an eye opening study which is now slowly coming to fruition. And on and on. A great 30 years at the Port – Loved it.

But, of course, couldn’t forget about my desire to write. I hooked up with a fellow Polonian (that’s what they called Polish Americans – still do). He was starting a weekly paper based in Clifton NJ called the Post Eagle and asked me to write a column – no pay! I jumped at the chance – my own masthead as well! To make a long story short – I wrote that weekly column for forty years – wrote a lot about Poland where my family and my wife Gloria’s family came from, Roots – you see. I wrote about politics and a myriad of other subjects.

As I became the papers Associate Editor, I delved into other areas. Started reviewing restaurants all over New Jersey (a really good dining event got rated 5 Polish Eagles!) Also started a column with Gloria called “The Plays The Thing” where we jointly reviewed plays – attending opening nights at places like Frank Daley’s Meadowbrook and the Paper Mill Playhouse. Meeting stars like Van Johnson and Ann Miller! It was a blast. Also did book reviews for a while as well. The Post Eagle also sent us on some trips to Europe (Poland) where we ate kielbasa on a skewer and drank vodka with Stephanie Powers in the mountains of Zakopane. What an experience! Lest I forget, I was also a beauty contest judge at Palisades Amusement Park where I would run a press conference with the applicant. Now that was a trip!

Of course there was another facet of my life after Prep. I enrolled at Seton Hall University to obtain my MBA in 1969. That degree was supposed to help me rise above the ranks at the Port – did it – Questionable!

In the early 80’s during one of my Port projects, met the son of a contractor I was dealing with who loved freight railroads. He asked me if I wanted to buy a freight railroad. Of course I said yes. Wouldn’t you! I laughed as well. Guess what: we added a third partner and in 1980 purchased the Morristown & Erie Railway whose offices and maintenance yard were located in Morristown. I couldn’t tell anyone I owned a railroad, no one would believe me. The details in the purchase are too long to discuss. But it happened – 40 miles of right of way, a half dozen locomotives and a few maintenance staff, secretaries and those ‘other’ kind of engineers.

When I retired for the Port Authority in 95, I actually went to work as Vice-President and owner of the Railway for 5 years. A massive adjustment in my life to say the least. My area of responsibility was marketing, customer communication, TDI advertising and cell tower installations. A lot of responsibility. By 2000, I sold my share in the railway and retired for a second time!

In that same year an organization in Bergen County, (I am proud of this) named me ‘Man of the Year’ and there was a big affair at a hotel near Newark Airport where 200 + people showed up to honor me for almost 40 years of my newspaper writings. Both John Connors and Ed Burke attended the affair.

So, still full of vim and vigor – what to do now! I became a teacher at Elmwood Park High School teaching math, English Lit and even some physical education classes. Did this for 4 years and then I retired for a third time.

The timing seemed to be right to move from our domicile in Clifton where we spent 30 years to the Jersey Shore. And so I entered another project, this time my own – took a small 3 bedroom bungalow at the beach in Lavallette and turned it into a two level edifice where we could spend our remaining years. Did the drawings for the house as well – Proud of that. Of course living at the beach led to a whole new career. I became a badge checker at the beach in the summers, a people friendly job for sure, got elected to the beach’s community board and was in charge of the life guards for a few years – a very rewarding experience that uncannily led to long time friendships and the erection of a lifeguard constructed Tiki Bar in my shore house rear yard. A wonderful haven for those afternoon and evening soirees!

During my internship at the beach, the writing blog hit me again and together with other local residents started up a weekly newspaper called the Jersey Shore Journal. In it, wrote a weekly column called “Catch The Drift” which covered such subjects as tidal movements, sea shell treasures, hemp growing – eclectic for sure. The paper folded within a year – but it was a great experience.

Gloria and I now live down at the beach full time. Our daughters and our grandsons make our summers just delightful.

After spending four and a half years studying for the priesthood following graduation from Prep, I left the major seminary at Darlington with a bachelor’s degree in classical languages from Seton Hall (very useful in the marketplace), and decided to visit my grandmother in San Bernardino, CA before embarking on a new career path. It was 25 degrees in NY on Valentine’s Day in 1963 when I departed, and 72 degrees in LA when I landed, exhilarated by my first ride in a jet airplane (727), and the incredible weather. I decided then and there that I was not returning to NJ, and never did, except to attend graduate school at Rutgers and for occasional visits with family.

After a stint with a finance company as a collector and six months active duty with the Army Reserves, I was hired by the San Bernardino County Welfare Department as a social worker. After five years licensing foster homes for children and supervising public assistance programs, I decided to stay in the field of social work. I returned to NJ to attend graduate school at Rutgers, married to Marlene and toting a four month old baby boy.

Following graduation and armed with a Master of Social Work degree, we all returned to CA, and I resumed my work with the County, working for Child Protective Services and Adoptions, where I carried a caseload of older, hard to place children. Two years later, I moved over to the Department of Mental Health where I spent the next twenty years in various capacities, mostly working in and supervising alcohol and drug treatment programs. After obtaining my license as a psychotherapist, I managed the County’s 56 bed inpatient psychiatric facility for a time, but then decided to return to managing the alcohol and drug treatment programs.

We had three more kids, and I retired as the department Deputy Director in 1993. Since that time, I’ve worked as a hospital social worker in three different hospitals, and still do on-call work occasionally. I frequently hear the question, “Aren’t you retired yet” from co-workers, family and friends. I suppose that’s better than “I didn’t know you were still alive.”

In 1972, I was accepted as a candidate for the Permanent Diaconate program for the Diocese of San Diego, and was ordained a permanent deacon in 1975. I have served in what is now the Diocese of San Bernardino (split off from San Diego in 1978) for the last 43 years. I baptized two of our children, performed the marriage ceremony for our two sons and have baptized all seven of our grandchildren, who now range in age from 5 to 20. I opted to be simply the father of the bride for my two daughters.

Marlene and I met on a blind date and we’ve been married for 51 years. We enjoy a leisurely retirement in Yucaipa CA, where we’ve lived for the past 47 years. I still serve at our parish church, preaching homilies, baptizing babies and participating in the various liturgies. I have chanted the Exultet (Easter Praise) at the last 40 Easter Vigil services.

I’ve traveled to 27 different States, Mexico and Canada, but oddly enough I’ve never been to Florida or Hawaii, and have never been off the continent. I’ve led a pretty quiet and sedate life, and I’ve been told I’m a pretty boring fellow, but I love routine and find, for me, it’s a most tranquil way to live. Happily, Marlene feels the same way.

Yes, “Life was great in ‘58”, but it “ain’t so bad” now either.

I left Prep headed for Notre Dame in early fall in the company of Gerry Drummond’s cousin Dennis Dwyer and his parents who were generous enough to include me in their car trip to South Bend. I arrived full of determination that quickly evaporated. It may have been a good destination for many but it was not one for me. The school was too regimented.

One example will suffice. If you got to Sunday mass late you would be met by an aged Father of the Holy Cross who would seize your student ID which you could only get back by seeing their equivalent of the Dean of Students. After having this happen I learned that many avoided this by skipping mass altogether. They did not enforce attending mass but coming late was an offense. I had had enough and after completing the first semester, I decided that this was not the place for me and withdrew, heading home to Teaneck. I then took up a career as a greens keeper at a local country club and made plans to attend Fordham College in the Bronx in the fall.

Probably because I had already become accustomed to the Jesuit model of education, I found Fordham to be a good place to study and thrive. I will mention one special encounter that I had there that took me right back to Prep. I eventually noticed that the Dean of Men was our old friend Father John (Tex, as some of us called him) Murray. I dropped in to see him and found him to be most pleasant and relaxed. He was happy to see me and related that it was joy to deal with college students who, for the most part, were pretty serious and much easier to deal with than high school students. Don’t we all know that.

I fell in love with the study of History and majored in it. I also fell in love with a woman and we became engaged. After several months, I discovered that was a mistake and thankfully it was soon all over. Because of a Google search I conducted about ten years ago, all I can say about that is: “Thank God! Thank God” Due to my “gap year” I graduated from college in June of 1963, a year later than most in the class of 58. My parents had told me that any further education I would get would be up to me. I applied to several graduate programs to study American History and settled on Penn State because they offered me free tuition and a modest stipend ($1450) that I could live on in exchange for my serving as a teaching assistant.

