Jaynotes | Vol. 39 No. 1 | Fall/Winter 2012

The Magazine of Jesuit High School of New Orleans

VOL. 39 | FALL/WINTER 2012

Making History Retif Oil Brings Home First American Legion World Series Championship Since 1960

INSIDE

2012 Alumnus of the Year • Remembering Mr. Steckel • Essays on Race • Swim Team Wins State

Jaynotes, the magazine about Jesuit High School of New Orleans, is published twice a year by the Office of Institutional Advancement. Opinions expressed in Jaynotes are those of the individual authors.

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President Rev. Raymond Fitzgerald, S.J. ’76 fitzgerald@jesuitnola.org Director of Institutional Advancement Thomas V. Bagwill II bagwill@jesuitnola.org Director of Communications Pierre DeGruy ’69 Jaynotes Editor degruy@jesuitnola.org Director of Alumni Affairs Mat Grau ’68 grau@jesuitnola.org

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Director of Special Projects Br. William Dardis, S.J. ’58 dardis@jesuitnola.org Creative Director Meghan Weaver weaver@jesuitnola.org Executive Development Coordinator Krista Roeling roeling@jesuitnola.org LEF Coordinator Logan Diano diano@jesuitnola.org

WHAT’S INSIDE

Alumni Events & Social Media Coordinator Wendy Schneider schneider@jesuitnola.org Volunteer Coordinator Marilyn Beauford beauford@jesuitnola.org

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE An Olympian Reunion 15 Homines Pro Aliis Honoree 16 Back to Banks & Homecoming 17 Latin Mass, Revisited 18 Teacher Testimonial 22

New Faculty 2012 - 2013 43 Mothers Matter 44 Marketing Jesuit 45 Making Jesuit Special 46 Medallion Stories 52

IN EVERY ISSUE President’s Message 2 Perfect Eloquence Where Y’at 7 Blue Jays here, there, & everywhere Bib List 14 Baby Jays In Memoriam 20 Remembering our loved ones Annus Mirabilis 23 Mining the depths of Jesuit’s archives Flying with the Jays 28 The latest achievements in sports Principal’s Corner 42 At Manresa, faculty retreat

Articles, photographs, and Where Y'ats may be submitted to degruy@jesuitnola.org, or mailed to: Jaynotes, Jesuit High School 4133 Banks Street New Orleans, LA 70119 Contact info and address changes should be emailed to alumni@jesuitnola.org, or call Jesuit’s alumni office at (504) 483-3838.

ON THE COVER Retif Oil players hold aloft their championship trophy after winning the American Legion World Series last August, the first such title for a Jesuit-based team in 52 years and only the school’s third since 1946.

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Dear Blue Jays: This issue of Jaynotes features stories about two momentous events — one that happened recently, the other having occurred some 50 years ago. The recent event is the cover story about Retif Oil, with an all-Blue Jay roster of players, winning the American Legion World Series in Shelby, NC last August. It was only the third time in 80 years that a Jesuit team has captured such an elusive honor, proving that winning the Legion World Series is most difficult, not just for Jesuit but for any of the 1,900 teams competing in this popular summer league.

The event of long ago is of much greater historical significance: the integration of Jesuit High School on September 4, 1962. To commemorate the upcoming 50-year anniversary of this event, its aftermath, and the changes it brought, Jesuit alumni were invited in the previous issue of Jaynotes to submit “Essays on Race.” Blue Jays responded to the call. In this issue, five such essays are presented for your consideration. The five alumni essayists span 60 years at Jesuit with the eldest having graduated in 1944 and the youngest from the Class of 2003. These five alumni share personal reflections about their own unique experiences, incidents, situations, attitudes, and circumstances regarding race and being Blue Jays. We hope to include additional essays in future issues of Jaynotes.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT CLARIFICATIONS An editing error during the production of the 2012 President’s Report resulted in an incomplete and misleading chart that listed the Top Classes by Number of Donors. The correct chart appears here.

Additionally, there was an omission in the list of benefactors in the Class of 1965. The Anniversary Club should have included Dr. & Mrs. Bernard Pettingill, Jr.

Coincidentally, Mat wrote the cover story about Retif Oil winning the World Series.

Long before Retif swept the American Legion’s state and regional tournaments, Mat had made vacation plans for a week long August visit with his daughter Erin, her husband, and their two children.

The family had recently moved from Orlando to Charlotte, NC. When Retif

A NEW LOOK FOR JAYNOTES This issue of Jaynotes offers something old, something new, and something borrowed that is blue. The magazine itself has a new look — the first redesign in eight years. The new Blue Jay that sits atop the masthead and is perched at the end of articles is actually a vintage blue jay, borrowed from the school flag that has been displayed at graduation for more than 75 years. At Jesuit, looking ahead always means appreciating the past. earned a spot in the World Series with seven other teams, Mat could hardly pass up the opportunity to count himself among the Blue Jays rooting for Retif.

The Series took place in Shelby, which is only an hour’s drive from Charlotte. Mat was there for all five games Retif played, including the rain-delayed championship.

(The championship game remains available for online viewing on ESPN3).

Somehow, Mat also managed to spend time with his grandchildren and complete the paternal task of painting several rooms in the family’s new home. Now, there’s a true Blue Jay.

Pierre DeGruy ’69 Editor

TOP CLASSES BY NUMBER OF DONORS Grad Donors Year 1985 93 1992 85 1960 83 1963 80 1979 77 1991 77 1998 77 2005 76 1956 75 1962 73 1969 73 1959 72 1987 72 Totals 1,013

Living Grads Alumni 226 234 231 233 188 226 185 210 233 240 215 218 235 237 266 266 113 152 160 181 176 195 138 171 238 242 2,604 2,805

Percent Donating 41% 37% 44% 43% 33% 36% 33% 29% 66% 46% 41% 52% 30% 28.5%

Total Amounts $189,183 $27,275 $33,000 $48,252 $59,347 $95,469 $18,457 $4,438 $49,847 $42,349 $52,086 $44,868 $51,648 $716,219

FROM THE EDITOR

“Essays on Race” was conceived by Mat Grau of the Class of 1968, who is close to celebrating 40 years at Jesuit High School. During that time, Mat has served in various capacities: English teacher,

assistant baseball coach, student activities director, admissions director, and his current position — alumni director. In 2004, Mat and I were collaborating on an article about the legacy of John Paquette ’25, who died in August of that year. He had retired after serving 75 years as Jesuit’s registrar. In our research, we discovered Mr. Paquette’s “Principal’s Diary,” a ledger filled with his hand-written notations about various school matters. The diary was essentially the “official record” of all things Jesuit, his own blog of a bygone era. Mr. Paquette’s entry on September 4, 1962 about Jesuit’s official integration (the image is included on page 41) was so nonchalant and matter-of-fact that immediately, Mat’s curiosity (and mine, too) was piqued. In 2004, Mat was already talking about using the Paquette diary entry as a launching pad for a commemoration of Jesuit’s desegregation.

Mat’s vast institutional knowledge of Carrollton and Banks, coupled with unbridled enthusiasm and love for his alma mater (his colleagues and classmates know him to bleed blue and white), make him perfectly suited to be the point person to coordinate the various activities recognizing the 50-year anniversary of Jesuit opening its doors to AfricanAmericans.

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Aiming at Perfect Eloquence

T

ry this for a thought experiment: You’re shopping at Best Buy or some other such emporium. There you learn that you’re the ten billionth customer and that you are given — absolutely free — a time machine. Confident that the Joneses will now have to keep up with you, you take this new device home. After a few awkward mishaps, you break down and read the manual, quickly mastering the machine’s ways and means.

As one does, you then take a tour of Jesuit schools throughout the last four and a half centuries. You visit the first school, in Messina, Sicily, founded in 1548. You check out the Collegio Romano, started a few years later and still continuing as the Pontifical Gregorian University today. You stop by the Collège de Clermont, later the Collège Louis-leGrand, shortly after its foundation in Paris in the early 1560s.

Your journey brings you to Jesuit schools in Germany, Brazil, and India as you make your way across the centuries.

Let’s also suppose that after negotiating some linguistic niceties, you ask the Jesuits teaching there what they’re hoping to see in their students. I suggest that an answer you would often hear would be eloquentia perfecta.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Eloquentia perfecta. Perfect eloquence. We continue to seek this goal in our early-21st-century students at Carrollton and Banks.

Training the young in the art of rhetoric has been a key element of education as far back as the Athenians of the 5th century B.C. Even today — with rhetoric including not only speaking skills but also competencies in print, broadcast, and Internet media — one can’t argue with eloquentia as a right and proper aim of education. The ability to state one’s case well and to persuade others of it makes for a successful person in any society. From its start, Jesuit education has sought to foster eloquence in its students, but so too has just about every other system of education throughout history. But what does this term mean in our Jesuit context?

As a Jesuit school, we’re aiming at perfect eloquence.

Eloquentia perfecta isn’t just “really, really clever eloquentia.”

It carries a moral and religious component that goes beyond mere skill. Eloquentia perfecta certainly entails being able to say something well; but more importantly, it is having something worth saying. Thus, for instance, Adolf Hitler possessed considerable eloquence; he could and did persuade and motivate people in ways that changed history. But I suggest that his eloquentia was mighty far from perfecta.

Eloquentia perfecta demands a worthy goal toward which the eloquence is directed. This goal is not just a purpose that is worthy of our best efforts; it is a purpose that elevates and

even sanctifies our best efforts.

Thus, the end to which Hitler directed all his oratorical skills was such as to make his powers of speech into highly effective agents of evil. In that case, one could speak of his rhetorical prowess as actually being eloquentia defecta.

What, then, is the aim of the eloquentia in Jesuit education?

As in all other matters, it is the greater glory of God and the good of souls. Our rhetorical skills are oriented to the one perfect goal: God Himself.

Like all other created goods, they should bring ourselves and others closer to that God. Jesuit education can readily impart rhetorical techniques; but our greater challenge is to direct those tools to the praise, reverence, and service of the One Who is perfection and Who offers the grace that perfects us.

Thus, permit me to suggest some criteria to evaluate both the content and the manner of our eloquentia. [Please know that I am very aware that these call me to an ever more serious examination of my own conscience, communication, and conduct.]

• Do I serve truth by what I say and write?

• Do I aim at building up or edifying others in my communication?

• Is what I say or write likely to inspire others to be nobler and better persons who are more faithful, hopeful, and loving?

• Do my words encourage others in facing the challenges of striving to live a moral life?

• Does my approach to communication seek not simply to convince the mind but also to convert the heart?

• Does my communication come from a convinced mind and converted heart in myself?

• Most importantly, does the life I lead bear witness to my words?

May all our words and works reflect the Word of God — alive and active in our minds and hearts.

Rev. Raymond Fitzgerald, S.J. ’76 President

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“DOOKY” CHASE ’67

HONORED AS 2012 ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR

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dgar L. “Dooky” Chase III — a 1967 graduate of Jesuit High School and a distinguished education, business, and civic

leader whose significant accomplishments have benefitted universities and corporations, public boards and commissions, and numerous charitable and non-profit organizations — is the school’s 2012 Alumnus of the Year.

Chase received the award, formally known as the F. Edward Hebert Award, at Homecoming Mass for Jesuit alumni on Sunday, October 21, 2012 in the Chapel of the North American Martyrs on the school’s campus. Following Mass, Chase was congratulated by many fellow Blue Jays at a jazz brunch and reception in the Student Commons. The award, which is actually a handsome plaque, is given annually to an outstanding alumnus for his achievements and notable service, either to Jesuit or the community at large, and in many instances, to both.

“Dooky has provided extraordinary and generous service in a remarkably diverse array of fields such as education, business, finance, the military, philanthropy, and civic affairs,” said Jesuit president Fr. Raymond Fitzgerald, S.J. “Dooky has consistently and assiduously used the best of his Jesuit education to promote the good of others, ethical decision making, and service of God. His selfless and humble spirit marks him as a true man for others.”

When Chase was informed of his selection as Jesuit’s 55th Alumnus of the Year, he was characteristically humble. “I am honored to follow in the

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Clockwise from left: Following Homecoming Mass on October 21, 2012, Trevor Chase, Jr. gives his grandfather a “middle high five”; Chase is congratulated by Tom Casey ’48, who was Alumnus of the Year in 1979; Chase is the guest of honor at a Morning Assembly.

footsteps of the previous recipients of this award because they are all eminent men of great accomplishments,” said Chase. “I am blessed to be among them and I will always stand tall being recognized as a Blue Jay.” After his graduation in 1967, Chase continued his education with the Jesuits at Loyola University of New Orleans, where, in his senior year, he served as the first African-American president of its student body. In 1971, Chase earned a business

55 Blue Jays honored as

Alumnus of the Year

1958 Edwin W. Toribio ’34*† 1959 Leo B. Blessing ’27* 1960 C. Ellis Henican ’22* 1961 Robert A. Ainsworth, Jr. ’27* 1962 G. Gernon Brown ’20* 1963 John C. Paquette ’25* 1964 Leon Sarpy ’24* 1965 Henry P. Dupre ’25*

administration degree. He was subsequently awarded a fellowship to study at Columbia University in New York, where in 1973 he earned his MBA. He also had enlisted in 1971 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he was a disbursing officer on the East Coast. Following his honorable discharge in 1976 with the rank of Captain, he joined Price Waterhouse & Company as an audit senior. His work required splitting time between assignments in

1966 Charles L. “Pie” Dufour ’21* 1967 Joseph G. Vath ’34* 1968 A. Louis Read ’32* 1969 Robert R. Barkerding, Sr. ’34* 1970 Moon Landrieu ’48 1971 Peter P. Finney, Sr. ’45 1972 James E. Fitzmorris, Jr. ’39

1973 Clayton J. Charbonnet ’38* 1974 Joseph S. Childress ’35* 1975 William R. Brown, Jr. ’29* 1976 Clement Betpouey, Jr. ’24* 1977 Joseph W. McCarron ’37* 1978 Charles I. Denechaud, Jr. ’31* 1979 Thomas A. Casey, Sr. ’48

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New Orleans and New York auditing Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Exxon, and Bristol-Myers.

In 1979, Chase began his law studies at Loyola University’s School of Law, earning his juris doctor degree in 1983. Over the next six years, Chase worked primarily for two companies — Louisiana Land & Exploration Company (LL&E), where he was responsible for filing financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission; and, at Cox Communications, where as a senior administrative manager, he supervised five departments.

In 1989, Chase moved into the education arena, joining Dillard

Chase currently serves as a member of eight different boards, commissions, or non-profit organizations, including the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Friends of Lafitte Corridor; New Orleans Greenway Project; the Public Belt Railroad of the City of New Orleans; City Park Improvement Association; and, the Counselor Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem. He also currently serves as the chairman of the boards of the City of New Orleans Employees’ Retirement Plan and Odyssey House Louisiana. He recently stepped up as chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.

“I am so proud of Jesuit, its graduates, and its current students. Jesuit is where I learned first-hand how to be a man for others.”

University as dean of its business division, whose graduates he helped place in top jobs. As dean of the private historically black liberal arts school located in the Gentilly section of the city, Chase also expanded the university’s academic programs by creating dual majors in foreign languages.

When Hurricane Katrina struck, Chase was a vice president at Dillard in charge of master planning and facilities management.

As such, he played an instrumental role in the recovery and rebuilding efforts, which involved restoring and refurbishing 32 university buildings and three off-campus residential complexes, all of which enabled the school to reopen in record time.

Chase is a strong believer in being actively involved in community affairs, a trait undoubtedly inherited from his parents, Edgar and Leah Chase, whose Dooky Chase Restaurant in the Tremé neighborhood is one of the most famous and iconic of Creole culinary institutions in New Orleans. Chase’s mother Leah oversees the restaurant’s operations, fussing over its menu as well as the preparation of its signature dishes like gumbo and cobbler.

1980 Arthur T. Screen ’34* 1981 Emmett M. Fitzpatrick ’45 1982 Raymond S. Rizzo ’32* 1983 Adrian G. Duplantier ’45* 1984 Curtis P. Rome, Jr. ’52 1985 Owen E. Brennan, Jr. ’52 1986 John J. “Jack” Dardis ’59 1987 Stephen B. Rodi ’32*

1988 Ardley R. Hanemann, Jr. ’61 1989 Joseph P. Licciardi, Jr. ’53 1990 J. Michael Early ’33 1991 Daniel J. “Rusty” Staub ’61 1992 Robert L. Perez ’61 1993 Milton J. Retif, Sr. ’51 1994 J. Garic Schoen ’38 1995 Frank B. Stewart, Jr. ’53

And then there are the numerous organizations for which Chase has served as a “former” board member or chairman, including the Port Authority of New Orleans; the Bureau of Governmental Research; the Preservation Resource Center; the Musical Arts Society of New Orleans; the Louisiana Economic Development Corporation; the State of Louisiana Millennium Port Authority; the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education; and, the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

Chase claims that he is now “retired,” which is accurate in the sense that he no longer has an active law or CPA practice, or “full time employment.” However, retirement is contradicted by the frenetic pace he maintains on an almost daily basis.

In 2010 he took on a different challenge at a new campus — “Lead Faculty” for Delgado Community College’s Goldman Sachs/10,000 Small Businesses Program, which is designed to foster job growth through entrepreneurship.

Chase soon will be adding “author” to an already-bulky resume.

He is completing a novel of historical fiction, which he describes as a work about “American Autonomy, Liberty, Love, and

1996 Robert F. Talbot, Jr. ’55 1997 Marcel Garsaud, Jr. ’50 1998 Robert H. Boh ’47 1999 Peter R. Quirk ’54 2000 Michael O. Read ’61 2001 Michael E. Nolan ’63 2002 Ashton J. Ryan, Jr. ’65 2003 Donald C. Wetzel ’46 2004 John C. Favalora ’54 2005 Arthur S. Mann ’64

2006 W. James Amoss ’65 2007 Michael H. Rodrigue, Sr. ’71 2008 Jay C. Zainey ’69 2009 Kevin G. Heigle ’69 2010 John D. Charbonnet ’54 2011 Michael A. McGlone ’68 2012 Edgar L. “Dooky” Chase III ’67 * Deceased † Awarded Posthumously

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With his family present at the 2012 Homecoming Mass, Chase is honored as Jesuit High School’s 55th Alumnus of the Year.

Identity in the 21st Century.”

After graduating from eighth grade at Corpus Christi Elementary School, Chase registered to attend Jesuit on September 3, 1963. He maintained a high B average and concentrated on a singular co-curricular activity during the next four years — playing the cornet and trumpet in the Blue Jay Marching Band.

Dooky and his wife, the former Alva Jean Darensbourg, have

been married 38 years. They have three sons — twins Trevor and Travis, and Edgar IV (who is a graduate of Jesuit’s Class of 2000) — along with five grandchilden.

“I am so proud of Jesuit, its graduates, and its current students,” he reflected at Homecoming Mass. “Jesuit is where I learned first-hand how to be a man for others. My parents and grandparents sacrificed a lot for me and I hope that one day I can fulfill their dreams.”

high school through college, the Jesuits As the 2012 Alumnus of the Year, shaped my character. They sent me out as Dooky Chase ’67 spoke to alumni a Christian soldier, to go forth and set the during the Homecoming Mass on world on fire.

Sunday, October 21, 2012 in the In 1962 James Meredith was escorted Chapel of the North American by federal marshals to register at the Martyrs. Below are edited University of Mississippi. The very next excerpts. His entire address may Watch Dooky's at me through the big year my speech dad brought be viewed on the Alumni PageHomecoming of Mass in its entirety brown doors of Jesuit.

I stood as a living Jesuit’s web site. at www.jesuitnola.org/alumni. example of social change. You and I had “It is my honor to address you today as your 2012 Alumnus of the Year. You and I share the Jesuit insight of what it means to be men for others. That phrase has packed a powerful punch for me and surely for you. This institution, the Jesuits, and the Jesuit tradition of developing leaders who extend themselves for others have distinguished us. I have learned courage, honor, fortitude, perseverance, and prudence from the Jesuits. From

a choice on what side we should stand, on the side of freedom and integration, or on the side of segregation, fear, and limitations on freedom. Neither you nor I were afraid. Admittedly, however, there was nothing to fear here at Jesuit High School.

My fellow graduates of 1967: thank you for being my friend. I know it was not easy for you. Lester Maddox, a segregationist, was sworn in as Governor

of Georgia that year and you stood firmly as friends with me and other Blacks then at Jesuit. Leo Lay, Frank Barry, and other classmates that I know are here, I will always be there for each and every one of you.

God did not create excellence as something to be limited. I am just saying that Jesuit had a special calling for me.

Jesuit changed my life. We all have choices; however, it’s the choice we make that forever binds. How we relate to our choice in a loving, trusting, caring, and forgiving way keeps us united.

In closing, I say to anyone who reads or hears this address that Jesuit is among the best choices of an all-male high school in metropolitan New Orleans. If you want your son to be a man for others, make sure that he enrolls at Jesuit. You will not be disappointed.”

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WHERE Y’AT ALUMNI REUNION

active Class of 1956.

’57

SAVE THE DATE

Frank Randazzo still lives in Humble, TX and writes, “Geaux Blue Jays, LSU Tigers, and Saints.”

APRIL 13, 2013

CLASS OF

CALENDAR CLASS OF 1943 Mass, Couples’ Reception & Dinner

CLASS OF 1948 SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 7, 2013

Couples’ Reception at Southern Yacht Club

’52

W. Patrick Harrigan recently retired as emeritus professor of communications at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX.

’53

Del Hall retired six years ago after a career that included traveling the world for CBS News and owning a television production company in Chicago for 25 years. Now he passes the time by taking ukulele and art lessons. Del remains an avid photographer.

Peter Marrero is retired and living in Tuscaloosa, AL. CLASS OF

1953 SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 29, 2013 Mass, Couples’ Reception & Dinner

’56

Michael Develle is retired and living on an island in the Northwest. Michael has 14 grandchildren, who reside all over the planet.

David Schof has three grandsons attending Jesuit, where he remains involved in all matters pertaining to the

1958 SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 21-22, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

’61

Bruce Bosworth served as a poll watcher for the Tea Party Republicans during the 2012 presidential election.

Don Schlater retired in 2010 but remains active as both treasurer and training committee chairman in the Society for Under Water Technology. Don is also a guest lecturer at BP/Chevron training seminars.

