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To St. Agnes Alumni Association "Online Golden Jubilee Booklet" - 50th Anniversary Reunion
The St. Agnes Alumni Association’s
"Golden Jubilee"
By Gerald F. Merna
1stLt USMC (Ret.)
(St. Dominic’s 1942-1944
St. Agnes 1944-1946)
The
year 2006 is rapidly approaching and among other things it will also herald the
60th Anniversary of our St. Agnes Alumni
Association. At this time I'm not aware of any plans to celebrate this
remarkable Anniversary, and even if one is contemplated, with our Alumni’s
advancing ages, health, distances, etc., there may not be sufficient attendance
to warrant one. The attendance at the 50th Golden Jubilee was good but not
outstanding. (Seems most alumni understandably prefer our annual
"picnics" instead).
In
addition, Joe Rosen and several of the "old timers," both Nuns
and Alumni, were still living for the 50th, so it was great timing
and appropriate to recognize all of them at that time. We also
used that occasion to dedicate three Plaques earlier in the day of
that Jubilee celebration: one was new and expressed the Alumni’s
"Thanks" to the Nun's, and the other two were "re-dedications”
of two plaques that previously hung on the wall of the old gymnasium
dismantled when St. Agnes "closed." One Plaque honored Coach Faulk
while the third honored those St. Agnes Alumni who paid the "Supreme
Sacrifice" of giving their lives in the service of our country.
With
this in mind, whether or not there is a 60th
celebration, for those who did not attend the 50th Anniversary
celebration of our Association on 24 August 1996, and even for those who did
attend (when several mentioned that with the distractions and the noise
of people chattering, eating and otherwise enjoying that
evening, they did not have receive the full benefit of the address),
I thought it appropriate and timely to publish the remarks I made as the
keynote speaker at the 50th Anniversary Grand Banquet. (The
remarks are “verbatim” except for omitting a couple of paragraphs that probably
should have been skipped when I gave them the first time).
After
giving these remarks, several Alumni asked for copies, but not having any it
was suggested one could be attached to a future newsletter; unfortunately that
never occurred either. So under the aegis of “better late than never,” I
thought that because of what is in these remarks that is important or famous in
the past history of St. Agnes Convent that perhaps our Alumni might yet
appreciate having a copy for themselves and/or their families. With all this in
mind, attached is that copy of my "Golden Jubilee" address.
My
brother Jim substantially collaborated with me on these remarks and the result
is an interesting history of our St. Agnes caretakers and Alumni, especially
during the W.W.II era. To make reading it (contrasted to listening
to it) a bit more interesting I have added photos that were taken both at the
"Plaque Dedication Ceremony" and the Grand Banquet, as well as
other pictures, images and graphics that hopefully add to its interpretation!
As
you will see, this is really a pretty “quick read,” even with the pictures and
graphics, allowing that it goes into considerable background information about
the Kids', the Nun's, the Counselor's, Coach Faulk, and now the Alumni. (It
should also be noted that already at least three of our Alumni
shown in these pictures, Joe Rosen, “Beaver” O’Rourke and John Manganaro (sp?)
have already died; undoubtedly there are others as well, some shown in these
pictures and some not).
The substantive information contained in these remarks
is the kind of background we'd want to preserve for the “History” of St. Agnes,
and I can think of no better place to
permanently store it than on our very
own St. Agnes Alumni http://www.stagnesalumni.org/WebNews.shtml)
web site where alumni, family, friends and the
religious community, as well as future researchers, can avail themselves of the
history of our School and Association. This is the very purpose for which David
Feliciano, his brother Peter, Joe Stanaitis and others, worked so hard to
establish such a web site.
Only
the Good Lord knows where any of us will be for the August 2005 Picnic,
the "60th” or subsequent Anniversaries, or other such gatherings, or how
many other Alumni will be “somewhere else," but with so many of us
now in our 70’s and 80’s, this is another good reason to retain and add this
“history” of our beloved Association to our archives.” I hope you enjoy the
"read."
