The Extraordinary
Mark '75 and Kate (Orlet) Schuering '76
Path
are joined by their eleven grandchildren. Over the years, more than twenty Schuering and Orlet family members have graduated from Quincy, including
by Fr. Joe Zimmerman, OFM
three of Mark and Kate's five daughters: Emily
Brother Michael Perry ’77 serves as the minister general of the Order of Friars Minor. Seen here with Pope Francis, Brother Michael Perry is the 120th successor to St. Francis himself and only the third American to hold the position.
(Schuering) Jones '99, Maggie (Schuering) Strong '03, and Laura (Schuering) Millkamp '05.
As a member of QU’s adjunct faculty and advisor to the mock trial team, Schuering has found an ideal venue for paying forward. As former student Christopher Blaesing ’05 recalls, “My mentors at QU were exceptional. On the prelaw side, Judge Schuering, Dr. Borlas, and Judy Abbott (now at CulverStockton College) provided invaluable insight on trial advocacy and law in general. Without them, I doubt I would have pursued law school at all. In fact, Judge Schuering was the one who referred me to QU’s mock trial team.” “After graduating from QU, I attended the Southern Illinois University School of Law at Carbondale,” Blaesing recalls. “During the summer following my first year of law school, I had the opportunity to clerk for the judges sitting in Adams County [Quincy], Illinois, including Judge Schuering. Since graduating from law school, I have worked as an associate for Bryan Cave, LLP, in their St. Louis office.” A history major, Blaesing notes, “Historical interpretations, like legal cases, are rarely black and white. So, whether you are a historian or an attorney, your job is to make the most compelling argument while remaining true to the facts, as you know them. The ability to read analytically and write persuasively that I learned at QU has remained with me and serves me well even to this day. “Also, like law, history can be reading and writing intensive. During my senior year at QU especially, I found myself juggling senior seminar papers, a regular class load, and work. Effective and efficient time management is equally critical for any law student or attorney.” The path to a career in law became clear during Blaesing’s years on campus, thanks to such opportunities as the mock trial team. “Growing up, I just figured I would be the next Davy Crocket, an astronaut, or the catcher for the Cubs. Not until my second year at QU did I really consider pursuing a law degree,” Blaesing remembers. “Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to have great mentors at QU help with this decision and to give me an idea of what a career as an attorney would be like. I was also fortunate to be able to study subjects 18
QUniverse | Winter 2014
O
that truly interested me (history first, then law).” Like Blaesing, Mark Schuering found the small, liberal arts campus a welcoming place to explore ideas and grow as a distinctive individual. “While at QC I was fortunate to be involved in student government and given other responsibilities to serve the QC community. There is little that could replace the hands-on experiences I had while at Quincy. The QU political science faculty exposed us to diverse views and politics, as well as national and international issues. We benefited from discussions of all positions in wide-ranging matters.” Quincy also enriched Schuering’s life on a personal level. He warmly remembers meeting his wife, Kate (Orlet), with whom he has shared nearly thirty-seven years of marriage. “We have five wonderful, intelligent, and beautiful daughters. We also have eleven grandchildren.” Schuering offers these words of wisdom to current QU students: “Don’t be afraid to fail.” “As a QU adjunct lecturer teaching American judicial process, victimology and business law, I admit to a degree of impatience when students do not respond in class, in large part because they are afraid of being wrong. It will often take some drilling-down to get a student to respond to a question or express an opinion. “Ironically, the vast majority of the time the student is on the right track and simply should trust in their abilities.” With intellectual courage and dedication to contributing to the common good, today’s QU students can join Mark Schuering in bringing Michelangelo’s words to life for a new generation.
n May 22, 2013, Brother Michael Perry, OFM ’77, became the 120th successor to St. Francis of Assisi, the third American, and the first QU graduate to be elected Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor. For those unfamiliar with Franciscan hierarchy, Br. Michael has reached the heights, the pinnacle of the Franciscan world. My own tenure at Quincy stretches back decades, and I am fortunate enough to have known Michael when he was here. The year 1972 found 120 seminarians living at Our Lady of Angels Seminary (now the North Campus) here in Quincy. A new seminary staff divided the seminarians into small groups of about ten students each, each group with a friar as staff counselor, and I was asked to be one of those staff counselors. In January 1974, a Greyhound bus deposited Michael in Quincy, several days late for the start of the second semester. A blizzard had delayed his trip from his hometown, Indianapolis, to his new life as a seminarian at Quincy. I was staff counselor of a group that included Michael. I recall him as an intense young man. Each student had to take a turn planning the daily liturgy (Mass). Almost every Mass Michael planned used passages from a book titled Francis: The Journey and the Dream, a poetic reflection on the life-changing events in the life of St. Francis, transforming him from a party animal to someone in love with the poor and a friend to every creature. Michael moved to Chicago, where he found himself drawn to the African-American Catholic community, and found time there to work with the poor and with members of a Mexican gang. In January 1982, Michael, along with three other Franciscans, departed for France where they studied French and Swahili, languages they would need for their work in Zaire (today known as the Democratic Republic of Congo). Franciscans of the Sacred Heart Province had begun work in 1977 in this country, which hugs the equator in western-central Africa. After less than one year in Congo, Michael flew back to Chicago to be treated for fractures to his leg and a series of infections following a motorcycle accident. QUniverse | Winter 2014
In June 1984, Michael was ordained a Franciscan priest and began working at an African-American Catholic Church on the near south side of Chicago. In January 1985, Michael returned once again to Congo, serving as superior of a large mission near the frontier with Angola. One year later, Michael was transferred to the college-seminary program in Kolwezi, Congo, a mining city of some 350,000 people. He worked in this city for the next five years. He learned to play golf and improve his tennis game, thanks to the Congolese youth who coached him. Following a student uprising in May 1990, and as a result of his efforts to advance justice and peace, he decided that it would be better to return to the United States and allow things in the Congo to cool down. Michael took up work once again at Corpus Christi parish in Chicago. He taught French at Hales Franciscan High School. In September 1990, Michael was invited by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to give testimony on the human rights situation in Congo. In 1991,
www.quincy.edu
19