CLASS OF

1963 SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 7-8, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

’63

Robert Cahill and his wife, Jane, both retired five years ago and moved to their lake house to live full time in Granbury, TX. They spend most of their time volunteering, traveling, fishing, and playing with their four grandchildren. Bob writes, “Life is good. A.M.D.G.” Larry Schneider is in the Hall of Fame, that is, the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame. Larry was inducted into the Hall in January for his

extensive contribution to high school athletics in Louisiana.

After stellar baseball careers at Jesuit and Tulane, Larry took the reins of the Rummel High School baseball program in 1971 and compiled a 526-175 record in a career that spanned more than three decades.

’64

Dan Enzone and his wife have been living in Huntington Bay, NY for the past 30 years. They are avid travelers with a fondness for good food and fine wine.

’67

Clyde DeLoach has been a volunteer U.S. Naval Academy information officer for nearly 30 years. In this capacity he interviews prospective midshipman for the admissions office. Clyde writes, “I enjoy this and also my new job in retirement — being an active baby sitter for my grandchildren.”

CLASS OF

1968

SAVE THE DATE

MAY 10, 2013 Golf Outing & Stag Reception

MAY 11, 2013 Mass & Couples’ Reception

’68

Michael Smyer visited India as a Fulbright fellow in March, 2012 to study the country’s higher education system.

Mick is provost at Bucknell

University. In September, he got to sit in with BeauSoleil when they played at Bucknell.

’71

Rick Ortega, his wife Marcy, and his daughter Tracy are still enjoying life in Clear Lake City in the Houston region.

’72

Joseph Ballard was recently promoted to managing counsel in the Baton Rouge legal department of Entergy.

Bruce Hoefer completed an eight-year term as chairman of the board of Café Reconcile and continues to be involved as a board member of the nonprofit organization because “I believe in helping our at-risk young adults who never had the opportunity to grow, to shine, to bloom.”

CLASS OF

1973 SAVE THE DATE MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

’73

Ben de Boisblanc is a professor of medicine in physiology at the LSU Health Sciences Center. Ben writes, “I woke up today with a roof over my head and a full belly. Life is good.”

’74

Gary Balsamo has been the public health veterinarian for the State of Louisiana since 2002. Gary previously was in private practice in Morgan City. He has served in the U.S. Army Reserves and was activated during Operation Enduring Freedom.

He experienced one tour of duty in Afghanistan and

WHERE Y’AT Uzbekistan. Gary and his wife, Rhonda Cantrelle Balsamo, have three children and two grandchildren.

John Laiche recently received a promotion as the system architect for a multi-agency program. Through the years John has received various awards, including the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award for achievement in support of the Navy and the joint operations world.

Michael Mentz was recently sworn in as the newest judge in Jefferson Parish. He was automatically elected to the Division F seat in the 24th Judicial District Court last August when no one signed up to oppose him. Before becoming a public official, Michael was a managing partner at Hailey, McNamara, L.L.P., which he joined in 1981 fresh out of Loyola University’s School of Law.

’75

Ronald Alvarez is currently serving as the 2012-13 president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, whose 1,600 members represent the entire gynecologic oncology team in the U.S. and abroad.

Ronnie remains at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he is a professor and director of the division of gynecologic oncology. He is also a senior scientist in the experimental therapeutics program at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. Ronnie and his wife of 33 years, Denise, have three children and recently celebrated the birth of their first granddaughter. And, yes, they still frequently visit New Orleans.

Tim Flynn lives and works in San Diego. He is vice president of Scientific Research

Corporation, an advanced engineering company that is a premier provider of technology solutions for national defense and global security.

Peter Holley currently works in the medical office of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Peter writes that his wife and daughters are home in New Orleans, “where my heart is.”

’76

Ed Leckert is a Seattle-based professional photographer who travels the world “to capture Mother Nature when she is showing her very best.”

Ed’s gorgeous landscape and wildlife photography is available commercially via his expanded web site: (www. edleckertimages.com). He even frames the prints he sells.

Ed’s bio on his new web site features this nugget that a few current Blue Jays might find inspiring: “When I was a senior at Jesuit, my English teacher asked me why I didn’t shoot for the school newspaper and yearbook. The truth is, it had never really occurred to me. So, I joined both organizations. For some reason, no one else signed up for the newspaper (the Jayson), so I became chief photographer of the paper by default and a staff photographer for the yearbook.

I learned a lot that year, especially covering nighttime football games, where the low light and fast action made for challenging conditions.”

Ed, who is a contributing photographer to Getty Images, resides in Issaquah, a charming and fast-growing town 17 miles east of Seattle.

’77

Michael Graham is a physician with an obstetrics and gynecology practice in Metairie. He and his wife Cynthia have three children, including two Blue Jays, Michael ’06, and Charles ’13.

CLASS OF

1978 SAVE THE DATE

MAY 24 - 25, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

’78

Mitch Landrieu was recognized in Newsweek as one of the “Five Most Innovative Mayors in America.” Newsweek noted its list features mayors who are tackling tough city government issues such as education reform, public safety, quality of life, and job creation.

The magazine lauded Landrieu for the “sea change in public education” in New Orleans as a result of his efforts.

“Seven years after Katrina, the dropout rate has been cut in half, while test scores have soared by double digits,” stated Newsweek. “The lessons are clear — increased competition, autonomy, and accountability along with public-private partnerships and parental choice can turn even the most troubled public school systems around.” The magazine developed the list with the help of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

John Meyer is the command information officer for the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command at Stennis Space Center. He and his wife Karen recently celebrated their 30-year wedding anniversary with their three children and two grandchildren.

’79

Barry Goodspeed has two reasons why he is spending less time in his dental offices in Homewood, AL. Recovering from recent rotator cuff surgery is one reason. The other reason has something to do with his 10-year-old son Gray. Barry is deriving pure enjoyment serving as Scoutmaster of Gray’s troop. “It is an especially

great blessing,” says Barry of his scouting duties, which happen to align perfectly with his other fun activities, such as woodworking, singing in a church choir (as well as a barbershop quartet), and dabbling with the harmonica and ukulele. Water conservation is a relatively new interest for Barry, who has developed a couple of new water conserving devices. He is currently writing a reference booklet on water conservation issues. He and his wife, Cissy, will celebrate 12 years of marriage this May. W. Geary Mason recently retired from the Army National Guard as a lieutenant colonel after 28 years of service. He is currently a senior financial advisor in the New Orleans office of Sterne, Agee, & Leach, Inc., a private brokerage and investment firm. Geary serves as chairman of Operation Homefront of Louisiana, a non-profit group dedicated to assisting military service members and their families who are experiencing hardship situations. Additionally, Geary devotes time to serving as a class tri-chairman (currently the freshmen class) of Jesuit’s Parents’ Annual Giving drive.

’80

Greg Bensel has been promoted to senior vice president of communications and broadcasting for both the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Hornets (soon to be the Pelicans). Greg and two of his classmates, Chris Nalty and Gene Simon,

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took in the Notre Dame-BYU football game in October at South Bend (the Irish won, 17-14.) After the game, the trio was walking across Notre Dame’s campus and had the accompanying photo taken while standing in front of “touchdown” Jesus. By the way, Chris is a monsignor in the New Orleans Archdiocese and serves as pastor of Good Shepherd Parish and St. Stephen Church. Gene owns BIS Construction and Ship Services, L.L.C.

Bensel, Nalty, & Simon

Robert Killeen, Jr. traveled last summer to Riccione, Italy to swim. Really, he did. The Texas and Louisiana attorney competed in the 14th FINA World Masters Championship 2012, an extravaganza of various water events (polo, diving, etc.) that attracted 15,000 athletes from all over the world. There were some 1,000 swimmers plugged into various age groups, from 25-29 up to 85-89, (real “masters”).

Robert competed in three events in his age bracket (5054). He went up against 150 competitors from 32 countries.

Robert placed first in the 50-meter butterfly, besting his second place opponent from Belgium by .23 seconds. The next day, he placed second to a Russian in the 100-meter fly.

Robert was always a speedster and learned how to slice through water when he was a state championship workhorse on the 1978, 1979, and 1980 Jesuit swim teams. He was a co-captain in his senior year with Bill Edmund ’80. Robert works in the Houston and Austin offices of his own law

HOUSTON ALUMNI REUNITE

Jesuit alumni living in and around the Houston area have enjoyed several events since forming their own alumni chapter three years ago. A small group of Jays attended a Christmas party to spread cheer among some of the young patients at Texas Children’s Hospital, an event hosted by Cristo Rey Jesuit (high school).

The New Orleans Saints have been a catalyst for Houston Jays to throw a party or two. The chapter’s leadership team has also hosted two crawfish boils, annual events in May. The accompanying photo was snapped at their second boil, held last May at Jackson’s Watering Hole, where Jerry Eumont ’80 and his crew supplied the spicy crustaceans for about 70 Blue Jays and their families. Missed it? No sweat. A third crawfish boil is in the works for May 2013 and there will be additional social events — including one, perhaps, that will find Blue Jays at Minute Maid Park watching Astros baseball — all for the purpose of staying connected in the Big H. Four members of the Houston Alumni Chapter’s leadership team helped Eumont boil crawfish: from left, Gene Settoon ’04, Chris Cola ’93 (co-captain), Shawn O’Brien ’89, and Brian Usner ’97. Other team members are John Ryan ’70 (co-captain), John O’Shea ’80, Casey Cuntz ’93, and Julian Hillary ’00. Catch up with Jesuit’s Big H chapter on Facebook, LinkedIn, or contact someone on the team at: houstonjays@gmail.com.

firm, Killeen and Stern, PC — he is a seasoned litigator experienced in several areas of law. He and his wife Karen live in Austin with their two young children, Kade and Kara.

’81

Alex Barthe retired five years ago from the Air Force in 2007 and lives and works in Crestview, FL. “We now own three UPS stores,” writes Alex, “and I just found out that in May I will be a grandfather. Wow, I am way too young for that one.”

Jim Nelson has joined the Whitney Private Banking Group as a senior vice president and regional manager.

’82

Mel Leveque is an assistant coach for Jesuit’s pre-freshmen football team.

’83

Trey Fabacher III accepted a new job with the Meredith Corporation as vice president/

general manager of its two television stations in Atlanta, WGCL-TV (CBS) and WPCH-TV (IND). “We are happy to be back in the South and closer to New Orleans,” he writes.

CLASS OF

1983 SAVE THE DATE

MAY 24 - 25, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

’84

Stephen Greco has joined Johns Hopkins Medicine as a clinical associate professor at an off campus hospital near Bethesda, MD. Stephen is a radiation oncologist with widespread clinical expertise and a particular interest in the treatment of prostate cancer.

He has extensive experience in prostate seed implantation.

He and his family — wife Judy and their four children — live

in the Washington, D.C. area.

’85

Brett Camet is the vice president of business development for the federal sector of Geocent, L.L.C., which is one of the industry leaders in information technology, engineering technical services, and defense and aerospace manufacturing support.

In addition to capturing new strategic markets and steering the overall growth efforts of the company, Brett is responsible for managing key relationships with all management levels in various federal agencies, including the Space and Naval Warfare Command Atlantic, the USDA National Finance Center, the Veterans Administration, and Homeland Security. Brett’s base of operations is Geocent’s Lakefront office in the UNO Research & Technology Park.

Beau Higgins has served 21 years in the U.S. Marine

WHERE Y’AT Corps, holds the rank of colonel, and completed five overseas tours, the most recent, a one-year deployment in Kabul, Afghanistan. Upon returning stateside last summer, Beau became the commanding officer of the Headquarters Battalion at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. His appointment was made official on August 3, 2012 at a change of command ceremony, which was attended by a large crowd of Marines and guests, among them his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children. At the ceremonial passing of the colors, Camp Lejeune’s outgoing commanding officer had this to say: “Beau has the perfect background, the perfect personality. The Marines will love him. Under Beau’s leadership, this battalion will go light years ahead of where we’ve taken it thus far.” Beau’s response: “I’m very humbled to be here today, to think about where I’ve come from, and to be here and have these Marines that I’ll be in this command with — it’s very humbling for me.”

U.S.M.C. photo by Cpl. Tommy Bellegarde

Higgins, left, at the change of command ceremony

’86

Ben Frank recently became chief operating officer of the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a large hospital located in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. “This is an unbelievable place,” says Ben of his new environment.

“However, I have not yet

found a shrimp po-boy or any gumbo.”

Glenn Melville was honored as the 2012 Alumnus of the Year of Christian Brothers School in New Orleans. Glenn has been a teacher and coach at Christian Brothers since 2004.

Leonard Young still sells Cadillacs for Sewell, even after relocating to Katy, TX. Leonard is now working for Sewell Cadillac of Houston.

’87

Stephen Cazentre has been promoted to chief accounting officer at Gulf Engineering Co., L.L.C. in Jefferson.

Henry Griffin is an actor, director, and screenwriter who also teaches film at UNO. Henry’s current acting project is a role in HBO’s popular homecooked series “Treme.”

Dennis Lauscha has been promoted to president of the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Hornets (soon to be the Pelicans).

CLASS OF

1988 SAVE THE DATE

APRIL 19 - 20, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

’88

Billy Burk is the managing partner of Burk Brokerage, a boutique real estate business that offers concierge-like services to its clients.

Michael Smith is no longer a Wildcat. He’s a Razorback.

Mike joined the staff of the Arkansas Razorbacks’ football team and will coach the wide

receivers. Mike has been an assistant coach for a total of 16 years at Kansas State University, where he solidified his reputation as one of the best recruiters in college football. This past season his K-State team won the Big 12 Conference and played in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. In his college days, Mike starred as a record-setting All-American wide receiver at Kansas State.

He played one season in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs. Mike is married to the former Karyn Tieken and they have four children: Kylie, Kenzie, Kason, and Kamryn.

’90

Brett Power and his wife Jodi were recognized as the #1 Two-Person real estate team by the New Orleans Metro Association of Realtors. The award is based on sales volume in the metro region.

’91

Brandon Gregoire married Kristie Maria LeBeau in October 2012. Brandon is a career officer with the rank of major in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has given distinguished service in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Daniel Maurin has joined Iberia Bank in New Orleans as vice president and relationship manager in its business banking division.

’92

Chris Barnes is a man of two cities, splitting time between New Jersey, where his job in the oil and gas industry resides, and Fairhope, AL, where he is living and moving into a new home.

Malachi Hull was honored as the 2012 Regulator of the Year by the International

Association of Transportation Regulators (IATR) at the group’s annual conference last November. The award recognized Malachi for his exceptional achievements and effective leadership as director of the Taxicab & For Hire Bureau of the City of New Orleans. Malachi is responsible for the oversight of more 3,100 vehicles, 92 for-hire companies, and 555 tour guides. Additionally, he permits and monitors 12 satellite brake tag inspection stations responsible for ensuring vehicle safety for all personally owned, private, and commercial vehicles registered in the City of New Orleans. “Malachi has led the charge to bring safe, reliable, and predictable ground transportation to our city,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who appointed Malachi to his position in the bureau in June 2011.

J. Scott Janoe was named — for the third consecutive year — one of the top five environmental lawyers under 40 in the country by Law360, an online legal resource and reference tool. Scott is a partner in the environmental law division of Baker Botts, L.L.P., the giant Houston firm.

He lives in the Big H with his wife, Raquel, and their four daughters.

Roland Waguespack is an emergency room physician who was recently named chief medical officer at Gulf South Quality Network, L.L.C. CLASS OF

1993 SAVE THE DATE

APRIL 19 - 20, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

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’94

’95

Jay Montalbano took office as the 2012-13 president of the Baton Rouge chapter of the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants.

Jay is a partner in the Baton Rouge accounting firm of Hannis T. Bourgeois, L.L.P., where he has worked as a CPA for 13 years, specializing in construction and business valuations.

’96

Jonathan Jones has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager of the Grand Casino Biloxi, Hotel, & Spa. He has worked seven years for Caesar's Entertainment, which owns the Grand. Jonathan and his wife, Jennifer, now live in Ocean Springs, MS, along with their infant son. (Check out the Bib List for their entry.)

Sanders Offner is the president and co-owner of Pinnacle Payroll Solutions of Louisiana, which is based in Harahan, and provides cost effective, quality payroll service to businesses. Sanders has 10 years of payroll experience working with companies of all sizes. “We continue to add valuable services to our product line, but we will never lose focus of our original goal:

providing small to mediumsized businesses with a quality payroll outsourcing solution,” says Sanders, who is married with three children.

Max Ortiz was recognized in New Orleans Magazine as the 2012 Maître d’ of the Year.

He currently operates Root in the Warehouse District and has also worked at Restaurant August and Bella Luna.

’97

Christopher Buckley lives in St. Paul, MN, where he attended school and met his bride, Aya Maruyama.

Christopher and Aya were studying to complete their masters’ degrees in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota when they met and, well, fell head over heels for each other. They were married in October 2011.

Stephen Dardis was one of 61 Legionaries of Christ ordained in Rome on Christmas Eve 2012. The 61 new priests, all between 30 and 40-years-old, represented 11 countries. They were ordained by the Pontifical Delegate for the Legion of Christ, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls.

Blue Jay Saves the Day at The Met Bryan Hymel ’97

had a merry, merry Christmas in New York City when he made his debut tenor performance as Aeneas — to great critical and artistic acclaim — in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens.

Only days earlier Bryan had flown from London to New York City to take over the difficult role of the Trojan hero in the Met’s production. The opera is a mammoth one, more than five hours long, and it has brought other tenors to their knees, including the previous one in the role whose “wobbly” voice forced him to bail with four performances remaining. Essentially, Bryan was coming in to save the Met. It had been 12 years since Bryan appeared on the Met stage as a finalist in the Met’s National Council Auditions. He is now 33 and an experienced Aeneas, having performed the role in London not long before he was summoned to the Met. He describes it this way: “It is very intense, but you can’t allow this to interfere with the singing. It must be sung beautifully. It’s not just shouting… It takes careful practice, showing intensity while having an inner calm and peace under the surface.”

After his debut, it was near midnight when Bryan appeared for his curtain call — and his fellow cast members lined the Met stage, giving him a prolonged ovation as did the audience, some of whom were clearly stunned by the tenor’s performance.

“This gesture from the singers seemed not just a welcoming tribute to a young colleague making his Met debut on short notice in the daunting role of Aeneas,” wrote Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times. “The cast members, especially the beaming mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who was again a vocally sumptuous and alluring Dido, seemed genuinely grateful to Mr. Hymel for saving the day by giving an impassioned and confident performance of a heroic role that dominates this formidable French opera.”

Fr. Dardis

Paul Edmonds operates the energy finance division for Comerica Bank in Houston.

’98

Andrew Brennan is currently working

Tommasini, who is the paper’s chief music critic, described Bryan’s voice as “…dark hued and muscular, with a quick vibrato and earthy texture, and quite even throughout its range… Mr. Hymel sang with unflagging stamina and impetuous abandon, capped with some exciting full-voiced top notes. But he was at his best in the tender high-lying exchanges with Ms. Graham.”

After giving four stellar performances — rocking the Met, its cast members, and audiences — Bryan returned overseas where his tenor voice is gracing opera productions in Paris, Vienna, and other cities throughout Europe.

Find out more about Bryan Hymel’s meteoric rise in the opera world: www.bryanhymel.com.

Photo: Ken Howard, Metropolitan Opera

Michael Brandner is among the 2013 Rising Stars of Super Lawyers for Louisiana, the second year in a row that he has been recognized by this rating service. After Hurricane Katrina, Michael and his wife, Katie, started their Brandner Law Firm to assist clients with a variety of personal injury claims. The firm now has three offices: the New Orleans CBD, Metairie, and Baton Rouge.

A Thomson Reuters business, Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a highdegree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

WHERE Y’AT UPCOMING EVENTS

BLUE JAY BAZAAR

March 24, 2013

JESUIT GOLF TOURNAMENT at English Turn

April 19, 2013

JESUIT FISHING RODEO Weigh-in at John Ryan Stadium

June 22, 2013 at ExxonMobil’s downstream headquarters in Northern Virginia. Andrew is part of the business planning unit for the lubricants division of the giant company. (Read Andrew’s entry in the Bib List.)

Vernon Carriere, Jr. has joined the physician staff at Metairie Gastroenterology on Houma Boulevard. Vernon specializes in gastroenterology and practices the latest advances in this field. He and his wife, and their three sons, live in Metairie.

Scott Hellmers is the general manager at Manning’s, one of Harrah’s restaurants, and a favorite hangout for a wellknown local football family.

James Mayo returned this year to New Orleans to begin a plastic and reconstructive surgery residency at the LSU Health Sciences Center. James

has been away for almost 15 years and hopes to remain in New Orleans after completing the three-year training program.

Ryan Morehead is a regional sales manager at JAG Flocomponents, a pipeline valve manufacturer in the Houston region. In his spare time, Ryan umpires college baseball and also happened to be behind the plate for the inaugural game Jesuit and Holy Cross played at the March 2012 grand opening of John Ryan Stadium. He and his wife, Jessica, live in suburban Houston with their two children, Lydia and William.

Nicholas Rauber began participating in the Swollfest Fishing Rodeo in Grand Isle while a junior at Jesuit. In June 2012, the rodeo celebrated its 15th anniversary in a big way.

The rodeo reached a milestone in cumulative donations, having raised $500,000 for the two charities the event supports each year, the American Diabetes Association and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Nick was honored by the Diabetes Association last November with the prestigious National Volunteer Recognition Award.

Richard Roth has opened his own law firm in the Rink in uptown New Orleans.

The Roth Law Firm focuses primarily on assisting clients with tax law, with an emphasis on estate planning and tax credits.

CLASS OF

1998 SAVE THE DATE

APRIL 5 - 6, 2013 Stag & Couples’ Receptions

’99

Jeffrey James is the owner and general manager of St. Lawrence, a new restaurant and tavern located at 219 N. Peters St. on the edge of the French Quarter.

Maumus

Michael “Fletcher” Maumus is the lead vocalist and guitarist in the power pop band The Whims, which recently had a debut album release party in New York City. Fletcher (far left in photo) and The Whims have a one-night stand in New Orleans on March 22 at Breezy’s on Freret Street before heading to Pensacola for a gig. When not making music, Fletcher is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy of mind and language last May from The Graduate Center of City University of New York.

He and his wife, Lindsay, live in Brooklyn.

’00

John Franck is a sales representative for Stryker Orthopedics. In February 2012, John married Maria Angela Castellon.