GFM
(15 June 2005)
St. Agnes
Alumni Association
Golden
Jubilee
St. Agnes As It Was
Lake and
Statue in front of St. Agnes Chapel Today
August
24, 1996
50th
Anniversary Celebration
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Evening Program
Greeting and Opening Remarks:
Mr. Joseph A. Rosen
Welcome
Sister Kathleen Kane, O. P.,
President, Sparkill Dominicans
Master of Ceremonies
Mr. Paul Fabrizzi
Opening Address
Mr. Gerald F. Merna (1944)
Comments and Anecdotes
Art Kingsley, Alumnus (1941)
Richard Irizarry, Alumnus (1953)
James P. Dunn, Alumnus (1956)
Presentations & Door Prizes
Frank Asciolla
Closing Comments
David McMillan
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
HOUSE’S
KIDS:
FROM
THE BALLFIELDS OF ST. AGNES
TO
THE BATTLEFIELDS OF WORLD WAR II AND KOREA
REMARKS OF GERALD F. MERNA*
AT THE
50TH
ANNIVERSARY DINNER REUNION
OF THE
ST. AGNES ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION OF
SPARKILL, NEW YORK
AUGUST
24, 1996
Good evening.
Before
I begin, I want to thank Joe Rosen
and Art Kingsley, and other members
of the Alumni Executive Board, for
inviting me to speak tonight. I also
want to thank Art for sending me all the W.W. II newsletters and other notes
from that era, which provided me great research material for tonight’s
remarks. Also, very special thanks to my brother Jim, a professional public
affairs executive, for his immeasurable
help in working with me in preparing tonight’s address.
24Aug96: Joe Rosen and Jim Merna at 50th
Anniversary Art Kingsley Giving Remarks at same ceremony
“Plaque Dedication” prior to the evening
banquet
What a glorious occasion this is – the 50th
Anniversary of our St. Agnes Alumni Association. I’m honored to be tonight’s speaker, though I’ve been asking myself
since I received the invitation to speak as to why I was chosen. I say this with utmost sincerity because as
I look out at this audience and recall other Alumni members who may not be with
us tonight, I can think of a few other former “House’s Kids,” as we were
called, who were more active in alumni affairs and who are better qualified
than me to be tonight’s speaker.
I’m
very pleased I was invited, however, and I hope that in my remarks tonight I
will be able to recapture some of the many memories we all have of St.
Agnes. I also want to talk about what
St. Agnes meant to each of us in our own lives, and about the warm place it
continues to hold in our hearts.
I am also
pleased that so many wives and family members are here with us for this grand
anniversary reunion. Many of us have
talked at different times with our children and other relatives and friends
about our early days at St. Agnes. Some
of us may have remained silent. Frequently,
our children have asked for details. Why? In many cases, because they wanted to
better understand their own father’s makeup.
Clearly, St. Agnes is very much a part of their roots – it certainly
was a major part of ours.
Standing L.toR. Vivian (Merna) Rendes;
Matt Merna; Jerry and Jim Merna
Seated:
Jennifer Merna; Dot (Sedlack) Merna; Linda (Merna) Figura; Sue Merna
I’ve already mentioned my brother and
friend, Jim, who is here tonight with his lovely wife, Sue, a registered nurse
who has put up with Jim’s shenanigans for over 30 years. Jim and Sue live in
suburban Maryland outside Washington, D.C.
Take a special bow, Sue,
you’ve earned it! With Sue and Jim is
one of their four sons, Matt, and his
wife Jennifer, both of whom lives and works in New York City. Matt is a CPA and Jennifer, who used to work
with me in advertising in the Washington, DC area, is with the J. Walter
Thompson advertising agency. Both are
graduates of West Virginia.
Also at our table, coming all the way
from Sun City West, Arizona for this special occasion is our one and only
sister, Vivian. She spent far more years
at St. Dominic’s than any of us did at St. Dominic’s and St. Agnes combined!
How wonderful to have her with us
tonight. Our brother Bob is in California, retired from State government. Brother Richard, who was in Korea with Jim
and me, is 100% disabled from the Marine Corps, living not very far from Jim
and Sue in Maryland. Youngest brother
Tom is living in California.
Son Gerald T. Merna and his Wife Diane
I’m also pleased that one of our two
children was able to break away from the congressional battles now going on to
join us – our oldest, the mother of our two grandsons Max and John, our
daughter Linda. Our Son, Jerry (Gerald
T.), is the chief photographer for the U. S. Postal Service and does
considerable travel, and was unable to join us.