The break up of my engagement left me with a free summer and money that was intended for furniture in my pocket. Following Horace Greeley’s admonition, I headed West and spent the time visiting family and friends in Utah and Colorado. I had a wonderful time and saw a lot. On my long bus ride back East in mid August I thought that perhaps the study of Law rather than History would better suit me. As we know in those pre-Vietnam days we all looked forward to two years in the army, often in the Fulda Gap, and then release from military duty. Late on a Friday afternoon I went to Teaneck Armory and made an appointment to get a physical the next week in Newark. Next I wrote a letter to the chair of the History Department at Penn state informing him I was not coming.

The next day I turned on the TV and saw the first college football game of the fall of 1963. I do not recall who was playing but those kids in the stands looked as if they were having a lot more fun than I would have in the winter slogging around in the mud at an Army base in the South. I told myself I was a big dummy and that I ought to unwind things as quickly as I could. I mention all this because it marked a great change in the course of my life. Again I say “Thank God.” Monday morning at 8:00 I visited the friendly recruiting sergeant who tore up my papers. I next called the chair at Penn State who had not received my letter and was happy to know that he would not have to thrash around to find a substitute for me in section of American History. Then it was off to Penn State to share a house with three friends from Fordham and an Iona grad and take up our graduate studies. Those two years were some of the best in my life. We five all learned how to cook, shop, keep a house clean, and run it on a tight budget. I had an extra benefit. In the second year of graduate school I met the woman who was to become my wonderful wife.

By now you should have noticed that dumb luck played a significant role in my life. Meeting Marifé was no different. I was taking a Colonial History course in the fall and the professor announced that by Friday we should select our permanent seats for the semester. I always sat in the back row and in the seat next to the rear door there was a nice looking woman named Joan. I simply sat in the seat next to that seat and awaited her arrival. The class commenced and she was not there but no worry. She would come. The professor had started his lecture and a student opened the front door, started across the room and then reversed course, excused herself and left only to enter the room again through the rear door and plop right down in Joan’s seat. I was irritated with this person because she had upset my plans for romance for the fall session. Little did I know that she would provide me with love and romance for the rest of her life.

I soon learned that the smart, good looking woman next to me was Maria Fernanda Vallecillo from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. We both lived in the same direction and fell into talk on the walk home. You will notice that I called her Marifé. In that generation about half of the young girls in Puerto Rico were named Maria and to avoid confusion each would create a nickname often by combining their first and second names.

It was my intention to obtain my MA in American History and then head to any law school that would give me a scholarship. Happily in the spring I learned that I was admitted to the School of Law at the University of Virginia with a full tuition scholarship. Marifé decided to take a job in DC at the Library of Congress where they valued her translation skills and advanced education.

We both moved south with the intention of marrying after I completed law school. On most weekends we alternated travelling between Charlottesville and DC. One weekend in October when we had not planned to travel I sat in the law library missing the woman I loved. I said to myself, “You are going to marry the woman any way so why not get up to DC now, propose to her and be done with it.” I jumped on a bus or train and was soon at her apartment door and proposed. We were married in the cathedral in Mayagüez in the spring of 1966 by a Jesuit physicist who worked in a nuclear reactor with Marifé’s father who was a health physicist.

Fortunately, I did well in law school, developed a new academic love in the study of tax law and found myself to be a popular candidate for a job. That is until it was discovered that I had a Puerto Rican wife. Cravath, Swaine & Moore was then regarded as one of the very best, if not the best, law firm in NYC. In the 1950s they had already gone through the angst of handling partners who did not want to share a partnership with Jews. Such partners were simply told they could leave before the Jew was admitted to partnership. Consequently, Cravath was more forward looking than many of its peers in the big firm environment. In 1968 they decided to break solidarity with the big NYC firms and bumped the starting salary up from $10,000 to $15,000 a year. Given that only a few law firms wanted a guy with a Puerto Rican wife and one of those that did was one of the best law firms in the country and it was paying the princely sum of $15,000 a year, off we headed to Manhattan.

Life on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in a terraced apartment with a doorman was new to both of us and any of our family members. It was fun to be young in NY with the city outside our door and money in our pockets. In 1969 our daughter Anne-Marie joined us in our one bedroom apartment. After my stalling as long as I could, Marifé got us looking for new quarters, this time in Ridgewood, NJ where I was able to ride the Weary Erie to Hoboken and hop on my old friend the Hudson and Manhattan Tube to the base of the then under construction World Trade Center. Life in Ridgewood and the practice of law at Cravath was all one could rightly expect. Yet I yearned to return to my original idea of being a college teacher, but this time in a law school rather than in a History department. Marifé and I both loved life in a college town so our search was primarily focused on again returning to one.

We eventually settled on the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Life was good here and the Law School provided a good environment in which I could teach and write. We added two more children to the family, a boy William Andrew and a girl Christine Marguerite, Originally we thought we would stay only 3-5 years and then move on. Although I received a number of other offers of employment, we decided that we had a family friendly environment in an area that provided good cultural and athletic entertainment and settled down for the rest of our lives in Chapel Hill. Actually that is not all that accurate because academic visits and research leaves resulted in our living in Austin, Tuscaloosa, Charlottesville, Salt Lake City, Oxford, Taipei, Madrid and Sorrento. I did manage to author and co-author a number of books and articles on various tax and non-tax topics. Like most professors, I was given a chair. Standing for thirteen years was tiring.

Our children all went on to college and did additional studies thereafter. Anne-Marie is now a child psychiatrist in Apex, NC, Andrew works in IT at UNC Hospitals and Christine lives in Milton MA where she works in social media marketing. All are married and have given us seven grandchildren ranging in age from seventeen years to seven months.

Unfortunately, Marifé went to Duke Hospital for an endoscopy in 2013 where her intestine was torn and this was followed by faulty repair surgery in which a tear was missed or a new one was created. The surgeon had not ordered a CT scan for the surgery as the NIH tells one is the first step for such surgeries. Marifé lingered in the hospital for 438 days before dying. Through this I learned that medical mistake is the third leading cause of death in the US, accounting for about 9.5% of all deaths. The death certificate merely reports what finally brought life to an end, such as septicemia or hemorrhage.

About 0.75% of all who enter a hospital for a procedure will die from medical mistake. I mention this because we all should make our choices of doctors and hospitals with great care. I have taken the loss of Marifé rather hard, she was only one of three individuals that I met in an academic career whom I can consider a true intellectual with a lawyer/anthropologist at UNC and an Israeli historian being the other two.

In addition, she was a kind, loving, generous person. I and our children miss her very much. For the life of me, I have great difficulty understanding what drives so many in our society to reject, out of hand, those from other backgrounds and of different ethnicities. I think we were lucky at Prep to attend school with a group of great classmates who came from different nationalities in a city that was in the process of adapting to the entrance of differing ethnicities.  

Graduating from the Prep in 1958 I went to a Franciscan college seminary in Callicoon, NY. I wanted to join a brotherhood. Little did I know what God wanted and what God had planned for me! I joined the brotherhood founded by St. Francis of Assisi, the Order of Friars Minor, in1960. We are called friars. I was ordained to the priesthood in 1967. And very soon I had the happiness to be the official witness to the wedding of Jimmy and Sue Mack. After finishing theology studies I was sent to the Franciscan mission in Japan in 1967.

After 2 years of Japanese language studies in Tokyo, I served the parish communities in the cities of Maebashi, Ota, and Kiryu, all in Gumma Prefecture. Throughout my time in Japan I was always involved in the formation ministry with our young Japanese friars. In 1977 until 1984 I was assigned to the parish in Kita Urawa where I also ministered in the friars’ novitiate program.

In 1984 I was reassigned to the Franciscan Order’s Africa Project. I spent one year in Rome serving at the Order’s mission office. My ministry in Africa was formation ministry and retreat ministry. My first assignment in Africa was to Malawi 1985-1986. In 1986 I went with the first four Malawian friars in formation to join the post novitiate formation program with the Capuchin and Conventual Franciscan friars in Livingstone, Zambia. We were living in Livingston 30 minutes from Zimbabwe, the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls – beautiful. In 1990 I was assigned to the friars’ pre-novitiate formation house in Mbarara, Uganda. From that time I also engaged in the retreat ministry. I was happy to be invited to join with the Jesuits in Nairobi, Kenya in the retreat ministry they have there. In 1992 I was reassigned to the friars’ mission in Subukia, Kenya. In 1997 I moved to Nairobi, Kenya where I continued the retreat ministry.

