Hello All,

Beautiful clear sunny day (up to 0 degrees at lunchtime) as 13 of your Cretin classmates enjoyed the winter day .

The photos attached show some of the guys in attendance and the one photo where the people are all dark does show the very frozen Mississippi River in the background.

Speaking of winter I heard from two of our classmates earlier this week as one was walking the beaches on the Atlantic side of Florida (John Runyon) and the other was walking the beaches on the Gulf side of Florida ( Tim Valento)—THANKS GUYS.

The men at lunch today were Don Danneker, Dave Britz, Jim Dimond, Dave Tyree, Joe Brooks, Jim Hudak, Tom Troskey, Pat McDonnell, Dick Butler, Frank Villaume, Tom Schleck, Mike Gaida, Joe M McGrath.

In December we lost three of our classmates Richard Dennis, Jack Hansen and John Decker. We took some time to remember these fellows and it was especially nice to hear from three of our classmates who were long time friends of Richard ,Jack and John.

Joe Brooks told of his lifelong friendship with Richard, Jim Hudak told of his with John Decker and Frank Villaume of his with Jack Hansen. The stories they told us about these fellows were both humorous and certainly heart felt. Thanks for sharing the stories with the rest of us.

Our Friend and classmate Brian Dobie has been in the hospital for the past two weeks with heart issues but came home yesterday and his wife Colleen says his doing a bit better. Keep him in your prayers.

With us today at lunch is Joe M McGrath and as many of you are aware Joe has been battling lung cancer for quite a while, some good news from Joe today. His doctors are pleased with his recent diagnosis and so is Joe. Great news Joe and you are an inspiration to all of us.

Two of our classmates brought in books they authored, Dick Butler brought in his which is out of print—literally and Jim Hudak brought in his new book  Blood & Brillance  which he had copies  he signed for classmates. Thanks Guys.

Some info about what is going on over at CDH, The boys basketball team is number 1 in the state and is lead by 6’11’ 250lb Tom Ahneman, the boys hockey team is number 6 in the state. Best of luck as the state tournaments swing into action soon. Also CDH has a new football coach, Ben Burk who was the coach at Lakeville South. Ben replaces Steve Walsh 85’. Steve called me last week and told me he was not the football coach any longer. It wasn’t his idea.

Steve was the coach for three years taking over a program that had not been successful for 5-6 years prior to his arrival. In the third year Steve took the team to the State tournament and lost to the undefeated team from Owatonna in OT.

I don’t understand it but I do not know Steve well enough to pry further. I am sorry to hear this change.

NOTE—80^th class of 63 Birthday party will be Thursday August 14^th  The venue has CHANGED it will be held at the Pool & Yacht Club, the venue we normally use for our monthly class luncheons.. The change in venue has been made for financial reasons. The time remains the same – 11:30am-1:30pm, maybe longer. Please update your calendars. Approximate cost is estimated at $30.

Work on this event is being done by several of our classmates and I want to acknowledge and thank them for there effort to make this a fun day

Len Mitsch and Joe Schufman —- publicity

Joe Brooks and Dave Britz—- venue selection and food service

Dave Tyree—- searching for lost classmates (about 40 we do not have email addresses for)

Thank you Len, Joe S. Joe B. Dave B. and Dave T.

REMEMBER ALL THE CLASS OF 63 GATHERINGS ARE FOR ALL OF OUR CLASSMATES—-THE MORE GUYS WE GET TOGETHER THE MORE ENJOYABLE THE EVENTS ARE.

So mark your calendars,

Next lunch— Thursday March 13^th

The Charlie golf outing —Wednesday August 13

The 80^th  birthday party—Thursday August 14

Best to all

Tom Troskey

Click on photo to enlarge…

A change in venue has been made for financial reasons.  The 80th Birthday Bash will now be held at the Pool and Yacht Club, the venue we normally use for our monthly class luncheons.  The time remains the same – 11:30am-1:30pm, maybe longer.  Please update your calendars.  Approximate cost is estimated at $30.

I added a new page titled Authors to the site. It now appears as a link in the main menu bar at the top of the home page. Another example of the talent of our class and classmates. It will be updated as we uncover more authors from our class.

JS

A pertinent reminder that tempest fugit. We have planned a get together to celebrate our collective 80th birthdays…

click on image to enlarge…

More to follow…….

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

Click on image to enlarge…

“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

Click on image to enlarge

Congratulations Pat and Carol! Hope you celebrate many more.

Click on photo to enlarge…

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