Dorothy
(Sedlack) Merna, TZHS Class of ‘48
Finally, saving the very best for last, the love of my life, my partner, my bride of
over 45 years, former Tappan Zee cheerleader, prettiest girl in our class of
1948, mother and grandmother of our children and grandchildren, born and raised
in Piermont, my wonderful wife, Dorothy M. (Pint) Sedlack Merna. Thank you for allowing these family introductions.
One point we can all readily agree upon,
is that the moral values by which we live have been forged in large measure by
the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, New York.
(And
for many of us, also the good Sisters of St. Dominic’s
Convent in Blauvelt, and St. Agatha’s in Nanuet, New York). Each of us may adjust to the changing times,
but we continue to cling to the basic core values we were taught at St. Agnes.
I want to talk briefly on the topic of
values, and discuss it in the context of a current troubling development. As
Jim mentioned in my introduction I served over 22 years in the Marine Corps, in
two wars and during peacetime, and in many places (including recruiting duty in
Nyack, NY). Values have always been the
cornerstone of the Marine Corps, which is why I loved it, and still do!
Jerry Jim Rich
John
Not only
were the three Merna brothers Marines, but one of Jim’s four sons, John,
proudly serves today as a Marine and is a veteran of Desert Storm. And not one of us House’s Kids could have
had a better role model than our late beloved Coach Jim Faulk, who led Marines
into battle in the Pacific during World War II. I’ll have more to say about Coach shortly.
But back to
the topic of values. I was a bit dismayed last month when the new
Commandant of the Marine Corps made a major announcement about the young Marine
of today. It was the banner headline on
the front page of The Washington Times, July 5, 1996, proclaiming, “Marines add value training to boot camp.” The sub-headline read, “Commandant Krulak troubled by moral deficiencies among today’s
recruits.” What General Krulak (whose father I served under in Vietnam), had
to say is so important and timely involving the youth of America that I want to
read a few short paragraphs from that story.
QUOTE:
“General Charles Krulak, the Marine Corps Commandant,
has ordered an extra week of basic training for new Marines – not for more
marching or marksmanship, but for some frank talk about values.
“The Corps is now drafting a plan … to extend entry
training from 11 weeks to 12. By
October, recruit companies arriving at the Marines’ two training centers,
Parris Island, SC and San Diego, will find they need to learn as much about
honesty and loyalty as they do about the M-16 rifle.
“A senior Marine Corps official … said the new lesson
plan will dictate that drill sergeants sit troops down for heart-to-heart talks
on courage, fidelity and other values.
“We intend to expand our values-based education
because we’ve reappraised the raw material we’re getting in and the communities
they are coming from have put less emphasis on ethical standards and those
kinds of core values we want to see.
“We’re trying to address what we see as deficiencies to bring them up to
speed.
“They’re not teaching values in schools. They’re not learning it from church members
to the extent they used to. So there is
a need that needs to be stressed in a values-based education.” UNQUOTE
Jerry (L.)
and Jim Merna (R.) meet with Gen. Krulak
As troubling as this development is, I
think General Krulak is on the right track and I fully support him – and I feel
many in this audience do also. Times
have indeed changed, certainly from when I joined the Marines at age 17 almost
50 years ago, less than a year after I left St. Agnes.
All of us here tonight can recall when
we were first taught the basic values of honesty,
loyalty, fidelity, love of God and country. We learned these values, and more, as students at St. Agnes, in
the classroom, at chapel, in the dormitories, and on the ball fields and
playfields, by the daily example of the nuns, priests, coaches, teachers and
counselors at St. Agnes. Many good nuns
looked after us, and, of course risking not including all of them, to name just
a few, Sr. William Vincent, Sr. Barnabus, Sr. Immaculate, Sr. Adelaide, Sr.
Ignatia, Sr. Adrian, Sr. Rose Anastasia, Sr. M. Bernardine, and Sr. M. Winifred
who died in 1990 at age 103!