Over the years, when back in the States, I got to visit Jimmy Mack. On one occasion long ago, probanly 2000, I visited Bill Wittman in Toronto.

In 1999 I returned from Africa to the States. I ministered at Boston Arch Street and in Providence, Rhode Island and at St. Francis Chapel, Colonie, NY while living with the friars at Siena College. I retired in 2016 and am presently assigned to the friars’ community in Butler, NJ. We are 28 friars here. 10 of us are retired; the others are involved in various ministries.

In my free time now I follow ice dance figure skating. I actually did ice dance during my last six years in Japan. And for the 7 years in Providence, I participated in the Ballroom Dance club at Brown University and in Contra dancing. Since turning 70 in 2010, I gave up the dancing and took up the cello. I enjoy practicing the cello each day.

I am thankful for the gift of a calling to live the life of the Franciscan friars. I am thankful for the opportunity to have lived in so many countries and to have met and lived among the people of those countries. I am especially thankful for the privilege to have ministered with and lived in brotherhood with friars: Japanese, Korean, Sri Lankan, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Polish, Canadian, New Zealander, Australian, Irish, English, Mexican, Brazilian, Croatian, Malawian, Ugandan, Tanzanian, Kenyan, Columbian, Peruvian and El Salvadorian friars (and American!). I believe the Lord called me to a life of brotherhood. I am so lucky that Fr. Shalloe directed me to the Franciscans. I have been so blessed.

I was enrolled in Prep, not by choice, but because my father knew the value of a Jesuit education. (I ended up having 12 years of it.) Only looking back many years later, did I appreciate what he had done for my brother (’50) and I.

From an early age, I wanted to be a dentist like my father. So, after Prep, off to Pre-Dent at SPC. I was an average student at Prep & SPC. But, I got a real scare after my 1st semester biology course. It was Botany and my grade was hovering 69-70. My luck had it that my Jesuit mentor was the professor and was a botany major way back. He sat me down to talk about it and recommended I transfer to the Business School. No way – I told him I wanted to be a dentist and could not understand how trees grew and flowers blossomed had anything with my career path. Big mistake. He went ballistic. After begging, he let me continue conditionally into his 2nd semester course – Zoology. I loved it and easily passed.

Oh – while in college, I became an athlete & lettered 3 years. Varsity Bowling!! (Only college sport where the bar was only 30’ away.)

The day after Prep graduation, I became a roofer. (My father’s best friend was my boss.) They both decided I should have a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. Seven summers, most Saturdays & holidays. If full time, close to 1 ½ years of my life. To this day I acknowledge and appreciate laborers and tradesmen. Made me always enjoy summer over winter. Working shirtless, but with long pants, brought some stares when at the Shore – very tan top, white legs.

During Jr year at SPC, I met my life soulmate. Pat was from the Rumson, Fair Haven Shore area, and was enrolled at Christ Hospital School of Nursing in Jersey City. While rotating through Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital (wonder how many of my classmates were born there) the girls lusted for some male companionship and immediately thought of the horny guys at the College. They held a mixer & I went. Lucky me. ( I wonder if they knew that the Jesuits didn’t let us have puberty yet!) What Pat didn’t know was that I was in need of a short notice date for the Annual Bowling Banquet at the Knights of Columbus in Bayonne. She sat through several hours of boring speeches, awards and non-memorable food. I knew then, that she made my team.

I promised my Dad that I would not get married until I finished Dental School at Georgetown (his alma mater ’26). Only promise I ever broke to him. We got married between Soph/Jr year. Dental school started out with 120 in my Class. After 1 yr, I was 56th. It was very tough. All our classes were taken with the medical students. After Soph yr, I was 32nd. Got married. Entered clinical training. Loved it. After Jr yr, 12th. Graduated 2nd. Was a case of finally doing what you like & liking what you do. My whole career was like that. Anyway, when I handed my diploma to my father, he said he would never doubt my judgment again.

After Georgetown graduation, off to the Air Force for 3 yrs. A one year dental internship in Ft Worth TX and 2 yrs in Myrtle Beach, SC. Visiting a relative in Charlotte, NC, we fell in love with it had a private practice there for 38 yrs.

Soon after getting married, we began our family. First 2 girls, then 2 boys. All in 5 yrs. Wash. DC, Ft Worth TX, Myrtle Beach, SC & Charlotte, NC. We decided we should not move anymore. We have 5 grandchildren, too!!

We have had two 2nd homes, but not at the same time. One was on Kiawah Is. SC for 12 yrs. We left work Thurs pm & returned Sun pm. Lots of driving, but recharged & ready for work Mon am. The other home came just prior to retirement and was on Lake Keowee in far western SC not far from Clemson Univ. We had that for 5 yrs. During those 2nd home years we lived in a small condo a short walk from my office. Finally decided that Charlotte would get all our remaining years.

Once our nest got empty, we began to travel. (Do not leave home with 4 teenagers behind. Been there, done that – once.) We were fortunate to have German best friends who moved from Charlotte back to Germany to raise & educate their 2 boys. We traveled many places in Europe with them over the years, including many hiking trips in the Austrian Alps. Pat’s hobby is Geneology, so that took us to her ancestral northern Germany and my Lithuania and eastern Slovakia.

We try to get up North every few years. We love NYC in Dec. Even made it to Prep one Dec 8th Holy Day Mass in the gym. Brought back memories seeing those well-behaved young men.

Pat & I are pretty healthy. Briskly walk 4-5 miles most days. Back in late 70’s I ran 4 marathons, including New York & Jersey Shore. Well controlled asthma prevents me from running, but not walking or hiking.

My favorite hobby has always been fishing, esp. salt water. My father and brother passed that on to me & I to my children & grands.

Finally, I envy the bonding so many of you have in living near each other, many having played on Prep teams together etc. And Cuppa!!! Keep it uppa!!

Bottom line: Yes! Prep has and still is making a difference in my life. Sure, the Jesuits are the “Society of Jesus”, but their emphasis on devotion to the Blessed Mother left the most lasting influence upon me.

I grew up in Hasbrouck Heights and commuted to Prep on the 97 bus to Journal Square, the Erie Railroad and eventually by car pool. Being a commuter, it was difficult for me to get to know my fellow classmates other than those on the 1958 baseball team of which I was a member. This blog and the 60th Reunion has helped to fill some of that void.

In 1958, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik giving our nation a wakeup call. It was clear we were falling behind in science and engineering resulting in a big rush to close the gap. It motivated me to have a desire to attend engineering school and Father Shalloe recommended the University of Detroit. In 1963, I completed a five-year program in Chemical Engineering which included a three-year internship with Ford Motor Company at their Engineering Staff and Research Center in Dearborn, MI. Had it not been for the preparation I had in science and math during my high school years, I would not have lasted more than the first year in engineering school.

While in college, I also joined the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class program and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant upon graduation. Upon completion of six months of training at the Officer Basic School in Quantico, VA, I was given a choice of three duty stations. Being a Jersey boy, I thought the Marine Corps Base at 29 Palms really sounded cool. Little did I know, and much to my disappointment, I would be stationed in the Mojave Desert 50 miles from the nearest civilization. Not a great place for a bachelor.

I eventually served a 20 year career which included two tours of duty in Vietnam as well as others at Ft. Bliss, TX, Quantico, VA, Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, CA, Okinawa, Japan and Camp Pendleton, CA. My final assignment was at the Marine Corps Finance Center in Kansas City. While at Ft. Bliss, I met my wife of 47 years and have been blessed with three wonderful children and two grandchildren which are the love of our life.

While stationed in Kansas City, I began working on an MBA degree at Rockhurst University to prepare for life after retirement from the Marine Corps. While still in the program, I was asked to apply for the position of MBA Program Director, was hired, and served in that capacity from 1984 to 1988. In 1988, I was hired by Johnson County Community College, a 20,000 student school in suburban Kansas City, to serve in a variety of administrative positions which culminated in appointment to the position of Assistant Dean for Business, Technology and Computer Instruction.

In 1996, I requested assignment to a faculty position and served in that capacity until my retirement in 2014. During my second career in education, I had the privilege of co-founding the Kansas Academy for Math and Science(KAMS) which is located at Fort Hays State University. Some of Kansas’ best and brightest high school juniors and seniors participate in this resident program where they concurrently complete their last two years of high school and first two years of college in a STEM intensive curriculum. To date, over 250 students, including some from China and South Korea, have graduated.

