I texted Mary Anne last week. I knew it was bad when she didn't respond. Tom had reached out and said she was in hospice. Heaven will have many more laughs with "Nolan" there. I loved her laugh!❤️
I think her dad was a lawyer who served on the team of lawyers at the historic Nueremburg Trials in Germany after WW2.
She joined our class at OLP somewhere around 5th or 6th grade. At our first class "boy-girl dance" - (at Kathy Shanahan's house) - I was standing in a corner with some of the guys when Mary Ann walked over and grabbed me by the arm and said something about "You need to come dance. I'm going to show you how to dance close". And she did exactly that. She was not a shy person. You alwasy knew what she thought.
And from that 8th grade class photo (which I think she posted on this Forum a couple years ago) I was reminded that she wore the tallest "flip" hairdo I've ever seen. Taller than Jodelle Sims, Mary Jo Fortin, Kathy Winderting, Barbara Boggs, Kathy Burk, Mary Kay Freeman, or anybody.
I met her second husband a few years back up in nearby Beaufort. Super nice guy.
Save Me! I may have deleted Sue's email about a Watterson Lady Luncheon on September 3. I know Sue would like to go. Would someone send the specifics? Thanks so much.
I'm so sorry to hear of Mary Ann's passing. She was one of a kind. It is sad that we are getting to the age where we are losing our classmates. Too many, too soon. Conolences to her loved ones, and may she rest in peace.
Aquinas College High School in Columbus was open for 60 years and has been closed for just as long. Although it no longer exists physically, an active alumni group has ensured that the school continues to play a role in educating students in diocesan schools.
For the 31st straight year, the Aquinas Alumni Association has awarded scholarships to eighth graders entering diocesan high schools. Most recently, $13,492 in scholarship aid was presented to six students.
Since the association began its scholarship program in 1994, 191 students have received $538,727 in scholarship money through an endowment fund managed by The Catholic Foundation. The fund has a balance of $480,700, which will enable it to continue distributing benefits even after the school no longer has any living graduates.
Aquinas High School existed from 1905 to 1965. Alumni association president Lou Nobile said about 840 of its 4,200 graduates are alive, with the youngest being 77 years old and the oldest in their 90s. “I’d love to be in touch with more people, but only about half the graduates have email addresses,” he said.
Nobile said about 40 percent of Aquinas graduates live in the Columbus area and 60 to 70 attend the association’s meetings on the first Monday of each month between April and October, except for July. The September meeting is on the second Monday because of the Labor Day holiday. Five of the meetings are at the TAT restaurant on Columbus’ east side, operated by the family of the late Jim Corrova, a member of the Aquinas class of 1953.
Alumni from the former Columbus St. Thomas Aquinas High School view a display of memorabilia at Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School.
The group meets once a year in the Aquinas Room of Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School, where every class picture, athletic trophies, letter jackets and sweaters and other school memorabilia are displayed.
Those items were in a room at what is now the Museum of Catholic Art and History when the institution was located at the former Columbus Holy Family School. When conditions there were found to be unsafe, the museum in 2021 was moved to its current location across from St. Joseph Cathedral and St. Charles volunteered to be the new site for the Aquinas collection.
“Administrators from St. Charles called and said they’d be proud to display what we had in the museum. We were delighted because Aquinas and St. Charles always had a fierce but friendly rivalry as the only two all-boys schools in the Diocese of Columbus,” Nobile said.
After Aquinas High School closed, its alumni association eventually became inactive until the late 1990s, when it was revived by 1952 Aquinas graduate John Cross, Nobile said. Its regular meetings have been at the TAT since that time. “Jim Corrova invited us and his daughters have continued to graciously welcome us since his death,” Nobile said. “The restaurant is closed on Mondays, but the Corrovas open it just to accommodate us.”
Nobile said that the scholarships, one of the alumni association’s most significant expenses each year is for Masses for deceased Aquinas graduates, which are celebrated by the Dominican Fathers at Columbus St. Patrick Church. The church was adjacent to Aquinas and was closely associated with the school throughout its history.
Father Stephen Alcott, OP, former pastor at Columbus St. Patrick Church, wears a Forever Aquinas hat along with alumni Paul and Lou Nobile. The former Columbus Aquinas High School was staffed by Dominican friars.
