Hello Everyone,

Hope the new year is starting out well for you!

Today we had a very spirited group of 15 class of 63 members together for a couple of hours of socializing. If you were not there we sure wish you were. The monthly class of 63 lunch is select group open to ALL class of 63 members. Love to see you!

I have been in contact with the son of our classmate Kerry Knodle and sadly Kerry is dealing with early onset Alzheimer’s and is living at the St Cloud Vets Home. Keep Kerry and his loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.

For those of you who never see ice outside a drinking glass, there is a photo of the ice-covered Mississippi, just in case you forgot what that looks like!

I know that we have quite a numbers of classmates who have authored books and there is a photo of our latest classmate/author, Jim Hudak with his new book Blood & Brilliance. Congrats Jim on this Sci Fi thriller.

Jim’s book can be ordered as follows;

 I would like to ask all the classmates who have authored books to send me an email with your book titles and the year of print. I know I have asked this about 10 years ago but it would be great to put out an updated version. THANK YOU and I know your classmates will appreciate seeing the list of 63’ authors.

One of the photos included in today’s email is a photo from the class of 63 play Tea House of August Moon-Ed Kurhajetz brought it in today and we want to see if you can ID the folks in the photo—please send me who you think each person is.  Hint – look to the class of 63 web site link at the bottom of this note (click on continue reading). Thanks ED. Ed was publicity director of the play!

Finally, we continue to discuss that we are all going to be 80 this year. With that said the plan is to have an 80^th birthday party lunch for class of 63 members  this summer on Thursday August 14^th Details should be forth coming but we need  a couple of guys to volunteer to work on this event. The main items that need to be identified and determined by the volunteers are where to have the party and what the food arrangement should be. Once that is done the communication will be done through emails and the class of 63 website. So please let me or Joe Schufman know if you will take on the task of determining the place and food arrangement.  THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Two other dates to write down;

Next lunch is Thursday February 13^th—————————–Annual Charlie golf outing Wednesday August 13th

Best to all of you and a healthy 2025

Tom Troskey

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“The Teahouse of the August Moon”

Hello all,

Had a spirited group of 10 classmates together for lunch today.

Sorry for the blurred photo of the guys but those attending were Dave Britz, Mike Gaida, Tom Troskey, Joe Schufman, John Runyon, Joe Brooks, Dick Butler, Jim Hudak Dave Tyree, Frank Villaume.

Beautiful day on the banks of the Mississippi—–0 clouds and 0 temperature.

As I mentioned earlier two of the winter season boys teams at CDH are rated VERY high in the Minnesota High School standings Boys b-ball is number 1 and Boys hockey is number 5. Should be fun to watch as the season unfolds.

2025 is a few days away and you know what that means?   2025 minus 1945 = 80 and most of us will reach 80 in 2025. Count our blessings.

We hope to have one of our regularly scheduled class of 63 lunches during a summer month of 2025  designated to celebrate all these 80^th birthdays at once. We will keep you advised and hope that it will be a good reason for many, many to attend. Details will follow in the spring of 2025.

Nothing more at this time but wishing all of you a blessed Christmas and a healthy new year.

Next class of 63 lunch will be on Thursday January 9^th,  2025

Tom Troskey

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Congratulations Pat and Carol! Hope you celebrate many more.

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Patric and Carol Vitek married 60 years Nov 28th 1964

Hello all,

Nice group of classmates (14)  gathered today for lunch.

As we do each November we take a photo of the men in our class who are veterans. Left to right—Joe Schufman, Dick Butler, Dave Britz, Jim Hudak, Joe Brooks, Tom Schleck, Larry Moser, John Runyon THANK YOU MEN

Click on image to enlarge…

Here is a good surprise—for the first time in about two years all those that signed up were there and no non sign ups showed up. This makes the restaurant quite happy but know that if you show up without letting me know you will always have a place.

Joe McGrath who is very regular at the lunches was not there as he is again going through chemo treatments for cancer but Joe tells me he is handling it well. Prayers for you Joe!