Jeff Serpas is leading GE Capital’s effort in New Orleans in the field of IT management.

He previously worked in Milwaukee for General Electric Healthcare.

’01

John DeGenova joined the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale, and Dorr, L.L.P. in 2012. He is a senior associate in the litigation department of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

William Neilson practices tax and business law in New Orleans after having the honor of serving a two-year appointment with the U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D.C.

’02

Taso Kydoniefs is a physician who works as a healthcare IT consultant with Perceptive Software in Madison, WI. In May 2012, Taso married Liz Gage Warren.

CLASS OF

2003 SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 22, 2013 Stag Reception

’03

Buddy Boe is the new chief administrative

Young Jays Recognized in Gambit Nicholas Braden ’97 and Mark LeBlanc ’03 were included on Gambit’s 2012 list of “40 Under 40.” Each year, the newspaper recognizes young business people whose accomplishments and contributions have improved the quality of life in the New Orleans area.

Investment banker Nicholas Braden ’97 is the vice president of energyfocused Global Hunter Securities, where he advises clients about raising capital, mergers, and acquisitions. Nick earned his MBA from the

Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with a triple concentration in finance, public policy, and entrepreneurial management.

As an elite competitive sailor, Mark LeBlanc ’03 finished sixth overall at the 2012 London Paralympic Games. Not only did Mark have to endure intense training for the competition, he also had to exert considerable effort in raising funds to support his goal of winning a gold medal. Though Mark did not medal, he gained worlds of experience for his next try at the gold.

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officer for St. Charles Parish.

Buddy most recently worked as president of his own strategic planning and public relations consulting firm. He served as acting chief administrative officer and communications director at St. John the Baptist Parish from 2007 until 2010.

Buddy is a board member of the local United Way. David Hanemann teaches social studies and religion to fifth graders at Holy Cross Middle School. He is in his third year of teaching and enjoys every minute of it.

He recently was in a drama production of 1776 at the school.

Justin Hayes is in his final year at the Tulane University School of Medicine. He has chosen internal medicine as his specialty and is interviewing for a residency program.

Chris Juge has recently opened the Pelican House Tap Room and Whisky Bar in Baton Rouge.

Stephen Lee works in the athletic department at the University of Tennessee as the assistant director of media relations. He previously held the same position at Columbia University in New York City.

Stephen lives in Knoxville.

Paul Perez is a dentist with Audubon Dental in uptown New Orleans.

’04

Gavin Daigle is the lead author of an important manuscript of the Dr. Udai Pandey Genetics Research Team, where he is currently a graduate student in the Pandey lab, located in the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. His research paper identifies how a particular gene causes ALS (widely known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

John Richards and his wife, Andrea, are in their third year of medical school at Tulane University School of Medicine.

’05

Craig Daste has joined the David Lukinovich law firm in Harahan as an attorney specializing in taxation and estate planning. Craig was married in November to Laurie Swindle.

Alan Elmer, Jr. currently works as a civil/ structural engineer at the Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse. He is engaged to be married on May 24 to Courtney Morris of Covington.

Bryan Hayes has been promoted to business banking officer with the Whitney Bank, where he has worked for the past four years.

Michael Mims finished his first year practicing law and has returned to Jesuit’s highly regarded Mock Trial Team, this time around as an attorneycoach.

Paul Saputo is an attorney with the Houston firm of Vinson, Elkins. He focuses primarily on private equity, energy projects, and merger acquisitions. Paul, who graduated from Duke University Law School in 2012, says that he can be found in New Orleans almost every weekend and on holidays. Ever the entrepreneur, he is finalizing plans to launch a clothing company in the Big Easy. Paul reports that Stephen Grant ’03 is also an attorney at the same law firm with an office three floors above his.

’06

Rougie Odor entered Notre Dame Seminary of the Archdiocese of New Orleans last August as a candidate for the priesthood.

He is currently in his second semester of the two-year pre-theology program. His formation will then move to a four-year theology program.

Rougie is spending this summer in Maracaibo, Venezuela to perfect his Spanish.

’07

John Burmaster is completing his first year of law school at Loyola University after graduating from LSU in May 2011 with an anthropology degree.

Thomas Combes is working at Boeing in St. Louis after having earned his M.S. in aerospace engineering from Saint Louis University.

Chris Johnson is a marine engineer with Tidewater Marine in New Orleans.

Matt Ryan is the director of communications for the New Orleans Hornets (soon to be the Pelicans). Matt oversees the team’s media guide and credentials for reporters covering the team.

He writes news releases and handles interview requests from local and national media. Matt is also responsible for maintaining detailed performance statistics of the players.

Wade Trosclair is currently in Budapest, Hungary studying for an M.A. in Nationalism Studies at Central European University. He already has an M.A. in European History from LSU.

’11

Barron Burmaster is a sophomore at Loyola University’s College of Music.

Patrick “Bubby” Riley has committed to play baseball for North Carolina State.

Bubby played for the Delgado Dolphins this past season.

Luke Voiron, a member of the 2012 American Legion World Series Champion Retif Oil baseball team, has committed to play for North Carolina State. Luke played for the Delgado Dolphins this past season.

’12

Alex Yacoubian was a regional finalist for the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame’s High School National ScholarAthlete Award. Of more than 400,000 high school student athletes, only 26 reached that elite level. Only one per region could be selected, and alas, it was not Alex. However, he was still honored by his nomination by the Allstate Sugar Bowl Chapter of the NFF. In his freshman year on Washington and Lee University’s football team, Alex excelled playing on the special teams.

CLASS OF

2008 SAVE THE DATE

JUNE 14, 2013 Stag Reception

’08

Warren Fitzmorris is pursuing his master’s in sport psychology at the University of Tennessee.

Darren Hayes is back in New Orleans and works at Sucré.

He is active in local theatre and was part of the cast in Rivertown’s The Class of ’70 Something. Darren graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern Mississippi in May 2012.

SAVE THE DATE

Commencement Luncheon HONORING THE CLASS OF 2013

FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2013 GUEST SPEAKER: JIM McCORMICK ’86

14 | FALL/WINTER 2012

BIB LIST Col. and Mrs. Anthony J. Bonfanti ’56 on the birth of their great-grandson, Leon Vincent Branum, February 1, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. John J. "Jack" Dardis, Jr. ’59 on the birth of their granddaughter, Margaret Rose Barket, October 12, 2012. Margaret Rose is the great-granddaughter of the late William Dardis, Jr. ’25 and the late Harry Charbonnet ’36.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael E. Coney ’63 on the birth of their 16th and 17th grandsons, Benjamin Robert Barrett, April 11, 2012 and Luke Michael Edwards, August 9, 2012.

Benjamin and Luke are the nephews of Michael Coney ’04.

Mr. and Mrs. Maurice P. Pujol ’68 on the birth of their grandson, Paul Thomas Norman, August 23, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael S. Mitchell ’69 on the birth of their second grandson, Tyce Mitchell Ambrose, on January 24, 2012. Tyce is the nephew of Luke Mitchell ’02.

Mr. and Mrs. Ray J. Johnson ’72 on the birth of their grandson, Collin Christopher Johansson Alario, September 5, 2012. He is the nephew of Ray Johnson III ’97.

Mr. and Mrs. James E. McCormick ’86 on the birth of their son, Emmett Matthew McCormick, April 4, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. John J. Sabatier IV ’86 on the birth of their son, Cameron Elvis Sabatier, April 27, 2012. Cameron is the grandson of the late John Sabatier III ’57.

Mr. and Mrs. Ted G. Bennett ’88 on the birth of their son, Ted Gerard Bennett, Jr., July 27, 2012. Ted is the grandson of the late Thomas Bennett, Jr. ’52.

Mr. and Mrs. Chris A. Berthaut ’89 on the birth of their twins, Elliott and Emma

Berthaut, August 9, 2012.

Elliott and Emma are the grandchildren of Christopher E. Berthaut ’66 and the nephew and niece, respectively, of Colin Berthaut ’93.

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph G. Wiltz, Jr. ’89 on the birth of their daughter, Addison Rose Wiltz, August 23, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Beau E. LeBlanc ’91 on the birth of their daughter, Vivienne Anne LeBlanc, May 16, 2012.

Vivienne is the niece of Hunter LeBlanc ’96.

Mr. and Mrs. Scott E. Thompson ’92 on the birth of their second son, Keith Everett Thompson, November 18, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Christopher G. Piacun ’93 on the birth of their third son, Graham Thomas Piacun, September 12, 2012.

He is the nephew of Joseph Piacun ’90.

Mr. and Mrs. Regan R. Leopold ’94 on the birth of their son, Regan Rollins Leopold, Jr., February 26, 2012. Rollins is the grandson of August D. Leopold, Jr. ’61.

Mr. and Mrs. S. Jacob Braud ’95 on the birth of their daughter, Elise Noel Braud, January 12, 2012.

Dr. and Mrs. Michael A. Goodier ’95 on the birth of their third child, Alexis Rose Goodier, September 21, 2012.

Alexis is the granddaughter of Elbert Goodier ’59.

Mr. and Mrs. Ronald S. Morgan, Jr. ’95 on the birth of their daughter, Jane Catherine Morgan, August 22, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Jones ’96 on the birth of their first child, John Walker Jones, July 2, 2012. John is the nephew of Austin and Jordan Jones ’01 and Baker Jones ’04.

Mr. and Mrs. Kevin W. Chin ’97 on the birth of their daughter, Megan Rachel Chin,

September 21, 2012. Megan is the niece of Ryan Chin ’99.

Mr. and Mrs. Glenn W. Hayes ’97 on the birth of their third child, Thomas Holden Hayes, August 27, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Nathan J. Junius, Sr. ’97 on the birth of their son, Nathan John Junius, Jr., July 19, 2012. Nathan is the grandson of Ralph Junius, Jr. ’66. He is the nephew of Sean Mayfield, Sr. ’89, R. William Junius III ’93, and Henry Guste ’95.

Mr. and Mrs. Bradley J. Landry ’97 on the birth of their second child, Amelie Jane Landry, May 20, 2012. Amelie is the niece of Brian Landry ’94 and Ryan Neal ’97.

Mr. and Mrs. Ryan P. Neal ’97 on the birth of their first child, Noah Joseph Neal, October 25, 2011. Noah is the nephew of Brian Landry ’94 and Brad Landry ’97.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew E. Brennan ’98 on the birth of their son, Noah Daniel Brennan, March 28, 2012. He is the nephew of Peter Kernion ’90, Danny Brennan, Jr. ’93, and Michael Brennan ’95.

Mr. and Mrs. Corey M. Fitzpatrick ’98 on the birth of their daughter, Finley Shea Fitzpatrick, September 10, 2012. Finley is the niece of John Fitzpatrick III ’86.

Mr. and Mrs. Jason P. Franco ’98 on the birth of their son, Benjamin Philip Franco, March 5, 2012. Benjamin is the greatgrandson of the late Emile Damare, Jr. ’32 and the late John Morehiser ’33. He is the grandson of Mervyn Morehiser ’64.

Mr. and Mrs. Brandt M. Vicknair ’98 on the birth of their daughter, Eliza Bermudez Vicknair, June 12, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Christopher P. LeSaicherre ’99 on the birth of their daughter Cameryn Faith LeSaicherre, March 30, 2012.

Cameryn is the granddaughter of Jay LeSaicherre ’64.

Mr. and Mrs. Gary J. Bordelon II ’00 on the birth of their son, Gary Joseph Bordelon III, July

26, 2011. He is the grandson of Gary Bordelon, Sr. ’72.

Mr. and Mrs. Colin B. Cambre ’00 on the birth of their son, Hudson Christopher Cambre, February 7, 2012. He is the great-grandson of the late William Cambre ’27. Hudson is the grandson of David Cambre ’62. He is the nephew of Clay Cambre ’90 and Brandon Cambre ’94.

Mr. and Mrs. Philip H. Ehrhardt, Jr. ’00 on the birth of their son, Philip Hilton Ehrhardt III, August 2, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. David W. Gernhauser ’00 on the birth of their daughter, Ramona Blessey Gernhauser, October 10, 2011.

Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey V. Serpas ’00 on the birth of their son, Lucas Elliott Serpas, November 20, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Brad K. Mathews ’01 on the birth of their daughter, Victoria Ann Mathews, June 5, 2012.

Victoria is the granddaughter of the late Andrew Nunmaker, Jr. ’45.

Mr. and Mrs. Timothy N. Guidry ’02 on the birth of their son, Noah Jackson Guidry, October 29, 2012.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Kleinschmidt, Jr. ’03 on the birth of their son, Kenneth Alford Kleinschmidt III, September 9, 2012. Ford is the nephew of Charles Kleinschmidt ’09.

Mr. and Mrs. John A. Richards, Jr. ’04 on the birth of their son, Daniel Ramos Richards, December 28, 2011.

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick E. Haggerty, Jr. ’05 on the birth of their son, Patrick Edward Haggerty III, August 6, 2012.

He is the grandson of James Morehead ’71 and the nephew of Ryan Morehead ’98.

Send birth announcements for the Bib List to Krista Roeling: roeling@jesuitnola. org, or (504) 483-3839. Parents will receive a pink or blue bib for their new arrival.

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becoming the women’s team head coach in 2000 at Texas A&M. “It’s been fun,” he said in August at the Olympic Aquatic Centre in London.

“It’s hard to believe I’ve been at College Station now for 13 years.”

Bultman was an assistant with Team USA when we first crossed Olympic paths in Seoul in 1988. He had the honor of marching with the U.S. team at the Opening Ceremonies. His other memories of the Seoul Games are much like mine — crowded and humid, but captivating, as all Olympics are.

I was a member of the Times-Picayune sports staff in 1976 when then-assistant editor Will Peneguy persuaded editor-inchief Ed Tunstall to send me to cover the Montreal Olympics.

A Swimmingly Olympian Reunion of Two Blue Jays

By Gil LeBreton ’66 London — It was a high school reunion of sorts.

It only took 24 years, 5,500 miles, and six Summer Games for us to cross Olympic paths again.

My role was a peripheral one. As a sports columnist for the Fort Worth StarTelegram, I was one of the approximate 7,000 print journalists accredited to cover the London Olympics held in the summer of 2012.

Steve Bultman, on the other hand, had to get his hands wet. Literally.

Bultman (left in photo) — like me, a 1966 graduate of Jesuit High School — served as an assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team.

It was an honor that Steve richly deserved.

In 13 years as the women’s swimming team head coach at Texas A&M University, Bultman had guided the Aggie girls to six consecutive NCAA Top 10 finishes.

Two of his Aggie swimmers, Breeja Larson and Cammile Adams, swam on the U.S. team in London. Larson

earned the university’s first-ever Olympic swimming gold medal as a member of the 4x100-meter medley relay team.

The London Games marked the third time that Bultman has been tapped to serve as an Olympic coach. He was an assistant for Team USA at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and served as an assistant for the Estonia team at the Beijing Games in 2008. One of Bultman’s A&M swimmers, Triin Aljand, represented Estonia in Beijing, which led to his Olympic appointment.

Bultman serves as a golden representative of Jesuit’s illustrious swimming tradition.

As a Blue Jay, he swam on the 1965 and 1966 teams that captured back-to-back state championships (the school’s second and third state titles at the time). He was captain of the 1966 Jesuit team.

Bultman swam for LSU, graduating in 1970. He’s been coaching virtually ever since, including two state championship seasons at St. Martin’s Episcopal School and four state runner-up finishes at Jesuit.

His collegiate coaching resume includes assistant jobs at LSU and Georgia, before

I was immediately smitten. In the nearly four decades since, I’ve had the honor of writing from 16 Olympics — nine summer and seven winter.

Those four-year cycles have flown by. The late ABC sports broadcaster Jim McKay no longer warms our Winter Olympics nights in his Dale of Norway sweaters.

NBC sports broadcast titan Bob Costas’ real hair is no longer its original factory color.

The Games have grown and added an occasionally unseemly commercial veneer, but the emotions remain the same. The athletes cry real tears at the Olympics — tears of joy, tears of disappointment.

No event brings together the family of man more peacefully or poignantly than the Olympics.

In London, Steve Bultman and I were able to reunite in the grandstand above the starting blocks at the Olympic Aquatic Centre. Let it be noted, fellow Blue Jays, that between Steve and me, the Jesuit class of 1966 collectively holds the honor of coaching one reigning London Olympics gold medal winner.

OK, Bultman coached. I at least snared an interview with Michael Phelps.

Gil LeBreton is a sports columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he has worked for 32 years. Fellow Blue Jays can reach him at gilebreton@ gmail.com.

16 | FALL/WINTER 2012

HOMINES PRO ALIIS AWARD

2012 Ed Mazoue ’62 Honored for Faithful Service to His Alma Mater As Jesuit High School’s nominee for the Jesuit Southern Province’s prestigious Homines Pro Aliis Award, Edwin J. “Ed” Mazoue, Jr. ’62 personifies that which Fr. Raymond Fitzgerald, S.J. wrote about in his “President’s Message” column on page 2 of this Jaynotes: eloquentia perfecta — perfect eloquence.

A Jesuit parent and volunteer, Mazoue was among 11 recipients of the 2012 Homines Pro Aliis Award, which recognizes the “outstanding leadership in service” these individuals bring to the 11 ministries that fall under the umbrella of the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus. Among the recipients were two other Blue Jays — Michael H. “Mike” Rodrigue, Sr. ’71 (for his work with Boys Hope/Girls Hope) and Dominic J. Massa ’94 (for his volunteerism at Loyola University).

The awards were presented by Jesuit provincial Fr. Mark Lewis, S.J. at a Mass and brunch on November 18, 2012 at Jesuit High School.

“Ed Mazoue’s lengthy involvement at Jesuit High School is significant because it reflects a deep passion and love for the school,” said Fr. Lewis. “His dedication and commitment to Jesuit are unwavering.”

Mazoue’s relationship with Jesuit is certainly a unique one that extends beyond being a student and an alumnus. He had six years of teaching and coaching experience at two New Orleans high schools before joining Jesuit’s faculty in 1973. For the next three years at Jesuit, he taught science and coached varsity track as well as junior varsity football and basketball.

Mazoue was hired by the City of New Ed Mazoue of the Class of 1962 was honored with the 2012 Homines Orleans in 1976 Pro Aliis Award, given annually by the Jesuit Southern Province. Ed and for the next 35 was honored for his volunteer work on behalf of the school. years worked in its real estate office in City Hall. From 1986 until his retirement in 2010, Mazoue served as the city’s real estate administrator.

During his long tenure as a public servant, Mazoue remained close to Jesuit, serving as chairman of the 1998-99 LEF campaign and as a class leader of several Parents’ Annual Giving (PAG) drives. For the past 15 years, Mazoue has been a member of the President’s Advisory Council (PAC), offering sage advice to three different Jesuit presidents about working with the various city agencies in a way that is mutually beneficial.

As an alumnus volunteer, Mazoue rarely misses Jesuit’s annual Open House for prospective students. He stations himself in one of the science labs where his dedication to teaching is on full display for future Blue Jays. As part of the leadership team for the Class of 1962, Mazoue is always busy keeping his classmates connected to each other and to their alma mater.

Mazoue and his first wife Diane (who died in 2002) shepherded their three Blue Jay sons through Jesuit: Chris ’88, Clayton ’92, and Chad ’96. He was a widower for a decade before marrying Cheryle Lesche in May 2012.

Mazoue says he is enjoying retired life, especially since it gives him time to visit his grandchildren in South Carolina.

IT'S ALMOST HERE!

Ron Drez

of the Class of 1958 has written a book about the history of Jesuit.

Gallant Fighting Sons: The Jesuits, Louisiana, and Their School in New Orleans Available in April.

Details will be posted on jesuitnola.org.

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At Back to Banks, Blue Jays Bask in Celebrating 2012 Homecoming

Clockwise from top: Alumni, students, and Blue Jay families gathered Saturday, October 20 in the Traditions Courtyard to celebrate Homecoming and enjoy complimentary food, children’s entertainment, and live music featuring Blue Jay Band director Joe Caluda ’79 and Randy Jackson of Zebra. The crowd cheered for the 1962 and 2012 Jesuit football teams at a pep rally, which also featured the Jesuit Band, cheerleaders, and the Jayettes. The afternoon wrapped up with a motorcade to Tad Gormley Stadium where fans watched the Blue Jays deliver a sound thrashing to Brother Martin, 31-6; Senior Miguel Vera, junior Chris Sylvain, sophomore Josh Orellana, freshman Gabe Griffin, freshman Elija Yen, and sophomore Nicholas Price enjoy burgers before the pep rally; Members of the 1962 football team are honored at Back to Banks on the 50th anniversary of their district championship; John Appel ’86, Barron Burmaster, Dave Schof ’56, and Will Baudouin enjoy the festivities.

18 | FALL/WINTER 2012

INCENSE, BELLS, MUSIC, AND

Latin A Mass From the Past

By Earl Higgins ’59

service was the Missa pro defunctis, Mass for the dead.

The initial word of the Mass, “requiem,” has come to mean any music or writing that laments real or figurative death. This Mass is from whence the term comes.

C

uriosity, not devotion, brought me to golden-domed St. John the Baptist Church on a Tuesday evening not so long ago. My curiosity had been stimulated by a newspaper announcement that there would be a Solemn High Requiem Mass chanted in the traditional Latin. Once in my life I had attended such a Mass, and that was more than 55 years ago.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Thus began the Gregorian chant to start the Mass with the word that gives the liturgical form its name. (“Eternal rest give to them, Lord.”) “Blue Jay Latin,” imprinted more than a halfcentury ago, rose up from memory and began parsing: Requiem — third declension singular, accusative case. The

Because the event was so “old church,” many of the women in the congregation had covered their heads with scarves or lace caps or mantillas. This was Mass in a time warp. I was brought back to serving as an altar boy at St. Agnes Church on Jefferson Highway, circa 1955. (Note the Latin “circa.”)

Enter the clergy, in procession as the choir chanted in Latin.

Six acolytes bearing lighted candles preceded the subdeacon, deacon, and celebrant, the latter two wearing birettas.

(Those birettas are actually black clerical hats, not to be confused with the name of a small handgun.) In keeping with the death theme of the Mass, the priests’ vestments were dark, trimmed in silver, elegant, shiny, and black as a raven.

In the center of the aisle, flanked bilaterally by rows of candles, was a high catafalque draped in black.

