Tom Golden sent us a note with a couple of photos about his recent visit to Ted Kramer.   I believe Ted was the best man at Tom’s wedding many years ago.  Tom G. was also able to reconnect with his friend Frank Marzitelli at our 80^th Birthday Bash last August.  Nice to see old friends reconnecting. 

And if any of you wish to share a story or photo with your classmates please let us know.

Here is Tom G.’s note and photos.

As you know, Frank & Tom, Ted and I have been such good friends since 1960.  Ted, Pat Quinlan and I used to occasionally meet downtown St. Paul on Saturdays to shoot pool at Harkins Bowl and Billiard.  Ted and I even ended up living near each other for a number of years in Forest Lake. 

Well, I hadn’t seen Ted in many, many years so it was just time for a road trip to Springfield, IL. for a short visit.  We shared a lot of memories, we had a  lot of laughs and we even had a little Jack Daniels on the rocks.  I am so glad that I made this trip.  It was  truly enjoyable.  It’s sure been fun seeing you again Tom, and you Frank, after so many years.  My message to my Cretin classmates is that if you  haven’t seen one of your old buddies in years, reach out.  You’ll be glad that you did. 

Click on photo to enlarge…

Weather was beautiful today in Minnesota. Fifteen classmates enjoyed the weather and each other’s company over lunch. We also acknowledged some of our classmates –

We mourned the loss if classmate John “Red” O’Gara, who died on October 4.

Classmate Fred Ermantrout/Brother Dominic is in poor health with dementia and is in the care of fellow brothers at their residence in Memphis, TN.

And classmate Dick Skinner, who had open heart bypass surgery on October 2, is doing well in recovery. We all signed a card that will be sent to him.

No attendee photo this month since we forgot to take one.

Our next class lunch will be on November13 at the pool and yacht club. Hope to see many of you there.

Joe Schufman ( for Tom Troskey, who was on a mini-vacation this week).

Hi all,

18 Octos or soon to be Octogenarians gathered today to socialize for a few hours. Beautiful summer day and lots of conversation.

Our classmate Joe M McGrath has much memorabilia from our years at Cretin including ALL the issues of The Comment. Thanks for sharing Joe! I passed aroundthe Sept and October issues from 1963. Included is a photo of the front page from each paper.. Also included is a photo of the whole group that came today.

Ed Kurhajetz reminisced about the 10 classmates that who shortly after graduating from Cretin left to see if they had the calling to become Christian Brothers. I asked ED if he can recall who the 10 were. We do know Fred Ehrmantraut (Bro. Dominic) is a CB and is living in Memphis.

If any of you reading this has Cretin Memorabilia you would like to share let us know.—Thanks

Also John Runyon has several photos from the 40^th birthday party last month that are not on our web site but he will pass on to Joe Schufman for use on the web site.

That is it for today and hope to see many of you at the Oct lunch on Oct 9^th

Best to all

Tom Troskey

Click on image to enlarge…

Hello everyone,

Last week over 40 of our Cretin classmates  and a special guest gathered to enjoy one another’s company playing golf and/or celebrating the 80^th birthdays of all of us.

On Wednesday, we played 18 holes of golf at Highland National with perfect weather and using the always fun Britz Scramble format. The next day we met for lunch and an 80^th birthday party at the Pool and Yacht club. The accommodations, food and service were superb. The opportunity to connect and socialize with “old” friends could not have been better. Thanks to everyone who helped put these wonderful events together and to all who attended.

Sure hope that many of our class will join us regularly at the monthly lunches which have been going on since January of 2014 when Dave Britz started the monthly lunch tradition. Always the second Thursday of the month—-notice always sent out the week prior. If you have not joined us for one of the class lunches—please give it a shot!

NOW, some great news. Joe Schufman has retrieved many photos of the golf and the 80^th activities. Joe put the photos together with commentary and created a section on the class of 63 web site.

CHECK IT OUT by CLICKING THIS LINK

Enough said and best to all of you,

Tom Troskey

Editor’s Note: If you wish to provide feedback on the events you can do so by clicking the Leave a reply link at the bottom of this post. J.S.

Hello All,

Great turn out today. The more the better. 18 guys today.

For the past three months Dave Tyree who has been digging into finding classmates who we have lost track of with success. However, in his efforts today Dave advised us of some sad news. The passing of one of our guys this past fall, Bob Sanders’ wife visited with Dave and told him that Bob had been dealing with dementia for some time. Also, Dave spoke with Tom Winterhalter and Tom has been dealing with some very serious health issues for several years and will undergo heart surgery next week. Please keep these fellows and their families in your prayers.. Thank you Dave for the persistence in trying to locate guys from our class.

