Our thanks to a hard-working Reunion Committee and to Bill McDonald for his efforts in making this occasion a success for all of us.My experience since leaving Cathedral seems very simple. After graduation from Boston College in 1968, and a short active duty stint in the Army as a reservist, I ended up working for CBS Sports in New York. Ultimately, I became Senior Vice President of Programming and was responsible for all of the Network’s relationships with the NFL, NBA, NCAA, PGA Tour, USTA, NASCAR and U.S. and International Olympic Committees. After a number of years I also became Executive Producer and filled that role for the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, and a host of football and basketball series.

In 1988, I was married to Debra Main from Royal Oak, Michigan, left CBS and took a job as Executive Vice President of Turner Broadcasting, and we moved from Manhattan to Atlanta. I was responsible for all of the sports programming at Ted Turner’s networks through and including the Company’s merger with Time Warner. Ultimately, the Company was taken over by AOL, and I joined an exodus of departing Turner executives.

Without fully intending to, I became a consultant to a few entities selling their sports rights to networks, and have spent the past 11 years representing the likes of the NCAA, the Bowl Championship Series, and collrege conferences such as the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, Big East, and ACC. In the meantime, Debra and I moved to Florida’s Central Gulf Coast, and we live in a small town just north of Clearwater Beach. We play a lot of golf and like to travel several times each year. We also visit back and forth with relatives from Springfield.

Mike Reavey
Fort Worth, Texas
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Upon completing my formal education in 1974, I relocated from the Washington, D.C., area to New York City to work for Texaco, Inc. While in D.C., I had met Kathy McInturff of Unicoi, Tenn. We married in June 1976. Our son, Mike, was born in Nyack, N.Y., in March 1980. I transitioned from Texaco to Amoco, so we moved from New York to Chicago in the summer of 1980. We lived in St. Charles, Ill., for less than a year when Amoco relocated its international exploration and production (e&p) operation to Houston. So that’s how I came to be a Texan.

I worked international e&p for both Texaco and Amoco, basically making deals with host governments and other oil companies. While I visited a number of countries, I focused on Angola for Texaco and China for Amoco. Wonderful working experience, but a lot of travel. In 1986, I was appointed Resident Manager for Amoco’s South China Sea operations, based in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. We made a commercial discovery.

Our time in China was blissful. Amoco set up the Shekou International School next to my office. I walked my son home and back to school every day at lunch time. Kathy suffered some culture shock, but, as a Southerner, found adjusting to China easier than adjusting to New York. She enjoyed the experience, overall. Expat wives seem “privileged” in some respects, but there are drawbacks to that role.

Mike’s school was small, so his excellent teacher firmly advised that his socialization required attending a larger school. After some negotiation, we were off to Amoco’s office in Vienna, Austria, during the summer of 1990. He attended a much larger school – American International School – for two years before we repatriated to Houston in 1992. Apart from some business development trips to Soviet Union and several satellite states, the time in Austria was not productive business-wise – in great contrast to China.

In Houston, we settled in The Woodlands. My nearly 90-mile round trip commute offered plenty of time to contemplate the growing “dysfunction” at Amoco. I grew restive. So, after Mike graduated high school in 1998, I was appointed Amoco’s Resident Manager in Moscow, where we were trying to make something out of a faltering joint venture with a Russian oil company, Yukos. BP’s acquisition of Amoco in late 1998 made that effort meaningless and me redundant. I repatriated to Houston, accepted a golden handshake from BP, and “retired” in early 1999.

In 2000 we moved to Northern Virginia, but that did not take, so we relocated to Gettysburg, Penn., in 2003 where Kathy’s sister and family lived. We planned to live there two years and then move elsewhere depending on what our son decided to do following graduation from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He decided for Texas and, in time, Texas Christian University for business school. He now works for American Airlines. Thanks to our federal government and its real estate bubble cum financial crisis, we were unable to sell our house until 2009. We moved to Fort Worth later that year and finally moved into our current house last year.

I am involved with the Crowley Area Chamber of Commerce, our home-owners association, and Heritage Action for America.

We get together with son Mike every Sunday for dinner. While Fort Worth would not be our first choice to live, his company every weekend makes it so.

 
Donna Roy Nodurf
Longmeadow, Mass.
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After graduation from UMass Amherst in 1968, I began what would be a 28-year career in public education. I married in 1969 and moved to Maryland. Due to graduate school, military service, and job transfers on the part of my husband at the time, we moved also to Texas, Georgia, Virginia, central Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

In 1978, we moved back to the Greater Springfield area, to Longmeadow, where I still reside. It is nice to be in the same place after having lived in so many places for short periods of time, 10 places in nine years.

