The faculty in 1965St. Mary’s, North East & St. Alphonsus College, Suffield

AlumniNotes

Volume 5, Spring 2015

Here is a treasured picture of the St. Mary’s faculty in 1965. From left to right, they are

Marty Murphy, rector, married, retired from the New York State Department of Education; Father Ray Schlitzer, at North East for 37 years, retired to St Alphonsus Villa in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., and died there in 1982; Father Dick Vail, succeeded Marty Murphy as rector and pastor at St. Gregory’s in North East, retired to New Smyrna Beach and died in 1985; Father Jim Cannon, later taught in Suffield and was pastor in Bradford, Vt., died in 2002 at Saratoga; Father Charlie Sullivan, many years in Puerto Rico before coming to teach Spanish in North East, died in a car accident while on vacation in 1969; Father Larry Lover, just died in December 2014, went on to be rector in many of our parishes, Provincial Vicar for nine years; Father Artie Wendel, has a contagious love of music, now living at Stella Maris in Timonium, Md.; Father Bob Boelcke, a stalwart in North East, where he taught sci-ence for 41 years, died in 1968 in North East; Father John Duffy, our beloved literature prof and renowned poet, taught in Suffield after North East, died in 1993; Father Jim May, an assistant pastor at St. Gregory

Church in North East; Ed Bulger, later married and has since died; T. J. Hickey, left the ministry in the 1960s; Father Jim O’Blaney, taught math in North East, later rector and pastor in many of our houses, now pastor of St. James parish in Lititz, Pa.; Father Gene Grohe, associate pastor at St. Gregory in North East, has been stationed in Esopus, N.Y., for the past 46 years; Father Joe Hurley, taught civics and sociology in North East and Suffield, where he was the second rector, also Pro-vincial (1978-1984), novice master and rector of many of our houses; Father Bill Spillane, taught physics and chemistry in North East, then spent 25 years in Puerto Rico, now retired in New Smyrna Beach; Fa-

ther Dave Sharrock, taught Latin to generations of North East students, followed Father Hurley as rector in Suffield (1972-78), rector of many of our houses in the South, died in 2003 in New Smyrna Beach, where he first met the Redemptorists; Fa-ther Carl Hoegerl, still going strong at 91 years old, was later Prefect of Students in Esopus, Novice Master, rector in Baltimore and author of the definitive life of Blessed Francis Seelos, who will probably be the next Redemptorist to be canonized. What is most amazing about this picture is how young they all looked. Many of them were in their late twenties or early thirties. All of them have done great service to God’s people and the Redemptorists. n

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Front row: John Gallagher; Rich Wachter, one son, recently retired from Maryland State Department of Public Safety, parish council at the Basilica in Baltimore; Eric Hoog, C.Ss.R.; Jerry Corkery, lives in Brooklyn; Lou Heidel; Charlie Cichon, retired Baltimore City Po-lice; Tom Milton, a lawyer in Man-hattan; Matt Ryan, Battalion chief, FDNY, died on 9/11. Second row: Eric Ianacone;

Pete Flannery, married, taught on Long island, RIP; Frank Jones, C.Ss.R., taught theology in Eso-pus, consultor in Rome and Vicar Provincial in Brooklyn, now in Canandaigua, N.Y.; Leo Zerhusen; Jim Waters, in Philadelphia; Jim Weinholt, RIP; Ephraim Lopez; Jim Frazier, in Minneapolis. Third row: Dick Werner, RIP; Duane Barry; Joe Jancuk; Vic White; Mike Rodriquez; Norm Sim-

mons, left the ministry after 25 years, teaching in Philadelphia. Top row: Jerome Moody, C.Ss.R., RIP, rector in Baltimore and Caribbean, first Regional Su-perior of Caribbean; John Riley, married with children, psychiatrist in Boston; John Murray, C.Ss.R., rector in Baltimore, Annapolis, and West End, now in Brooklyn; Paul Moriarity; John Toomey; Charlie Hergenroeder, C.Ss.R. n

Graduating class of 1965

Suffield alumniLeft to right, some of our Suffield students from Brazil and Paraguay: Jandir Monteiro, ’72, retired from the government, living in Campo Grande; Elio Yule,’72, also living in Campo Grande; Father Enrique Lopez, ’72, ordained in 1975, now Vicar Superior General in Rome; Fa-ther Adriano Franzoi, ’70, stationed in Telêmaco Borba, Brazil. Our Suffield alumni from Brazil and Paraguay still gather regularly.