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The announcement had said the Mass was to be offered for the Souls in Purgatory, so I was pretty sure there wasn’t a corpse in a coffin under the cloth. Apparently, the catafalque was symbolic of the souls in Purgatory.

The day of wrath, that day that will dissolve the world into burning coals, as David bore witness with the Sibyl...

Heavy stuff, that 13th century eschatology, full of gloom and doom. The emphasis is on death and divine retribution for sin rather than redemption and resurrection. Nevertheless, the somber starkness of the theology inspired some magnificent music.

Bells, lots of bells, rung at the Sanctus and at the elevation of the host and the chalice.

As the priest elevated the consecrated bread and wine, the kneeling deacon lifted the tail end of his fiddleback chasuble. I’ve since forgotten the symbolic significance of raising the chasuble, but I remember as an altar boy doing that very gesture on numerous occasions.

They don’t teach church Latin at Jesuit anymore, which is unfortunate. Caelis is taught to be pronounced KAYLIS, not CHAY-LIS. Is God listening? Does He know the difference? Is He grading the papers? Blue Jay Latin lives.

At Communion, the faithful knelt at the rail, and everybody received the sacrament on the tongue. I didn’t dare extend my palms to receive Communion for fear that the priest might have passed me by, or worse, I might have been pummeled by the acolyte holding the brass paten under my chin. In the old days, the laity didn’t dare touch a consecrated host except with the tongue. We were all too fouled with sin to be worthy, even if we scrubbed our hands with Lava soap before going to Mass.

Bells and smells, the sound and aroma of a different time. With the bells came the burning incense, aromatic smoke rising to heaven as a burnt offering. It was probably used hundreds of years ago as a liturgical deodorizer to honor God as well as to absorb the stench of the congregation whose collective breath of the unwashed masses could peel paint. The incense of the Requiem Mass at St. John the Baptist was pleasant and blended exquisitely with the chant and the visual experience to create a holy space, a sense of the presence of God. Mass officially ended when the priest faced the congregation

Photos courtesy of the Clarion Herald.

The three clergy stood in a staggered line on the steps leading up to the altar, the original altar. The modern altar that allows the celebrant to face the congregation had been removed. Prayers were all in Latin, said quietly except for those chanted by the choir, and even the epistle and the gospel were read in nearly inaudible Latin. But between the epistle and the gospel was a chant that is among the most magnificent pieces of Gregorian music, the “sequence” known as the Dies irae.

Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla Teste David cum Sibylla...

As we stood up at the end of the canon of the Mass, I was surprised that I could still recite the entire Our Father in Latin: Pater noster, qui es in caelis sanctificetur nomen tuum…

and said, “Ite. Missa est.” (“Go, it is sent,” referring to the sacrifice of Jesus to God.) The priest then walked to the side of the sanctuary, doffed his fiddleback chasuble, and allowed the other clergy to drape him with a heavy, fancy cope. That’s not a cape; a cope is bigger than a cape. For the Requiem High Mass, the cope was in the same silver-trimmed black as the other vestments, but fell from shoulders to ankles.

The garment reminded me of a fancy carnival ball or a Wagnerian opera.

Then the three clergy processed around the catafalque, first sprinkling it with holy water, then a second loop with the thurible spewing forth lots of incense smoke.

No one was in the catafalque; it was all symbolic. The whole service was a ritual to offer prayers to ask God to free the souls in Purgatory and allow them entry into heaven.

Old Blue Jays like me can appreciate a return to the Latin and the Mass of our

childhood and adolescence.

Younger alumni should attend a traditional Mass to catch a glimpse back into the Catholicism of 800-plus years ago when the drama and the mysticism of the liturgy signified that something important was taking place, something very important.

Besides, it’s a good way to test one’s recall of Latin.

The solemn High Requiem Mass is held at 7 p.m. (Latin for post meridiem) every second Tuesday of every month at St. John the Baptist Church. Benedicamus Domino; Deo gratias.

A.M.D.G. — Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. That’s Latin, too.

Earl Higgins ’59 is the author of two books. His first was The Joy of Y’at Catholicism (2007). In 2011, his second book came out, Metairie, Ames, High — The Streets of Jefferson Parish. He is a regular contributor to Jaynotes.

IN MEMORIAM The list of deceased members of the Jesuit High School Community represents information received from July 1 – December 31, 2012. For current announcements, check the “In Memoriam” page on Jesuit’s web site. † This symbol indicates the individual is deceased.

ALUMNI… (By Class Year) Samuel S. McNeely, Jr. ’31 Wilford F. Calongne, Jr. ’38 Louis M. Manduell, Sr. ’38 Joseph P. Cashen ’39 Henry C. Perret ’39 Numa V. Bertel, Jr. ’40 Edward C. Kurtz, Sr. ’41 Edmund B. Martin, Jr. ’41 Lawrence D. Roubion, Jr. ’41 Robert M. Thomas, Sr. ’41 John J. Walsh ’41 Raymond F. Leon ’43 Harold W. Hemstreet, Jr. ’44 Daniel H. Walsh ’44 Walter F. Garvey ’45 James W. Ryall ’45 Robert A. Kelly, Jr. ’47 Claude R. Moncrief, Jr. ’47 Julius B. Prager III ’48 William R. Wellemeyer ’49 Bruce J. Borrello ’50 Gerald R. Boudreaux ’50 Alfred N. Clement ’50 Rev. Christopher A. Billac, S.J. ’52 Lawrence B. Fitzmorris ’52 Otto A. Goessl ’52 Richard M. Dunkin, Jr. ’53 Cyril F. McCarthy III ’53 James F. Pittman, Jr. ’53 Hart J. Schwarzenbach, Jr. ’53 Richard A. Tonry ’53 Joseph A. Baggott ’54 Timothy A. Calamari, Jr. ’54 Louis J. Demarest III ’54 Walter G. Frey, Sr. ’54 Clement N. Rieffel, Jr. ’54 Ernest N. Souhlas ’54 William G. Murtagh, Jr. ’55 Rev. Msgr. Crosby W. Kern ’56 Leroy R. Nolan ’58 Gaylord L. Burgau ’61 Hal A. LeBlanc ’61 Frank J. Cali III ’62 Michael H. Ellis, Sr. ’62 Paul F. Daigle ’64 Paul A. Griener, Jr. ’65 Charles C. Trascher III ’65 John J. Spokes, Jr. ’67 Bryan G. Alexander ’72 Michael D. Mouledoux ’79 Daniel L. Gandolfi ’81 James A. Flotte ’07 WIFE OF… (By Last Name) † Bruce C. Ashley ’45 † Raymond P. Bassich, Jr. ’40 † William S. Bergeron ’44 † David P. Bernhardt, Jr. ’40 † James R. Boudousquie ’44 † Henry J. Briggs, Jr. ’40 Brent J. Buescher ’58 † Richard J. Call, Jr. ’37 † Lucien J. Caruso ’42 † Richard A. Cousins ’39

† Anthony J. DiBartolo ’42 † Joseph A. Donelon ’34 † Ronald L. Faia ’43 † John G. Finney, Jr. ’42 † Michael J. Fleming ’41 † William X. Graham ’42 † John B. Guarisco ’38 Edgar J. Kehlor, Jr. ’42 † Robert E. Lammond ’42 † P.J. Lauman ’40 † Charles O’D Lilly ’33 Donald L. Lindemann ’51 † Rudolph T. O’Dwyer, Jr. ’35 Maurice J. Picheloup III ’35 † John L. Prendergast ’41 † Edmond V. Schwartz ’45 † Charles T. Sterken, Jr. ’44 † Charles C. Zatarain, Jr. ’43 FATHER OF… John G. Amato ’62 Juan M. Barona ’82 Robert E. Bauer ’63 Gerard E. Beck ’80 Michael J. Bossetta, Jr. ’06 (stepfather) Patrick Michael D. Breeden ’93 Aaron C. Burgau ’92 Burk A. Chuter ’90 Roy H., Jr. ’79 & Lewis M. Coleman ’86 Anthony E. Cyprus, Jr. ’76 James J. ’72 & Carl R. Danna ’76 Romeal K. David ’84 Raymond P. ’77 & David J. DeCorte ’79 Louis J. Demarest IV ’81 Daniel A. Doskey ’92 Michael H. Ellis, Jr. ’88 Alexander P. Farmer ’12 Walter G., Jr. ’77 & Frank P. Frey ’81 Thomas P. Garvey ’72 Joseph I. Giarrusso III ’94 Kent P. Griener ’98 Julian S., Jr. ’76 & † Andrew E. Hillery ’79 Even P. Howell III ’80 Glen J. Jeansonne ’83 Kevin P. ’82, Timothy P. ’84, & Glenn P. Kelley ’85 Colin E. Kemmerly ’82 Kevin W. Kern ’76 Eric R. ’81 & Matthew H. Kittok ’83 Edward C., Jr. ’63, William H. ’67, & Tommy J. Kurtz ’85 David B. ’77, Frederick L. ’81, & † Patrick H. LeBlanc ’74 Aaron G. Lowe ’90 Michael A. Lulich ’76 David P. Majors, Jr. ’63 George E. ’68, Phillip W. ’70, & Stephen R. Marzloff ’72 Scott E. Meric ’88

Stephen E. Metzinger ’78 Scott T. Minvielle ’73 Michael R. Moncrief ’69 George B. ’60, Robert J. ’64, Dennis J. ’74, & James G. Muller ’77 (stepfather) Joseph E., Jr. ’74 & Darryl T. Murray ’79 John B. Park ’97 J. Bruno Prager IV ’92 Joseph A. Redding, Jr. ’64 Michael D. Rihner ’78 † Ernest L. Rodrigue, Jr. ’63 Joseph F., Jr. ’76, Donald A. ’80, & Thomas M. Scamardo ’82 Rudolph R. Schmidt ’04 Thomas M. ’74 & Paul F. Steckel ’78 Paul R. Tassin ’92 T. Xavier Viteri ’80 Richard A. Tonry II ’90 Kevin F. Walsh ’67 Robert F. Wangler, Jr. ’07 Steve J. Whitfield ’63 John S. Williamson III ’77 Stuart B. Wilson ’12 MOTHER OF… Scott Andries ’83 Bruce C. Ashley II ’68 William P., Jr. ’70 & John C. Beatrous ’71 George J. Becker III ’59 Salvador R. Bernadas ’83 † Henry J. Briggs III ’65 H. Gene Cradic II ’69 Mark M. Dennis ’74 Edwin W. ’91 & Michael R. Emmer ’95 David L. ’62 & Lawrence B. Fabacher II ’65 Philip A. Facquet, Jr. ’60 Ronald L., Jr. ’79 & Gregory G. Faia ’81 Frank F. III ’62 & † Guy G. Faulstich ’67 Westley A. Favaloro, Sr. ’61 John G. Finney III ’75 Evan J. Fogg ’17 Timothy J. Graham ’77 Michael E. ’63, J. Lindhe ’72, & Christopher K. Guarisco ’76 Keith A. Harmeyer ’74 Henry Parker Hudson III ’59 † Forrest G. Kontomitras ’81 Charles J., Jr. ’64 & Edward J. Lilly ’67 Patrick T. Laine ’64 Gary S. ’79, Wayne T. ’81, & Kirk M. Lindemann ’82 Kerwin J. Lonzo ’96 Ray J. Lousteau, Jr. ’85 James B., Jr. ’89 & Craig M. Marinello ’92 Linward J. Martin III ’87

Daniel E. Mobley ’62 Eric H. Nungesser ’81 Rudolph T. III ’65, Ronald R. ’69, & J. Emile P. O’Dwyer ’78 Dennis A. Pilney ’60 John L., Jr. ’69 & Michael T. Prendergast ’75 Earl D., Jr. ’60 & Stan H. Retif ’76 Edward D. Sarrat ’94 Paul J. ’72 & Randall J. Schultz ’74 Gary M. Silva ’01 Raymond Sims, Jr. ’88 Roy A. Troendle, Jr. ’64 Paul J. Troxler ’80 Patrick H. Waring ’79 Herbert A. Wilson, Jr. ’80 BROTHER OF… † Otto H., Jr. ’33, † George J. ’36, & Robert J. Armbruster ’52 † Henry J. Barbe ’32 Jason F. Berry, Jr. ’67 Joel L. Borrello ’53 † Joseph P. Buendia ’71 † Michael A. Bruno, Jr. ’50 Manuel V. ’57 & † Bruce E. Calamari ’60 † Michael T. Cali ’73 † Thomas E. Clapp ’43 Harold P. Clement ’41 † Lawrence J. Cristina, Sr. ’34 Michael P. Farley, Jr. ’95 Wayne J. Fontana ’69 Alan M. ’73, Donald P. ’75, Stephen M. ’77, & Edward C. Gandolfi ’78 Michael E. Graham ’77 Glenn G. Griener ’68 James E. Hassinger, Jr. ’41 F. James Kenner ’55 † Lawrence V. Lebeuf, Jr. ’44 † Gary M. Leingang ’72 Frederick H. Liberto ’56 † Elliot J. Locascio ’40 † David B. Martin ’42 Joseph A. ’70 & James A. Massony ’71 Richard E. McNeely ’40 James M. Moore ’56 Donald P. ’71 & Mark S. Mouledoux ’82 Paul M. Nick ’60 Michael E. Pittman ’57 † Curtis J. Pursell, Jr. ’64 Gary J. Thomas ’81 Daniel H. Walsh ’44 † John J. Walsh ’41 SISTER OF… Leon G. Barnett ’52 Harold J. Battaglia ’57 Emile A. Bordenave ’48 Matthew J. Braud ’12

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James F. ’79 & Thomas J. Capella ’83 † Ernest A., Jr. ’33, † John F. ’37, & † Richard J. Carrere ’40 Donald E. Clogher ’87 Rene M. Crane, Jr. ’46 J. Michael ’33 & Thomas A. Early, Jr. ’50 Alexander R. ’63 & John F. Fraiche ’69 Wayne J. Gorrondona ’82 † George W. Gendron ’34 Sean R. Hannan ’12 Norman C. Hingle, Jr. ’55 † Fortune A. Jaubert III ’23 † Joseph O., Jr. ’42, Robert G. ’47, † Conrad M., Sr. ’50, & Kenneth Kuebel ’57 Alvin V. Marks ’47 Louis H. Marrero IV ’62 Anthony E. Maurin, Jr. ’50 Cecil J., Jr. ’49, James G. ’52, & William J. Murphy ’61 † Maurice B. O’Neil, Jr. ’39 † Clarence A. Paddock ’37 † Rev. J. Emile, S.J. ’45 & † Carol M. Pfister ’51 Calvin W. Phipps ’81 † Edward B. Scheib ’57 Jeffrey S. ’72, Christopher L. ’73, J. Bradford ’76, & Joseph L. St. Romain ’79 Albert L. Stewart III ’87 † Charles J., Jr. ’40, Jack L. ’41, & † Sidney G. Vigo ’49 † Andre L. Villere ’38 Edward S. Williams ’56 Elm D., Jr. ’62 & Paul T. Wood ’69 SON OF... † Anthony J. Constanza, Sr. ’41 † Russell L. Gildig ’37 † Paul A. Griener, Sr. ’37 † Edmund B. Martin (1914) Cyril F. McCarthy III ’53 George E. Mouledoux ’46 Sam M. Poole, Jr. ’55 † Dall J. Thomas III ’46 DAUGHTER OF… † Rene M. Crane, Sr. (1917) † Joseph C. Gorrondona ’43 † Louis H. Marrero III ’23 J. B. Vella ’57 GRANDFATHER OF… Jacob J. Amato III ’90 John B. Ariail III ’12 Adam Z. ’01 & Jeffrey M. Bandera ’06 Roger E. Bauer ’97 Brandon G. Beck ’16 Hans C. Bisgaard ’12 Bradley R. Boovy ’97 Kenneth C. Bordes ’00 Matthew G. ’98 & Marc A. Burmaster ’02 Ian M. ’09, Austin T. ’11, & Justin A. Cannon ’15 Michael R. Caplan ’91 (step-grandfather) David A.C. ’06 & Demetrio E.C. Castillo ’16

Peter G. ’00 & Spiro G. Catsulis ’04 Cameron J. Coker ’15 James C. ’06, Joseph A. ’09, & Robert P. Cronvich ’12 John A. Cronvich ’17 John P. Curran ’16 Jarod M. Cyprus ’15 Patrick J. Danna ’02 Patrick H. Denenea ’13 Michael R. Denton ’04 Michael C. Ellis ’17 John J. Elmer, Jr. ’03 Richard T. Gallagher III ’15 Percill J. Griffin ’88 Paul M. ’95 & Michael G. Guidry ’97 Ardley R. III ’85, Christophe L. ’88, & David T. Hanemann ’03 Nathan A. Henderson ’09 William T. ’05 & Timothy M. Hibert ’09 Ryan C. Higgins ’03 Julian S. III ’00 & William S. Hillery ’17 Nicholas J. ’12 & Philip L. Hourguettes ’17 Eric M. ’04 & Robert A. Johns ’06 (step-grandfather) Riley D. Katz ’13 Kevin E. Kavanaugh ’02 John M. Kemmerly ’16 William J. Knighten ’06 Parker S. Kornick ’02 Eric S. Kramer ’91 Christopher W. ’97 & Justin R. Kurtz ’00 Mark A. ’03 & Samuel J. LaBruyere ’04 Dustin K. Lagos ’04 Thomas J. Maestri ’05 Justin G. Massa ’97 Reed E. Meric ’17 Walter F. Metzinger III ’10 Joshua J. Mott ’02 Wesley S. Muller ’02 Andrew J. Murray ’07 Patrick D. ’10 & Elliot T. Ordoyne ’13 Christopher S. III ’98 & Michael P. O’Sullivan ’02 Joseph J. Palermo ’00 Guy J. Patron, Jr. ’16 Henry J. Pittman ’12 Tyler M. ’12 & Austin M. Prange ’15 Kerry P. Redmann III ’95 Julien S. Richards III ’08 Christopher M. Rinaldi ’07 Paul K. Roach ’16 Evan T. ’16 & Peyton C. Ruppert ’16 Marco J. Salgado ’08 Joseph F. Sansone ’12 Kurt Schultz ’95 Bradley M. Scott ’98 Chaz M. Simms ’08 Branford J. Smith ’09 James K. III ’03 & Spencer P. Sticker ’10 Lee M. ’03 & Reece D. Thomas ’05

Matthew J. Thomas ’09 Robert F. Wangler ’07 Matthew A. ’06 & Kyle S. Willard ’08 GRANDMOTHER OF… Casey P. Accardo ’94 Allen D. Acomb III ’98 Chad E. Antonatos ’09 Luis E. Balart ’13 (step-grandmother) David L., Jr. ’87, Eric H. ’91, Mark V. ’93, Kevin C. ’94, & Jon A. Beach ’95 David M. Boudreaux ’07 Levy J. Bouligny III ’83 Eric S. Bubrig ’93 Matthew J. Braud ’12 Daniel J. ’95 & Jeremy D. Burke ’97 Virgil J., Jr. ’82 & Patrick A. Byers ’83 David B. Campbell ’01 Jan D. Celino ’84 John A. Cerniglia ’05 Michael J. Cerniglia ’94 Justin K. ’95 & Jason T. Carey ’98 William L. Carpenter III ’89 Paul K. ’00, David J. ’03, & Stephen C. Colomb ’04 Paul D. Cordes III ’05 Michael P. ’00, Joshua H. ’01, & Patrick M. Cotogno ’05 Harold E. III ’02 & David W. Cradic ’04 Jarod T. Cusimano ’12 Brian R. Delatte ’96 Ara D. Dombourian ’99 Benjamin M. Duhe ’08 Peter A. Espinoza ’16 Ronald L. Faia III ’12 Frank F. Faulstich IV ’89 Salvador J. Ferro ’79 Sean M. Fiegel ’12 Stephen M. ’08, Kyle P. ’11, & John G. Finney ’11 Arthur F. ’91 & Goeffrey E. Folse ’98 Ronald J. Garland, Jr. ’90 William P. ’93 & Randall S. Gibbens, S.J. ’95 Gregory G. Glaeser ’06 Mason P. Graham ’17 Colin L. ’05 & Hall W. Guarisco ’12 Andrew R. ’03 & John C. Gulotta ’03 Nesbitt W. Hagood IV ’81 Mark E. Hartsell ’03 Adam L. Haydel ’12 Eric B. Heigle ’02 Robert I. Heltz ’02 Christopher J. Heneghan ’09 Eric T. Hunn ’94 Brandon M. Jackson ’17 Ian B. ’08 & Kyle E. Jorgensen ’10 Kyle B. ’99 & Bradley S. Kloor ’03 Michael C. Koster ’15 Michael P. ’04 & Hans N. Kuebler ’07 Zachary N. Lannes ’13 (step-grandmother)

Jonathan M.B. Lee ’11 Bruce B. Levy ’81 J. Alois ’89 & Daniel Lichtl ’92 Christopher S. Mann ’90 William M. Melito ’15 Charles N. Mentz IV ’12 James T. Molinario III ’01 John C. ’00 & Stephen J. Moscona ’04 Dickson D. Ogbomah ’16 Steven J. ’02 & Kevin M. Pinto ’04 Matthew R. Resignola ’03 John S. III ’00 & Nicholas A. Rives ’03 Michael L. ’90, Clifton P. ’90, & Chad E. Rodrigue ’93 Jonathan P. ’06 & Christopher D. Rowan ’10 † Christopher B. Rozas ’90 Joseph P. Ruli ’94 Erik S. Schroeder ’90 Bradley G. Sevin ’98 Christopher S. ’13 & Steven J. Sibley ’15 Conrad H. Skinner ’16 Richard R. ’88, Ryan L. ’93, & Kennedy O. Smith ’98 Patrick C. Staiano ’03 Scott R. Steudlein ’85 Earl A. III ’92 & D. Slade Stolz ’94 Robert L. Suggs ’90 Ryan J. Tusa ’05 Jonathan H. Vazquez ’16 Gregory E. Veech ’08 Jared D. ’10 & Joshua P. Waller ’12 Thomas P. ’81, Michael E. ’82, & Gregory J. Walsh ’89 Edwin A. Zavala ’05 GRANDSON OF… † John F. Klees ’55 GRANDDAUGHTER OF… † Anthony F. Bologna ’34 † Joseph A. Vella ’28 GREAT GRANDFATHER OF… Seth L. Mayeux ’11 Robert J. Muller ’11 Cameron M. Pelitere ’17 Anthony J. Smith ’15 Andrew E. Stahel ’11 GREAT GRANDMOTHER OF… Chase A. Adamcewicz ’17 Luis E. Balart, Jr. ’13 Joseph B. Battaglia IV ’13 Colin M. Hery ’15 Cameron F. Kaupp ’16 Hayden A. Lichtl ’17 Christopher J. Sellers ’07 Jacob E. Tingler ’17 Cullen M. Walsh ’14 Samuel J. Zelden ’15 Send information and corrections to Br. William J. Dardis, S.J. ’58: dardis@jesuitnola.org, (504) 4833814. Alumni who live outside the metro New Orleans region are especially encouraged to send information about deceased loved ones.