This past December, the Dominicans asked Aquinas alumni to provide an honor guard for relics of St. Thomas Aquinas that were displayed at St. Patrick’s for two days. Several association members responded and Nobile said most wore Aquinas letter sweaters and jackets while being part of the event.
For 10 years, the alumni association hosted a golf tournament in which teams of St. Charles and Aquinas graduates competed against each other. “That ended about 10 years ago as the Aquinas graduates got older and realized there wouldn’t be younger guys to replace them,” Nobile said. The association used to host an all-class reunion, which also ended a few years ago, said Nobile, a member of the school’s class of 1957 who has been alumni association president since 2003.
“I’ve been president for so long because I do enjoy the job and the continuing contact with other alumni,” he said. “The school was very important to me, as I think it was to most Aquinas graduates, and the bond among us has gotten stronger as we’ve gotten older. I’m in my mid-80s and don’t know how much longer I can handle the job of keeping the association going, but then none of us are getting any younger.”
Besides Nobile, association officers are Don Laird (class of 1958), vice president; Paul Nobile (1957), treasurer; Don Schlegel (1965), curator; Frank Roberts (1958), event chairman; Steve Brown (1960), webmaster; and Mike West (1965), transportation coordinator.
TAT restaurant staff members wear Aquinas Forever hats as they welcome alumni to a luncheon.
“As long as we’re able, we will continue to live up to a statement in the 1963 Aquinas yearbook – ‘We are determined that so long as we are, Aquinas will be,’” Nobile said.
For more on the association, including all the class pictures, go to its website, www.columbusaquinas.com.
Don't we have two or three Aquinas guys in our class - that last buch who had to shift over when Aquinas had to finally close?
I'm referring of course to Joe McCarthy, as well as Dick McNamara (Bill's twin), and one other that slips my memeory just now - is it Al Judy? (or was Al a St. Charles guy?)
Since my older sisters - all St. Mary's girls - all dated St. Charles guys - I grew up thinking Aquinas guys were the "enemy"
My dad started at Aquinas but only lasted his freshman year. He was so bad in math that the priest who taught him would wrap his knuckes so badly dad would come home bloody. Gandma and Grandpa decided to send him to North High after that first year.
As my feeble memory reminds me there were seven transfers from Aquinas, I remember William (Bill) and Richard (Dick) McNamara, myself and I believe Lawrence (Larry) Foster, but other names slip my mind.
Dave Mitchell and Joe McCarthy (and everyone else): With the notifications I received from friends about the recent passing of our classmates I decided to do some lurking. Dave, the following is in response to your question about how many Aquinas transfers came to Watterson after it was announced in Spring 1963 that Aquinas would be closing in August 1965.
I looked at my 1963 Aquinas yearbook (that Joe McCarthy gave to me a few years back) and found the following classmates from Aquinas who transferred to Watterson in different years. There were 12 classmates from IC and 3 from other parishes that I can confirm were at Aquinas during freshman year and graduated from Watterson senior year.
I am pretty sure that the following people came to Watterson in 10th grade: John Favret (from St. Michael's?) Mark Cantlon, Brian Doyle, Stephan Roach, Sean Kelleher and me, from IC.
Steve Mollica (St. Michael's?) and Joe McCarthy (St Christopher's) came senior year along with Dick and Bill McNamara and Brad Nielson, from IC.
The following guys all came from IC but I am not sure of the year they came: Greg Purnell, Phil Enright, Chris Rond, Bill Ryle, and Charlie Kreuger.
IC's calss of 1962 had 13 guys go to Aquinas for at least their freshman year. Robert McFadden was one of them from IC and he went to North High for his senior year.
Aquinas offered summer classes for freshman who wanted to graduate from Aquinas. The last graduating class from Aquinas was in August of 1965 and included people like Jim Croyle (aka Squirrel from IC) and Ed Rudolfo and Frank Kulina from St. Michael's'(?). (FYI, Frank married Anne Trinette Shultz [IC 1962 and WHS 1966]). The Aquinas guys went to summer school in 1963, 64, and 65 in order to graduate just when we were starting our senior year at Watterson. They were in class at least 4 and more likely 6 hours a day to earn scholastic credits.
Al Judy went to St. Charles freshman year and then Whetstone his sophomore year and transferred to Watterson starting his junior year.