We passed around the program for the Annual CDH Community awards dinner which was held Oct 21^st at the St Paul Hotel. Our classmate Tom Schwartz received the very prestigious Bishop Cretin award.

Also passed around the Annual letter CDH sends out with some detail on how the class of 63 – 40^th anniversary scholarship money is used. The details on the recently established Bonfe/Ryan scholarship were not yet available.

A few of the snow birds have already left, Gary Stoffel in Arizona, Gene Bovy in Arizona and Tim Valento in Florida. I bet there are others!

A few months ago we discussed having an    80^TH   class of 63 birthday party for all of us during the summer on our regular Thursday lunch schedule—–that is still on the radar screen—-your comments are welcome.

Mark your calendars for December lunch on Thursday Dec 12^th.

Count your blessings and have a fine Thanksgiving Holiday.

Tom Troskey

Each year Cretin-Derham Hall honors alumni and friends from Cretin, Derham Hall and Cretin-Derham Hall with Community Awards. Those awards recognize the significant accomplishments of our distinguished alumni and friends, and the recipients receive their awards and recognition at an annual banquet. Our class has been honored with three of these awards over the last decade, the most recent classmate so honored being General (Ret.) Thomas Schwartz. We have added a page to our site that highlights all of our classmates that have been honored with a Community Award. You can view that page at CDH Awards Honoring Our Classmates.

Blood and Brillance by Jim Hudak

At our last class lunch, Jim mentioned his upcoming book, which is in the process of becoming a hard-cover offering. It is a sci-fi story set in the future, both pre- and post-nuclear apocalypse. Much of the technology he weaves into his story is available today and is evolving to become even more powerful. Creative and interesting it is .

If you would like to listen to a podcast with the synopsis of the story, here is the link –

Worth a listen. It is about 12 minutes in length.

Joe Schufman

Hello all,

Another beautiful day in St. Paul – a last gasp of summer with a high near 80.   A great day for a gathering of 14 of our classmates for lunch at the Pool and Yacht Club.

Much banter and story-telling today (most of the stories told will stay in that room), so the mood was upbeat.  

Jim Hudak mentioned the book he has written is now a google doc, a step on the way to publishing a hard copy.  Here is a photo of the book cover –

Click on image to enlarge  

Tom Troskey was not able to join us.  He is on holiday with his wife Linda.   Here is a photo he sent – appears to be on top of the world.   It was taken on the observation deck of the Sears Tower in Chicago.

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There was, sadly, some serious news that was shared.

Pat McDonald told us he had recently talked to our classmate Dick Skinner.   In June Dick learned he had prostate cancer and that it had metastasized.  He is about to undergo treatments (post surgery).  Please send some prayers Dick’s way.

Joe McGrath was asked how he was doing and, positive as always, said good.   He is undergoing a new chemotherapy session for his lung cancer, which had been subdued for the last few years.  Prayers helped Joe in the past so please send many more his way.

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Our next luncheon is scheduled for Thursday November 14 at the Pool and Yacht Club. 

Joe Schufman

Hello everyone,

Beautiful day (a little too hot at noon– 82 degrees) along the banks of a very calm Mississippi River as 17 of your classmates gathered for lunch and to socialize.

We opened our meeting today remembering two of our classmates who we recently learned passed away since our last lunch.

We took some time to remember both Pat Keenan and Jack Jay Morrison.

Some very sad news we just found out about in recent days, our classmate Tom Rubbelke’s 25 year old grandson was killed in a car accident over Labor day week end in western Wisconsin.

May they rest in peace and may God bless these families as they deal with the sadness of losing their loved one.

Here are two items I (we) would like some feedback on.

1.

The idea of having an 80^th birthday party for all of us at one of our 2025 summer luncheons is being considered.

No details have been discussed and this idea was motivated by the class of 1965 who a couple of years ago had a 75^th birthday party at lunch time for their class members and had 45 guys attend. Jim Hannigan of “65” told me about it and how well it was received.