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THE JESUIT TEACHER TESTIMONIAL

The Simplicity of Mr. Steckel (March 31, 1917 - November 21, 2012)

James Erwin Steckel died a peaceful death last November at the age of 95. A lot of Blue Jays remember sitting in Mr. Steckel’s history or civics classes at Jesuit High School, where he taught for 27 years starting in 1952-53. Two years before his death — on the occasion of his 50th year as choir director at St. Agnes Church — Mr. Steckel was interviewed by one of his former students, Peter Finney, Jr. ’74, who is the executive editor and general manager of the Clarion Herald. “He was a great man,” said Finney, who graciously provided Jaynotes with the story he wrote for the Clarion on April 3, 2010. With appreciation to Finney and the Clarion, the “Teacher Testimonial” in this issue commemorates the extraordinary educator that Blue Jays knew in Mr. Steckel.

F

or a man who has lived a humble, straightforward and giving life, James Steckel — “Mr.” Steckel to everyone who took his history classes during his 27 years at Jesuit High School — got to the verb quickly without a lot of adjectives and adverbs.

Long before anyone dreamed of “alternative learning styles,” Mr. Steckel had a very simple teaching technique, one that today probably would earn him a trip to a teacher “re-education” camp, but which in those supposedly benighted times was highly effective.

Every day for 50 minutes, Mr. Steckel would turn his back to the class with a piece of chalk in his right hand and write, in perfect cursive, the information that we were expected to copy into our notebooks and retain.

If it was chiseled in chalk on the blackboard, it was gold. If it never made it onto Moses’ stone tablets, it was interesting but not critical.

It was as though Sgt. Joe Friday, in a light blue seersucker suit, had come to Carrollton and Banks and proclaimed to a group of sleepy-eyed teens in his flat baritone: “Just the facts, son.”

There is something reassuring and enlightening about simplicity, about fact vs. fiction, about black hat vs. white hat.

There was another side to Mr. Steckel that I never knew anything about until many years later. I realized he had a deep, resonant voice, but I had no idea he used that voice to lead the St. Agnes Church choir in Jefferson.

In fact, Mr. Steckel founded the choir in 1949 after approaching Msgr. Arthur Brue.

Mr. Steckel as pictured in the 1976 Jesuit Yearbook.

“When I went to him he was the newly assigned pastor at St. Agnes,” Mr. Steckel, now 93, recalled. “I said to him, ‘Father, I’d like to join your choir.’ He said, ‘We don’t have any — why don’t you start one?’

I told him I wasn’t a choir director, but I could sing. He said, ‘Well, you’ll do.’ So, we started a choir. He gave me every bit of cooperation I needed. I had some very competent people (Jean Hecker and Louise Labruyere) who played the organ. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Mr. Steckel was a transplant. He grew up in Milwaukee, and he loved to sing so much that he and his father Erwin sang together in their church choir. He attended the Wisconsin College of Music.

He came to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in 1937 with his stepmother, and he met Dorothy Schluter, who later would become his wife and the mother of their six children.

They were married in 1943, during the time of his Army service with the 36th Armored Infantry of the 3rd Armored Division.

For some of his duty, he was a radio operator. “In those days, the radio was not a voice radio, but we would use a telegraph key to tap out messages,” he said.

He later spent time as a clerk for a Catholic chaplain, setting up for Masses.

He landed at Omaha Beach 12 days after the D-Day invasion at Normandy. Yes, there were frightening moments, but Mr. Steckel keeps those details intentionally sparse.

“We got involved in the Battle of the Bulge,” he said. “That’s about as close as I came to getting killed.”

Years later, when Mr. Steckel got his master’s degree in history at the University of New Orleans, he studied under (the late) Dr.

Stephen Ambrose (“Dr. D-Day”).

“I learned a good deal from him,” Mr. Steckel said. “He was an excellent teacher — a bit controversial, kind of left-leaning, you might say. I questioned him about things.

But he was a very likable man.”

And Mr. Steckel, as both a pupil and a teacher, was an exacting, precise man. Until he suffered a couple of falls in January (2010), he was still singing in the St. Agnes choir. That’s 61 years of dedicated service.

“He was struggling, but he still was able to get up to the choir loft,” said choir member Tony Stoltz.

“The liturgy has always been the most important thing to me,” Mr. Steckel said.

“The faith has meant everything to me.”

St. Agnes Church will honor Mr. Steckel for his life of faith and commitment April 11 (2010) at the 9:30 a.m. Mass, followed by a reception. He plans to loosen his pipes one more time. His favorite hymn remains “Abide with Me.” “I’ll do the best I can,” Mr. Steckel said.

“I was rather surprised to hear they were going to do this. I’m very surprised and very humbled.”

At the reception, I hope there’s a blackboard — do they still make blackboards? — with a fresh piece of white chalk.

Peter Finney, Jr. ’74 can be reached at pfinney@clarionherald.org.

Blue Jays who have a story about their favorite Jesuit teacher are encouraged to submit it to Jaynotes as a “Teacher Testimonial.” Email the editor, Pierre DeGruy ’69: degruy@jesuitnola.org.

Welcome Home, Champs Jesuit’s 1946, 1960, and 2012 American Legion Teams Brought Home All the Bacon by Winning the World Series. Each Team Experienced Vastly Different Welcome Home Receptions In the summer of 2012, Jesuit’s American Legion baseball team (Retif Oil) ended a 52-year drought when it won the World Series, only the third such championship in the school’s history.

Retif Oil joined the elite company of the two previous winners: Jesuit’s Legion teams of 1946 and 1962.

In the digital age ruled by social media web sites and news bulletins arriving via iPhones and Droid devices, the airport reception for Retif Oil might have appeared to be an irrelevant and slapdash event. Certainly it stood in stark contrast to the red (or would it be blue and white?) carpet treatment given the

On September 5, 1960, Coach Kevin Trower ’52 and the Tulane Shirts, Jesuit’s Legion sponsor at the time, flew home from Hastings, NE after winning the school’s second World Series.

There was great fanfare accompanying their arrival at the airport (then known as Moisant International). Their “gleaming jetliner” stopped on the tarmac, close to where a cheering crowd of 3,000 New Orleanians had assembled to greet their baseball heroes.

A huge car parade carried the entire team to City Hall where Mayor deLesseps “Chep” Morrison presented the prestigious “key to the city” to each player and Coach Trower. The “key to the city” was an extraordinary civic honor for a bunch of high school baseball players. It was almost exclusively reserved for foreign dignitaries, assorted public officials, and celebrities rolling through town. Mayor Morrison also toasted the 1960 Legion Champs at a dinner celebration attended by several hundred supporters at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Nothing, however, could top the adulation heaped upon Jesuit’s Cinderella Legion team of 1946, the first bunch to win a World Series, “the greatest athletic honor in the history of the school,” according to The Blue Jay student newspaper. “There never was and never could be a more deserving coach and team, this one.”

The ’46 team — along with their “sensational young coach,” as The Blue Jay noted in reference to the legendary Eddie Toribio ’34 — were smothered in hundreds of congratulatory telegrams from supporters all over the world. Even the industrialist Henry Ford himself lauded the Blue Jays in a telegram. One telegram from an ardent follower advised the players to “protect yourselves against your reception home.”

And what a reception! After their World Series victory, the ’46 champs left Charleston by train, pulling into the L&N station in New Orleans the following midnight. Typically at that time, the

ANNUS MIRABILIS

Coach Joey Latino’s triumphant Blue Jays flew home on August 22, 2012, landing at Louis Armstrong International Airport late in the afternoon. As the Retif players approached the concourse security area, they smiled at the sight of family and friends who were there to pick them up. It was hardly a crowd, but more like a small welcome home party. The team broke into sheepish grins when they heard a cacophonous rendition of the Jesuit Fight Song, which was being enthusiastically sung by one, single, die-hard Blue Jay sports fanatic: Buddy Lazare ’43. Perhaps apprehensive of creating too much noise that might be construed by airport authorities as a weird security breach, supporters remained subdued, content to defer the hullabaloo to cheerleader Lazare, who, of course, did not disappoint.

1946 and 1960 Blue Jay teams following their own World Series victories.

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station was a graveyard. But on this occasion, more than 1,000 noisy supporters were waiting to welcome home the players and celebrate the victory, which was as much the city’s as it was Jesuit’s.

Supporters were pumped up no doubt by Times-Picayune sports editor William Keefe, who devoted his daily column that morning to the triumphant Blue Jays. Keefe’s flowery prose in chronicling the team’s World Series exploits was indeed flattering and gushing, almost to a point of embarrassment.

Below are edited excerpts of Keefe’s TP column: The Blue Jays of Jesuit, whose age average is under 16 with no member of the team over 17, have won the City of New Orleans more wholesome publicity than any person or group of persons have won in many, many years in the field of sports. They return home tonight and if ever returning heroes of sports activities deserve a rip-roaring welcome, they do.

In surviving this American Legion tournament, the local youngsters have finished atop the greatest sports tournament in the history of the nation — champions over 52,000 teams that saw something like 800,000 boys in competition! They battled through what looked like hopeless odds to one of the most glorious triumphs ever achieved by a group of boys.

No better testimonial to the coaching they got, and the team spirit that they had to develop can be asked for than the fact that just two of the Jays — Pat Rooney (’47) and the incomparable little Don Wetzel (’46) — made the All-Star team selected by sports writers at the tournaments. The other boys were just members of a baseball team. But what a team!

ANNUS MIRABILIS

It well can be imagined what spectators at the games in the Carolinas said when little Joe Mock (’48) came to bat; or when tiny Don Murphy (’47) went to the mound. Neither of these kids weighs more than 125 pounds, soaking wet. But they had the fearlessness in their hearts and the confidence in their team and their coach’s judgment and believed they could make good.

Thanks to their ability to play together and to their individual courage and united determination, the boys came through.

And on top of that, (Wetzel) was awarded a trophy for sowing the best sportsmanship in the tournaments! That distinction sounded a thunderous note of pride among the boys’ teachers, families, friends, and rooters here because you can’t make anybody believe that any one member of the Blue Jay team is a better sportsman than any other. The award to Wetzel was an award to the entire team.

It must have been a proud moment for the Jesuit Fathers who are in charge of the local high school, for athletic director Gernon Brown (’20), and for all the students and personnel connected with the school — that moment when the flash came that Jesuit had won. Because they at the school know, better than anyone else, what odds the boys faced. It is something for all New Orleans to be proud of, too — the showing those boys made.

The Blue Jays’ gentlemanly sportsmanship conducted on or off the field is nothing unusual. In fact, it is routine. This writer speaks as one who has traveled with various athletic

Above: Gus Riordan ’46 (left) and Pat Rooney ’47 hold the 1946 World Series trophy in this image that appeared in The New Orleans Item.

Previous page: The newest American Legion World Series Champions were joined by some of the Blue Jays who played on the 1946 and 1960 Legion World Series Championship teams. In the front row (far left) are two players from Jesuit’s 1946 Legion team: Moon Landrieu ’48 and Pat Rooney ’47. Next to Rooney are Jeff Chappuis (Jesuit’s and Retif’s baseball statistician) and assistant baseball coach Kenny Goodlett. The 1960 team is represented by (starting fifth from left): Harry Morel ’61, Charlie Grey ’62, Bubby Winters ’61, Kevin Trower ’52 (coach), David Flettrich ’62, Joe McMahon ’60, Dick Roniger ’60, and Chuck Staub ’60. Back row, from left, are the Retif Oil champions: C.J. Avrard ’14, Spencer Miller ’14, Cody Migliore ’13, Brett Leonhard ’13, Andrew Mitchell ’13, Mitch Alexander ’13, Emerson Gibbs ’12, Jesuit (and Retif) head baseball coach Joey Latino, Tony FortierBensen ’11, Matt Braud ’12, Michael Cusimano ’13, Will North ’13, Luke Voiron ’11, and Brady Williamson ’11.

teams of Jesuit; stopped at the same hotels with them. And it has been very pleasing to hear the strangers ask, in hotel lobbies or elevators: “What boys are those? They are so quiet, well behaved, and gentlemanly.”

That deportment originates at home, of course; but under their teachers at school and under the men who have coached them in sports, the natural effervescence of youth has been switched into the paths of righteousness at every crossroad.

Too much praise cannot be showered on these boys; they are among the finest ambassadors New Orleans ever sent away from home.

View Jayson’s American Legion Archives: Baseball Page on Jesuit’s Web Site.

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2012 AMERICAN LEGION WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS

RETIF OIL

WINS IT ALL Every summer in American Legion baseball, only one team wins the final game. This year that one team is the Jesuit Blue Jays of Retif Oil. Think about the accomplishment.

Nearly 100,000 young men began the summer as participants in this storied program that harkens back to 1925. More than 5,400 teams representing all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Canada, started the summer with aspirations of a successful season. But in the end only one team stood as the winners of the final game, earning the title World Champions, and that team was Retif Oil.

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By Mat Grau ’68

O

n the evening of August 21, excitement and anticipation were almost palpable as the pregame spectacle played out for the championship game of the American Legion World Series in Shelby, NC, pitting the state champions of New Jersey and Louisiana against each other.

Then came the dreaded letdown of a long 2 ½ hour rain delay. When the first pitch was finally thrown, the crowd of 11,000 fans had dwindled to maybe 1,000. But during that delay something happened to the Retif community of parents, fans, and players. It’s easy to label that something as “magical,” but for those who were there, for those who experienced it, the moment was indeed magical.

The delay began with an eerie quiet as everyone waited for the predicted rain.

Many with no allegiance to either team headed home. The PA announcer went silent, perhaps saving himself for an unknown start time. And with no music to set any sort of atmosphere, the eventual pings of rain drops on the stadium roof created their own atmosphere in the heavy night.

Then something happened. Something that had nothing to do with baseball, but had everything to do with spirit and joy and community, specifically a community of New Orleanians. Perhaps at the urging

of a few remaining fans, someone in the press box decided to hit the “play” button on the CD player. Within minutes, the Retif fans were back home on the streets of their hometown. Suddenly it was Mardi Gras or maybe Jazz Fest or maybe a big Saints game. Buddy Lazare ’43 was on his feet. Steve Slumber was working his tambourine. Br. (Billy) Dardis (S.J.) ’58 got his “wobble” on. And Tony Fortier-Bensen, Sr. found his dancing groove. Aisles became dance floors, and the players’ moms and sisters and girlfriends became the newest contestants on Dancing with the Stars. This was no place for anxiety and trepidation. At least one fan thought, “I think we are ready. I think we’re gonna do just fine.”

Finally, at 10:54 p.m. the game began. In a tournament that featured the beautiful variety of baseball games — the extra-inning win, the dramatic comeback and game-ending defensive gem, the shut-down save of a one-run win — this championship game could be seen as the epitome of what Jesuit teaches: strive to excel, support each other in the effort, and realize the connection and community that result. Certainly this was a game of excellence, for Retif ace pitcher Emerson Gibbs ’12 and for the team of Jays behind him. Want a snapshot of Gibbs’s stellar career at Jesuit?

It’s all there in that one final performance. In the nine-inning, complete game effort, Gibbs threw just 105 pitches, giving up only three hits, no walks, and no runs. He allowed his defense to shine behind him as he coaxed New Jersey into 12 ground outs and 10 fly outs. The Jays committed no errors. This was pure Emerson Gibbs — controlled, focused, and efficient.

All the run support Gibbs needed came

in the 2nd inning when Armand Daigle ’12 walked to force in Jonathan Lee ’12.

Then in the 3rd inning, Matt Robért ’12 plated Brady Williamson ’11 with a sacrifice fly to move the score to 2-0.

Robért capped the scoring at 4-0 in the 7th inning when he roped a 2-run double into left field. After escaping the 7th inning with two runners on base, Gibbs then retired the final six batters to claim the championship.

For his pitching performance in Regional and National competition, Gibbs was awarded the Bob Feller Pitching Award.

For his play and character throughout the season, he was awarded the George W. Rulon Player of the Year Award. Matt Robért was awarded the Click Cowger

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Retif earned the spot in the championship game by defeating Connecticut (5-3), Nebraska (8-7), and New Jersey (6-5), before losing to Washington (10-6).

The Jays finished the season with a 41-7 record. The 2012 Retif Oil team joins the

Photo by Cam Bumgarner (Sportpixinc.com).

Memorial RBI Award for his 16 RBIs in Regional and World Series play. On the All-Tournament Team were Luke Voiron ’11, Tony Fortier-Bensen ’11, and Emerson Gibbs.

again and again through future years.

These 18 young men will leave their teens into a life of infinite possibilities of success and failure, accomplishments and disappointments, dreams fulfilled and unrealized. There will be wives and children and grandchildren who will hear the stories, who will relive the moments with their husbands, fathers, and grandfathers.

But for this one moment these young Photo by Cam Bumgarner (Sportpixinc.com).

Left: As the last out is recorded in the championship game against New Jersey, the on-field celebration begins.

Above (top): Emerson Gibbs fields a bunt for an out during the championship game.

Above (bottom): As the team reached the concourse of the Louis Armstrong International Airport, they were met by a small group of family and fans who welcomed the champions home.

1946 Jesuit team and the 1960 Tulane Shirts as World Champions.

The post-game celebration seemed to go on and on and on. Coach Joey Latino and his 18 players soaked it all in, grabbing every glorious moment and safely tucking it away to reemerge

men are on a ball field in a town far from home in the wee hours of a day. They are standing together with their coaches, and they are bound, as they will always be bound, by this achievement. They know they have been taught and guided well.

They know they have supported each

other and played as a team. They know they have excelled.

And they know they have earned the title World Champions.

Alumni director Mat Grau ’68 can be reached at grau@jesuitnola.org.

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Underclass Swimmers Lift Blue Jays to a State Championship The following edited article about the 2012 Jesuit swim team was written for Jaynotes by senior co-captains Matt Arseneaux and Johnston Burkhardt.

A

At the 2010 state championship, our competition was tougher than ever. The entire meet depended on the final 400-relay. The pressure was on the relay team to place fourth or higher for Jesuit to take home the championship trophy. The relay team did just that by finishing third.

For the first time in the history of Jesuit swimming, the Jays won the state title by a single point, scoring 307

points to Fontainebleau’s 306.

In 2011, the state meet drew even more rigid competition. Our team was good, but the competition was extraordinary that year and the Jays lost to Catholic High of Baton Rouge by a mere 21.5 points.

Photos by Scott Threlkeld Photography.

FLYING WITH THE JAYS

t the beginning of our Jesuit swimming career as freshmen in 2009, we took for granted winning the LHSAA state meet in Sulphur every November. At the time, Jesuit’s swim teams had amassed a total of 34 state championships since 1951.

A loss was rare and seemed inconceivable. As expected in 2009, we won by a landslide.

When the 2012 swim season launched in earnest in September of our senior year, the two of us were elected co-captains. Our entire team was determined to reclaim the state title.

Jesuit’s head swim coach, Mr. Bret Hanemann ’85 and assistant coach Mr. Tré Roux ’87, called a team meeting early in the season where we affirmed our goal and purpose: capturing state again.

“Coach Bret” had returned to Jesuit full time in May 2012 to be admissions director and to teach social studies. With him working on campus again, he would be more involved in our training and be able to stay on top of our progress more easily. In fact, Coach Bret gave us a fair warning: he would be coaching “like the old days” — more practices, longer and tougher workouts, and intense strength training with weights.

One of the team’s biggest

challenges would be compensating for the loss of 14 seniors who were the core of the 2011 team. Our team would have only four seniors swimming (including us), a paltry number that in a strange way turned out to be beneficial. The new team would have to rely on underclass Jays if we were to be successful in our mission of winning state.

These young Jesuit swimmers accepted this new responsibility with pride, and their efforts showed in the results of our first meet on September 19 when we defeated the swim teams from Vandebilt Catholic High (Houma) and Brother Martin.

Our winning streak continued throughout the season, and we maintained an undefeated record.

The District-5A meet was the first of the final three competitions, and it was the most important. We were victorious. Next, in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Metro Swimming championship, we won only two events but scored points by placing fifth and higher in most of the categories. By the end of the meet, we had accumulated 468 points, more than twice as many as the runner-up team. Our win marked the 30th consecutive Metro title for Jesuit swimming.

Top: Junior Blake Robert (left) and senior Matt Arseneaux celebrate the state championship win. Bottom: The team celebrated in traditional fashion by tossing their coach, Bret Hanemann ’85, into the drink.

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These two victories were rewarding, but the biggest challenge was yet to come — the LHSAA State Championship Meet for District 1 on the weekend of November 16-17.

On the long bus ride to the SPARAquatic Center in Sulfur, the team was quietly focused. We knew who our toughest competitor would be. The same as in 2011: Catholic High.

As captains, we gathered the team together and told them that the State Championship would be won on Friday in the preliminary events, not the finals on Saturday. It was crucial for the majority of the Jesuit team to place in the top 16 if we were to score enough points to put us over the top for a victory.

We left the pool and headed to our hotel for a team dinner. We needed to rest up for what we knew was coming — an intense day of competitive swimming.

Although we had the lead, everyone on the team felt the pressure and was keenly aware of the challenges we faced the next day to simply hold on and not slip.

On Saturday, we entered the natatorium dressed in our warm-ups. When we reached our designated team area, we performed the “Blue Jay Clap” and screamed the “Blue Jay Cheer” as loud as we could.

The meet began with our same 200-medley relay swimmers from the day before. This time they finished in 1:40:65, shaving just over one second from their preliminary time and

Swimmers jump off their marks in the 400-freestyle relay, the final event of the LHSAA State Championship meet.

beating the second place team by almost two seconds.

And so it went the rest of the day as we swam with all we had to maintain that small lead gained in the preliminaries.

We came perilously close to wiping out our lead when the difference between the Jays and the second place team was a single point. But we held on.

