ACADEMICS A birthday gift from former Cabrini Provost Jonnie Guerra; it was accompanied by a pig pancake mold, for creating pig-shaped pancakes that could be served on this dish.
FACULTY OFFICE HOURS:
JAMES HEDTKE, PHD, IS IN!
I pigs block set, a gift from Andy Litavec, a beloved teacher from the Education Department, which I keep in my office in honor of his dedication to providing our students with an Education of the Heart.
JAMES HEDTKE, PHD PROFESSOR, HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Plastic figure of President Obama given to me by former Cabrini Provost Jonnie Guerra.
Game ball, signed by every member of the team, from Cabrini softball’s first game of the PAC Championships in 1994, a 10-7 comeback win over Alvernia. After being down 0-5 in the first inning with the bases loaded and no outs, it was a demonstration of some of the greatest courage and perseverance I have ever seen.
In my 43 years as a faculty member of Cabrini, I have amassed quite a collection of items that demonstrate my passions and interests. Whether from my years coaching Cabrini softball in the 1980s and ’90s or a demonstration of my affinity for pigs or baseball or American presidents, nearly everything in this office—located on the second floor of Grace Hall— has a story.
Ball from my first home run in college, hit as a freshman at St. Joseph’s University against Pennsylvania Military College, now Widener, at Belmont Plateau.
CABRINI.EDU/MAGAZINE
A stuffed pig wearing a lanyard that contains a ticket from the last baseball game played at Veteran’s Stadium, a milestone birthday gift from Jolyon Girard, PhD, Professor Emeritus, and Donna Schaeffer (’97)—the bookend to an unused ticket from the last game at venerable Connie Mack Stadium.
A portrait of Emory Upton, considered by many to be the father of the modern American Army. Upton, who was from my hometown of Batavia, NY, became one of the youngest generals to serve in the Civil War, and is a topic in my book on Civil War soldiers and of many of my lectures.
Photo is of Fenway Park in Boston. To me, baseball is a secular religion, and baseball parks are its churches and cathedrals. Fenway is one of the two most venerable cathedrals in baseball today; the other is Wrigley Field in Chicago.
A model of a B-24 Liberator, a plane similar to the American plane that crashed into a small English village, Freckleton, on Aug. 23, 1944, killing 38 children and two teachers in Holy Trinity School. My book, The Freckleton, England, Air Disaster, recounts this tragedy that took the life of almost every child ages 4 through 6 in the village.
SPRING 2017 | 21