class notes be
counted for the classes of
1929–32, 1934–38, 1946
Boston College Alumni Association classnotes@bc.edu 825 Centre Street Newton, MA 02458 be
counted for the class of
1933
Correspondent: William M. Hogan Jr. Brookhaven, A-305 Lexington, MA 02421; 781-863-1998 be
counted for the class of
1939
Correspondent: John D. Donovan jddboppa@graber.org 12 Wessonville Way Westborough, MA 01581; 508-366-4782 Greetings once again! • The first sad news is the death of Richard Coner. He was a bright and active classmate, an Air Force veteran, and an accountant, and he and his wife were the happy and proud parents of a large family. Another sad note: we just learned of the death of Natalie Murphy, the lovely and friendly wife of Charlie Murphy, our esteemed late Class of 1939 president. Our sympathy and our prayers are extended to both the Coner and the Murphy families. • Since there’s a bit of space available, let’s use it. My oldest grandson recently questioned me about our Class of 1939 descendants. After all, our deceased classmates are already ancestors, and we, class survivors, are on the threshold of adding the term “ancestor” to our names. The question of descendants calls for statistical speculation. The only hard data provided by the Class of 1939 Sub Turri numbers our graduates as about 350 young men. Let’s guess that perhaps 300 got married and had children. Classmate A liked the number 1 and sired 1 child, 1 grandchild, and 1 great-grandchild. His 3 descendants multiplied by our 300 married classmates provide us with 900 descendants. Classmate B preferred the number 2 and sired 2 children, 4 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren. His 14 descendants multiplied by 300 provide us with 4,200 descendants. The true numbers may be larger, but if you want them increased just add your indirect descendants—nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, et al. Wow! But wait a minute, there’s a not-to-be-forgotten truth. We have to give a giant thank-you to our deceased and still living spouses. Without them, none of the married BC alumni could claim to be ancestors and to have all those
descendants. Finally, let’s add two relevant footnotes: First, in two years, BC will be celebrating its 150th birthday. If we add the alumni descendants of the other 140-plus graduated classes, we will have alumni descendants in the hundreds of thousands. Genetically, genealogically, and demographically, we have contributed to the universe. Second, let’s not forget our deceased Jesuit professors. They, too, fit into our ancestordescendant discourse. Analogically, they can be perceived as our dedicated spiritual and academic ancestors, and the BC graduates can be perceived as their grateful spiritual and academic descendants. OK, “nuff sed.” Relax and hang in there. Peace! be
counted for the class of
1940
Correspondent: Sherman Rogan 34 Oak Street Reading, MA 01867 be
counted for the class of
1941
reunion year
Correspondent: John M. Callahan 3 Preacher Road Milton, MA 02186; 617-698-2082 be
counted for the class of
1942
Gerry is doing fine, thanks to the care of his heart doctors. Brian noted the extent of the Joyce family in the BC community: Gerry and his two brothers started the line. Seven of Gerry’s children and one daughter-in-law continued the line and were followed by four of Gerry’s grandchildren. All are very proud of their own classes at BC. • I called Fran Duggan, widow of classmate Bill Duggan (who passed away in 2002). She still lives at their home in Syracuse, NY, and her family lives nearby. She recalled the many times she and Bill drove to Boston to join in our memorial Masses and luncheons. They did this until Bill’s health made the trip impossible. It was one of their personal high points every year. My wife and I looked forward to seeing them each year. • A reminder: watch for the notice from the Alumni Association about the annual Laetare Sunday gathering for the Mass remembering all deceased alumni. It will be held April 3. • In the next note, I hope to have information on our observance of our 69th year as BC alumni. Until then, stay well. be
counted for the class of
1943
Correspondent: Ernest E. Santosuosso 73 Waldron Road Braintree, MA 02184; 781-848-3730 be
counted for the class of
1944
Correspondent: John C. Fitzgerald 22 Joyce Road Hyde Park, MA 02136-3807; 617-364-2309
Correspondent: Gerard L. Kirby kirbyjerry@aol.com PO Box 1493 Duxbury, MA 02331; 781-934-0229
Greetings! I thought I had a whole quarter of good news. Sadly, as I was about to send class notes to BC, I read of the passing of our classmate Charles A. Donovan. Charlie accepted for our class the huge assignment of creating and producing our 50th anniversary report. He and Barbara, who predeceased him, spent untold hours collecting blogs and pictures of those classmates and teachers who wished to be included. Charlie had a very successful career in the world of business, moving through many levels of management and finally retiring in 1985 as corporate VP of Itek, a Fortune 500 company. He leaves two sons and two daughters, three grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. May he rest in the peace of Christ. I represented the class at his wake. He will be remembered in Masses. • For the good news: I had an unexpected but welcome call from our classmate Jim Hawco. He is living about 100 miles north of Manhattan. As you would expect, Jim is involved as an active member of his parish and his community. In our days at BC, his presence was felt in many of the functions of the class, and he became our salutatorian at Commencement. • I had a note from Gerry Joyce’s son Brian ’84.
Kind and thoughtful Joe Delaney recently sent me a prayer card commemorating the death of our classmate Fr. Bill McInnes, MA’51, STL’58. It doesn’t seem possible that Bill left us a year ago—on December 8, 2009. He was of course the catalyst of our class gatherings, rounding up those of us who were available for lunch two or three times a year. I wonder if there are any classmates who might like to get together for lunch after the winter winds have died down, possibly in March or April. There used to be six or seven regulars who were most often available for Bill’s lunches. As I recall, they would include Don White H’94, Joe Delaney, Tino Spatola, Joe Gaudreau, John Duggan, Msgr. Joe Alves MSW’48, Bob O’Leary JD’49, Marty Coleman, and others who came if they were able. If you find meeting for lunch convenient sometime in the spring, please drop me a note or give me a call, and I will take care of the arrangements. • We also have two more classmates to add to our prayer list. They are Ed McCall of Woburn, who died in July 2010, and Tom Stuart of Dover, NH, who died in June. • Tom Hazlett and I are both members of the Shaw Society, and we were invited to their holiday luncheon on December 5 before the University Chorale’s
3 class notes