And don’t think for a minute I forgot to mention Sr. Ann Catherine, who
we are so pleased, is here with us tonight. Sr. Ann Catherine probably knew
most of us better than anyone since she served most of her time at St. Agnes,
as Principal, social worker, head of the choir and band, and with so many other
duties. Sr. Ann Catherine, for those
who may not know it, celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1983, and is now
remarkably, I believe, in her 63rd
year as a Dominican Nun. What a
record of service to God!
L: Sr. Ann
Catherine with Jerry Merna, R: Cutting the Anniversary Cake
A few of “her boys” surround Sr. Ann Catherine
Through the years we are also indebted
to so many others who cared for us, nurtured us, and saw worth and promise in
each of us as individuals, at a time in our lives when we needed it most. Foremost among them is Coach Jim Faulk, who
devoted his life to St. Agnes and the
thousands of boys who were brought up there.
Until the day he died in 1985, he inspired House’s Kids all his life.
Coach James Faulk, Col., USMCR (Ret.)
and Plaque re-dedicated to him for his initiative and
leadership in having a new gymnasium
built for St. Agnes Kids, inspired during W.W.II military service
Some of
us were present with Joe Rosen and Art Kingsley when Coach Faulk was inducted
into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1978 as “Mr. Everything at St.
Agnes – athletic director, guidance counselor, social worker, disciplinarian
and trainer, in addition to varsity and junior varsity coach for all sports.” Who will ever forget what he said then. Quote: “I received this honor only because
of the gutsy kids I coached at St. Agnes.:
Unquote.
I know
Coach Faulk was quite pleased when my brother Jim and his wife Sue named their
first born son James Faulk Merna, in
his honor. And the Coach was equally pleased when his namesake graduated from
the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1987.
Ensign James Faulk Merna
U. S. Naval Academy Class of 1987
My
brother Jim and I were at Coach Faulk’s graveside in Ardmore, Pennsylvania when
he was laid to rest there. So was Bob
Millspaugh. We three represented the
thousands of St. Agnes men that he developed over many years. Seeing his wife Betty and many members of
his family that day was a side of Coach most of us had never seen. I never knew he had such a large family, and
such a loving, caring one. With all the
love he gave to us, we never knew he had any left to share with anyone else—but
he sure did!
When I got back I wrote a note to Mrs.
Faulk, sharing with her a letter the Coach wrote me. After having a particularly rough night on an Outpost in Korea,
I wrote Coach about it—Marine to Marine.
His reply letter, which is in my bible at home, was exactly
Coach also provided his astute views on
the political scene affecting the Korean War when he wrote, “(President) Eisenhower is making progress
but even he is only the tool of the politicians and you can rest assured they
will take their time in arriving at any truce solution.” He was so right!
TSgt. Jerry Merna in Korea awaits the
visit of
Commander-in-Chief /President Eisenhower
Coach
Faulk may be gone now, but he’ll never be forgotten by anyone ever connected
with St. Agnes. Mrs. Betty Faulk, a
registered nurse, passed away three years after Coach on June 9, 1988, at age
77. She and Coach were married for 43 years! What a marvelous couple!
So, how did we get to where we are today,
with our Alumni Association celebrating its golden anniversary—a fraternity of
brothers united in purpose, spirit and friendship?
It all
began 50 years ago in 1946. It was
then that two of our most illustrious members here with us tonight—Joe Rosen
and Art Kingsley, and a handful of others, met informally following a visit to
St. Agnes for Midnight Mass. After
exchanging war stories and Christmas greetings, Coach Faulk met with the small
group and gave a stirring talk on the
need for an Alumni Association. Everyone readily agreed—and Joe Rosen was
elected “temporary President.”
A temporary advisory committee was
formed, consisting of Henry Holdner, William Pizzaia, Robert Rosario, Art
Kingsley and Dan Reilly. Nominated as Secretary was John O’Sullivan. Named as honorary members and advisors were
Mother M. Beatrice, Sr. M. Stella, Sr. M. Ignatia, and Sr. William Vincent.
The
purpose of the Alumni Association, as stated then, was twofold:
(1) To honor those of our Alumni who
made the Supreme Sacrifice.
(2) To do something for others.