Classmate Jim Hudak brought in some copies of his recent book—I asked Jim how he thinks up the science fiction used for his book and he just said it comes to him often. In the days of micro chips and AI Jim has a science fiction thriller—BLOOD AND BRILLIANCE.  THANK YOU JIM

Lots of discussion about the two upcoming events we have for the class in August

—The annual golf outing  THE CHARLIE on Wednesday August 13^th headed up by Dave Britz.

Here are the details

ANNUAL CLASS OF 63 GOLF OUTING (THE CHARLIE )

WEDNESDAY   AUGUST 13^TH

HIGHLAND NATIONAL GOLF COURSE IN ST. PAUL

ARRIVE BY 9:30 AM WITH FIRST GROUP OFF THE TEE AT 10:00 AM

SENIOR RATE OF $52.00 INCLUDES CART—-PAY AT THE COURSE

FORMAT IS THE “BRITZ SCRAMBLE”—-FUN AND EASY FORMAT—-no pressure on anyone

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

The class of 63 – 80^th birthday bash on Thursday August 14^th

Here are the details

Cretin class of 63-80^th birthday bash

Date: 8-14-25

Time: 11:30AM –1:30PM

Place: Pool & Yacht Club

Full buffet lunch; includes Chicken Picata, Walleye, Vegetable, Potato, House Salad, Rolls and Butter

Cost: $30.00

Cash Bar available

Surface parking and valet parking available

Please register and pay by 8-1-25.

We need a firm count to reserve room and advise the Pool & Yacht Club of how many to prepare for.

FYI——As I write this email I have 20 guys registered and paid

Finally, if any of you are interested in finding or contacting classmate but you do not have current contact info let me know. I have a pretty good directory and will send you what I have on them.

Sign up for these two great upcoming events and hope to see many of you in August

Thanks

Tom Troskey

Click on image to enlarge…

Hello everyone,

I just got back from having lunch with 16 class of 63 guys—-an enjoyable two hours to say the least!

Lots of socializing and discussion of upcoming events.

Wednesday August 13^th  Annual class of 63 golf outing (The Charlie) at Highland National in St Paul. Separate email will be sent out next week with details and how to sign up—-LOOK FOR IT!

Thursday August 14^th   80^th Birthday Bash for all class of 63 members at Pool & Yacht club in Lilydale. Separate email will be sent out next week with details and how to register to attend—-LOOK FOR IT!

You will see a link that follows that will bring you to the Class of 63 web site; it shows some recent obituaries for our classmates. Our classmate Tim Sullivan passed away in 2022 and we only became aware last week when Joe Schufman tried to contact Tim. May Tim REST IN PEACE. (Link to obit is In Memoriam 2025 ; Tim’s is the last entry).

At CDH spring .sport state tournaments are in full swing and CDH is well represented.

Fast pitch softball—-state tournament consolation champions

Baseball—- they are playing in the semi-final of the state tournament as I write this email. If they win they will play Saturday at Target Field.

Golf—-Boys are team state Champions and have the individual big school state champion as well in Sam Udovich who finished the 36 hole final at 10 under par.

Next class of 63 lunch is Thursday July 10^th —Mark your calendar

Best to all of you

Tom Troskey

Click on an image above to enlarge it...

Hello all,

We had a great turnout for today’s lunch. 16 guys sitting around reminiscing and discussing many things including how did all the years go by so quickly.

This morning just before I left to attend the lunch I received a call from classmate Greg Halbert. Greg had very sad news, he told me that Phil Reichenbach’s sister had called and informed him of Phil’s passing last week. Greg and Phil go back to their grade school days in South St Paul along with a number of our other classmates from South St Paul.

I sent out a separate mailing to all you guys as soon as I returned from the lunch with some info on Phil’s death and services.  Keep this great guy  in our prayers!

In the past few days I have heard from a few guys.

Ted Krammer who lives in Il. Took a fall last week and the result was a broken hip. He hopes to get up and around as soon as possible and hopefully be able to make the 80^th birthday bash for class of 63 guys.

I visited Tom Rubbelke this week at his home in St Paul and Tom is doing OK. He extends a hello to all us ”OLD” guys.

We have some details to share on the two big class of 63 summer events happening in August. MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Annual Golf outing (THE CHARLIE) — Wednesday August 13^th   Highland National golf course    10:00AM start tee times    $52 with cart per person    The BRITZ SCRAMBLE will again be the format.