After the first of my three children was born, I became a stay-at-home Mom for several years, a time that I thoroughly enjoyed and felt lucky to be able to do!  While home, I became very active in their elementary parent-teacher organization, as well as the town-wide PTO, and I got my masters degree at Springfield College.

When my youngest was in fourth grade, I returned to education as a reading teacher in the Springfield schools, Forest Park Junior High (later to become Forest Park Middle
School). I remained in that job until 1994, at which time I was hired as a high school guidance counselor, also in Springfield. I spent the next 12 years as a counselor at Central High School and at Commerce. In 1994 my first marriage ended in divorce. I remarried in 1999.

After retirement I have worked part time as a reading teacher in a Springfield elementary school, teaching reading to small groups of students who are reading below grade level. I find it very rewarding.

I also enjoy spending time with family and friends, golfing and traveling. My son and his family live about three hours away. My two daughters live within half an hour of us. I feel lucky that I can see them all regularly. I also have four adult stepchildren who live within an hour of us.

(You can view the full Profile by Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, including more photos.)

After graduating, I entered the Dominican Nuns in West Springfield on September 12, 1964. Sr. Richard Francis and Sr. Martin Patrick were there. I received the habit on July 4, 1965, made first profession of vows on January 8, 1967, and final vows on May 24, 1970.

I was first assigned to work in the art department, and struggled to learn the calligraphy (penmanship was not a favorite of mine), but succeeded sufficiently to carry out the task. I think God has a sense of humor and can do the impossible. My art talents prior to entering were pretty nil; my trees were slightly above the lollipop type. However, in the monastery, my talent blossomed to the point that I was able to design some of our prayer cards, and even to paint them.

For many years, I designed our annual calendar. This included taking most of the photos, selecting a theme, and coordinating the printing. The final calendar was produced in 2006, when I was asked by the U.S. Nuns to do a calendar for our 800th anniversary of the Nuns’ founding by St. Dominic. It involved a lot of research and communication with other monasteries, and in the end each US monastery had its own page. Fascinated by the incredible stories I discovered in my research, I wrote my first book: Celebration With Surprises. It includes recent history, things that you are familiar with, like the destruction of the Space Shuttle on reentry and 9/11. This is all tied in to our life of prayer. We nuns are cloistered, but our prayers have no limits, and even though you may not have known me personally as a student (our class was so big that I never got to know many of you), nevertheless, I often pray for my fellow alumni.

Our life is pretty full. The rising bell rings at 4:40 a.m. (but I am up earlier). Morning prayer is at 5:15 a.m., midmorning prayer at 7:30 a.m., midday prayer at 11 a.m., midafternoon prayer at 3 p.m., rosary and evening prayer at 4:45 p.m. and night prayer at 7:45 p.m. Throughout the day, we also take turns relieving one another at various hours of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. We also have study time programmed into our schedule.

So what do I do in my free time? As for crafts, I learned how to crochet. I began by making blessed rose badges, and got creative in making hats for youngsters–dozens in some years–which were donated to the Hospitality Program at the prison in Elmira, NY.

My mother was a great gardener and I enjoy working in the garden too. Our life is very much down to earth, and I’ve had to combat all kinds of garden varmints. On the positive side, we were given a hummingbird feeder, and tips to attract them to the garden. What a joy to see one up close for the first time! That first year caused me to reflect on the hummingbird and I compared it to our relationship with God. The fruit of those reflections materialized in a full color book: The Hummer and the Hummed. It was translated into Spanish (El Susurrador Y El Susurrado) by one of our Dominican Fraternity members and is now available at the monastery and in bookstores.

On September 13, I will celebrate my golden jubilee as a cloistered Dominican Nun. Fifty years ago there were some who said, “You’ll never make it.” Actually, I wondered how I would live that kind of life, when the Lord first called me. I wondered how I could ever keep my mouth shut. It is all God’s doing. His grace is there for us, otherwise I would never have made it. But I am grateful for the call, and for His grace. I was just a teenager, who was good in math and who loved sports. But just think of all you’ve read, and realize what God did with someone who wasn’t a good singer, and who was just average in English, languages and history! She thought she wouldn’t have to study any more after graduation, only to find herself in an Order where study is important!