I am now a full time papa to my grandchildren which is the best job I have ever had. While my entire education from high school to graduate school took place in Jesuit institutions, the most important formative years of my life took place at the Prep for which I am very grateful. If you are ever in the Kansas City area and would like to get together, email me at madgrm8127@gmail.com. We have some great barbeque. In the mean time best wishes for good health and happiness until we meet again at our 70th Reunion.
 

Rich Gaven
After my gentle, widowed mother with her degree in Greek from The College of New Rochelle “reasoned” with Father Carr, he deigned to release my transcripts to the godless institution of Cornell where I graduated from the School of Hotel Administration. There I met my beautiful and talented wife of 56 years. Lucy was an English Major at Cornell and a graduate of Kent Place in Summit so you can see I married a classy broad, and one with a wonderful sense of humor.

Having been in NROTC at Cornell, the Navy sent me “to Lake” (as opposed to sea) where I was stationed on a ship on Lake Michigan. Really. Our official Navy address was USS Farmington PCE 894, Randolph Street at the Lake, Chicago, IL.

Following my two-year commitment, I went to work for Saga Food service and ran the student dining at Rockhurst College, a fine Jesuit school in Kansas City, MO. In late 1966 we moved back to the Chicago area where I worked for the National Live Stock and Meat Board for seven years, doing education and promotion in the restaurant industry.

I then went with the National Restaurant Association (the other NRA) staying there for the next 29 years before retiring in 2002. Most of my work focused on The NRA Show, the largest annual trade show in Chicago. One of the most enjoyable aspects was developing education programs and social events, and booking speakers including some rather recognizable names. Nothing quite as much fun as hanging backstage and chatting with Colin Powell, or Barbara Bush, or Ronald Reagan and then as the 30-piece orchestra plays their walk-on music and the curtain parts, saying to them “you’re on.” I have a great collection of photos stashed in my drawer, all set for use around the casket at my wake.

Fifteen years ago we were visiting Maine where one of our sons was planning to move--and the only one of the 50 states I had not been to--and were fascinated by it. As loners, we bought a wee woods in the hills of Mid-coast Maine about 15 miles in from the ocean. Typical Maine: the realtor we spoke to said “why would you want to move to Maine?” After we built a road into it, a year later we decided to put in a house. All just to prove to ourselves we weren’t too old to do dumb things. But we love it when we’re there for a portion of the summer.

Not unlike their parents who wandered away, our four children and their families are scattered to Maine, Virginia, Texas and Zimbabwe. (For those of you who didn’t do well in Mr. Sedorowitz’s geography class, that last one is in Africa.)

Are there any questions? Seeing none - readers dismissed.

John Ricci
Born a week after Pearl Harbor in Jersey City – like a lot of us, at the Margaret Hague hospital. I lived on Second street in a house that my grandparents had bought when they arrived from Italy in the early 1900’s. She had two siblings that also bought the house on either side. So we had family all around us. We walked to grammar school – Holy Rosary.

On to the Prep – ¾ mile or so, which I mostly walked, although the # 9 bus took over when it rained. And since I was an altar boy during high school, I helped our parish priest at Holy Rosary put on plays (stage hand – not acting). He would bring down some of his family – hairdressers – to help get everyone ready for the performance. One of those family members was Joann Vitale – and we just celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary.

After Prep, I joined many others heading up to St. Peter’s college – again the # 9 bus. After graduation , I did a short stint in the Air Force reserve, then started working in NYC at a textile firm in their management training program.

I married in Sept. 63, we moved to an apartment in Fort Lee, and had our first daughter (we have 3). The apartment got to be too small, so we had to start thinking of the next step… a house. Since I was working in NY and going to grad school at night there, we decided to stay close by. So, back to JC and Country Village. We bought a town house which served us well for 7 years.

In 1972, just as we were ready to head to Monmouth County, I changed jobs and became a manufacturer’s rep – selling different products from a variety of manufacturers. I specialized in the variety stores of the day – (our age might remember some of these – FW Woolworth, WT Grant, etc. ) Within a couple of years, my focus was on a growing area – the discount stores – Kmart, Wal-Mart, etc.

Once the 70’s came upon us, these outlets started carrying food products which created a big area of growth. This change put me solely into food products, where I was approached by a German company that handled many products.

And shortly after that, the warehouse club business started to grow quickly. My concentration then went to that class of trade. I started doing business with Sam's club (division of Wal-mart) , Price Club (now Costco).

My travels took me all over the country – mostly west coast, and to Europe frequently (mostly Germany) for trade shows. And my wife came with me most of the time (someone had to help me drink wine in Italy). For most of the last 30 years, I have worked out of my house – no commuting. Thank God!!

In 1972, we moved to Lincroft, then in 1977 to Colts Neck, where we bought a house on cull-de-sac. When I told my dad about this, he said “you mean a dead end, don’t you?” Back down to earth in a hurry!! Then, the most recent move 18 years ago to Sea Girt to be closer to the beach.

We are fortunate to have 3 daughters, all close by. And there are 2 grandsons (the oldest and youngest) and 3 granddaughters.

It has been a busy time since graduation from the PREP where every student is indeed fortunate because each student is provided with a phenomenal academic high school experience.  For anyone who asks, I tell them that the PREP was a great place to study and to learn and it was probably the best place for a Jersey City “ute” like me, to begin the process of becoming an adult.  Four years later, I graduated from St Peter’s College, which in retrospect turned out to be a rather easy chore mainly because of the great foundation I “got” from the Prep.  I went to the “day” school in college, worked most other times and attended class only when it was convenient.   A few years later, I completed a few evening classes at NYU Graduate School but never finished because of my work commitments, my daily commute and my family life.   (I know…. these are all simply excuses!).

My time at the Prep began in Sept of 1954 and one month later, I turned 14 and found an after school job working in the Loews movie house in Journal Square for most weekday afternoons and of course, for all weekends.  This job was certainly not challenging and allowed me to study while working but more importantly it allowed me to appreciate the value of money at a young age and infused in me an intense drive to accumulate the almighty dollar.   The simple solution was to always put in as many hours as possible which in turn in turn allowed me to accumulate as many dollars as possible.

Two years later at 16, I switched my part-time job for one on Wall Street while in junior year at the Prep, for a new experience filled with daily after school bouts of wrestling with stocks and bonds instead of the candy bars and popcorn at the movie theatre.  This new job also gave me full time employment with plenty of overtime during all summer recesses and the various school holidays. I put in enough hours to pay for tuition in my senior year at Prep and for my entire college tuition.  At this Wall Street firm, I just happened to have a desk sitting within a large bank vault located below street level at 72 Wall Street.   And it was in this basement vault that I meet a young 18-year-old newly hired secretary from Staten Island who I married in Oct 1963 and then moved to Staten Island. 

I started my public accounting career at Deloitte Haskins and Sells - on the very next day after college graduation (didn’t want to waste any time) but I had to do something about my military responsibility so I joined the US Army Reserves and served 6 months of active duty in the summer after graduation, followed by an additional 5 1/2 years of weekend warrior duties.  I was married in Oct of 1963 and have 3 kids, and all also work in the Securities Business.   My daughter is a Managing Director at a major Wall Street firm; while my older son is the US General Manager of a European bank and my younger son is the sole owner of a small Wealth Management firm in NJ - and this same son is my boss (I do work within an office environment every regular business day until about 1pm).  Further, continuing the family’s financial spirit, my oldest grandchild starts his financial services career next month at a significant boutique Investment Banking firm on Park Avenue after graduating from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana U.   Three more grandkids are in college (2 at USC and another at Delaware U).  Finally, the 2 youngest kids attend elementary school in Staten Island.  That’s six grandchildren in total (3 boys and 3 girls) ranging in age from 21 years down to 6 years.

I was “staff reduced” at this Public Accounting firm after two years because of a lack of “assignment activity” ( I was in the ARMY for a good part of the two years but the HR Dept. told me that somehow my ARMY time was not indicated in my personnel file, consequently not enough assignments).  Having no job and a wife and a baby at home to support, really frightened me.  I went to an employment agency and they quickly found a job for me at American Express.  In those days (summer of 1964) job seekers had to pay the agency a fee and so I paid $360 or $30 per month for a year, to get this new job paying about $7,200 per year.   This firm was simply begging for new young talent to push themselves quickly up the corporate ladder so anyone could take as much responsibility as one could handle.  So, there was always a “go for the gusto” work environment.  I really learned a lot about the travel and credit card businesses plus I was given a limited budget to start a computer area for use only by our Travel Accounting Dept. and most importantly, it was separate from the Corporate Central Computer Group.  These infant computer machines really did help.  This was an educational time.

