Hello all,

Beautiful spring day down on the Mississippi where 14 of the class of 63 gathered today to socialize.

In the photo attached you will see the guys (click on image to enlarge)

A few things to share; Joe Schufman alerted us that the May 9^th Class of ’63 luncheon is VERY likely to take place at CDH where we will meet in the commons for lunch and meet three current recipients of scholarship funds provided by the class of ’63. A great way to connect with current students and let them know we are glad they choose CDH and see what they have to say about their time at CDH. Exact details on this will be sent out around the 1^st of May.

We talked about the winter sports programs at CDH where some great success took place in Girl’s Gymnastics finishing second in the State, Boy’s hockey finishing 3^rd in the State big school division and Boys’ basketball finishing 4^th in the big school division. CDH has 900+ students and the big schools they played had 2500+. Nice Work!

Boy’s golf is just starting and the team looks strong with 3 boys who finished in the top twelve state meet last year including the boy who finished second, he is a junior this year and another junior has a bit of a resume having twice won the Drive Pitch and Putt competition at Augusta National.

CDH has a new President in place (JEB MYERS) and his official duties start June 1^st. Some of you might appreciate he is a Johnnie.

Dave Britz is on top of things—-the annual golf outing (The Charlie) is scheduled for WEDNESDAY AUGUST 7^th at Highland National—–mark your calendars!

Hope I did not forget anything — until next time all the best to you

Tom Troskey

Wonderful spring day here in Saint Paul.  Partly cloudy, upper 50s.  Good day for lunch with classmates.

Thirteen of us got together.  We were delightfully surprised that Pat McDonald was able to join us!  Pat recently recovered from a lengthy hospital stay and was in great spirts.  Very glad he could be with us.

Tom Troskey was not able to join us since his wife was having shoulder surgery today.   We wish Linda a speedy recovery.

Nearly everyone in the group was aware of the new incoming CDH President, Jeb Myers, who assumes his role on June 1 of this year.

We anticipate that next month’s luncheon will be held at CDH and we will get to meet the latest recipients of the two scholarhips our class has funded.  The lunch will be held on April 11.  More details to follow in the next week or so.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Our classmate Bob O’Malley and his wife Barb hosted a lunch for Rob Bollinger and Teri McCloughan from CDH, alums Wally Olsen and Tom Lentsch and wife Debbie in Paradise Valley, AZ on Thursday, March 7.   According to Bob, the weather was not conducive to golf but was a nice day for fellowship.   Rob Bollinger mentioned that he enjoys getting our alumni together for these meetings and learning about their lives and background since they left Cretin. More such meetings are planned.

Below is a photo from the get-together. From left to right, Rob Bollinger, Bob and Barb O’Malley, Wally Olsen, Teri McCloughan, Debbie and Tom Lentsch.

Click on photo to enlarge

This is a belated post of an earlier luncheon. Dave Britz sent me a photo from the October 2023 Class Luncheon and asked me to post the photo from that event. Five hearty souls made it (many others were on vacation or traveling and were not able to attend).

It is an interesting winter here in Minnesota. Some sun-birds in Florida have experienced temps in the mid-50s, not much different than what we enjoyed some days in January and are enjoying some days in February. We Minnesotans are bracing for Mother Nature to hit us with late winter snowstorms to make up for the dearth of snow we have had so far.

Here is the photo from that luncheon. You can click on the image to enlarge it. From left to right

Jim Hudak, John Runyon, Dave Britz, Tom Schleck, Tim Valento

Hi everyone,

Hope you are doing well.

A photo of the Mississippi out the window today—–no ice or snow and 50 degrees???

A few things to share with you.

You may recall that our class has established two scholarships at CDH to help deserving students.

One scholarship was established in 2003 (on our 40^th anniversary) to provide financial aid to families and the other scholarship was established in 2023 (on our 60^th anniversary) in honor of two of our classmates, George Bonfe and Mike Ryan and that scholarship is awarded to a deserving CDH student who is physically challenged. Both of these scholarships were awarded this year to students and we hope to have our May class of 63 lunch at CDH where we will be able to meet and visit with these deserving students. More on this later as we firm up the plan.

Many of you know that the mother of our classmate Larry Moser was a long time teacher at Nativity in St Paul and that Mrs. Moser taught many family members of our class.

Larry advised us today that his mom is 100 years old—-but not doing well. So please keep the Moser’s in your prayers.

Jim Hannegan from the class of 65 always keeps us up to date on veterans affairs around Minnesota—-Many thanks Jim.

Jim advises that the Annual Viet Nam Veterans Day gathering in Forest lake is on March 24^th. Guest speaker this year is Wilbur Latham, a decorated Air Force fighter pilot. Check our web site (Events) where Joe S has got the details posted.

That is about it for today

Next class of 63 lunch is Thursday March 14^th—-mark your calendar.

Best to all

Click on photo to enlarge

Tom Troskey

The Forest Lake American Legion Post #225 is again hosting an event honoring Vietnam veterans. Several of our classmates have attended previous events and found them worthwhile. I have added this event to our website calendar with details. You can link directly to that entry by clicking here.

Hello Everyone,

Beautiful sunny day as we watched the iceless Mississippi  river flow by.

A dozen guys got together today and reminisced and wondered how all the years have past. One fellow said something at lunch  “you know what we will all be going on 80 this year” How did we get here so quickly? Count our blassings.

A few things were discussed.

Two of our classmates have some medical issues that we were made aware of.

Tom Racine was hospitalized for several weeks in December. He had abdominal surgery and is now home recovering and Joe Schufman is taking care of some heart issues by having a pacemaker placed today.