The underclassmen on the Jesuit team swam their fastest times of the season and succeeded in their goal of scoring criticallyneeded points. Sophomore Michael Conrad placed 2nd in both the 500- and the 200-freestyle events.

Sophomore Patrick Cecola placed 4th in the 50-freestyle.

Other top finishers included senior Burkhardt’s 2nd place and sophomore Plough’s 4th place finish in the 100-backstroke; senior Matt Arseneaux’s 4th place finish in the 100-butterfly; and, in the 400-freestyle relay, a 2nd place finish for the team of Arseneaux, Cecola, Plough, and sophomore Chris Simmons.

After the final relay event in which we placed 2nd to Catholic, the judges tallied the scores. And then the announcement we were waiting to hear: Division 1, first place, with 390 points, Jesuit High School. The Catholic Bears scored 370.

Immediately after hearing the results, our team walked around the pool to congratulate the Bear swimmers on a well-swum meet, just as we had done the previous year when they won the state title.

In a celebratory dunk, the team tossed Coach Bret into the pool. He was good-natured about it. He emerged a few minutes later to dry off and give a poolside interview to a Times-Picayune and Nola.com reporter.

“We only had four seniors so it was a lot of young kids on the team,” Coach Hanemann said. “Those freshmen and sophomores stepped up and put us over the top. Catholic High is a great team. They have a lot of young kids on that team also. It’s something you’ll have to watch for in years to come with these two schools battling it out.”

The victory marked the 37th State Championship for a Jesuit swim team and we truly felt proud to be a part of this great legacy. After months of the hardest practice season we had ever endured, our goal was achieved and our dream was a reality. The 2012 Jesuit Blue Jay Swim Team reclaimed the State Championship.

— By Matt Arseneaux ’13 and Johnston Burkhardt ’13 View Jayson’s Swimming Archives: Athletics Page on Jesuit’s Web Site.

FLYING WITH THE JAYS

The race right out of the starting blocks was the 200-medley relay. Our team consisted of senior Johnston Burkhardt, juniors Blake Robert and Brett Dipuma, and sophomore Francis Plough. We swam hard; and we won in 1:41:80, thus setting the tone for the rest of the events.

The win was important because it gave the entire team confidence and increased our determination for the remainder of the preliminary events. When the prelims were over, Jesuit held the lead by some 30 points.

30 | FALL/WINTER 2012

Fast Start Leads to a Solid Season

T FLYING WITH THE JAYS

he first opponent of the 2012 football season blew through the Blue Jays and, for that matter, all the other teams in the southeast Louisiana region. With a lumbering offense and a mulish defense that proved intractable, Hurricane Isaac was an adversary that forced widespread cancellation of season openers, including Jesuit’s varsity debut, a road trip up the river to play the Tigers of Hahnville.

Under clearer skies the following week, the Blue Jays played a different team of Tigers. The 93rd meeting between Jesuit and Holy Cross at Tad Gormley Stadium was the season opener for both teams and affirmed what the Great American Rivalry is all about. A large crowd attended both a Tiger Tail/ Bird Tail Gate Party (co-hosted by both schools) and then watched as the Jays started their season with a 21-7 win.

(See The Rivalry article on opposite page.)

“Not having played prior to a big rivalry game like that, you are naturally a little concerned about your team’s readiness,” said head coach Wayde Keiser ’82, “but I was very happy with the way our young men kicked things off.”

The second game of the season, against the Archbishop Shaw Eagles on the West Bank, resembled a track meet more than it did a football game. The Blue Jays scored in the final 18 seconds to win a heartstopper, 56-49. Senior quarterback Tanner Lee completed 23 of 32 passes for 532 yards and seven touchdowns, statistics that may be a new Jesuit record.

Senior wide receiver Matt Hackney hauled in 12 of those passes for 284 yards and scored four touchdowns, including

Above: Sophomore running back Charles Jackson makes a fast break away from West Jefferson’s defense in the Blue Jays’ 31-21 victory over the Buccaneers in the first playoff round on November 10, 2012. the winning TD as time expired.

The Jays won their next two non-district games and were ready for district battle.

“Heading into district, I was happy with our offensive output, but a little worried about the points we had given up,” said Keiser, who must have been pleasantly surprised when his Jays brought home a 35-7 road win over a young Chalmette team.

The Blue Jays played their most complete and dominant game of the year against Brother Martin, knocking off its rival, 316. Senior wide receiver Mitch Alexander caught four balls for 163 yards and two touchdowns.

The winning streak ended with tough district losses to Archbishop Rummel (3817), the eventual state champions, and West Jefferson (24-17).

Still, the Jays were in the playoffs, seeded 13. Their first opponent would be the team that beat them last week — those Bucs of West Jefferson. The Jays extracted

some payback when this time they defeated West Jeff, 31-21.

The following week, Jesuit traveled 328 miles to Bossier City to play Airline in the second round of playoffs. It was a hard fought game, and the Jays’ offense was stifled. The Vikings had a 10-0 lead halfway into the fourth quarter before the Jays could score. Airline held on to their turf and won, 10-7, sending the Blue Jays home for the season.

“Knowing we played to our potential and with no regrets, I told our young men they should be very proud of their accomplishments and their season,” said Keiser of Jesuit’s 8-3 record.

The Louisiana Sports Writers Association named four senior Blue Jays as honorable mentions to the 5A All-State Football Team: quarterback Tanner Lee, wide receiver Mitch Alexander, defensive lineman Andrew Joseph, and offensive guard Patrick Tullier.

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Markey

W

Top: Quarterback Tanner Lee had a stellar senior year, completing 118 of 218 passes for 2,364 yards. He threw 25 touchdowns and only two interceptions. In a 56-49 victory over Archbishop Shaw on September 17, 2012, Lee established what may be a school record by throwing for 552 yards and seven touchdowns.

Bottom: In the opening round playoff game against West Jefferson High School, junior defensive lineman Jack Hebert (95) and senior lineman Tim Dwyer (92) corner a Buccaneer.

hen Jesuit and Holy Cross renewed its Great American Rivalry on September 7, it was an occasion to celebrate not just a football game, but also both schools’ rich history. Each year The Rivalry recognizes a Legend of the Game, a former player who significantly impacted the outcome when they were on the field. Over the course of the 92 meetings of these two perennial Catholic League rivals, no player has amassed a collection of rushing records greater than the one owned by Chris Markey ’04, Jesuit’s 2012 Legend of the Game.

A military veteran alumnus from each school was also recognized and thanked in pre-game ceremonies.

A tribute was paid to Jesuit’s 2012 honoree, Tim Huete ’76, who was recognized for his 21 years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps and his 11 years of leadership and oversight of the school’s MCJROTC program.

A special accolade was reserved for the Donnes Family — Jesuit alumni John ’45, Bert ’74, Alan ’79, and Richard ’83; and their brother, Holy Cross alumnus Stephen ’76 — for creating the Golden Football, the traveling trophy displayed for a year at whichever school’s team emerges victorious in the Rivalry game. In 2012, Jesuit retained possession of the Golden Football following a 21-7 win by the Jays.

32 | FALL/WINTER 2012

FLYING WITH THE JAYS

Hobie Signs with LSU

S

enior John “Hobie” Hotard, winner of three consecutive LHSAA individual state tennis titles and shooting for a record fourth championship in the upcoming season, accepted a scholarship to play at LSU. Hotard, who is captain of Jesuit’s 2013 varsity tennis team, has been instrumental in leading the Blue Jays to state championships in 2010, 2011, and 2012. He has won the Division I singles title three times, starting when he was a freshman and continuing through his junior year.

Hotard’s main goal is to guide the Blue Jay varsity team to a 20th state championship (since 1965). However, he also will be seeking a fourth consecutive individual state

title in May at the 2013 LHSAA tournament in Monroe.

If he is successful in winning that fourth individual title, it will mark the first such accomplishment for a male tennis player in Louisiana, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations “LSU is fortunate to have landed a top-notch high school tennis player who loves the sport and is as competitive as any athlete I have coached in my 39 years,” said Jerry Hernandez, who is Jesuit’s head coach of tennis.

“Hobie brings to the court a complete skills set as well as the uncanny ability to overcome mental and physical adversity.”

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Cross Country Team Bronzed, But Senior Blue Jay Is Golden Jesuit senior Neal Fitzpatrick makes running a 5K cross country race look as easy as 1, 2, 3. Or, from his perspective, make that 3, 2, 1.

After finishing second at the championship meet as a junior and third as a sophomore, the fleet-footed Fitzpatrick capped his final season by finishing first at the 2012 LHSAA State Cross Country event, and breaking a school record in the process. The meet was held last November at Northwestern University in Natchitoches.

“It’s an amazing way to end a five-year career,” said Fitzpatrick, still breathless as he started to cool down after the race.

Fitzpatrick polished off the 5K route in 14:54, shaving an entire second off Jesuit’s old state championship record which was set in 1984 by Marc Greco ’85. For 28 years, Greco’s record held up well, that is, until Fitzpatrick showed up in Natchitoches. Fitzpatrick’s 2012 state meet time was a whopping 32 seconds faster than his 2011 race time.

As for the cross country team’s performance at the state meet, finishing third is still a tremendous accomplishment in this country. The Blue Jays finished behind second place West Monroe and St. Paul’s, which took the gold back to Covington.

Here are the results the Jays turned in at the state meet: sophomore Matthews Vargas finished 17th (16:02); senior Andrew Pettus was 29th (16:16); sophomore Nathan Cusimano 36th (16:26); sophomore Patrick LaCour 43rd (16:33); junior Liam Fitzgerald 59th (16:46); and, senior Dustin Ward 84th (17:22).

The LHSAA’s All-Academic cross country team included senior Blue Jays Brandon Butera and Taylor Varisco.

Fitzpatrick is the second Blue Jay in three years to win an individual championship at the state meet. Philip Aucoin ’11 finished first in 2010. Fitzpatrick has plans to continue his cross country career in college.

FLYING WITH THE JAYS

“Neal is blessed with a great deal of natural ability and a work ethic that matches his God-given talent,” said cross country head coach Peter Kernion ’90. “I am so proud of his and our team’s accomplishments.”

34 | FALL/WINTER 2012

ESSAYS

ON RACE Blue Jays look back and reflect on the integration of Jesuit High School in 1962

Joseph G. Meiman ’42 Philip A. Lawless ’61 Ivan J. Miestchovich, Jr. ’66 Stephen McKenna ’74 Kevin Grant ’03

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It happened on September 4, 1962. Jesuit High School’s great chronicler of its daily life ever since taking the job of registrar in 1926, one year after graduating, John C. Paquette writes one of his innocuous entries for that day in wobbly fashion: The school is officially integrated, opening with 8 colored students.

No trouble and none anticipated.

On that Tuesday morning eight African-American students walked through the iconic Carrollton Avenue doors, heavy by years of exclusion. In doing so, these pioneers quietly dismantled a barrier that had existed during the school’s first 115 years.

Though not embellished with any fanfare, the unheralded event of that Tuesday in September 50 years ago was perhaps the most significant moment in the school’s history. Why? It is at that moment when the education and formation afforded by Jesuit High School was indeed offered to all young men of the New Orleans area. All young men. All God’s children.

N

ow from a time 50 years hence, we honor that moment by giving voice to Blue Jays who experienced Jesuit before, during, and after integration became the cause and fabric of the Civil Rights Movement. In this issue of Jaynotes, we present the essays of five Jesuit alumni.

Joseph G. Meiman ’42 takes us back to the segregated New Orleans of 1942 and, in doing so,

provides a glimpse into the psyche of a young Blue Jay. Philip A. Lawless ’61 graduated a year before Jesuit’s integration and ponders the different man he would have been had that momentous event happened sooner.

Ivan J. Miestchovich, Jr. ’66 was initially declined admission to Jesuit High School which explains the special affinity he has for the greeting “Dear Blue Jay.” Stephen McKenna ’74, who was the first African-American to graduate having lettered in Blue Jay football, brings us face to face with the ugliness and ultimate triumph of those early years at an integrated Jesuit. Kevin Grant ’03 is a young African-American alumnus who pays tribute to two great teachers in his life. You might be surprised who they are.

We hope these first-person narratives inspire more Blue Jays to share their stories. Send your Essay on Race to Jaynotes editor Pierre DeGruy ’69, degruy@jesuitnola.org, or alumni director Mat Grau ’68, grau@ jesuitnola.org. Look for more Essays on Race in the next Jaynotes.

Background image: The page from John C. Paquette’s “Principal’s Diary,” a ledger filled with his handwritten notations about various school matters, detailing the first day of integration at Jesuit High School.

36 | FALL/WINTER 2012

THE VIEW FROM 1942

BY JOSEPH G. MEIMAN ’42

T

hough I do not have enough experience and background to write an essay on race, I can give a little insight into what life was like in New Orleans 70 some odd years ago. I graduated from Jesuit in 1942. The school was smaller then. I believe there were 164 graduates in our class. I am one of 48 still living.

The summer after I graduated I worked at Riecke Cabinet Works as a truck driver’s helper. We delivered finished products, such as display cases to stores and lockers to the Navy Base in Algiers, to their final destinations. I remember delivering teachers’ desks to a new black high school due to open that fall. As I helped carry desks up two or three floors, I got to thinking that even though the law at the time said that facilities for black students should be “separate but equal,” these desks were much better than those in our high school.

During my last two years at Jesuit, I spent every Saturday delivering groceries on my bike for the local H.G. Hill store. Many of the customers lived in what was then known as a “colored district.” Some of the homes did not have electricity; coal oil (kerosene) was used for heat and light.

But I do remember those kitchens being cleaner than many of those of the

white families I delivered to. My usual pay was $2 per day. However, very few of the black customers could give tips. So, I got an extra quarter on the days I ventured into the “district.” After a 14-hour shift that day, I came home with $2.25.

In those days segregation was not only legal, but a fact of life. It is certainly different today. Writing this brief essay brought back recollections of an era long ago and nice memories of my time at Jesuit.

Joseph Meiman graduated from Jesuit in 1942. He joined the Navy and, after completing his military service, briefly attended Loyola in New Orleans. He moved to Chicago and earned a business degree from the Loyola University there. Joseph relocated to the New York City area, married (his wife, Leona, died in 2005), and worked as an office manager for two bookbinding firms, including the Benziger Company, which produced the Baltimore Catechism. Joseph retired in 1992 and enjoys family time with seven children, 19 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

A DIFFERENT PERSON

BY PHILIP A. LAWLESS ’61

T

o fully understand the impact Jesuit had for me on race issues, I think it is important to explain some of my background. I was born in 1943 in Tulsa, OK, and, except for a year with my parents in Gulfport during the war, I grew up through elementary school in the “Oil Capital of the World,” which was what everyone called Tulsa.

Now, Tulsa was perhaps one of the most segregated cities in the nation.

The boom in Tulsa’s housing industry that was created when soldiers returned home meant that neighborhoods were expanding away from the center of the city, for both white citizens and AfricanAmericans. But these segregated

neighborhoods expanded in opposite directions. White Tulsa began in the downtown area near the Arkansas River and sprawled south and east of the railroad tracks. Black Tulsa was north of the railroad tracks. As a result of the separation of the neighborhoods, I grew up unaware of race and, thankfully, the ugliness of racial prejudice.

My innocence and naivety regarding race changed somewhat when my father was transferred to New Orleans and we settled down in Gentilly. The city represented a whole different culture to our family — a huge population, curved streets (Tulsa is laid out on a north-south grid), strange new names, unique food, corner bars, and fancy restaurants. New Orleans also had more African-Americans than our family had ever seen

before. Of course, in those times, the schools — public, private, and Catholic — were segregated. So were most of its neighborhoods, a result of pressure that stems from an economic and business policy of dealing, selling, buying, and trading exclusively within one’s own race.

Only after I started Jesuit and rode the buses to and from Carrollton and Banks, did I have some exposure to African-American teenagers. Regrettably, they had to ride at the back of the bus unless there was standing-room only, something that often occurred when the Broad Street bus made pickups at the corner of Esplanade Avenue, one block from John McDonogh High School. But we never talked.

When Archbishop Joseph Rummel decided to integrate the parishes of the diocese in

1953 and its schools in 1956, there was widespread dissension among angry white parents. The reaction of some of these parents filtered down to their daughters and sons. Eventually some Blue Jays were bound to adopt and promote similar prejudicial views and beliefs in Jesuit’s classrooms.

It was, I think, the first time I had seen the intensity of feelings about race issues emerge, even while the apparent justice of the archbishop’s decision was clear. (At the time, I did not know that Bishop Waters of North Carolina had done the same for his diocese — the whole state.)

Yet, for all my new awareness of the race problem, my contact with African-Americans remained limited for years. After graduating from Jesuit, I attended a private university in Texas, where racial attitudes seemed to focus on those

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Clockwise from left: In January 1961, The Blue Jay printed its “Nonconformity issue,” using the paintings of Jackson Pollock and an excerpt from the Bishops’ statement on personal responsibility: “Uniformity of thought and supine loyalty to the organization are too often encouraged and rewarded.” A nun assists two young AfricanAmerican girls in a Catholic school classroom (circa 1962). In this 1960 photo women protest the proposed integration of Catholic schools in front of Notre Dame Seminary.

their parents. Doing so opened my eyes to my own prejudices and misgivings about race. Parish life and employment each brought opportunities to meet and make friends with African-Americans.

Sometime in the 1980s, my wife met John Hope Franklin at her place of work at Duke University.

Dr. Franklin is the author of From Slavery to Freedom, the preeminent history of the African-American race in the United States. Over time, I learned that he had also lived in Tulsa, though a few years before me. So I began to keep a closer track of his public events.

Mexican-Americans who played a major role in maintaining the grounds and plant of the university.

But these were the same attitudes I had seen displayed towards African-Americans elsewhere. The university did successfully change its charter to allow the admission of those students other than white male students, but changes did not take place until I had gone.

When I graduated, I continued my education in Durham, NC, which had a reputation as a city of balanced racial populations, despite

segregated housing at the time.

There was even a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

Time passes quickly when you look back on it. The year 1968 stands out in my memory with all aspects of the awfulness of its tragic events.

I had married and we had three daughters, all of whom attended one of those parish schools that Bishop Waters had integrated. It became easy to meet and greet the friends of my children — no matter what their races were — and to share in school projects with

When the PBS station in our area announced it would air a program narrated by Dr. Franklin about growing up in Tulsa, I made sure to watch it. Near the end of this show, there was a picture of a group of African-American students sitting on the front steps of Central High School. The image was gone in a flash, but it hit me hard. I had walked up and down those steps to take swimming lessons in the high school’s indoor pool. What I felt in that instant was that I had missed a very important part of life

by not being able to have AfricanAmerican classmates and friends while growing up.

From that point of view, I regret that integration of schools did not happen sooner, that Jesuit did not open its doors to all students until a few months after my graduation, that my university was a few years too late to give me that opportunity. I would be a different person if those things had happened, maybe better than I am now, but certainly someone who embraced diverse perspectives.

At least I had time to have several nice lunches with Dr. Franklin before he died in 2009, just the two of us, a couple of Tulsa boys sharing their different experiences.

Philip Lawless graduated from Jesuit in 1961. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from Duke University in 1974. Phil worked 35 years at RTI International, one of the world’s premier research institutes. He was a senior research physicist when he retired in 2009. He and his wife of 42 years, Margaret, live in Durham, NC, where they raised their three daughters.

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MORE THAN JUST A GAME

BY STEPHEN McKENNA ’74

I

t is the autumn of 1972 and I am the starting halfback for a Jesuit Blue Jay football team preparing to play St. Augustine High School.

And I am Black.

Both teams, as I recall, are undefeated in district play and I am the only Black on our team. The players on the Purple Knights’ team are all Black and I, coincidentally, live directly across the street from the school. My two brothers and most of our cousins attended St. Aug. Most of the friends I grew up with went there. They wear purple and gold while I wear blue and white. I am indescribably excited about playing in this game and have dreamed of the moment since before enrolling at Jesuit as a pre-freshman.

For me it was a time of great elation and tremendous contradiction. As it turned out, it was much more than simply a football game.

This particular game was so big that the school allowed a pep rally in the auditorium during regular school hours so that most of the student body would be pumped up enough to want to attend. In Jesuit tradition, the senior class was granted the privilege of putting on the show. The skits were often irreverent when it came to portrayals of our opposition, so I expected some parody. The Cavaliers of De la Salle were the “Sallies.” The Tigers of Holy Cross were the “Pussy Cats.” But what of the Purple Knights of St. Aug? In the auditorium, the classes were arranged by year with seniors in front nearest the stage. I was a junior and seated with my classmates behind the seniors. We had four Black students in a class of 157. We were not seated together; none were near me. The pep rally began with an announcement of the St. Aug fight song. Now, I’m thinking that St. Aug doesn’t have a fight song, but OK. The “Theme from Shaft” starts playing and the laughter from students begins. Then the seniors appeared, jigging and gyrating to the music as only white guys who can’t really dance can do. It was a parody of the popular TV show Soul Train. That part didn’t really bother me. I had seen lots of bad dancing at Jesuit. But what took me apart and tortured my soul was that they were in BLACK FACE! Black shoe polish and afro wigs. A mockery of not only a school, but also an entire race.

Or so it seemed to me.

Black faces, white lips, and afro wigs. It looked like a bad scene from a bad cartoon or a Stepin Fetchit movie. The auditorium erupted with howling laughter. My eyes began to well with tears of both anger and bewilderment. I looked to my right and saw one of the football coaches laughing heartily while leaning against the wall. The priest was laughing. The Marine Corps JROTC was laughing. It was a cacophony inside my head. Here were my classmates, teammates, and teachers allowing and condoning what I perceived as utter derision of my race. Do they see what I see? Do they care? I couldn’t

see any other Black students. I was alone!

How should I feel? What should I do? I remember looking up to the crucifix above the stage and asking Jesus, “Who’s side are you on?” Why me? Why am I here? Do I run onto the stage and grab the microphone?

Do I stand and scream? Do I raise my fist in protest? What? I expected a skit about a game, not a racial assault. My heart pounded and my gut wrenched. The rest of the pep rally is mostly a blur.

Mercifully the skit ended. I can’t remember who said what, but it was as though a KKK rally had just ended. Some may say that is extreme, but it was MY emotion and MY perspective. Then came the traditional playing of our Alma Mater. I knew it well from singing it as a member of the Glee Club during my first three years at Jesuit.