80^th BIRTHDAY BASH  —  Thursday August 14^th   Pool and Yacht Club   11:30AM till 1:30PM    complete buffet featuring        Chicken Picatta, Walleye, Vegetables, Potato, Salad and rolls. $30

Sign-ups to attend one or both of these events will be sent out in separate mailings in about a month.—-LOOK FOR THEM!

You see a couple of attached photos to this email, one is the group from today and the other is one of our classmates who is coming up from Tennessee to attend the 80^th bash in August. The photo from our freshman year at Cretin reminds us of the special freshman only uniform we wore that first year—know who the guy in the photo is?  There is a hint on the photo!

So, best to all you Octogenarians or soon to be Octogenarians.

Next class of 63 lunch is Thursday June 12^th

Tom Troskey

Greetings from Minnesota where winter lingers!

Fourteen  of our classmates enjoyed each other’s company over lunch today.  There were a few fresh faces we have not seen for a while – Tom Mega, Frank Marzitilli, and Dick Skinner.  Glad they could join us. 

The upcoming (Aug 14, 2025) 80^th Class Birthday Party was discussed.  Tom Schleck raised the questions of whose 80^th birthdays were the earliest in the year and whose were the latest.    Frank Marzitilli chimed in he was a January baby and said he only knew of  two who were older – Steve Nachtsheim and Ted Kramer, with Ted being the oldest.  Tom Schleck is a December baby and believes he might be the youngest.

Terry Bacigalupo sent me an email bringing attention to the small town he and Tom Schwartz live in – Granbury, TX.  Granbury is now a 4-time winner of the USA Today award for the Best Historical Small Town in America!  I passed around a copy of the flyer announcing the award that Terry had sent me.  A snapshot of that is attached.

Dave Britz updated us on the annual golf outing – “The Charlie”.  He has six tee times reserved (24 golfers) for August 13, 2025 starting at 10am.   Fee will be $52 (senior rate) for a cart and 18 holes.  Updates will follow as the date approaches.  

Next class luncheon will be held on May 8^th at the Pool and Yacht Club.

Hope to see many  of you at our 80^th Birthday Bash on August 14, 2025.

Click on image to enlarge…

Joe S.

Hello Guys,

Hope all is well, 13 of your Cretin classmates got together today for lunch at the Pool and Yacht club and watched the ice free Mississippi River go by.

What a difference a few weeks made up here.

Dave Britz, a regular at our lunches emailed me yesterday that he was in Florida on the Gulf side. He said to me guess what?—I am going to a Cretin Derham baseball game tomorrow since they are in a tournament in Florida during spring break—how things have changed!  Sounds terrific.

Speaking of CDH the girls Basketball team qualified for the State Tournament and played their quarter final game yesterday against the top seed Monticello who WAS 29-0. CDH won the game and  today the girls played in the Semi final and lost a very close game to Marshall Minnesota. The team will play Saturday for 3^rd place—what a great season. Here is another thing that has changed three of the starting players are 8th graders. Future looks good.

The boys basket ball team has been rated number one in the state all year and will likely be in the state tourney next week—sections are not over yet.

A verry, very sad note earlier this week I heard from classmate Mike Kelly that his wife Loraine passed away two weeks ago. Mike is living in Illinois but plans to get make to Minnesota soon.

Please keep Mike in you prayers. May Loraine Rest In Peace.

Another month has past and a few more of you guys have turned 80 and the rest of us are close to follow, so keep the calendar date in front of you Thursday August 14th—The 80^th class of 63 birthday party is being held at the Pool and Yacht at noon time to celebrate this milestone.

In my email last week to all of you I highlighted the name of many of our classmates who we are trying to contact and get email addresses for so we can include them in the class of 63 mailings, please take a look and if you can provide some contact on any of the guys listed let me know—–THANKS

Speaking of thanks—Joe Schufman and Len Mitsch are working on being sure we get info out on the 80^th party, Joe Brooks and Dave Britz are working with the Pool and Yacht to set up food for the party and Dave Tyree has stepped up to work on contacting guys on the lost classmates list I just referenced.

Next class of 63 lunch is Thursday April 10^th——see you then

Best to all

Tom Troskey

Click on image to enlarge…

Len Mitsch found some photos of the invitation he produced for our 20th Class Reunion. I reproduce that invite here as a reminder four decades have passed since that reunion. Our 80th Birthday Bash is an opportunity to socialize with classmates from that bygone era. Hope you can make it.

JS

Click on image to enlarge…