In June 1996 I was walking in my neighborhood in Anderson Township in the Cincinnati area, and went past a house that was having an afternoon graduation party for one of their daughters. I stopped my walk and said hello to the daughter, Gabriella. She was a classmate of my son Ben who also graduated in 1996. And then I saw Gabrellia's parents up by the garage. It was Ed Rudolfo. We had a good meet-up. Ed was a nurse anesthetist (helping during surgery) and he and my wife Peggy (a labor and delivery nurse) had worked together and knew each other. Sadly Gabriella passed away a few years ago. Due to the Covid restrictions at that time I could not go to her funeral.
John Favret, Eddie Ridolfo, Frank Kulina, and Steve Mollica all went to St. Michael's with me. Also one you don't mention is Tom Fitzpatrick. He was from St. Michaels but finished early at Aquinas. He has joined us for our last few reunions since he knows so many. There could be others but I can't think of them off the top of my head. Jim Welch?
Welcome back to the Forum. We have missed you - and your drawings. Do I recall correctly that you moved to California?
Speaking of the MacNamara twins - I started Kindergarten (at Glenmont grade school) with them and have one funny memory of them. Almost every single day for the first few weeks of that year, one of the two would start crying and make the other one cry with him, and they had to call their mom to come and pick them up early. I can still picture Evelyn roling up to the front door in one of their big black funeral home Cadilacs.
Then later, in second grade at OLP, Dick was so out of control one day - as he was most days - that the (very old) nun made the two of them stand up and take off their belts. Then she hooked the two belts together and harnessed Dick into his desk chair so he could ot get up out of his seat.
Then they moved and finished at IC. I srtlll saw their mom and dad for a while as they stayed in my dad and mom's monthly Bible study group. And of course - my family attended a few funerals at their funeral home.
I grew up with three sisters, no brothers. And I've always wondered how that affected the way I relate to women. I have always made friends with women more readily than I have made friends with men. Maybe it has nothing to do with not having any brothers; I don't know.
(The all-ladies outing is what brought this to mind. My first thought was I'd love to crash it but not to worry. Apart from being a gentleman I'm a few hundred miles south of Columbus.)
Hudson and Rex is an UPTV series about a Canadian police detective and his German Shepherd canine partner, Rex.
While investigating theft at an art gallery Rex is sniffing around for clues as Hudson interviews the curator. Rex is concentrating on a 3-foot tall cylindrcal sculpture and the curator comments that Rex seems to have a nose for very expensive pieces of art.
Hudson responds "Not really, he thinks it's a hydrant."
Back on page 636, in my post #15879, I gave an explanation of how we flew the "Scout" part of the "Hunter Killer Teams. Having shared with you all about my first week of inactivity - having diahrea, seeing the Bob Hope Show, the exciting recovery of Major Rowe from 5 years of captivity, and finally, the Rose Bowl in which Ohio State beat O.J. Simpson - I would like to take you along with me in my first three days actually learning the mission. A chapter in my book that should not offend anyone, but perhaps rather give you a laugh.
9 - MY FIRST THREE DAYS IN THE COCKPIT -
AfterLunch !
About the third of January (1969), My time to fly a real mission had finally come. About 7:30 a.m., all the crews except the “AMC” (Air Mission Commander) and his co-pilot, ride a deuce and a half truck out to the flight line. The AMC and his co-pilot for each day are driven separately in a jeep. Our portion of the flight line is only about a 200-yard walk from our hooch area, if walked direct. But the straight line would take us across the main (3,000 foot) fixed-wing landing strip, which we are not allowed to cross, so it’s a very long walk down around that long runway and back without the truck ride.
I was about to go through 6 or 7 days as an “Observer.” I would sit in the left seat of a Loach, piloted by our platoon leader, a young Captain named Gary Joiner. Captain Joiner was a really nice guy, and the conversation was very upbeat. He would show me the mission first-hand - and comment on whatever we encountered. Simply learning by doing.