I’m very grateful for the quality education I received at Cathedral, and for all the dedicated teachers I had. It is all a part of who I am today. Pro Deo et Pro Patria. Do you remember that our class motto was Veritas et Caritas? God bless you all. You are in my prayers and will remain so.

 
Ray Siwinski
St. Petersburg, Fla.
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It’s great to read about “old” classmates (no pun intended) on this blog and I look forward to seeing many of you at the reunion. This is what I’ve been up to for the past 49 (ugh!) years.

Graduated with an engineering degree from Western New England College, went to work at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and got married to the love of my life Jane, all in ’68. Number 1 son Pete was born in ’69 and #2 son Ben in ’73.  Graduated with an MBA in ‘75, also from WNEC.

Worked in P&W’s Engineering Department for 10 years, including a stint in Seattle as P&W’s engineering manager on a Boeing flight test program, until I transferred to the Marketing Department in ’78. Have held various marketing, sales and product development positions since. These jobs took me around the world many times and to more countries than I can remember. Seeing the Egyptian Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, etc., etc., etc. made it all worthwhile.

Sadly, after 34 years of marriage, my wife Jane lost her battle with cancer and passed away in ’04. I took up bicycling and have now logged many thousands of miles on a road bike, including tours of France, England, the Canadian Rockies, New England, New York and California. One of the highlights of my bike touring was a cross country trip, Los Angeles to Boston, in ’07.  Another highlight was meeting the other love of my life, Elizabeth, on a bike. We have shared many bike tours together and finally, after a five year engagement, got married this past year.

After 38 years testing and selling jet engines for P&W, I retired in ’06 and I’m now busier than ever. I live in St. Petersburg, FL, near my son Ben, an airport planner, his wife and two granddaughters. I also spend much of my time in Belchertown, MA, with Elizabeth and travel frequently to San Francisco, CA, to visit my son Pete, an investment banker, his wife and three grandsons. If I’m not on a bike, you can generally find me in a kayak, on a hiking trail, on the beach in Ocean City, NJ, or skiing in Vermont or California. Oh, and I’m the webmaster for our bicycling club. Check it out at http://www.cyclonauts.com .

Love to all and I hope to see you in October.

 
Bob Winship
Etna, Ohio
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After graduation, I spent four years at St Michael’s in Vermont earning a BA in Political Science, another four years in the army attaining the rank of Captain, Infantry. I ran into Mark Rivest while at Infantry OCS in Fort Benning, Ga. Shortly thereafter heard of his family’s loss when Mark was reported KIA in Vietnam. Was married to Therese Lussier after commissioning and spent most of my army experience in Germany assigned to the 3rd Armored Division. While there, my first son Joel was born. We returned to the states where I was discharged.

After seven months of job seeking, I was hired by the Internal Revenue Service and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where I started my career as a Revenue Officer in Collections. A couple of years later, we moved to Cincinnati for a promotion. On nights and weekends, I attended Xavier University and earned an MBA in Finance. We had another son, Matthew, and unfortunately a failed marriage. I then moved to Columbus, Ohio, where I met and married my wife Lori. I worked in Columbus as a Collection Manager responsible for a group of Revenue Officers throughout Ohio. At the latter stages of my career, I was assigned as one of three National Lead Instructors tasked with organizing and training a mass hiring of collection personnel across the country. A terrific experience which bore fruit when I was hired after I retired (June 2002) to continue instructing newly hired collection personnel. I did that off and on for about seven years until IRS discontinued hiring.

I now spend most of my free time on the golf course or working at Winding Hollow Golf Course in New Albany, Ohio. I have won a couple senior club championships and last year won the Tournament of Champions, an invitational consisting of all the private club senior champions in central Ohio. My crowning achievement in golf. All my golfing buddies said I got lucky and since they’ve seen me play I can’t disagree.

I have three sons, Joel, Matt and Aaron (Lori’s son, whom I adopted), and six grandchildren. Joel is a Regional Sales Manager for Orkin, living in Louisville, Ky. Matt is a sergeant in the Covington, Ky., police department. He is also the armorer, weapons instructor and the sniper for their SWAT team. Aaron is a Staff Sergeant in the Army on his third deployment to Afghanistan. He is working as an Intelligence Specialist assigned to a Special Forces unit out of Florida. Lori is a real estate agent with Keller Williams.

Sadly, I have lost touch with most of my high school friends but would certainly like to hear what they have been doing and how they are. I am planning to attend the 50th and hope to see some old (I guess that is what all of us are nowadays) friends there.