Gloria and Art Kingsley Joe
Rosen and friends at Plaque Dedication
Words are inadequate to express the
gratitude we owe to leaders like Joe and
Art (and wife Gloria), for the vision they had and the
service they have rendered to St. Agnes and our Alumni Association. They have led and guided our organization to
preeminence for the past 50 years. And can you believe that Joe has been the
“temporary President” for the past 50 years? Don’t we all agree it’s time for
Joe to be named “Permanent President”?” And by the way, Joe, many of us wonder
where you get all those wonderful jokes you include in all your
newsletters. You could have been a
world class Comedian! Here’s a couple
for your future consideration: “Joe and Art
went into Tony’s Lobster House and asked House’s Kid and Owner Richard Irizary,
“Do you serve crabs here?” And Richard
said, “Why yes gentlemen, we serve anybody here.”
Is
it true Joe you carry your watch in your back pocket so you will never be
behind time? And finally,
Joe, do you know why the turtle crossed
the Road? To get to the Shell Station! Some have called your jokes corny, Joe—but
not me! Now you have some small appreciation for how we Alumni felt after reading your
newsletter jokes! But keep ‘em coming!
On a more
serious note, thanks Joe, for your many
years of devoted service, and for all those great and informative newsletters,
annual reunion picnics and dinner dances, and
I want to say something about a few of
our common experiences at St. Agnes, especially those of our Alumni who made
the “Supreme Sacrifice” in defense of our country. I also want to say something about the House’s Kids who served
their country with great distinction in World War II.
Most of us House’s Kids were shaped by
two major forces: the Depression and World War II. Many of us came to St. Agnes because
of the Depression.
Many were true orphans, some of us had
either a father or a mother – some had both – but a good number of us were sent
here either because we were abandoned or because someone could not or would not
take care of us. Regardless, when we
came to St. Agnes, it would be “home” for most of us until we were 17 or 18
years old. Many of us chose “academics”
and attended Tappan Zee High School, then located in Piermont.
“Far above the Hudson Waters ‘Neath a
leafless tree,
Stands a shack we call a High School, it
is Tappan Zee”
(Partial “student slang” stanza from “official”
school theme)
Others with vocational aptitudes received “shop training”
at St. Agnes, with electricity taught by Mr. Stevens, carpentry by Mr. Metcalf,
and auto mechanics by Mr. Fedor.
We did
some fun things in those days of the 1930’s and 1940’s, and a few wild things
too. Remember when we: “smoked behind the coal bin, played
basketball in the ice house and ice hockey on the lake, went bean picking for 10
cents a bushel, and caddying at the Rockland Country Club up on 9W, walked to
Tappan Zee High School in the days before busing in all kinds of weather,
attended Midnight Mass in the main chapel on Christmas eve, saw the Nuns pets
going to Saugerties (a town located between the Catskill Mountains and the
Hudson River, ninety miles north of New York City and 40 miles south of Albany)
for a bit of vacation every summer, got a “baldy” (haircut) after running away,
(though I wasn’t “caught” when I ran
away, I nevertheless got my “baldy” Parris Island), and when one kid got the
mumps or chicken pox every kid got it.
Yeah, those were the fun days, never to be repeated!
We also had the best athletes and the best teams in
those days – in football, baseball, and basketball. Coach Faulk, and in his absence during World War II, Lenny
Sullivan, inspired and molded their kids to athletic greatness.
Some of
the better athletes who readily come to mind, just to mention a very few since
there were so many, were: Jim Shea,
Andy Paulo, Paul Tarantino, Eddie Loniewski, Henry Farmer, Desi Pascal, Ed
Kelly, and the Feldman brothers. Our
uniforms were pretty ragged until Coach Faulk made contact with the Military
Academy at West Point. He hit it off with them and
soon we were
getting a lot of their used and surplus equipment. Pretty soon we were called by some as the “Little Black Knights
of the Hudson,” wearing Army’s old uniforms. I remember when Coach Faulk tried
to get the New York Military Academy
(NYMA) (Cornwall, NY) to play
us in sports. But they wouldn’t hear
of it. Why would a fancy prep school,
a feeder for West Point, want to play with a rag-tag team from a Home for
Boys? So Coach Faulk was forced to
resort to a little fib. He told NYMA that we were St. Agnes “Academy,”
or St. Agnes “Prep,” as I recall. Bingo! Coach Faulk had said the magic words.
Soon enough, we were playing them on a regular basis, and beating the
hell out of them as well.