We arrived out on the flight line and do a quick “pre-flight” inspection of our ship. We were okay and good to go. For one of the few times in my eighteen months to come, we were basing our day’s mission right at home here on the airfield at Vinh Long - then flying our search just a few miles south of the airfield. As we search the assigned area the day progresses with no enemy “contact”. We flew fast, then slow - straight, then steep tight turns - then sideways at times, I got the quick realization that this is what I will eventually call “circus clown flying”. It will be this way for the rest of this first year as a pilot in the “Scout” platoon. But there are other elements that I had not counted on. I was sitting in the left seat, going through these flying gyrations, with the sound of the engine, the whine of the transmission, and the noise of the main rotor head right behind me. And there are also four different radios (FM, UHF, VHF, and one other, that I have forgotten)which are scratchy and unclear to my untrained ears - but loud and distracting. And more importantly, that I am not at the stick - I am not the one flying the aircraft - I am not in control.
Sometime after we broke for lunch, we boarded the ships again to resume the next search. All the factors I named above are not mixing well with my head, and even worse with my stomach. A horrible feeling was creeping over me - a feeling I had had more than a dozen times back when was an altar boy, serving Mass at Our Lady of Peace Church. I knew I was about to get sick. I waited a while and tried to hold on, but to no avail. I finally leaned out my left door opening and blew my entire lunch out the door.
It was horribly embarrassing! But Captain Joiner seemed unfazed as he offered a word of sympathy. It would have been a completely calm day’s flight but for my theatrics. We finished the mission and returned to the airfield. The truck returned as usual and began his slow crawl along the parking revetments, picking up a crew from each ship, one at a time. When it stopped for Captain Joiner and I, a few of the guys reached down to give me a hand to climb into the truck, and a few comments of encouragement were offered - “You’ll be okay. It happens all the time”. I was not comforted by any of it. I was too embarrassed.
The next day Captain Joiner and I were in the air, and after lunch - it happened again. This time the guys in the truck were less forthcoming with their sympathy. It was more like a serious question -“are you gonna be okay?” Now I was really ashamed of myself.
Day three arrived and I was confident it would not happen again. But it did!
I had leaned out my left door and blown my lunch for the third time. But this time we were coming under fire - for my first time. Captain Joiner yelled “Receiving Fire. Receiving Fire” over the radio and turned abruptly to make a pass over the source of fire with our Min-gun, which is mounted right below and behind my left door. The mini-gun is like a modern-day gatling gun - with six barrels that spin at high speed (faster than you can see them) - 2,000 round per minute, with a deafening roar and a 15-inch bright muzzle flash. It pulls the belt of ammunition from a large box of belted rounds of ammo behind our seat, and out through the firing mechanism at a very high rate. The revolving chambers must be well oiled and very clean.
As we passed over the target, Captain Joiner is calling “comin’ hot” - announcing that he is opening fire on whatever is down there (to let the other ships - our wing man - know you are about to shoot). But nothing happens. I hear a sort of clicking sound out my door. Then our wing man calls out “comin’ hot” and makes a pass with his gun firing normally. We turn on a dime and head back in over the target, but again our mini gun won’t fire. I hear the same clicking sound again and leaned out to look down at our mini gun. The entire “receiving mechanism” (that pulls the bullets into the firing chambers) is caked with my vomit which is now partially dried in the wind. The gun is totally inoperable with this clogged mess.
I had to tell Captain joiner over the intercom what the problem was. And he yells back over the intercom, “Dammit Mitchell, I’m sick of this crap! We’re gonna move you over into the right seat tomorrow and you can make somebody else sick for a change!”
The ride from the flight line that day was different. No reaching down to help me up. No sympathetic pats on the back. I felt so ashamed I could hardly look the other guys in their face.
(Sorry, I cannot get those early paragraphs aligned correctly.)
Flightline “taxi” service (far right). The revetment walls cut down on “Mortar splash”.
I joked to the guys in my platoon that I was such a fast learner that Captain Joiner could let me skip those few more days in his left seat and “graduate” into the right seat right away. The sickness never occurred while I was the one in control of the ship.
* (second week - me flying right seat, but still being "coached" by a more experienced pilot for one more week.
NOTE: Bob' s foot is resting on the (6 barrelled) "mini gun", the ammo is being pulled mechanically out of a box inside where the gun mount is. Perfect location for catching 3 of my lunches as I leaned out my left door.
I don't care whose side you are on. This redistricting battle is frightening. It just feels like tinkering with the will of the people. And again, I'm not taking sides. It's not a democrat vs republican thing in my view.For a journalist I am quite naive when it comes to politics, just never took an interest in it as a writer. I do know zillions of shortcuts and dirty tricks behind the scenes are part of the game and have been for years. but this seems so blatant.