Bill Wood
Parker, Colorado
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My apologies for missing the 50th Reunion as well as submitting this update as late as I am. However, being the good (OK, maybe that’s just “practicing”) Catholic that I am it will haunt me if I don’t at least say “Hello” to the past as I happily look to the future.

As I look closely at my upcoming 68th birthday, I’ve realized that I’ve learned not to regret as much what I’ve always wanted, but failed to do – like the major contributions to Church, Country, and Civilization that never happened, and to be happy with what opportunities I’ve had the fortune to recognize and pursue. Though I graduated from the US Air Force Academy, I quickly found that my physiology prohibited me from flying; so I flew satellites for a 40-year career instead. Despite minimal training, skill or desire to be anything other than a nerd, I transitioned into roles in supervision, organizational and program management in order to make notable contributions to the people and success of a reputable aerospace environment. With only a mathematician’s limited ability to communicate, I’ve developed an expertise in government proposals that has also produced some post-retirement consulting work and classroom teaching at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and the USAF Academy. Overcoming my limited athletic skills (frequently exposed by my fellow Cathedral tennis teammates), I’ve enjoyed untold hours successfully coaching recreational and competitive youth soccer, refereeing high school matches and the top Colorado men’s league, and trying to out-ski my kids (now a very distant memory).

Whatever drive I may have demonstrated in my career probably started to mature when I was a HS senior and had to find living arrangements and talk my parents into letting me finish at Cathedral rather than attend Creighton Prep in Nebraska where they had moved (Creighton Prep Adv. Education: 4 yrs Latin, 2 yrs Greek, look at Calculus after Spring Break – ugh, Sr. Maria Joseph pray for me!). Monty Sparks was another Westover AF brat who pulled the same move, with similar positive results, and I’ve been able to reconnect with him since the 40^th Reunion. The multitude of life’s demands have taught me to try to simply enjoy life by maintaining positive goals, standards and friendships – accepting, enjoying and adding to the good that’s available while rejecting, correcting and overcoming the bad. And it all reinforces my Catholic faith, which I continue to hold close and firmly.

Since early youth, I’ve benefited from superior efforts from my guardian angel, who continues to be challenged by the little boy that remains a part of me. I’ve overcome a number of hurdles in life, the latest being oropharyngeal cancer in 2013, and I grow more and more aware of the angelic protection that has and continues to support my earthy travels. While I hope for continued support, I certainly recognize, and am very humbled and thankful for how much it’s benefited me to this point.

My greatest joy continues to be the company of the beautiful woman I met in January 1968, married five months later, and with whom I’ve brought four children into the world and raised them to be self-sufficient and emotionally caring siblings. Together we’ve shared laughter, tears, struggles, failures, successes, happiness, sadness, travels, exciting experiences, and dull boredom that continue to be blended together and enriched by a love that remains the most wonderful thing that I ever could have hoped to receive. With apologies to Mary Katharine Gallagher (SNL), as Curly answered in the movie City Slickers with his index finger to the question of what the secret of life is, “It’s one thing. Just one thing.” For me, it’s been my wife – with her it all works, and because of her life has had incredible meaning.

While we’ve been fortunate to enjoy some, and hope to have more delightful travels to Hawaii, Australia and Europe, we pray for more world stability and personal time to take advantage of the wonders of locations other than our 50-year home state of Colorado. They say, “You need to do everything you want before you retire because there isn’t enough time after you’ve retired” and we’re finding that to be true. We have been raising a 2^nd generation of little Woodlings (three of our six grandchildren) over the last four years due to their mother’s absence, requiring us to physically and emotionally demonstrate our conviction of the premier importance of children and families despite our reduced physical stamina. They remain our top priority, with attempts at more reunions with the families of our three other kids who live in Washington state and working as conservator for my 95-yr.-old mother in California constantly on our minds.

In other circumstances I would have preferred to know more individuals in the wonderful Cathedral Class of ’64 and to know better those with whom I’ve shared some time and thoughts. How a skinny kid with more miles of travel than sense ever got the opportunity that Cathedral presented is most logically attributable only to divine intervention. And I’m so humbly thankful that the path that I started there, with the sometimes not so gentle guidance of the good Sisters and Priests, has taken me to where and what I am. The prayers that I so desperately offered then in support of my self-centered needs and hopes for the future have been answered so abundantly, as I hope yours have or will be as well.

Cheers, best wishes and prayers for all ’64 Panthers, living and deceased. May your days be long and filled with happiness and satisfaction!