All stood in traditional reverence... but me. I remained seated. Students nearby asked me to stand, but I was defiant. This was all I had. This was my last stand for my own dignity. How does a 16 year-old react? How should he? So many questions. I sat until the song ended: “... Mother, Alma Mater Dear.” Bittersweet words. The pep rally was over and we were leaving the auditorium when certain students told me some nasty things such as, “If you don’t like it, you can get out of OUR school.” That is a direct quote.

“If your Daddy pays one more cent than mine does, you can HAVE your school,” was my reply. It was tense. It was awful.

That night my telephone rang. My parents called me to the phone. On the line was a teacher, Mr. John Serio. He was my eighth grade homeroom teacher, and that class was his first teaching job. Everyone respected and liked him. “Mr. Ten Prefaces” was on my phone (that’s how some of us fondly referred to him). His voice was low and sincere. He apologized for the happenings at the rally and said how sorry he was that I had to endure it. He was the only faculty member or clergy or coach that EVER apologized to me for that incident. Incidentally, he was also the first Republican I ever knowingly met (they were non-existent in my neighborhood). He saved my day, a day that changed my life.

Then came practice. I usually sat in the last seat on the team bus, not for any social statement but because I just liked leaning back on the tackling dummies. Again, the seniors had the privilege of addressing the team on the bus after the coaches left. One rose to speak. I remember him well. Let’s call him X. I will paraphrase his words but my memory is fairly accurate. “I know there’s one on the bus, but I’m going to say this anyway…”

Well, it occurred to me there are at least two of everything on a football team, but there was only one Negro. “This is more than just a football game,” X bellowed. “This is about our school, our heritage, and our race.

And if that upsets anybody here, well that’s too damn bad!”

I was enraged and responded, “X, I hope they break your &#%$ neck!”

We charged each other like young bulls, but were prevented from colliding by the distance. I was pulled out of the rear door by some teammates. The team’s head coach, John Arms, came over to me and asked what was the problem.

“Coach, I don’t think you want me to play tomorrow,” I answered. He asked me why.

“Because I want St. Aug to win.”

Coach Arms put his hand on my shoulder. He was a tall man and a former Marine with a crew cut and piercing eyes. He asked me, “Can you play the

Stephen McKenna was the starting halfback in his junior and senior years.

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A panel discussion takes place in the Jesuit Auditorium with students from Xavier High School in 1966.

Albert “Rocky” St. Pierre, Jr. (’74). So Jesuit it was, despite the fact that I lived literally across the street from St. Aug. To my parents’ credit, they allowed me to make this choice on my own.

But it almost never happened. Just before the deadline for a final decision to be made, our school had a field trip planned. I was in a car with some white classmates and one of their mothers was driving. As she backed out of the driveway, she said, “Don’t let me hit any little niggers on the way out.”

I remember the silence in the car. That same day I asked my parents if I could go to St. Aug. They raced over to the Josephites, and I was accepted.

I was 12-years-old, but I distinctly remember thinking that I would not let anyone else scare me about race or my own abilities. I changed my mind and stuck with Jesuit. game, hope we lose, but not do anything to make us lose?”

Wow! I hadn’t counted on that option. I was angry, hurt, and confused, along with a hundred other emotions. “I can play and not hurt the team,” I replied.

“Good,” he told me, adding, “You’re starting.”

And that was that.

I had mixed emotions prior to the game, but once we started playing, I was all in. I had a decent game and actually blocked a punt that rolled to the St. Aug three yard line. We fumbled two plays later (not me, thankfully).

St Aug went on to win the game — and I was conflicted. I had never been in any contest that I was satisfied with losing, but this was it. I tried my best to win, but losing didn’t hurt so badly this time. This wasn’t about me.

Maybe X was right in a twisted kind of way. This was much more than just a game.

Did my teammates know how I felt? I never told any of them, and they may be surprised to read this essay nearly 40 years later. Only the team captain, Steve Ripple ’73, expressed some sympathy to me just before the game about the rally and about X’s comments. I don’t know if he came individually or as a spokesman. His words eased some of the sting, and to this day I thank him for it.

I love Jesuit, then and now. Like any relationship, we had our good and bad days. Before joining the varsity football team, I was an honor student, the president and student conductor of the Glee Club, and captain of the junior varsity football team as a sophomore. I enjoyed intramurals with my classmates. Occasionally I would hear the “N word,” but it was no worse than what would be said about white people back in my neighborhood. I was living in two entirely different worlds.

New Orleans remained quite segregated in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Catholic schools integrated in 1962-63, and I was in that first wave. I was taken from Corpus Christie Parish, which was all Black, to St. Leo the Great Parish, which had previously been all white. I was in second grade when we moved. The first game I learned was “nigger touch” on the first day of school. It was basically a game of tag, but instead of being “it” or “the bogeyman,” you were the “nigger.” The nun stopped the game before my mother picked me up. It was a fun game because I had no idea I was the nigger. But I learned.

Many racial incidents ensued from then on. A nun once told me that I was “a credit to my race” because I could play a piano. Classmates told me they could no longer walk part of the way home with “my kind” because of their parents’ wishes. But when it came time to pick a high school, the choice came down to Jesuit vs. St. Augustine (seems like a recurring theme).

The smart boys in my grammar school wanted to go to Jesuit. My best friend, Peter Finney, Jr. (’74), was going. So were Brian Behlar (’74) and

Living in my neighborhood and going to Jesuit was no picnic. I got it from both ends. I was a “nigger” at school and a “white boy” when I got home.

Walking home through the 7th Ward with a big Jesuit school bag containing Latin and chemistry books was, let’s just say, challenging. Prejudices ran deeply through both communities. I suppose there had to be a first wave. I was no hero. It was just my time.

Oddly enough, during my senior year I was asked to help recruit Black students by going to local grammar schools and speaking to the students. I had become a Blue Jay ambassador. Jesuit’s principal at the time, Mr. Mike Power would accompany me. I once said to a young boy, “Jesuit may not have everything you want, but it has everything you need.” I recall Mr. Power using that line a few times afterward and I was very proud.

Jesuit did give me everything I needed. Mr. Harold Roy taught me to love music. Coach Arms taught me to persevere. Coaches Billy Murphy and Buck Fox taught me discipline and temper control, as did Coach Milton Gaudet. Mr. Jim Steckel let me explore history. Fr. (E.J.) Jacques taught me to tolerate math, and Fr. (Peter) Bayhi (S.J. ’53) did the same with Latin. Mr. Charlie McGannon taught literature. Mr. Willie Brown (’29) taught chemistry. Mr. Harry Clark (’59) taught physics. And Mr. Serio read and taught us Shakespeare and so much more. It was truly a New Orleans gumbo experience — a little bit of everything. But that’s what made it “Oh, so good.”

To my dear classmates of whom there are too many to name, I thank you for all you allowed me to be. The Jesuits came to my parents’ funerals.

There are Black teachers and coaches now, and many more young Black men have passed through Carrollton and Banks since I graduated in 1974.

I was the only Black on the football team for two years until a tight end and kicker named Marc Morial (’76) joined.

I thank the African-American students who graduated from Jesuit before me: Ted (’70) and Marlin (’73) Gusman; Ron (’70) and Gary (’72) Mason; Edgar “Dooky” Chase (’67); and, Blaine LeCesne (’73) for giving me a sense of community and perspective.

Thank you to Mr. John Harry, who quietly protected me. May he rest in peace.

So this is my story, my perspective. Some of the details may be missing, but the message is still the same: Lead, oh lead us on to victory, Mother, Alma Mater Dear.

Stephen McKenna graduated from Jesuit in 1974. He earned his medical degree from the Howard University College of Medicine in 1982 and is currently a surgeon specializing in gastric bypass and weight loss procedures. Stephen has a private practice in Frederick, MD.

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THE ALMOST BLUE JAY

BY IVAN J. MIESTCHOVICH, JR. ’66

A

s an incoming freshman in the fall of 1962, the excitement, satisfaction, and reality of being a Jesuit Blue Jay largely overshadowed the fact that the school was being integrated. No doubt, the arrival scene that first day was a little different than what would become the norm over the next four years. However, on this first day, it was hard to miss policemen strategically and prominently stationed around the block. Of course, news reporters and their film crews were ever-present and also strategically positioned to document Jesuit’s first black students arriving at the campus and entering the building.

If memory serves me correctly, the new students’ arrival and entry into the school occurred without incident. The historic significance of what was happening concurrent with our first day as Jesuit Blue Jays was probably overlooked by most of us. I know it was for me. This was my first day of high school, and not just any high school. This was Jesuit High School.

As incoming freshmen, we would ultimately represent the Class of 1966. There was excitement and there was trepidation, and both largely overshadowed the circumstances swirling around us as Jesuit welcomed eight young black men as part of its incoming freshmen class.

For many of us, the whole episode was greeted with a shrug of indifference. For those who grew up in New Orleans, black people were not a rarity but very much a part of the fabric of our community. From the city’s beginnings, black and white folks learned to live, work, and, when necessary, fight together to build, grow, and defend New Orleans. In many cases, there were strong family and personal ties between the races. And for many of us these relationships and interactions helped to shape us through our early childhood as we learned from those who worked in our families as care-givers and in various jobs throughout our neighborhoods. So it was not as if having young black men as classmates was akin to having to interact with some extraterrestrial beings. They were from New Orleans just as we

were, so their entry into the Jesuit community, although newsworthy in the short run, fast became the accepted norm.

Admission of black students into Jesuit High School was not only totally consistent with the philosophy, theology, and culture of the Society of Jesus, but also it was very providential for me personally, the “Almost Blue Jay.” Initially, I had received the much-dreaded “Dear Friend” letter notifying me that I had not been accepted for admission. This was a devastating blow and it cut me deeply. I had prepared diligently for the much feared entrance exam. I took special classes and studied lots of material as suggested by my tutors. Moreover, my grammar school, St. Pius X, was essentially a feeder for Jesuit, typically sending 80-90% of the boys’ graduating class to the corner of Carrollton and Banks. Not being in that number was a difficult pill to swallow. But after the shock had worn off a little, I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably be entering another boys’ Catholic high school in the fall.

Unknown to me, however, events were unfolding behind the scenes over which I had no control.

My eighth grade teacher, Mr. Johnson, who helped me prepare for the entrance exam, was not satisfied that I had not been accepted. To this day, I do not know why he took such a personal interest in my particular situation.

And given the trouble I would create for him in class sometimes, I should have had no reason to expect him to take such a personal interest.

But he did, and for that I am forever thankful.

Mr. Johnson took the initiative and called the Admissions Office. What he discovered became a glimmer of hope for this “Almost Blue Jay.” According to Admissions, I was first on the waiting list and would become a Blue Jay if someone else who had been accepted decided not to attend Jesuit. That little ray of hope was all that I needed. Mr. Johnson advised me to “sit tight and pray” and that is what I did. In fact, up to that point in my life, I can think of nothing for which I so diligently prayed. As I

look back on my experience, I can see how God used this as an important teaching moment for me to focus on patience and trust. To this day I am not sure which was the more challenging lesson. But the Lord, in His own unique way, prevailed on my behalf. He demonstrated that He is in the business of answering prayers, even if He uses somewhat unconventional methods and motivations.

What He did as far as I was concerned ranked up there with the parting of the Red Sea and feeding the 5,000. It was big! But in my case, instead of Moses’s staff or a young boy’s few fish and barley loaves, He used the admission of black students to Jesuit and the bigotry of a father to open the door for this “Almost Blue Jay.” One of my St. Pius X classmates who was accepted into Jesuit — and was eager to become a Blue Jay — was denied that opportunity by his father. It had nothing to do with Jesuit’s tuition because my classmate’s father was well-endowed financially. It had nothing to do with Jesuit being academically inferior, because he knew very well that his son would receive an exceptional education. No, his reason was more basic: Jesuit was admitting blacks and he would not allow his son to attend any school that opened its doors to anyone other than someone who was white.

How unfortunate this was for my classmate as well as his father, a parent who allowed racism to trump his own common sense and truncate a superior educational opportunity for his son.

The closing of one door for my classmate opened a new one for me. I at last received my coveted “Dear Blue Jay” letter informing me that I had been accepted at Jesuit and that I would be welcomed along with the rest of the incoming 1962 freshman class. To say that I was a happy young man would be a gross understatement. I do not remember what I did to celebrate, but I did thank Mr. Johnson for his help, perseverance, and encouragement. And, I thanked the Lord profusely for answering my prayers.

These circumstances unfolded almost 50 years

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ago, which for some may sound like ancient history. However, as I survey these five decades with the benefit of the historical rear view mirror, I realize that my life would have been different in so many ways had I remained an “Almost Blue Jay.” Who could have predicted that the odd confluence of racial integration and the racist attitude of a myopic parent would create an opening of opportunity for this Blue Jay? Certainly not me, that’s for sure. But as they say, “the rest is history.” Or more appropriately, it is “His Story.” A.M.D.G. Ivan Miestchovich, Jr. graduated from Jesuit in 1966. He has a PhD and is an associate professor of finance at the University of New Orleans where he is director of the Real Estate Market Data Center and Center for Economic Development. Ivan and his wife, Peggy, have been married 42 years and have two daughters. The family lives on the Northshore.

During the 75 years that Mr. John Paquette served as Jesuit’s registrar, he maintained the “Principal’s Diary,” which consisted of thousands of entries. His handwritten notes on Tuesday, September 4, 1962 include: “Meeting of all teachers in St. Ignatius Hall at 11:15 a.m. The school is officially integrated, opening with 8 colored students. No trouble and none anticipated.”

The next day’s Times-Picayune carried a front page article headlined: “White, Negro Pupils Attend Catholic Schools Together.” Buried deep in the story was a reference to Jesuit: “… a policeman at the scene reported three Negroes attended.” The paper was off by five.

TWO GREAT TEACHERS

BY KEVIN GRANT ’03

M

y time at Jesuit was unforgettable. It was life-altering, to say the least. The constant influx of alumni speakers who were making their marks in the world was proof that the Jesuit formula worked. I remember at times feeling distant because the majority of the speakers did not look like me. Looking around at assembly, there was a sea of white faces.

It was not unusual for relatives, friends, and neighbors (even strangers) to ask me: “Was Jesuit racist?” And I would always respond, “No.” Because Jesuit was more than just a school; it was an idea. However, I knew what the aim of the question was.

Did I ever overhear racist comments or questionable name-calling or other discriminatory things? Of course I did, but my mother taught my siblings and me well. She taught us to hold each individual accountable for what he or she did, and allow room for forgiveness, all the while remaining dignified and honorable. (My mother is an advocate for raising gentlemen.)

Jesuit, too, drove home this point. So I understood this was the world, that there would be people who did not like me based solely on my ethnicity. I was a minority in school as well as in life. However, the teachers could not teach the others without teaching me. So being a minority had no bearing in the halls of Jesuit with regard to the administration.

However, when school was over and I returned to my neighborhood — where I was in the majority — I still remained a minority because of the school I attended. Attending Jesuit was not the most popular choice in

my neighborhood. I was called a “sellout” and also labeled an “Oreo, not real.” I rode the RTA bus home, and while there were times I had no problems, many times I did. The Blue Jay patch on my shoulder and my Jesuit bag filled with books made me a frequent target. Constant ridicule created an identity crisis of my being black enough.

But something happened. Amidst the teenage angst I was experiencing, I had the realization that there was a disparity between pretending and being.

My identity was more about who I was, not who I pretended to be for acceptance. I remember saying something to the effect of: “When I walk down the street, people do not say, ‘Hey that’s a good looking guy with a lot of melanin.’ Rather, that’s a handsome Black guy.’”

I’m Black. There is no getting around it. By that fact alone, it does not get any “realer” than that.

My Jesuit experience influenced my diction, as well as my interests. Jesuit, in conjunction with my mother, taught me that I was great and that I could stand tall with confidence with any scholar or layperson as his or her equal.

We are all better versions of ourselves, constantly evolving and growing.

Race, class, and status are just details in the fabric. Jesuit enhanced my academic aptitude. But more importantly, it cemented my life aptitude and never once made me question my importance to the world and to my fellow man, just as I am. This gives me hope in everything, because everything I do ultimately is A.M.D.G. — for the greater glory of God. Kevin Grant graduated from Jesuit in 2003. He is a writer working and living in Los Angeles, CA. His family still lives in New Orleans.

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PRINCIPAL'S CORNER

realize that all things are filled with an “invitation” to find God there.

Faculty Retreat at Manresa Yields an Abundance of Self-Reflection

Of course, much of what Fr. Meconi discussed could be related to our roles here at Jesuit; and, hopefully, for the good of our students and each other, we took to heart what Fr. Meconi offered in the way of spiritual wisdom.

Every other year in mid to late January, the faculty and staff of Jesuit High School attend a two-day retreat at Manresa House of Retreats in Convent. All faculty members are expected to attend, and staff members are also invited. All have the option to stay overnight and several dozen normally do.

In reflecting on the nature of God, Fr. Meconi stated that God can only be understood as He relates to the Son and Holy Spirit. God is all about His relationship with the other two Persons of the Trinity, and none of the three Persons can be understood outside the relationship with the other two Persons. Thus, Christianity is more about relationship than religion. Christianity is not about following rules and earning God’s love. God’s love cannot be earned by doing good things and following the rules — although many of us would like to think we can “earn it” because it gives us control. God doesn’t love us because we are loveable, but because God is love.

The retreats of Manresa are silent (including meals), and this expectation allows us to derive the most out of our time without battling the noises and distractions of everyday life. The natural beauty of Manresa is also more evident in the silence, and the quiet works wonders on the mind and spirit as we are more open to the guidance of the retreat director.

The beauty of Manresa and the ideal weather certainly contributed to us having a great retreat, but the highlight was the retreat director himself, Fr. David Meconi, S.J., a Jesuit priest from the ChicagoDetroit province who currently works at St. Louis University. Interspersed among time for personal reflection, prayer, reading, and strolling the grounds were six talks delivered by Fr. Meconi. These talks provided spiritual guidance and inspiration, and the topic of every talk had its foundation in the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.

Fr. Meconi’s talks covered many spiritual topics, but his major themes related to the nature of God and reality itself, our human nature, and what stands in our way of being true to our nature.

Father also challenged misconceptions about how some people view God. God’s love for each of us must simply be acknowledged and allowed to work in our lives. God has the same love for us as He has for Jesus, and He wants us to embrace Him as His own sons and daughters, not as slaves or soldiers — although, of course, He will not turn us away if we possess those views that fall short of our true relationship to Him. God is not a policeman sitting on a throne “up there in heaven” as He looks down on us and “grades” us throughout the course of our days as either following the rules — good — or not following the rules — bad. Instead, God is love itself; and all creation is an expression of the outpouring of God’s love. A major tenet of the Society of Jesus is “finding God in all things”; and since we do believe that all things are really “in God,” it is important for us to

Father asked us to reflect on whether we truly live our lives so that other people can find God in us. We believe that we are created in the image of God, and if God can only be understood in terms of His relationships, our human nature is also tied into living our lives and believing that our relationships are of primary importance. None of us is selfmade. Each of us is made for and from relationships. Is each of us a “safe place” in which our students and colleagues may take refuge when they need us? If Christ is the vine, and we are the branches, do we allow Christ to work through us? Do we go through our day and interact with students and colleagues not “for” Christ, or “with” Christ, but “as” Christ? To do anything less is to deny our very nature.

To do anything less diminishes the power of our Christian faith to transform lives — our own and each other’s.

Of course, none of us is perfect; and we can never be so in this life. Our sinful nature frequently stands in the way of us living the life as God wills for each of us.

Fr. Meconi spent much time talking about two of the seven deadly sins; namely, pride and sloth. Pride is often viewed as the worst of the seven deadly sins because it shackles the prideful person to himself and makes him unconcerned about what is good for the “other.” For the person falling victim to pride, it is not about “relationships” at all, but about “me.”

Moreover, Father presented us with a different view of sloth. Contrary to sloth being synonymous with laziness, Father offered the view that sloth is about being so busy that there is very little or no time at all for God. This deadly sin is especially prevalent in the “busyness” of our 24/7/365 technological age in which we are all so completely connected to each other and, at the same time, so utterly disconnected from one another. Father challenged each of us to be mystics in our own way; namely, to make time for daily prayer and reflection and to stay connected to the source of our only true power — God’s love and forgiveness — always flowing to us and through us to one another. A.M.D.G.

Michael Giambelluca ’82 Principal

Class of 2013 Produces 26 National Merit Semifinalists The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) recognized 26 seniors from Jesuit High School’s Class of 2013 as semifinalists in the annual Merit Scholarship Competition. An additional 20 seniors received recognition as “Commended” scholars. The NMSC recognizes academically talented students throughout the United States and conducts nationwide academic scholarship programs.

only one monetary award from the NMSC.

Two seniors — Ernest Philip Legier III and Michael Anthony Sinegar, Jr. (who was also named as a National Merit Semifinalist) — were recognized by The National Achievement Scholarship Program, an academic competition established in 1964 to acknowledge outstanding African American high school students.

African American students can qualify for recognition and be honored as Semifinalists or Finalists in both the National Merit program and the National Achievement Program, but can receive

The “Commended” seniors in the National Merit program are: Evan J. Bailey, Luis E. Balart, Jr., Joseph M. Barletta, Jared C. Blohowiak, Grant M. Candies, Michael R. Cusimano, Patrick H. Denenea, Patrick T. Duckworth, Rene R. Duplantier, Jack M. Ferro, Robert M. Guidry, Zachary N. Lannes, Alexander K. K. Lee, Jonathan M. Llovet, Bradley J. Powers, Preston B. Reisig, Ian K. Rohr, Nicholas J. Rosato, Jr., Taylor J. Varisco, and Jeremy M. Vezina.

One Jesuit senior, Zachary N. Lannes, was recognized by The National Hispanic Recognition Program. Established in 1983 by the College Board, this program provides national recognition for Hispanic students based on their PSAT scores and identifies them for post secondary institutions.