After a year of OJT, I was assigned to the Amex Cruise Dept to re-engineer its accounting records and to suggest ways to improve its profitability.  As part of a new learning experience I was required to take a 30-day cruise aboard Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth I from NY to the Mediterranean and back.  So, while luxuriously and deliciously dining every evening in Black Tie and having to deal with intermittent stops in Rome, Monaco, Athens and Barcelona, this 25-year-old had a wife at home with our 6-month-old daughter and unbeknownst to me, a baby son on the way.  Then came a 2-month stint in Montreal for their World Expo ’67 and shortly thereafter a 6-month assignment in Waikiki with flights home every other week.   After being assigned to another fix-up situation, this time in Tokyo; I figured that enough was enough, so I quit and went back to Wall Street and my old employer, Walston & Co, which I had left some 7 years earlier.

I was now the new manager of Internal Audit, a small part of a significant securities firm, at probably the busiest time in Wall St history.  So busy, that all market trading was eliminated on Wednesday of each week so the back office could process “the transactional backlog”.   Computers weren’t as powerful or available as they are today and of course there were no PC’s.  After 3 years, our firm was merged with another and the combined entity was sold to Ross Perot.   Since my firm was on the losing side of this transaction, most of my co-workers were laid off and fortunate or not, I became the new “Commodity Operations Head”.  I guess that I got the job because I could spell the word – “COMMODITY” (a wee bit of sarcasm).  A short time after starting in this new area, I tripped upon a major defalcation that was masterminded in our Frankfurt, Germany office.  So as a reward or maybe a penalty, I was then additionally assigned as securities brokerage liaison to Ross. I was required to “limo ride” with him to the airport on his frequent trips back to Dallas.  I would sit in the back with this newly minted billionaire and his body guard to explain how this theft happened and since he loved to listen and then grill people, he demanded basic and intense but serious discussions about how the Wall St business worked (in much detail and many times in more detail than I knew).  The ride to LaGuardia was normally only 30 to 40 minutes but if there was any traffic, I would have to go on for sometimes in excess of an hour.  This was awful and compounded by the fact I had to cab it back to Manhattan as the limo was unavailable.

After Ross got tired of this crazy business and losses were getting too heavy, the combined firms folded and I turned down a relocation to Dallas with Ross & his firm, EDS.  I joined Bache & Co. to head up their worldwide Commodity Operations since I had now been industry anointed as a commodity expert who discovered a multimillion-dollar fraud at my prior job.  Amongst other duties, and a few years later, I was assigned as liaison to the Hunt Brothers (also of Dallas) who were trying to corner the US Silver Market.   Their plan was simple: buy all the Silver possible at any time or any place.  This stated in 1978 and collapsed in March of 1980.  This “SILVER CRISES” was resolved after 2 or 3 months, and I was then charged with the clean-up of this mess.  I worked on this for at least 80 hours per week for many months.  After six months or so, and with all issues with the Hunts finally tidied up (including the collection of millions of dollars from them); Bache morphed into Prudential Securities while I had to spend weeks in Washington, DC explaining how all of this “SILVER THING” happened.  I testified for many days over 3 weeks in front of varied alphabet groups including: the SEC, the FED, the CFTC, the FBI, the C of C and the DOJ.  My firm dubbed me a mini hero, but overall profits were tight, so all salary increases were frozen even for a mini hero. 

So without a salary increase, I had no choice but to leave the PRU for a new and better opportunity and joined a small Hedge Fund.  Besides the two founding partners, I was employee #1.  Yes, this was a risky move, but it paid off handsomely.  I was able to “gut” this out for about 5 ½ years when a headhunter sent me a note at home (for confidentially) to tell me that he had an offer for me that I could not refuse.  Yes, Hedge Funds make a lot of money; just ask Bernie Madoff whom I met thru his brother when I started a trading interface with his firm.  “No”, we did not lose any money with Bernie and his phony firm but a lot of others did.

In the early fall of 1987, I joined Kemper Insurance Corp. in their securities business.  They were HQ'ed outside of the NY area, but I was assigned to manage their NY Office.  So, after 30 years, my employment situations had moved me from 72 Wall, a short distance, to 110 Wall St.  My new office was just one block down the street from where I began my “professional” career.  Not much movement after almost 30 years of hard work.  But a new job with a stable firm with a chance to build my pension account?  SOUNDS GREAT!  But, only one month later, the stock market CRASHED on the newly named “Black Monday” (Oct 19, 1987). The stock market lost about 25% of its value on this one day.  After nearly a year of client chaos, backpedaling and treading water in the market averages, the stock market finally stabilized and so, I sold my house in Staten Island, closed the Kemper NY office and moved. 

I now lived in a city that vigorously supports Da Bulls, Da Bears and Da Cubbies; plus my new firm had corporate boxes for each of them.  Chicago housed the world headquarters for Kemper and within this goliath was my little division.  However, the bulk of my employees worked in Milwaukee with outposts in NYC, Cleveland, Denver, LA and Houston.  It was only common sense that a year later, I, again along with my Chicago group relocated but this time to Milwaukee, WI.

 I loved it!  A real Midwestern town (Chicago is a mini NY town) with family values and great people.  And, most importantly, the firm’s occupancy costs and payroll expense were significantly cheaper which is great when your bonus is based on the profit center you are managing.  I lived downtown, drove to the office daily with my commute reduced to 60 or 90 seconds depended upon whether I caught the one traffic light along the way.  It was too cold to walk except maybe in July.

I managed two different divisions in Milwaukee:  an operations unit of about 500 people and a technology group comprised of another 500 employees.  Both units mainly serviced the nationwide Kemper operations, but they additionally acted as separate profit centers and provided outside services to other independent banks and securities brokers.

Both separate units were self-contained and independently managed away from Kemper HQ, so it was decided to fully study if we could raise significant cash by selling these two entities (either together or separately) and to pay down some of the outstanding Corporate Debt.  If a sale was done, then I would have to decide whether to stay with Kemper HQ or to stay with one of the two units.  Since I did not want to move back to Chicago, and since the computer unit was more interesting and more innovative, I focused on the technology side of the business and I separately negotiated the sale of the operations group to a major NY bank.  This sale attracted a lot of industry wide attention and quickly forced the computer group into play much earlier than planned. 

Since I remained as the President of the computer group (BETA Systems Inc.), I shortly thereafter oversaw the sale of this group and wound up with a new set of bosses but this time from the international firm of Thomson Reuters headquartered in Toronto but US managed in Stamford, CT.  I signed a multiyear financially rewarding contract and after a few years, I exercised the “out” clause in this contract and retired at the age of 57.

Now mentally exhausted, I took some time to spend a month in Florence, Italy to see how my ancestors lived and to gain some knowledge of Italia including heavy samplings of pasta and vino.  (I rented an in-town apartment and did not stay in rural Tuscany as there is very little to do out in the vineyards after dark).

 When we got back home, I knew that I was still not ready to return to the fray and decided to go back to our favorite vacation – CRUISING.  We easily found a 30-day Princess cruise sailing from Hong Kong to Sydney and off we went.  In hindsight, I think that I was simply trying to make up for all my cancelled or postponed vacations over the prior 35 years. 

And now I am ready to go back to work and I have a polished resume and my networking tentacles are all extended but then fate intervenes.  My youngest son calls and tells me about his situation at UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland).  This was a new job for him, and he feels that while he is reasonably successful; he cannot  handle the needs of all the additional clients that he is adding.   I volunteered to come in one day a week and to help him in these areas where I had been working or managing for the past 40 years.   That call was about 20 years ago, and I have been “helping” ever since.

I never got around to going back to a regular job.  Change is inevitable and about 5 years after I began “helping”, we found it more financially beneficial and certainly less bureaucratic to leave UBS and the daily commute to the Met Life Building in NYC and to simply form our own firm.  Thus, we created and legalized Geremia Financial Services as an independent RIA: a “Registered Investment Advisor” which was physically located at the Raritan Center in Edison, NJ.