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Here are the seminarians liv-ing in the former convent at Immaculate Conception in

the Bronx. The seminarians are from all the Provinces in North America. They study regular col-lege courses, with an emphasis in philosophy, at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. They are, left to right, as follows: front row, Thien, from Texas and a student of the Denver Province; Brother Leo Patin, one of five brothers who became Redempto-rists, from Grand Rapids, part of the staff at the seminary; Father Frank Mulvaney, Psy.D. from Im-maculata, from Philadelphia, rector and Co-Formator; Father Steve Wilson, Formator, from Seattle, Denver Province; Garvey Blanc, from Dominica, a student of the Caribbean Region of the Baltimore Province, has finished novitiate and is studying at St. John’s; top row, Brian Vaccaro, from Virginia, a second-year student of the Rich-mond Vice-Province; Royce Thom-as, from Trinidad, a second-year student of the Caribbean Region of the Baltimore Province; Vincent Nguyen, from Calif., a second-year student of the Denver Province;

Mark George, from Jamaica, a first-year student of the Caribbean Region of the Baltimore Province; Jesus Ruelas, from California, a second-year student of the Denver Province; Song You, from Queens, a first-year student of the Balti-more Province, already a college graduate; Trung-tin, from Georgia, a student of the Vice-Province of Richmond; Kevin McGraw, from near Lima, Ohio, a second-year student of the Baltimore Province; Yvan Dzhur, a second-year stu-dent of the Yorkton (Ukrainian rite) Province. They gather in chapel for prayers and Mass at 7 a.m., and after breakfast they head off in vans for

St. John’s University. They gather again for evening prayer at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6. One night a week they have student forum with a conference, and on another night each week they have a process workshop on communication and community. The seminarians are part of the parishes in the Bronx and Brook-lyn, working with RCIA and chil-dren’s liturgy of the Word, as cat-echists. They also work in a soup kitchen in the Bronx run by Mother Teresa’s community. You can appreciate the amazing variety of the student body, much like the variety of the Church in America. n

Bronx seminarians for 2015

Some very tough hombres from 1975Left to right, Jim Connolly, Joe Bontke, Sean O’Neil and Ken Berger, stepping up to the bar in some reci social. Send in some more pictures, or better, scan them onto your computer and e-mail them to me at murraycssr@gmail.com.

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Father Lawrence Murphy, ’43, died October 7, 2014, at Stel-la Maris in Timonium. He was 92. Born in Brooklyn, he was ordained in 1949. For the first 18 years of

his priesthood he was stationed in the South and served in Virginia, Florida, and Georgia. Larry was a very practi-cal man and became minister in many of our communities.

Father James McGonagle, ’38, died October 18, 2014, at Stel-la Maris in Timonium. Just shy of his 96th birth-day, he was the oldest confrere in the Prov-

ince. Born and raised on Mission Hill in Boston, he was ordained in 1944. He did further studies and earned a STL degree in Sacred Scripture from the Catholic University in 1948. He spent 62 years laboring in the vine-yard of the Lord in the Deep South, where he was rector in many of our communities.

Father Russ Abata, ’51 a member of the 61st Community, died October 20, 2014. Russ was from a large Italian family living in North East, Pa. Born in 1930, he spent a short while in North

East, focusing mainly on Latin and Greek with Fa-ther Bill Smith. Ordained in 1957, he then went to Rome and earned a li-

centiate in theology from the Angeli-cum and a doctorate in moral theolo-gy from the Alphonsianum. He taught for a short while in Esopus and spent the rest of his priestly life counseling people in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Jersey Shore, especially those suf-fering from scruples or depression. He taught theology at Fordham and Seton Hall and published 15 books on spirituality and psychology.

Father Lawrence Lover, ’45, died December 6, 2014, at St. John Neumann Res-idence/Stella Maris, in Timonium, Md. His older brother, Jim, was also a

Redemptorist priest. Larry was born in Brooklyn and raised on 64 Street, across from the tennis courts. Fluent in Italian and German, he studied at the Angelicum in Rome for his doctor-ate in canon law. He was stationed for two years in Mission Church in Bos-ton before his 10 years in North East, where he was a kind and courteous director of students.

Father Richard Blissert, ’50, died December 19, 2014, in Brazil. Born in Mount Ver-non, N.Y., he graduated from North East in 1950. He professed his vows

in 1951 and was ordained in 1956. He went to Brazil as a missionary in 1958 and remained there for the rest of his life: 56 years.

Father Thomas Lacey, ’49, died Feb-ruary 22, 2015, at Stel-la Maris in Timonium. His older brother, Jim, was also a Redemptorist priest. Born outside of

Pittsburgh, he was ordained in 1955. He was a missionary in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic for seven years and spent the next 22 years as a chaplain with the U.S. Army, serv-ing in Panama, Vietnam, and Korea and throughout the United States, retiring as a full colonel. He left the priesthood and was married for 10 years. His wife convinced him that he would never be happy until he went back to the priesthood. He returned to the Redemptorists and full minis-try in 1997, serving in Baltimore and Ohio until illness forced him to move to Timonium. n

Remember our deceased alumni

The class of ’65 is planning a little reunion at OLPH in Brooklyn for the weekend of September 4 through 7, 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their grad-uation from St. Mary’s, North East. We have rooms reserved at the Hotel Gregory, about 20 blocks from OLPH. The reunion will involve dinner, one of the regular Sunday Masses at OLPH, a little Jeopardy from John Brolly, ’66 (another wannabe ’65), a tour around

Brooklyn, and dinner and theater for those so inclined. Join us: everyone is invited. The reunion is certainly not limited to the class of ’65. Come and enjoy a long weekend in New York. Go to a Broadway play. Orga-nize a dinner for your class. Visit Coney Island or the Barclay Center. Brooklyn is the “hot spot” in New York City now. For more information, e-mail me at murraycssr@gmail.com. n —John Murray, ’65

Class of ’65 plans reunion in Brooklyn; all are welcome