Spring, 2003

Dear Alumnus/Friend:

Though the calendar tells us it's Spring, the weather here on the East Coast tells us we still have winter with temp. in the middle 30's yet. As you know we had a very cold winter with plenty of snow so we are looking forward to sunshine & pretty flowers. We hope you & your family had a Blessed Easter & have a great Spring & Summer with good health.

HERE N' THERE: Had a great surprise visit from Bob Keane & friend, Margaret, Palm Sunday, had a lot of laughs talking about old times at St. Agnes. Good hearing from Bob Rosich via phone , Bob tells us he & wife Aida had a visit from Carlos Passy at their home in Fl. Bob tells us he & wife Aida are coming to the annual picnic in Aug. Looking forward to seeing you both.

Happy to announce we can add a new name to our mailing list, thanks to Roland Hernandez, out of Tampa, Fl. who sent us the address of Joseph Wiska, thanks Roland. We are always happy to add names, so if you know of any, please let us know. Rec'd holiday greetings from Fr. Masterson from Brazil, writing us to extend his blessings & best wishes to all the Alumni & thanking us for the Christmas gift.

Rec'd a note from Ray Hernandez from Port Jervis, KY. Saying how sad he was about Joe Rosen's death, as he said there aren't enough adjectives to describe the way Joe lived his life, he and many others will always be indebted for his friendship & great sense of humor.

A note from Mario Roche tells us he arrived late at the picnic last Aug., but still was happy to get to chat with some of the Alumni & after 47 years was able to get the phone number of a classmate who joined the service with him. Mario says he will be early for the 2003 picnic.

Thanks to Phil Chiaravalle, Hyde Park VT. he writes how much he enjoyed the newsletter & thanks us for keeping it going.

John Goldstein writes from Queens Vlg. NY that he was in the Soc. Work Dept, 1960-63 & worked with Sr. Ann Catherine, Sr. Una, Sr. Francis Paula, Sr. Rita Anne & Ralph Coleman. He left to go to Social work school full time upon graduation began work at Queens Hosp. Ctr. in NY where he remained until he retired in 1985. He met his late wife there & after a long illness she died in 2000. He has 4 children & 3 grandchildren He is very active in his church as a eucharistic minister, catechist & a substitute lector, he remembers so many of his "boys" & wonders if any of them remember him, at any rate all are in his prayers as they have been for many years. Thanks John, great hearing from you.

Rec'd a thank you note along with his dues & order for a St Agnes shirt from Anthony DeVecchi who is the artistic director of the Northeast Am. School of Dance in Northampton, MA.

Cornelius O'Neill (49-53) sends a thank you for the newsletter & said how much he en-joyed the last inclosure, he remembers Sr. Marie, he was always very fond of her because she was so very nice & had a very even temperament.

Pat Rooney out of Fairlawn, NJ also writes & said how much he enjoyed the last letter & the insert, he too remembers Sr. Marie and said how wonderful she was & yes he is in the band & played the tuba, he really enjoyed the uniform & the shoes that went with it, but only for the parade & competition, he remembers marching in back of St Aquinas in NY & they had such pretty girls there, but didn't get a chance to talk to any of them but just being in the St. Patrick's Day Parade was a wonderful experience. Coming back from the parade, he would turn the tuba upside down & empty all the butts, popcorn & paper etc. that the crowd threw in during the parade. Pat wants to know if anyone re-members Perry, he could really play the trumpet. Pat also informs us as of Dec. 2002, he was retiring after 25 years at Kean Univ. & start a new life of his own, but no matter what he does in life he says he will always be a "House's Kid" & proud of it. Any "House's Kid" who needs a locksmith can call him at 2971-791-13919. Great letter, Pat. lots of luck in your retirement.

As you can tell we receive many wonderful letters during the year so we think it's only right to share them with you & hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

After Bob Aponte read the last newsletter & inclosure, he sat down & wrote & we had a lot of laughs & we know you will too. First of all, he said the last time he saw his classmate, Walter Hoffman was at a Mass for Father Gregory Carroll (classmate) about 20 years ago, he hopes to catch up with Walter the next time he & his wife go to Atlantic City. Bob was so happy to hear from Willy Perales (CA) after 50 years, the last time they saw each other was at Penn. Sta., when both were in the Navy & going separate directions.

