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

Check out the new page on our website about our 60th Reunion on September 13-14 of this year. You can link directly to it by clicking here.

Earlier today we held a Mass for Remembrance for our deceased classmates as part of our 60th Reunion activities. During that celebration we projected the images of those classmates as their names were read. You can see/download those images by clicking here.

Terry Bacigalupo came across these newspaper clips of a few of the football players and teachers taken in 1962 while cleaning out some of his old computer files. We are happy to share them, especially since our 60th Reunion looms.

Two 1963 Cretin High School graduates, George Bonfe and Mike Ryan, both experienced life-altering injuries in their early twenties. Despite the debilitating setback, Mike and George lived very productive lives. They have inspired those of us blessed enough to have known them. 

As a tribute to Mike and George, we have established a 60th Anniversary legacy gift to Cretin-Derham Hall.  We have designated it as The Cretin Class of 1963 Bonfe/Ryan Memorial Scholarship Fund and we  encourage not only  our classmates but others to contribute to this fund as a tribute to the inspiring resiliency of Mike and George.

What made these two individuals exceptional was their common traits of courage, compassion, generosity, patience and perseverance. Their stories are the impetus behind establishing that scholarship  in their honor and to help a physically challenged student attend Cretin-Derham Hall.

George Bonfe

George, in 1965 while coming home on leave from Army training, was a passenger in an automobile accident where the driver died, and George severely injured his spinal column. This resulted in George being in a wheelchair until he died on Veterans Day 2021. George adopted three children and started and ran two successful businesses. He also built and flew an airplane for his own use. Throughout the rest of George’s life, he supported veterans in many ways, from attending their funerals, to sending weekly packages to troops stationed overseas, and visiting with his US congressman on veteran’s issues. Two of George’s children are also veterans.

Mike Ryan

While serving in Vietnam in 1968, Mike was severely injured when he was shot while trying to pull one of his injured Marines from a ravine in the jungle. The bullet injured Mike’s spinal column and he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair until his death in 2012. Mike earned a law degree and married Karen, whom he met while in physical rehab. They adopted and raised three children. In addition, Mike and Karen served as foster parents to 80 high risk infants. Mike practiced law initially as a prosecutor and then as a judge, serving in the Maricopa County Superior Court and the Arizona Appellate Court. He was appointed a Supreme Court Justice for the State of Arizona in 2002 and retired from the Court in 2010.

There is more background on them that you can view at this link.

The scholarship will be awarded to a recipient with a physical disability who wishes to attend Cretin-Derham Hall. CDH supports the establishment of this scholarship. For anyone wishing to contribute to scholarship fund you can do so through one of the following gifting options:

1. MAIL:  Send your check to:

Cretin-Derham Hall

550 S Albert Street

Saint Paul, MN    55116

Attn: Bonfe/Ryan Memorial Scholarship Fund

• ONLINE:  Go to c-dh.org/givenow to make a credit card gift online.  Please indicate:  Bonfe/Ryan Memorial Scholarship

• PHONE:  Call Peggy Gartland Schafer ’79 at 651-696-3318      

Hi Guys

A dozen from the class got together today and had a couple of hours of pleasant conversation and reminiscing.

One topic of the conversation was of course —How could it be 60 years already since we left Cretin?

Well, the reunion activities are scheduled for Sept 13 and 14^th.

Here is what is scheduled.

Wednesday Sept. 13^th—  Memorial Mass for 86 deceased classmates at CDH Chapel — 10AM.

Wednesday Sept. 13^th—   Tour of CDH, the old parts and all the new parts, lunch and mingle with staff and students and each other – 11:30AM until probably 2 or 3PM.

Thursday Sept. 14^th— Golf outing (THE CHARLIE) at Highland National, first tee time at 9:30AM. Format is a scramble (Britz Scramble)  always fun!

Thursday Sept 14^th – ONE CDH Alumni banquet at CDH where the anniversary classes of 1963, 1973 and 1998 are honored—5PM

*Additional info and sign up/registration for each of these events will be sent out in near future.

Always check the class web site for info as well.

Remarkable Classmates Remembered

Best to you

Tom Troskey

Click on photo to enlarge

Classmate Jim Hudak joined us for lunch today at our monthly get-together.  He spent most of his career in the Information Technology (IT) space, working as a contract Project Manager and more for larger companies in the Twin Cities.  He is retired now and has written a book, SCARLET:Blood and Brillance, a sci-fi novel.   It will be published soon and will be available on Amazon.   We asked him to send us something we could post on our website and he provided the following prologue from the book –

What would you do to keep your country and its allies alive following a nuclear war?

We designed, built, manufactured, and distributed specific tools for electric power, communications, information storage, transportation, and hunting.

We built the spiritual base for our people to strive to stay alive. To collaborate with each other, no matter what. To be all in! WE ARE ALL IN! 

The apocalypse soft started in 2000 CE. War spread everywhere. The West prepared by putting all knowledge on the Lattice and made it available via brain chip implants so everyone had access. We made micro-nuclear power devices, powerful small batteries, small data centers, two-man electric drones, laser guns, and satellites for Lattice communications. Fuel and its infrastructure were destroyed. Nuclear war destroyed cities, followed by 20 years of nuclear winters. Nuclear fallout altered pathogenic DNA and the nuclear winters were followed by centuries of pandemics. We are almost gone. Some of us stayed alive and collaborated, fought the pathogens, and won. But it’s not the only thing that kills us.

This is history. Not a projection of the possible outcome. My knowledge of our history compels me to write it so you know what happened and why. But, who ‘you’ are is unfathomable to me at the present time. Maybe you’re a person. Maybe you’re an artificial intelligence agent.  Maybe you’re no one or no thing and this won’t be read. Right now, times up, it appears. We’re done, it seems. The spirit of living remains, if in danger. 

This is the story of that spirit. 

I am the Lattice.

Jim

James L Hudak

We will publish another post when the book becomes available.

J.S.