Finally, one may ask after reading this, how could I do all this moving both in my personal travels and in my business endeavors?  The answer is simple.  My wife Agnes!   Do you recall the young secretary that I met in the subterranean vault and who I married 56 years ago?  Well, she makes all the family and home life decisions.  She retired in May of 1964 when our first child was born and it was, she, who organized our house moves and it was, she, who controlled our family life especially when I was on the road for my all too many business trips.

We currently do a half dozen cruises a year and we have been to every continent and our individual cruises total in excess of 100.  But the most enjoyable ones are our annual “family” cruises where all the kids and grandkids plus sometimes friends and cousins sail with us for a week or two every August.  This year’s August 3^rd trip will be our 21^st consecutive family cruise with only one miss when a family pregnancy caused us to skip a cruise vacation and instead drive to Hershey Park in PA. 

So, between the time spent on planning & booking the cruises and other vacations and actually taking these trips (I look for the best price and do all bookings online) and visiting the grandchildren, I go to the office every single business day (for the morning only) right after my daily stop at my local gym.   The office work keeps me up to speed with all current events plus presumably keeps my brain active (if anything remains) and allows me to do a firsthand and onsite visit to see my investments (I call it, “visiting my money” and invite my clients to come in and “visit their money” which of course leads to a luncheon).  Further, it give me the opportunity to frequently chide my personal investment manager (my son) when I think that our financial performance is lacking. 

That’s it!  Except that I apologize for making this BIO too wordy. It has been busy since I left the Prep, and if you just can’t sleep some night, reading this may help with that situation.

Fred Baran
After Prep, in September of 58, I headed to Marietta College in Marietta ,Ohio to study Petroleum Engineering, a field that I thought might hold a future of opportunity and rewards. I had originally applied and was accepted at the University of Oklahoma and had sent in a room deposit. However, friends that I had worked with during previous summers, convinced me to come to Marietta, the only School east of the Mississippi River that offered degrees in Petroleum. This would become a fortunate decision, several years later, and is where I met my future wife, Vera Messina, and we graduated together. I was born in Bayonne, and Vera was born in Jersey City and we met in Ohio. I also learned that the Doctor who delivered her at the Medical Center, was Rich Cosgrove's grandfather.

While at Marietta, I became quite interested in Geology and realized I wasn't cut out to be an Engineer. I changed my Major to Geology with a minor in Petroleum and graduated in June 1962. In April of our senior year,Vera and I got engaged. I had not gotten a deferment, and in December 1961 received a notice from the Draft Board to take a physical, which I promptly did at Ohio State. During my semester break in January 1962, I joined he National Guard at the Armory on Montgomery Street. I was anxious to fulfill my military obligation so that we could get married. Within one month of graduating I reported to Ft. Dix, on July 7th for 6 months of Active Duty, Infantry Training, finishing at Christmas 1962. In February '63, 3 months before our planned wedding in April, I went to work with Liberty Mutual, in Rockefeller Center as a Safety Engineer, in Loss Prevention. My long term objective was to find a position with a Major Oil Company, which I did when I joined Texaco in December 1965 in Linden, NJ in Industrial Sales.

For several years I sold fuels and lubricants to some major Consumers in the North Jersey Area. Customers included General Motors Assembly Plant in Linden, Ford in Metuchen, Linden Airport and hundreds of other accounts throughout the area. I was right in the middle of the construction boom of the Interstate Highway System in North Jersey including I-287, I-78, I-80 and the Western Spur of the NJ Tpke, supplying the major road-building contractors with fuels and lubes. It was very interesting to see the landscape changing all around me. I vividly remember road graders and dozers clearing trees and boulders off the land, excavating the roadway, and ultimately paving the highway. The particular area was around Somerville (I-78), and one year later I moved to Annandale, and this new road became part of my daily commute.

I was promoted to Sales Engineer in 1968, and expressed a desire to management to have opportunities to become "multifaceted" and broaden my knowledge and experience within the Company. My next assignment was District Credit Sales Supervisor and exposed me to Financial training and classes of customers such as Wholesalers, Distributors, Aviation and Marine Accounts. In 1970 my next assignment was in Operations as an assistant manager of the Newark Sales Terminal, one of the 12 largest of 90 Terminals in the US. I had been given the opportunities which I sought to expand my knowledge and value to the Company. To me it was like looking at a painting from various perspectives and getting a clearer understanding of  "the big picture". It was also like learning something entirely new, and being thrown into the water, to learn how to swim again. In the Marketing Department they called it "cross-pollination" and I became a model, that several others followed.

In 1974 I was transferred to the Long Island District in Melville as District Operations Supervisor and 2 years later as Long Island Sales Terminal Manager on Jamaica Bay next to JFK Airport. The end of my Dock was only about 500 yards from Runway 22L at JFK and I could wave to the 747 Pilots as they passed over my office. We were a Supply and Distribution Terminal serving all of Long Island with about 98 employees open 24/7 in a Union workplace.

Over the years I was assigned to several special projects which allowed me to work independently and utilize my experience. In the Fall of 1976 I was on loan to a major Texaco project in Harrison NY. This project involved the construction of a new Texaco Headquarters and Executive Offices with the planned relocation of approximately 2000 employees from the Chrysler Building in NYC, where we occupied about 22 floors and several hundred employees from our Long Island City office. After the successful completion of a Travel and Transportation Study and the development of a Van Pool Program, I was named Moving Coordinator for the Harrison Project.

I worked closely with the coordinators from about 20 operating and service departments and the Santini Bros. Moving Company. The Building was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and was faced with travertine marble from the same quarry in Italy where the stone for Lincoln Center originated. The building was three stories tall above ground, and two below, with underground parking for 1200 autos. It was three football fields long and one wide and it was designed to blend into the rolling hill landscape, equal to a seventy story building. It had numerous features including a bank, barbershop, cleaners, news stand and was like a small city including a staffed medical facility. It had numerous environmental and energy conservation design features. An example was the elongated rectangular shape was oriented so that the short side faced into the prevailing wind direction for minimal heat loss. and the overhangs on outer perimeter offices allowed for lower angle sun in winter months to add heat, block higher angle summer sun from competing against the cooling system. During Spring and Fall months ambient air could be circulated through the building negating full time use of either the heating or cooling systems. I mention these features since Oil and Energy companies do not usually get any recognition for conservation and environmental awareness.

When the new building opened in September 1977, after a successful, on-time, under-budget move, I was one of the first 6 people to move in. My new job of Assist Manager - Facilities in the Corporate Services Department covering about 15 major offices from Coast to Coast. In July of 1978, I was loaned to Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia to assist in planning a move into new HQ facilities they were building. Texaco was one of the partner companies along with Esso, Chevron and Mobil and the Saudi Government.

In September 1979, I was recruited, as one of the charter members into the newly formed department Alternate Energy & Resources to work on forming a joint venture in Solar Energy to manufacture solar photovoltaic energy cells. Motorola showed an interest in sharing their semi-conductor tech and we would be a financial partner. We worked together for about 10 months and Motorola did partner with Shell, who could contribute solar cell research at Delaware along with financial backing. It was a fascinating year learning about solar energy with the US DOE at the Jet Propulsion Lab meetings in Pasadena and, World Solar Conference in Geneva.

In 1980, my next assignment in Alternate Energy was as a member of the Partnership Committee with Corn Products Corporation (Mazola Oil, Karo Syrup etc.) to convert a corn wet-milling plant in Pekin Illinois to produce fermentation ethanol for blending with gasoline to produce gasohol. My multifaceted background came in handy to market, transport, store and sell the product as the ethanol plant was completed and production was ramped up from the initial 60 million gals/yr. to 100 million gals/yr. I never thought while studying Geology that one day I would be following the Corn Futures Market at the Chicago Board of Trade. While walking across the Plant at Pekin, there was often a blue haze in the air, that would give you a "little buzz". Across the river was a neighboring plant, Hiram Walker, they kept their alcohol in bond. We denatured ours with gasoline, which made it unfit for human consumption.

My next assignments included (all in Alternate Energy) Mgr - Admin & HR, Mgr - Compliance & Controls, Mgr - Environment, Health & Safety, which brought me up to 1989. We had been the leader in putting together a Joint Venture called the Cool Water Combined Cycle Coal Gasification Project in Dagget California, near Barstow in the Mohave Desert (not far from the recent earthquake activity in Ridgecrest). This was a $300 million Demonstration Project for using clean coal, to produce electricity at A Southern California Edison Generating Station that used fuel oil to produce electricity. It was one of only two projects to go forward under the US Synthetic Fuels Corp Program. Since the cost of the electricity from the experimental program would be slightly higher-to the ratepayers-than the conventional oil fired plant, the Government provided payments that allowed the ratepayers to continue to enjoy the same costs for electricity.