Tom and Joe—you know all the guys are hoping you have successful and complete recoveries. You are in our prayers!

CDH has named a new President, Jeb Myers, you can read about Jeb on the CDH web site.

Speaking of Joe Schufman—Joe recently worked some of his magic to upgrade and reformat our class of 63 web site, take a look and let us know what you think.   https://cretinclassof1963.org  

The web site is for you guys to enjoy and more importantly to contribute to with photos, Cretin memorabilia, things you feel your Cretin classmates would be interested in. Just send it to me or Joe.

For you guys who don’t still live in Minnesota, we really have not had much of a winter yet—no snow and mild temps—but the weatherman said that is likely to end tomorrow——-DAMN

Best to all of you and the next class lunch is Thursday February 8^th.

Tom Troskey

Click on image to enlarge

Hello everyone,

Nice gathering of our class today at the Pool and Yacht Club.

We had a “Bakers Dozen” show up today and we were seated in the same room as the St. Thomas Academy class of 63 guys. Always fun to visit with these guys.

50 degrees, sunny, no snow or ice as we watched the Mississippi river go bye.

One of our classmates, Ed Kurhajetz joined us today. Ed just moved back to the Twin cities after many years living in Milwaukee. Hope you join the group frequently going forward Ed.

Just before I left home today to attend the lunch I got a call informing me of an upcoming tribute that CDH will be bestowing on one of our class mates. Tom Schwartz has been selected to receive the prestigious Bishop Cretin award from CDH in 2024.

Joe Schufman has already got some info on the class website about Tom’s honor.   Click on the link below to see more on this terrific news.————-Congrats to Tom from your fellow members of the class of 63.

https://cretinclassof1963.org/2023/12/14/1977/https://cretinclassof1963.org/2023/12/14/1977/

You may recall that another member of the class of 63 received the Bishop Cretin award a couple of years back. Steve Nachtsheim received the award in October of 2021.

Classmates Tom and Steve are now in a very special club!

Hope all of you have a great Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2024.

Tom Troskey

Next class of 63 lunch is Thursday January 11^th—-Mark your calendar.

Click on image to enlarge

Rob Bollinger, VP of Development for CDH, made a trip to Dallas to see some Cretin/CDH graduates, including Tom Schwartz and Terry Bacigalupo. He sent the following note to us, which has some great photos and great news! Tom Schwartz will be receiving the Bishop Cretin Award for 2024! We anticipate more details as we get closer to the event (in Oct 2024). Congratulations Tom from all your classmates!

Here is the message Rob sent to us —

Seasons greetings from CDH!  Steve Walsh and I returned from our trip to Dallas last night and it was a great trip.  We had a very good time with Tom and Terry, with dinner and then attending the MAVERICKS vs. LAKERS game on Tuesday evening (courtesy of tickets by Mav’s assistant coach Sean Sweeney, CDH Class of 2002).  Joining us for dinner and the game was Jarvis Archibald, CDH Class of 1993 and a member of the 1993 RAIDERS State Championship Basketball team.

As I mentioned to Joe, we let Tom know that he has been selected to receive the 2024 BISHOP CRETIN AWARD, and he said he will be here to accept the award at the CDH Community Awards Dinner at the Saint Paul Hotel on Monday, October 21st.  Should be a great event!

Take care and keep in touch, and please pass along the pictures below to your Class of ’63 classmates…enjoy the Holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Click on an image to enlarge

Rob

 Rob Bollinger, Vice President of Advancement
rbollinger@c-dh.org  •  651-696-3343  • 218-368-6926 (c)
Cretin-Derham Hall  •  550 South Albert Street St. Paul, MN 55116  •  651-690-2443

Hello all,

Just got back from a delightful lunch where a dozen of the class of 63 gathered to socialize and watch the river go by on this beautiful fall day.

With our 60^th reunion in the rear view mirror there a couple of items I would like to bring you up to date on.

You may recall that for the 40^th reunion in 2003 we established an endowed scholarship at CDH to be awarded to students/family that qualify for tuition assistance each year. This scholarship is referred to as CLASS OF 63–40^th FUND scholarship.

Each year it is awarded to one or two qualifying students. This year the recipients are Sophomore Damonte Duncan and Senior Issac Garcia. Congrats to Delmonte and Issac!

The current amount in the Class of 63 40^th Fund is $81,000.

THANK YOU to all who have contributed over the years to this endowment.

In honor of our 60th anniversary we established another Class of 63 endowed scholarship in honor of our two classmates George Bonfe and Mike Ryan. This scholarship is known as the Cretin Class of 1963 Bonfe-Ryan Scholarship. This scholarship will be given annually to a CDH student who is physically challenged. The 1^st recipient of the Bonfe-Ryan is Senior Nathan Leber. Congrats to Nathan!

The current amount in the Bonfe-Ryan is $61,000

THANK YOU to all who contributed to this scholarship fund.

A special thank you to several classmates who were instrumental in taking the idea of the Bonfe-Ryan to the reality of an endowed scholarship at CDH. Those men are John Runyon, Steve Nachtsheim, Bob O’Malley and Joe Schufman.

Working with Rob Bollinger at CDH we hope to put a regular class of 63 monthly lunch in place in the spring at CDH where we can meet Nathan, Delmonte and Issac.

Each November that we have been having the class lunches (since 2014) we have taken time at our lunch to say    THANK YOU    to the veterans from the class of 63 and have attached a photo of those class of 63 vets were with us at lunch. Best to you guys.

Click on photo to enlarge

Next class of 63 lunch is THURSDAY DECEMBER 14^th—mark your calendar!

Take care
Tom Troskey