Coach
Faulk also got us a football game against a Catholic school, St. Cecelia’s in
Englewood, New Jersey. That school’s
coach, just starting his career, went on to great prominence as one of the
winningest coaches in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers and the Washington
Redskins. His name – Vince Lombardi. I also remember when Coach Faulk got Yogi Berra and a few other New York
Yankees to visit us at St. Agnes and hit a few balls with us. The year was 1946 – Yogi’s first year up
with the Yankees, after getting out of the Navy along with his buddy Joe Garagiola.
When
war broke out in 1941, many of our kids went directly from the playfields and ball
fields of St. Agnes to the battlefields of War and other accomplishments. During World War II they would serve on the
beaches of Normandy to the sands of Iwo Jima, joining the millions of men and
machines and sharing the horror and heroism that marked every stage of World
War II – from blazing naval engagements, hand-to-hand combat and stupendous air
battles—struggling from North Africa to Italy, across Europe to Berlin, and
from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo. The House’s
Kids were in all of that, as St. Agnes kids went on to distinguish themselves
in all branches of the military, as well as the Merchant Marine.
The good Sisters had a newsletter then that was mailed
out regularly all over the globe to St. Agnes kids who were in the
service. The newsletter had Stories
written by the ‘Sisters, by Father Nash, a few by Jim Shea, then a brother at
Notre Dame, and edited by John O’Sullivan and Henry Feldman. And let’s not forget all the help supplied
by Mrs. Elizabeth (Betty) Herlihy, one of our Tappan Zee High School
teachers. Did you know she went on to
have eight children of her own? And of course, they included inspiring
letters from Coach Faulk, then a Marine Corps Captain fighting in the Pacific.
Coach
Faulk used to address his letters “To the
fightingest boys in the world wherever you may be.” (Note: A copy of that
original newsletter is included at the end of these remarks). In one letter he wrote, “Now you are carrying on for your school,
your country and your loved ones in order that right may triumph and peace is
with us all for generations to come.” In a minute, I am going to mention the
names of a few of these boys, and highlight their heroic service. In researching some of those old World War
II newsletters, I came across an early one containing a note from the Sisters
that said, “We now have the Gold Star with the number 10 on the Service Flag
which hangs from the Boys Choir in the back of the Chapel. The White Star numbers 555, although we know there must be more than that number, there are many with whom we are not in
contact.”
Choir
Loft, back of St. Agnes Chapel
Just think about that! As the nuns said, they had 10 Gold Stars,
signifying that 10 St. Agnes kids had paid the Supreme Sacrifice. And the 555 White Stars signified that 555 St. Agnes kids were serving their
country as soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. That’s unprecedented and unheard of – 555 kid from one
small Catholic school serving in the military during World War II. What other
school or community had sent so many
of their young men off to war? No
wonder Coach Faulk described his St. Agnes kids as “gutsy kids.”
Unfortunately, those 10 Gold Stars later increased to
40. We had 40 St. Agnes kids ultimately
killed in action in World War II. One of them was our oldest brother
George, a Navy Signalman Second Class killed at age 19
when his LST was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Philippines.
At St.
Agnes, September 1943 Prior to
shipping out 1943 LST (Landing
Ship Tank) (Low, Slow, Target)
I remember the day one of the Sisters
called me away from lunch. After
quietly speaking to me, I returned to my table where I suddenly broke out
crying. The other kids, not knowing
why, began to laugh. Then Sister told
them they just learned my brother, George Merna, was “missing in action” in the
South Pacific. The fellows then rallied
round me, and helped me get through that day.
Who
were some of these other St. Agnes kids who served with much courage and
distinction in all of the major campaigns and battles? I want to mention just a few of the 555. Did you know that we had six Carroll brothers who entered the
service just before the war was declared?
They were all at Camp
McClellan before they shipped out to the Pacific. Two of them, Dan and Thomas, were later awarded the Purple Heart
Medal.
Charlie
Loesch lost a leg in the muddy mountains of sunny Italy. How brave and courageous he was, never complained and thanked God for
having only that loss. The newsletter reported he cheerfully looked
forward to being fitted with his artificial leg; SSgt William Callahan went
down in flames in August 1943, and was a POW at Stalag-17 in Germany; Bob
Millspaugh was missing in action, detained and later repatriated; 1stLt. A. J.