So, can you guys give me feedback on if you think it is a good idea and if you will attend a noon time 80^th birthday party for all of us at a local venue.

If this seems like a good idea I would like to ask two maybe three of you ( a committee) to volunteer to put this together. I will be involved in sending out what ever is necessary to contact and get a count.

PLEASE RESPOND SO WE CAN GET A FEEL FOR WHETHER THIS SHOULD MOVE FORWARD OR NOT.

2.

Joe Schufman suggested that we extend an invitation to the new president of Cretin Derham Hall (Jeb Myers) to see if he would like to have lunch with us. We would meet  socialize with him and then ask him to give us some updates on what is going on at CDH. Do you like the idea and would you attend? We would hope for great attendance.

PLEASE RESOND SO WE CAN DETERMINE WHETHER TO MOVE FORWARD OR NOT.

Here are a few other things

Tomorrow night CDH plays St Thomas Academy at the Vikings performance Center in Eagan. A special twist, the coin flip will be done by two men who have VERY successful coaching careers with each school. Mal Scanlan of Cretin and Jerry Brown of STA.

Class web site—-   https://cretinclassof1963.org 

Joe Schufman’s photography web site—this is a favorite of mine and I did not mention to Joe I am putting it on this email    https://jlouisiiiphotography.org/posts/

Next class of 63 lunch is October 10^th  mark your calendar

Tom Troskey

Click on image to enlarge

Hello Guys,

A few things to chat about. This week we had two events with class of 63 guys, 8 guys golfing at Highland National on Wednesday and 13 guys for lunch at the Pool and Yacht Club on Thursday.

Perfect conditions for golf and river watching. You will see who played golf by looking at the attached scorecard showing results to the always fun Britz Scramble. The winning foursome received a Dozen new Titleist’s with the CDH logo provided by the alumni group at CDH—-Thank you Megan Smith.

Our golf chairman Dave Britz has some ideas for next year’s golf outing that he will share as that time approaches.

Great turn out for lunch. A long commute for classmate Frank Marzitelli who flew in from his home in Daytona Beach—Frank’s first Class of 63 lunch! Glad you made it Frank.

School year about to start and the link below gives some info on what CDH is putting together for alumni—check it out.

A few guys have asked about the CDH /St Thomas Academy game and that is  Friday the 13^th of September at The Viking Performance field in Eagan. You can get more info by clicking on the following link –

https://www.cretin-derhamhall.org/alumni-advancement/event-calendar/homecoming2024

Our next class of 63 lunch is Thursday the 12^th of September—Mark your Calendar.

Take care guys

Hope to see many of you in September.

Tom Troskey

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At lunch yesterday we had a group of 13 guys attending.

A few things were  discussed including the fast approaching annual golf outing—-The Charlie—-

Dave Britz has been organizing this event since  2017. As many of you recall this event was started by our classmate Charlie Schuldt in 2014. Charlie died in 2016 and Dave has kept this annual event very much alive.

The 2024 Charlie is schedule for

WEDNESDAY August 7^th

Highland National in St Paul

Mid-Morning tee times have been reserved.

Contact Dave Britz at 651 459 1858 or britzie37@aol.com  for more info and to sign up to play.

A couple of months ago I spoke with Jim Hannegan from the Cretin class of 65 who also have monthly class lunches. Jim told me about an event they held that was very successful in 2022. They held a all class of 65 —-75^th birthday party.

This sparked a thought that maybe we should hold one of these events. So, at the class lunch yesterday we put out that idea that next summer the class of 63 should hold an   80^th   birthday party for all. So, with that said it was suggested that this event be held during lunch time, spouses included. Looking for any comments you may have!!!  What do you think about this?

Spring sports at CDH—girls fast pitch 2^nd place in the State Tournament and our classmate John Berthiaume’s granddaughter is on the team —-boy’s golf finished 6^th in State with individual Sam Udovich a junior finishing 3^rd in State.

That’s all for now and mark your calendar for next month’s lunch—Thursday July 11^th.

Best to all

Tom Troskey

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