To answer your question about 4 of your other classmates you mention, none of them are on the mailing list. Bob also tells us his experience in the school band one season, the year we got the new blue/gold uniforms, he was a trombonist marching in the St Patrick's Band up 5th Ave. he felt like a celebrity. Shortly after that at one of the practices the band master (Mr. Maxwell) more or less hinted that I should stick to my day job, a trombone player was not my future. My day job was cleaning the bathroom in the big "fellows" dorm. "Stur" Joe Beekie (Sr. Josephine) was in charge of us, she

had such a big nose that's how she got the nickname. She would reward us with a buttered hard roll every Sat. This was a real treat we never saw rolls in our dining room (refectory). If you remember we rarely called a nun "Sister" we always called them "Stur" our abbreviation for Sister. Remember that was just part of "House's Kid" lingo. Bob also remembers dear Father Jorn, the early masses at 6:30 AM mostly all in Latin & I thought that all Father Jorn spoke was Latin until later years he came out one day to play baseball with the boys & he said "play ball" we all said see he does speak English.

Jim Merna, along with his holiday greetings, inclosed his e-mail address in case anyone would like to contact him jim111@starpower. net.

John Antonacci informs us that an alumnus, Wm. Doherty (51-55) is in Bronx Vets Hosp, nursing Care Unit Ward 1-A-1, 130 W. Kingsbridge Rd, Bronx, NY 10468 Rm 1A-16. We wish good health & God's Blessings.

It was great getting together with Jim Dunn & Dave & Pat MacMillan, we had so many laughs while telling stories about happenings at St. Agnes.

DUES: Annual dues $10.00 are payable anytime, make checks to St Agnes Alumni 9 Glen Rd., Highland Falls, NY 10928. As we told you in the past it helps defray the cost of printing, mailing, etc of the newsletter 4 times a year. We want to thank all those who have already sent their dues in for the year, appreciate it very much.

R.I.P: Sorry to hear of the death of George Fernandez (date unknown),, John Lucas 11/8/92, Fred (Perfrito) Garcia 2/1/03, brother of member Angelo Garcia. May their souls rest in peace. Our prayers and thoughts are with their families.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The annual picnic will be held Sat: Aug 16th. Time 12:00 Noon till ?? Place is different this year.

There will be a roof over our head in case of rain or extreme sun, there is also a big ball field, & you can take a nice stroll out onto the pier. Cooking facilities are there so we thought we would try it. It was held there many years ago & people enjoyed it. Some directions will be inclosed in the July letter. We do hope everyone will make an effort to attend this year, last year the attendance was down due to the extreme heat. The Alumni Assoc is 57 years old this year so let's support it & have a nice get-together.

LAFF COLUMN: Some people wrote & said how much they miss this column so starting with the next letter we will try to remember some of Joe's jokes.

In closing, again we wish you all good health & happiness always & hope to see you at the picnic. God Bless always.

[signed] ART & GLORIA

PS: As you know Father Figueroa has been a missionary in Brazil for many years, just rec'd word that he was savagely beaten with a machetti type knife & while he was trying to protect his head with his hand, the intruder cut his thumb off, thank God it was re-attached & is now recuperating. Father works with very poor people & was showing them how to raise fruits & vegetables to make a living & to be able to eat, it was in one of these fields that the intruder was caught stealing the fruit, when questioned he returned later & attacked Father. Please pray for him & his people. Why do these things happen to such good people??

Father's address:

Padre Eduardo Figueroa, OMI
Caixa Postal 1850
Recife' Pernambuco
Brazil., S.A. CEP 50001-970

Tom O'Brien asks us to put his email address in the newsletter, so here it is: TomOBrien@aol.com

WEB SITE: Bernie Neville, along with dues & donation, told us how impressed he was with the web site Joe Stanaitis, David and Peter Feliciano have setup. He enjoyed it so much. Said they did a great job, so anyone with a web site or email address, send it to Joe.

Joe, David and Peter are keeping busy trying to get in touch with other alumnus. They are doing a great job, even have pictures. Their (two) email addresses are respectively:

Joe@stagnesalumni.org and BigEagle@warwick.net
dtf@stagnesalumni.org and dtf@nyc.rr.com
Peter@stagnesalumni.org and Peter2469@aol.com