Fabrizi, brother of our Master of Ceremonies Paul, was decorated for completing
50 bombing missions over enemy territory with the 15th Air Force in
Italy; “Buddy” Francis Mahon had 3 operations at Walter Reed Hospital to save
his eye; Bill O’Donnell – two
Purple Hearts.
Jim
Nestor was killed in action trying to prevent a breakthrough of Japanese
fanatics on a ridge in the Marianas; Dave Loeser, the first St. Agnes kid to
attain the rank of Captain, was killed in Luxembourg; Fred Napoli, a
paratrooper in Italy, was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart Medals;
Charles Foyder fought the Japanese in Burma as a member of the Army’s famed
Merrill’s Marauders; and William Londolfi was killed in the invasion of
Normandy. One individual who brings
tears to my eyes every time I think about him is Raymond Bannon. He suffered severe wounds during the fierce
fighting on the island of Saipan, and was hospitalized for 24 years! Raymond died in a
Veteran’s Hospital in 1992.
Heroes
they were, these House’s Kids – all 555 of them and probably more, who served
their nation when duty called. As did
so many during Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm.
It is amazing how many large families passed through St.
Agnes. I just mentioned the six Carroll
brothers. We Merna’s also had six
brothers at St. Agnes. There were also
six Karris brothers, one, William (Sarge), a former counselor who died just
last year (who I enlisted when I was on recruiting duty in Nyack, NY), and his
brothers George, Gus, John and Paul.
Donald Antonacci, who died in 1992, was one of five brothers, with John,
Joseph, Ralph, and Robert. Then there
were the Rhatigan’s—James, Daniel, John, Robert and William. Who can forget the five Keane brothers,
William, John, Edward, Thomas, and Richard?
Finally, though I’m sure I’m forgetting others, I recall the Altomare
brothers, Robert (now deceased), John, Mario, Michael and Phillip. It’s amazing how many like first names all these brothers shared!
After
the war, our St. Agnes veterans, like millions of other returning G.I.’s,
returned and quietly resumed their lives, started families and pursued careers
in all walks of life. Most settled in
New York City, where they came from before entering St. Agnes. A small number settled in Rockland County
where they soon became active citizens and leaders within their
communities. Others established
themselves all across the country, including overseas. Many joined the ranks of
“New York’s finest”—NYPD, and the fire department. Others became construction workers, tradesmen, bus drivers and
salesmen.
Retired NYPD Detective Lt. John Antonacci Fr. Jorn
Dedicates Plaque
Quite a few became successful teachers,
career military, business owners, government officials, lawyers, doctors,
dentists, and CEO’s. Several became
Priests—Fr. Ray Masterson, brother of Ed and Walter; Fr. Ed Figueroa, Fr.
Gregory Carroll; Fr. Bob Pelkington; Fr. Ronald Ciaravolo; Fr. Butler, and
others, joining our own St. Agnes chaplain Fr. Charles Jorn. Fr. Jorn, incidentally, has been a Priest
for 55 years!
I have sent most of my time remarking on
the World War II era St. Agnes kids because that period seemed to epitomize
what all of us was about. We all know,
however, from the many newsletters, the great accomplishments of our younger
Alumni who went on to serve in Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm, as did the
sons and grandsons of our older House’s Kids.
Bringing us right up to the present, a classmate of Dot and mine here
tonight, Rudy Loyola, has a son Mark who has been in Bosnia for the past ten months! Rudy, we pray for his safe
return soon.
Their
accomplishments are no less important than all the others, and if more time
were available, I would have loved to have gone into a lot more detail about
them. They too succeeded in every
endeavor their older House’s Kids did.
We salute you all—and are thrilled to be with you and your families and
friends to share this very special occasion with you.
Whatever
degree of success any of us attained in life, dear Sisters, Priests, Counselors
and Coaches of St. Agnes, we House’s Kids achieved because of you. Your love, your care, your support and
prayers were always with us. You encouraged
us always, and we will always be grateful to you, your predecessors and
successors. We thank you from the depth
of our hearts. Without your caring,
love and help, many of us would be far less successful than we are today!