(Front row, from left): Jimmy J. Brown; Johnston J. Burkhardt; Andrew J. Burmaster; Brandon J. Butera; Seth S. Chauhan; Joseph T. Crapanzano III; Zachary A. Creel. (Second row): John J. D’Angelo; William L. Emmett; Peyton L. Fine; Benjamin T. Guerra; Carl E. Hellmers IV; Joseph F. Kepper. (Third row): Lucas C. Lavoie; Dominic J. Lloyd; Brandon K. Manganello; Ryan D. Mouton; Andrew A. Pettus; James R. Sampognaro; Gordon C. Schmidt. (Back row): Nicholas D. Simon; Michael A. Sinegar, Jr. (who is also a National Achivement Semifinalist); Christopher P. Stephens; Matt J. Tillery; Larry D. Wink, Jr.; Matthew J. Wolff; Zachary N. Lannes (who is a National Hispanic Scholar); and, Ernest P. Legier III (who is a National Achievement Semifinalist).

A Dozen New and Returning Faculty Members for the 2012 - 2013 School Year Jesuit High School welcomed ten new and two returning faculty and administration members for the 2012 – 2013 school year. Seated from left are Mr. Jon Malax (Spanish). Mr. Scott Delatte ’06 (theology), Mr. Jason LaLonde, S.J. (Latin, English), Fr. John Brown, S.J. (theology, campus ministry), Ms. Deika Bustamante (Spanish), and Mr. Rob Weiss ’87 (math, social studies); standing from left are Mr. Michael Begg (English, social studies), Mr. Jeff Darling (chemistry, physical science), Mr. Bret Hanemann ’85 (director of admissions, social studies, and head coach of swimming), Mr. Peter Muller ’81 (science), Mr. Darryl Roule (math, assistant football coach), and Mr. Christopher Bowes ’02 (English, computer science). Hanemann and Weiss are returning for their second stint at Carrollton and Banks.

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2012 MOTHERS' COFFEE & MOTHER-SON MASS & BREAKFAST

MOTHERS MATTER

Mothers of Blue Jays could not ask for more perfect weather for their annual “Coffee.” On a cool, breezy, and sunny Wednesday in late October, more than 200 Jesuit mothers filled the beautiful and spacious Kenner home of Sam and Jackie-Sue Scelfo for this eagerly anticipated event. The Mothers’ Coffee traditionally serves as a “meet and greet” event whereby veteran Blue Jay moms welcome new ones into the Jesuit family. The Scelfos have a trio of Blue Jays: Vincent ’06, Dominick ’10, and Antonio ’13.

The following Sunday, Jesuit mothers — this time with their sons — gathered for the annual Mass and Breakfast, which this year featured an innovative twist. The event was bifurcated with

Top left: Fr. Frank Reale, S.J. celebrates Mass at Immaculate Conception Church on Baronne Street.

Top right: Pre-freshman Randy Carter with his mother Sandy; senior Larry Wink with his mother Mary Jo; seniors Quinn and Michael Fitzpatrick with their mother Jane; and, senior Etienne Balart with his mother Louise Hogan.

Right: At the Mothers’ Coffee, this group of Blue Jay moms found shade to meet and greet. Seated from left: Chan Lee, Sara Price, Doris Belleau, Debbie Guidry, Angelé Guient, and Lea Quigley. Standing from left: Debbie Baudouin, Mary Naquin, and Celeste Arseneaux.

morning Mass celebrated at Immaculate Conception Church on Baronne Street (the Jesuit church). Afterwards, Blue Jays strolled across the street to enjoy breakfast at the Roosevelt Hotel.

The sentimental tradition for Blue Jays to wax philosophical about their mothers — who are always surprised and stunned by what they hear — fell this year to seniors Joshua DeBlieux and Jonathan Llovet. Needless to say, there were a few tears smudged onto the jackets of these Jays when they returned to their tables.

View additional pictures of these popular events on the Parents’ Events Photos page of Jesuit’s web site.

House Tours

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A Pair of Admissions Events Are Important Recruiting Tools in a Competitive Market

Open House Hundreds of prospective Blue Jays and their families discovered Jesuit at the annual Open House on Wednesday, November 7, 2012.

Families gathered in the auditorium where they were treated to live music performed by the Blue Jay Jazz Band.

Guests listened to brief presentations by the president, principal, students, and parents.

Student tour guides led small groups through the school and explained academics, athletics, co-curriculars, other aspects of student life at Jesuit. Alumni helped usher the groups through historic hallways and various classrooms. Guests visited the Student Commons, the Jesuit gym, and the adjacent Roussel Building, where the many clubs and organizations had set up displays.

The tour ended with refreshments and an option to take a limo bus ride over to John Ryan Stadium, Jesuit’s new multisport athletic facility located just five minutes from campus.

Blue & White Friday Night The fifth annual Blue & White Friday night on October 26, 2012 was the magnet that attracted 600 boys from elementary schools to Carrollton and Banks where they experienced Jesuit in a unique, casual sort of way.

As guests of honor, the boys mingled with current Blue Jays, who unfailingly bestowed the appropriate royal blue and white treatment during two fast-paced hours. The entertainment was supplied

by Jesuit’s Cheerleaders, the Jayettes, the comedians in the Philelectic Society’s Improv group, and the talented musicians in the Blue Jay Marching Band. And, of course, it would not be an actionpacked event without the participation of Jesuit’s sports teams. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the athletes’ performances and demonstrations in football, basketball, soccer, and wrestling.

Above: At Open House, seniors Earl Johnson (left) and Brandon Butera describe their experiences as Blue Jays.

Jesuit Welcomes Familiar Face as New Admissions Director Bret Hanemann ’85 is Jesuit’s new admissions director. He succeeds Jack Truxillo ’73, who is now an associate superintendent in the Office of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Truxillo served as Jesuit’s admissions director for the past seven years. In his new role, Hanemann oversees the admissions process, from representing Jesuit before audiences of prospective students and their parents to making decisions to assimilating the new Blue Jays into the student body. Hanemann teaches a social studies class and will continue to be head coach of the Jesuit swim team.

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MAKING JESUIT SPECIAL: Parents and PAG

BY BRIAN NORTH ’83 Chairman of the 2012-13 Parents’ Annual Giving Drive

Jesuit’s student body remains as diverse as ever with students coming from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, traveling to Carrollton and Banks from some 50 zip codes within the community. This diversity is what is referred to as “the education within the education.” It is what makes Jesuit special.

T JESUIT TODAY

he Parents’ Annual Giving Drive (PAG) is one of the critical fundraising efforts that Jesuit High School undertakes each year to help ensure that tuition remains affordable.

Keeping tuition affordable is key to the mission of making a Jesuit education accessible to a larger and more diverse group of students.

In the early 1970s, Fr. Paul Schott, S.J., Jesuit High School’s 11th president, recognized that the cost of tuition was not keeping pace with the rising costs to educate Blue Jays. He understood back then that if Jesuit charged full-cost tuition, many students would be unable to attend Jesuit because its tuition would be unaffordable. The composition of the student

body would be drastically altered, and Jesuit would be a much different school.

To address these concerns about tuition, Jesuit conducted its first PAG Drive in 1975. Each year since then, the parents of current students have been asked to make a voluntary, tax deductible contribution to Jesuit High School to make up the difference between what the school charges for tuition ($7,700 for the 2012-13 year) and what it actually costs to educate each Blue Jay ($10,273). The difference of $2,573 is this year’s “gap.”

The PAG drive is essential to the well-being of Jesuit High School; therefore, it is important to address any misconceptions that

a tiny fraction of parents might harbor about “where their money goes.” PAG donations are treated by Jesuit as operating income and are used to help the school defray its operating expenses. Donations are not used as financial aid or as a supplement of another student’s tuition whose family cannot afford to pay a partial, much less the full amount.

It is oft repeated that Jesuit has never refused admission to a student who has been accepted simply because his family was unable to afford the tuition. Jesuit has a financial aid program, funded by the school’s endowment, to assist families with meeting their tuition obligations. During the 2011-12 school year

— and courtesy of Jesuit’s endowment — more than $525,000 was provided to families who had sought financial aid. (Information about applying for financial aid is posted on the Admissions page of Jesuit’s web site.)

The overwhelming majority of Jesuit parents understands why the school needs a PAG drive, and they support it to the best of their abilities. Let it be said that Jesuit parents are in sync and respond consistently and generously.

It is no different this year — parents have pledged more than $1,100,000 to the fiscal year 2013 drive (July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013).

As a result of their munificence, Jesuit’s tuition remains one of the lowest

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Top left: Following Mass, volunteers Judy Abadin, Ginga Cousins, Judy Simonson, Sophie Simonson, and Breni Crabtree helped to serve a light breakfast in the Student Commons.

Top right: Sophomores Scott Crabtee, Alex Galy, and Blake Eichhorn; pre-freshman Todd Crabtree; and sophomore Andrew Amedee.

Bottom: Pre-freshman Reed Meric with his parents, Scott ’88 and Stephanie Meric; sophomore Patrick Rappold and his mother Maxine Rappold.

As chairman of the current drive, I had the privilege

of addressing Blue Jays at a morning assembly prior to PAG Sunday, which was September 16. I briefly explained the importance of the PAG drive and encouraged these future Jesuit alumni to go home that day and thank their parents for the financial sacrifices they endure that allow them the privilege of attending this fine institution.

I also asked the students to reflect on a few open-ended questions: How many of you might not have come to Jesuit had the tuition been unaffordable?

How many of your classmates might have chosen another school if Jesuit’s tuition was unaffordable?

Of the thousands of alumni that have walked these halls before you, how many would have attended another school if Jesuit’s tuition was unaffordable?

No one will ever know the true answers to those questions. But I think it is safe to assume that several current students (not to mention many, many alumni) would have missed the opportunity to be Blue Jays had Jesuit charged fullcost tuition.

Thanks to the vision of Fr. Schott, the leadership of his four successors — and the generosity of Jesuit parents through their participation in the PAG drive — Jesuit High School is strongly positioned to continue offering an outstanding educational experience to a diverse student body at a reasonably affordable cost.

A.M.D.G. —Brian North ’83 Chairman of Jesuit’s 2012-13 PAG Drive Brian and Sueann North are the parents of Will North ’13.

JESUIT TODAY

of all Catholic and private high schools in the New Orleans area. Among the more than 50 Jesuit high schools in the country that charge tuition, Jesuit ranks as one of the least expensive.

Jesuit’s student body remains as diverse as ever with students coming from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, traveling to Carrollton and Banks from some 50 zip codes within the community. This diversity is what is referred to as “the education within the education.” It is what makes Jesuit special.

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A Jesuit High School Tradition

Thanksgiving

Senior Andrew Burmaster, junior Rahul Mirpuri, and seniors Trevor Coker and Ryan Mouton carry Thanksgiving baskets to their cars for delivery to families all across the city.

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g Drive One strength of Jesuit High School is the sense of community it engenders. No day reflects that sense of community more than the day before Thanksgiving. Guided by service projects director Helen Swan, students, teachers, alumni, and parents worked side by side on November 21 for one purpose: to give of themselves to enrich the lives of those less fortunate. At the prayer service that morning, senior Zac Creel and campus ministry director Jeremy Reuther ’01 reminded the community why we do this: A.M.D.G.

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“Saying thank you is the gift that we give back to someone when we have nothing to give but our hearts. This is the reason why saying thank you can be often times underestimated, because we feel like we’ve got nothing left to give... So sometimes we can neglect it. But this is precisely the time when we give thanks — when we have nothing to give back but our hearts. But, on the other hand, this is also the reason why it means so much when we receive it.”

–From the address by faculty member Jeremy Reuther ’01 at the Thanksgiving prayer service.

An excerpt of the address by senior Zac Creel at this year’s Thanksgiving prayer service:

“G

iving is good. It’s a reality. Here at Jesuit, we are taught many things, many times a day on every day of the week. If it isn’t math, it’s science. If it isn’t science, it’s English. If it isn’t even a classroom subject, it’s how to be a better person, the person whom we were created to be.

I would say that foremost among these things, far more important than any theorem or law, algorithm or article is the idea of being a Man for Others.

From the very beginning of our Jesuit careers, it is driven into our hearts and minds. It is one of the very cores of our Jesuit identity, which defines who we are and what we stand for. We work day in and day out to develop this value as

a part of our character. But it is on this day in particular that we exercise our motto in full force. Once we finish this assembly, a veritable fleet of cars and trucks will drive to every corner of our New Orleans community to deliver baskets of goods to families in need of them.

Before many of you embark on your odyssey, I would like to remind you of last week’s Gospel. In it, various rich members of the community are putting alms into a box for the poor. After each makes his vast showy contribution, a poor old woman hobbles up to the box. She drops in two small coins...

Her contribution looks small compared to those made by the richer man and, indeed, there’s no doubt that it is.

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Opposite page, far left: Alumni empty a truck of perishable and canned foods destined for the 400-plus baskets being assembled in the cafeteria on Tuesday, November 20. Middle: The following Wednesday morning, November 21, seniors Jack Culotta, Dylan Redmann, and Parker Schmidt shop the fruit and vegetable aisle of Robért Fresh Market, which opens its Robert E. Lee store at 5 a.m. for Blue Jays seeking groceries for their homeroom baskets.

Above: As director of service projects, Mrs. Helen Swan coordinates the Thanksgiving Drive. At the Prayer Service in the Chapel of the North American Martyrs, she reminds Blue Jays of the importance of their work delivering baskets. Left: Senior Zac Creel was selected to address his classmates and fellow Blue Jays about the significance of Jesuit’s annual drive.

“It is this giving from the heart that is the key element of being a Man for Others, a true Christian.”

– Senior Zac Creel In fact, the two small coins probably wouldn’t go so far towards helping the poor anyway. Nevertheless, as Jesus points out, it is this old lady who has contributed the most.

For she has contributed from her own livelihood, not from her surplus wealth like the others had.

In other words, she has given until it hurts. And giving is good. It is this giving from the heart that is the key element of being a Man for Others, a true Christian.

I would hazard that very few of us here today have actually

given from our very own livelihood... Most of us, myself included, handed a list of goods to our parents and said, ‘Hey, would you mind getting this and that from the store?

Thanks.’

And this is okay. That was the extent of our giving but that’s okay. Giving a little is better than giving nothing because giving just anything is good.

Jesus did not condemn the men who gave only from their surplus. They were trying to be good people of God. However, giving goods is about more than giving only material

wealth, it is about giving spiritual wealth as well. Giving a little for the love of another man is worth far more than giving a lot just because your homeroom teacher told you had to… The reason we give is that another person needs our help and, as a Christian, we are duty bound to help them…

into our hearts and thereby arrive at the kingdom of God.”

A Franciscan monk, perhaps even St. Francis himself, once said that it is in the giving that we receive. And for me, there is no truer statement. If we do not give of ourselves, we will never be able to receive Jesus

At a Morning Assembly, Mike Varisco ’83, a leader in his class’ annual participation in the Thanksgiving Drive, delivered a message designed to have a lasting impact on Blue Jays. Read his full address to Blue Jays at jesuitnola.org.

Senior Zac Creel is a National Merit Semifinalist and a member of the varsity football and wrestling teams. Jeremy Reuther ’01, director of campus ministry, is in his eighth year of teaching at Jesuit.

View their entire speeches at jesuitnola.org.

52 | FALL/WINTER 2012

A Servant of Slaves,

St. Peter Claver Strived to Give People Their Dignity

BY ROBERTO MATTHEWS ’96

A

MEDALLION STORIES

t the beginning of the 17th century, the New World was still yielding much for those who were willing to invest in it. But many did not invest their own blood, sweat, or tears in working the land and mining the gold. New World conquerors found ample workers in West Africa. Slave owners especially pushed this way of life since great profit was found in this practice. So it must have come as a great annoyance when Peter Claver, a Spaniard from a well-to-do farming family, urged that these slave workers be treated as human beings rather than as property.

Born in 1581 in Catalonia, Spain, Peter Claver was raised by devout Catholics and eventually became a Jesuit at the age of 20. He was studying philosophy in Mallorca when a porter, Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, presented his true mission to him. Although Rodriguez was a doorkeeper, he believed he was a religious prophet who was told by God that Peter Claver’s true mission was to minister to the slaves of the New World.

Thus, in 1610, Claver sailed to Cartagena — in the Spanish Territory now known as Colombia — to humbly take on this worthy yet awesome and most difficult task. At the time, Cartagena was the main hub for the slave trade with approximately 10,000 Africans sold annually.

were entrapped. It was a cesspool of bodies packed in the base of a ship with no bathroom and hardly any room to move. It took two months to travel from Africa to the New World by sail, and the stench of death emanated from the bottom of the ship because some slaves did not survive the journey.

Yet, among all this death and sadness, Claver strived to evangelize and baptize slaves as soon as they stepped off the boats. By some conservative estimates, he baptized over 300,000 slaves. Of course, his kindness and compassion did not end there, although that would seem to have been enough. Claver actually stationed himself at the docks well before the boats arrived in order to beg for food and supplies for the slaves. Then after feeding them and tending to their wounds after such an arduous journey, he baptized them. He also wore a cloak for the sole purpose of offering it to anyone who was in need. Claver often followed his newly baptized slaves to their owners’ destinations, asking the masters to treat them as Christian persons and not just as property.

Day in and day out, this was Peter Claver's mission. He followed his mission completely and to the letter for four decades.

His standard was tied to the belief: “I must dedicate myself to the service of God until St. Peter Claver (1581 - 1654) death on the understanding that I am like a slave.” It never crossed his mind to sway In Cartagena, Claver met another Jesuit from his endeavors, even when he became priest, Father Alonso de Sandoval, S.J., who had been gravely ill with a lengthy and debilitating disease towards ministering to the slaves for some 40 years. Following Fr. the end of his life. And as tragic as it was ironic, Claver was Sandoval’s example, Claver waited at the port for slave ships actually physically abused in his old age by a slave whose duty to arrive and immediately entered the bowels where the slaves had been to provide the priest with proper care.

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selflessly to the point of sacrifice.

As a father, I have had to sacrifice, although not even close to the extent of what St. Peter Claver did. But I have had to put my own wants aside in order to secure a future for my two children and to live a happy and blessed life with my wife as well. As a father, I am able to relate a little closer to the person who guided St. Peter Claver to his mission: St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, who was canonized at the same time as Claver. I know that my boys are given to me by God to protect. But I must remember that my responsibility also includes guiding them in the ways of God for His glory. My job is to raise them to also be true Men for Others. My hope is that some day, God will call each of them to be religious leaders and beacons of positive change.

It is easy to see why Pope Leo XIII canonized Peter Claver in 1888. It is not that difficult to recognize the wholeness of Claver’s example as a true “Men for Others.” It is challenging, however, to follow in his great footsteps.

Roberto Matthews of the Class of 1996 is a church musician and record producer with his own company, Musica Religiosa Studios. His most recent CD is available on Amazon and iTunes. Roberto and his wife Miki have been married nine years and have two sons, Roberto, Jr. and Solomon. The family lives in Gretna.

The Spirit of St. Peter Claver Lives On The spirit of St. Peter Claver, S.J. is alive and well in the form of a co-curricular at Jesuit High School. The mission of the St. Peter Claver Society is to discuss and promote diversity at the school by fostering a positive and nurturing environment. The society also helps its members develop leadership and intellectual, social, and spiritual skills that will be needed if they are to achieve success throughout their lives. Approximately 40 Blue Jays are members of the Society, which is involved this year in helping to plan ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of integration at Jesuit High School. Chris LaMothe, a theology teacher and assistant football coach (as well as head coach of the varsity track team), is moderator of the St. Peter Claver Society. LaMothe is assisted by fellow theology teacher James Michalik, as well as guidance counselor Billy Dwyer ’94 and science teacher Lori Fasone.

MEDALLION STORIES

Years ago, when I first heard the words “Men for Others,” I had only a vague idea of what it meant — help others and be strong when doing so. But now I admit that as a grown man with a family of my own, I better understand the meaning of Men for Others. These words are not just about “helping others” when it’s convenient. Following the example of St. Peter Claver, I now understand and appreciate that Men for Others is about serving others, and caring for and about them

St. Peter Claver lived in an age where people sought wealth by exploiting West African slaves. By the Grace of God, this is no longer the prevalent way that people reap financial reward.

However, we do live in an age where great injustices exist. We live in a land of abundance, but people are slaves to depravity.

People are slaves to hunger although perfectly edible food is wasted every day. People are slaves to loneliness although each of us can open our hands in love and fellowship. We live in an age where the poor, hungry, and abused are in need of men and women for others, men and women who don’t simply hear only the Voice of God. They act upon hearing it, men and women who are willing to dedicate their entire lives to such a necessary ministry.

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Parents of Alumni: If you are receiving your son's copy of Jaynotes and he no longer lives with you, please let us know so we can update our database and send the magazine directly to him. Let us know if you enjoy reading Jaynotes. We will be glad to send a copy to his new address and a copy to you. Email changes to: alumni@jesuitnola.org.

2012 Alumnus of the Year Toasted by Previous Honorees

Twenty-four distinguished Blue Jays who have been previously recognized as an Alumnus of the Year gathered on an October evening at Ralph’s on the Park restaurant to pay tribute to Jesuit High School’s newest honoree, Edgar L. “Dooky” Chase of the Class of 1967.

Among the esteemed Blue Jays who attended the annual Alumnus of the Year dinner (listed with their year of graduation and the year they were honored) were (seated, from left): Ashton J. Ryan, Jr. ’65 (2002); Milton J. Retif, Sr. ’51 (1993); Joseph P. Licciardi, Jr. ’53 (1989); Moon Landrieu ’48 (1970); Edgar L. “Dooky” Chase III ’67 (2012); Thomas A. Casey, Sr. ’48 (1979); James E. Fitzmorris, Jr. ’39 (1972); Curtis P. Rome, Jr. ’53 (1984); Frank B. Stewart ’53 (1995); and, Emmett M. Fitzpatrick ’45 (1981).

Standing, from left: Br. William J. Dardis, S.J. ’58 (Jesuit’s director of special projects); Robert L. Perez ’61 (1992); Michael A. McGlone ’68 (2011); Arthus S. Mann ’64 (2005); Michael E. Nolan ’63 (2001); Kevin G. Heigle ’69 (2009); Peter R. Quirk ’54 (1999); John J. “Jack” Dardis ’59 (1986); W. James Amoss ’65 (2006); Marcel Garsaud, Jr. ’50 (1997); Ardley R. Hanemann, Jr. ’61 (1988); John D. Charbonnet ’54 (2010); Michael O. Read ’61 (2000); Michael H. Rodrigue ’71 (2007); Jay C. Zainey ’69 (2008); Robert F. Talbot, Jr. ’55 (1996); and, Fr. Raymond Fitzgerald, S.J. ’76, president of Jesuit High School.