For about 15 months, during late 89 and 1990, I had offices in Harrison NY and in Apple Valley California (in the Mohave Desert). I commuted between these offices about every other week, flying First Class on American, while working on a project that involved using Municipal Solid Waste from LA and surrounding Counties, mixed with coal to produce electricity and beneficially disposing of waste streams that had been dumped in the ocean, particularly from large cities like LA and NYC. Ocean dumping of waste had been banned by new environmental regulations, and our proprietary technology had been tested with a number of waste streams that were disposal problems. My coast to coast commute resulted in not having to relocate my family in Bethel CT and allowed Vera to retain her teaching position in Town where she retired in 2006.

In 1994 and 95, I was assigned to Manage the World Wide Environmental Auditing Team of 15 members who traveled globally to conduct compliance audits on all Texaco facilities and operations, to insure we were operating within local governmental regulations. In 1996 I took early retirement as part of an ongoing reorganization and downsizing within Texaco.

During our 56 years of marriage, Vera and I raised 2 Sons and 1 Daughter and have 5 grandchildren, who all live within a 60 mile radius of our Bethel, CT home. My hobbies included 40 consecutive years of Spring fishing trips to Maine for land-locked salmon. Thirty-eight years as a Philatelist (stamp-collector) and 32 years singing with the Danbury Madhatters Barbershop Chorus. While singing with the Chorus, I was also a member of Rare Occasion, an acapella Quartet for 12 years. I enjoyed singing very much, and entertaining audiences throughout Connecticut and competing in Montreal, Lake Placid, Providence and many other places in the Northeast..

I have great memories of my years at Prep, and value the wonderful education I received as a member of the Class of "58 and all the fine instructors and classmates that I met and will never forget.

Allan McCarthy
I am going to preface my response to Vince Grillo’s request for my post Prep biography by offering him a sincere thank you for all the caring, creativity and hard work he continues to put in to keep our class of ‘58 informed. Thank you very much, Vince.

In April of our graduating year, 1958, my parish, St. Paul’s of Greenville, announced a date for a scholarship test for entrance to Seton Hall University. The parish had established a full scholarship at the Hall. Along with two dozen other graduating students from St. Paul’s parish I took the test. Fortunately I won a full four year scholarship.

At Seton Hall I was active in many student organizations. I became Associate Editor of the school newspaper, the Setonian. I was a founding member of the TriPhibian Guard, a rival organization to the long established Pershing Rifles within the ROTC program.
While at the Hall I was also a member of the Scholarship Club, whose purpose was to raise money for the school’s general scholarship fund. As part of the club I emceed one of the club’s annual dance and fund raiser. That event featured Connie Francis and a short speech by then Vice Presidential candidate, Henry Cabot Lodge.

My major at Seton Hall was pre-law, chosen to stay within the guidelines given to me by a number of Jesuits whom I truly admired and respected. Their advice was to follow the path of traditional “liberal” education , meaning the pursuit of broad studies that help form the whole man and shape minds and character.

Within two weeks in June 1962 I was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army, graduated from Seton Hall and was married. I had earned the honor of Distinguished Military Graduate which gave me the option for a regular Army commission. I declined and took the Reserve commission because I truly wanted to serve but did not want to make it a career. The girl I married is still the love of my life. She and I met at a Prep Columbus Day Dance in October, 1956. Pat Faber of Sacred Heart Academy, Hoboken, became my lifelong love and soul mate.

As college graduation neared disappointment raised its ugly head. Way too many firms recruiting on campus put me off and told me to come see them after I finished my two year active duty commitment. Having produced a very attractive college record with a solid GPA and placing in the upper 10% of my graduating class this rejection was very disappointing.

However, as with many other things in my life, the hand of God came into play and Consolidated Edison of New York showed up on campus. I will always have a warm spot in my heart for Con Ed because, not only did they not push me away, they actually welcomed the fact that I was going to serve and considered it a plus.

After several layers of interviews Con Ed offered me a job in their management training program. The salary was above what I had been targeting and the family benefits were superb. Also, upon completion of active duty and return to the company, all the accumulated programmed raises of the past two years were to be granted to me. Warm spot for Con Ed indeed.

Our son Kevin was born while I was on active duty with the 194th Armored Brigade at Fort Ord, California. All three of us happily returned home upon completion of my tour and I gratefully returned to my career at Con Edison. Within Con Ed’s two year Customer Service management training program, there was a six month stint scheduled in the firm’s highly advanced and admired Computer Programming Group. In 1966 computer programming and data processing were beginning to explode in growth. It was where the world was rapidly going.

I was so taken by the challenge and excitement of programming and the potential of a career in such a leading edge enterprise that I chose to leave the Customer Service Group and join the Computer Programming department. This decision wound up leading to the next step in my career. I was studying for my MBA at the Bernard M. Baruch College of Business of the City University of New York at night. One of my professors, an Israeli, was highly regarded as a guide for successful career planning. I spoke with him about opportunities for people with computer skills in the burgeoning consulting arena and other booming areas. He told me he himself needed someone with computer programming and systems design capabilities to write and implement a stock market analysis system for a company he had started and was taking public. He wondered if I could write the program and set up the system.

So, once the company went public and I felt the professor had the money to make a payroll, I joined him. I had his analytical stock models up and running in lightning speed. Thus began my extraordinary venture into Wall Street. After about four years with this little stock analysis company I realized that the professor had no vision for how to grow the company. It was also very difficult to generate substantial commissions for such a specialty stock market product.

Once again, with the hand of God on my shoulder, I approached one of the better contacts I had made on the Street. This group had been intrigued with our little computer model. They were not intrigued enough to pay for it, but intrigued. I interviewed with this firm and they offered me a sales position in December,1971. The firm, William D. Witter Inc. was the big leagues of Wall Street. They were a very highly regarded research boutique and a very sophisticated operation. It was here I began to build my ultimate career of over of thirty years in Wall Street.

I was assigned territories that William D had not yet reached such as Nebraska and Iowa along with the under serviced smaller accounts in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Denver. I had a firm with a stellar reputation and product behind me. I was super motivated and rapidly began to build sizable production from these accounts.

In Wall Street terms I was somewhat of an unusual animal as I spent 26 successive years at some version of the same firm. Wall Street professionals tend to change firms frequently always looking for greener pastures. So, 26 years at some version of the same place was unusual.

William D. Witter Inc. was acquired by Drexel Burnham Inc in September 1976. I was one of only three salesmen invited to join Drexel and Michael Milken. Drexel closed in February 1990. The key professionals from Drexel’s Institutional Equity department went as a group to form the core of National Westminster Bank’s U.S. business. That’s my 26 year time line.

At each of these firms I was asked to be a member of the Stock Selection Committee and Investment Policy Committees. At Drexel and Nat West I was able to achieve the “Top Gun” title and trophies as the top producing Institutional salesman several times. I was an officer and senior officer of each firm and served as Deputy Director of Sales at Nat West.

Upon Nat West’s closure, the chief of the institutional effort at Bear Sterns asked me to join him as a managing director mentoring young salespeople and research analysts. I did so and then after a year and a half I semi-retired in 1999 and then completely retired in February 2002.

Throughout my professional career I stayed in contact with the Prep. In 1977 the Prep launched its first major fund raising campaign The money was raised to renovate the Jesuit residence at Shalloe Hall. I supported the campaign and donated the renovation and remodeling of a bedroom in honor of my parents, Arthur and Lucille McCarthy.

To his credit, Prep classmate Willie Wilcynski became a prime mover in organizing group phone calls during the Prep’s “Phonathon” fund raising campaigns. I always enjoyed traveling to the Prep to participate and to visit with my classmates during many sessions in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

In 1995 Fr. Jim Keenan arrived at the Prep as President. To me and many others Fr. Keenan was a Godsend for the Prep. The school had foundered for several years and lost some of its luster. Its enrollment had a noticeable decline. Fr. Jim Keenan righted the ship and turned it all around. Through his leadership the Prep rebounded sharply. It once again began to excel academically and in athletics. The enrollment strengthened considerably. The Prep was on its way back to being the most desirous high school for boys in northern New Jersey.

In 2001 Fr. Keenan asked me to join the Board of Trustees. It was truly an honor to do so. Four of the six years I served on the Board I chaired the Investment Committee. Board membership opened my eyes to the quality and strong character of the entire Prep product. Our fellow alumni from all various classes with whom I served on the Board are truly exemplary men. The experience of serving with this pool of talent reinforced my already swollen Prep pride.

The personal component of my post Prep life is as follows. Pat and I have two children. Each of them has three children, two boys and one girl each. Our children and our grandchildren are our greatest blessings. Our son, Kevin, runs his own hedge fund. Our daughter, Colleen, is a senior executive salesperson at Verizon. Our oldest grandchild, Erin McCarthy, graduated from Michigan and is pursuing a Master’s Degree. Erin’s brother, Keith, is studying at the Dan Patrick College of Sports Broadcasting at Full Sail University of Florida.

Age wise our next grandchild, Peter Campbell, is going to be a senior at the University of Alabama. Peter’s sister, Caitlin, is also at Alabama. Caitlin is on a Presidential Honors scholarship there. John McCarthy is next in line. John is a on a scholarship at TCU and is going to be a junior. Finally our youngest, Craig Campbell, is graduating from Bergen Catholic and will be entering Penn State in the Fall.

Pat and I have been residents of Denville NJ for over 50 years. We are members of St. Mary’s parish where I have taught CCD for 30 years. Pat taught in our neighborhood Denville elementary school for 25 years. She also spent about ten years teaching CCD.
We have been members of Spring Brook Country Club in Morristown for 35 years where I continually try to take the course to its knees to no avail. All in all a biography of someone who is very blessed.
 

Dick McConville
After graduating from the Prep I worked the next three summers at the Essex and Sussex Hotel in Spring Lake NJ-- "The Irish Riviera" -- first as a houseman and then lifeguard/beach boy.  That set the tone for a number of segments of my life thereafter. 

Like about half of our graduating class, I matriculated up Montgomery Street to St Peter's College and walked there from home the next four years. At St Peter's I majored in Physics, took four years of ROTC, sang in the Glee Club and continued swimming. 

Following our last exams and a week before graduation, my longstanding friendship with Jack Gavin presented me with the blessing of my life. For at Sue and Jack's engagement party, I met Patricia Gavin (Jack's cousin). I still remember how beautiful she looked in her white two-piece suit and red straw hat. At the after-party, Pat and I shared our own table at the Casino in the Park because we arrived late and there was no room for us at the big table with all the others.  From then on we were on the path that eventually led to marriage four years later. Thank you, Jack and Sue!!! 

But first it was off to US Army Signal Corps branch schools at Ft. Gordon, GA, and Radio Officer specialty school at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, followed by one and a half years in the 8th Infantry Division, 8th Signal Battalion in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.  

After getting out of the Army in the summer of 1964, I traveled around Europe in my Karmann Ghia for nearly two months before returning home to Jersey City and beginning graduate school at Fordham University - once again commuting from home. Pat was a senior at the College of St Elizabeth, so we saw each other every weekend spending lots` of time visiting each other's homes and families and studying together. We continued to make plans for our life together and were married in November 1966 at St Cecilia's Church in Englewood, NJ. 

By then Pat had graduated the College of St. Elizabeth as a math teacher and taught in Leonia, NJ; and I had finished my masters degree at Fordham and was working at AVCO Corporation in Wilmington, MA. We moved to Melrose, MA and have been there ever since. 

The path from ROTC to AVCO is connected through my choice of the Signal Corps. As a Radio Officer I was introduced at Fort Monmouth to the use of the ionosphere to propagate high frequency radio signals over thousands of miles to connect subscribers a continent away. In Germany, I was in charge of a 50-man platoon that employed virtually every kind of radio used by the Army to connect all the dispersed units of the 8th Infantry Division, including both ground and airborne units, which allowed me to go to jump school and become airborne qualified.

That Signal Corps experience helped me to both acquire an assistantship at Fordham and a summer job at Fort Monmouth between semesters, which then led to my choice of a thesis subject for my master's degree. During the spring of my final year at Fordham I was recruited by AVCO Corporation to join their Geophysics Section, which studied ionospheric phenomena and utilization to both communicate with and radio-locate ships at sea as well as to detect ballistic missile launches in the Soviet Union. Later on we developed the first successful Over-the-Horizon Backscatter radar to detect and track both aircraft and submarine launched ballistic missiles at ranges over a thousand miles from the radar. 

Although we never planned to permanently leave the familiar haunting grounds of New Jersey, we have now lived in Melrose, MA for almost 54 years. We still return to NJ almost monthly to visit family and to spend several weeks each summer at our vacation house my parents bought in Wall Township. We still gravitate to the beach in front of the Essex and Sussex (which is now condos) and enjoy body surfing in the waves with our kids and grandkids. Our vacation plans last year meshed with the Prep '58 Summer Bash in Belmar, so we (wife Pat, and three grandsons and I) were delighted to see many of you. 

Melrose, Massachusetts, has been very good to us. We have been blessed to share and grow our faith in two Catholic parishes where we taught CCD, ran a Marriage Preparation program for 20 years, lector and participate in a lively and congenial Bible Study which I now host on Zoom during the pandemic every Friday morning. We are fortunate that our moving to Melrose coincided with the peak of the Christian Family Movement (CFM) where we met and still share family activities with our dearest friends of nearly 54 years. In addition, we enjoyed our first Marriage Encounter weekend thereafter learning to deepen our marriage relationship through daily dialog and widening our community of friends. 

We have been blessed beyond measure with three sons who bring joy to our expanding family that now includes three wonderful daughters-in-law and nine grandchildren. Brian, Greg and Dan thrived in our neighborhood public schools, ventured into Boston on the "T" to attend Boston College High School (BC High) where they have become "men for others" in the Jesuit tradition, and then matriculated to colleges in Washington DC, Ithaca, and Cambridge. We continue to share in all their lives, so grateful for their carrying on the values we hold dear. Family gatherings - of any size - are the best! 

Meanwhile, Pat and I pursued careers in math and engineering: Pat taught math at Girls' Catholic HS in Malden until the Cardinal closed it in 1992 and then resumed her private tutoring business. I worked 41 years at AVCO/Textron on a variety of military programs including: Over-the-Horizon Radar, Wake Vortex Detection and Tracking, Autonomous Anti-tank Mines, and Air delivered Smart munitions (CBU-105).  The best part of the AVCO/Textron experience was the people I was fortunate enough to work with every day. The spirit of cooperation and teamwork underpinned all my daily interactions: both sharing and developing ideas on how to solve the technical challenges that made us successful and in the work atmosphere. A special part of every day was the round lunch table in the cafeteria where anyone was welcome and would be accommodated by everyone just sitting back a little further from the table; talking specifically about work was prohibited; so we got to share much of our lives and values. 

That was the most difficult aspect to give up upon retirement, but Textron has a very active Retirees group that meets at least twice a year for lunch; common interest subgroups often meet to explore restaurants, outings and shows. Another benefit of working at Textron was the quick ride opposing commuter traffic. That easy 15-minute commute probably gave me a couple of extra years of non-work hours and allowed me to be home virtually every night (except when traveling) for dinner with the family and evening activities; and even when I had extra work to catch up on, I could come home for dinner and then go back to work for a few hours into the wee hours of the morning. 

After retiring, we have continued tutoring math and physics as volunteers at Notre Dame Cristo Rey high school in Lawrence MA, where every single graduate has been accepted to a four-year college. It's so rewarding to see the disadvantaged students excel in this faith-filled, nurturing environment where they also work one day a week in local businesses, gaining valuable confidence and skills. I am also a mentor to a USFIRST high school robotics team, the Melrose iRaiders (2713) where I get to work with enthusiastic young men and women to help them discover the relationship between their math and physics coursework and its practical application in building a successful robot to meet the challenge of the competitive game while maintaining "gracious professionalism": cooperating not only with members of their own team, but also with their competitors.  

We have also had the privilege of worldwide travel not only during and as part of my work at AVCO/Textron, but also on our own, both before and after retirement. Most of these trips have been greatly enhanced by traveling with friends and family. We have had the pleasure of visiting many European and Central American countries, plus Egypt, Turkey, China, and South Africa. We have also experienced much of the US including many of the National Parks. A special treat was sharing the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone with our middle son, daughter-in law and their two sons two years ago. What's next?? 

Life was Great in '58; and Life continues to be awesome!