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| Volume #4 Issue #4 Date: April 2018
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| 66th Annual Blackfriars Gala Is April 20th!
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Don't miss out: It's your last chance to register for the 66th Annual Blackfriars Gala! Reduced priced tickets are available for graduates of the classes of 2005-2017. Buy your tickets or a table by clicking here.
Purchase your raffle ticket for a chance to win $20,000! Exciting live auction items will be announced soon: if you are a fan of Taylor Swift, the Chicago Cubs or champagne, you won't want to miss out! Also, new this year, you may pre-purchase upgraded wine for your table; please see your RSVP card or Fenwick’s website for details. Consider becoming a sponsor of the Blackfriars Gala. Most levels include tickets to the event. Full benefits can be found here.
The event will be held on Friday, April 20th, at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. This year, we will induct V. James Marino ’68 and Kenneth Nelson, M.D. ’75 into the Fenwick Hall of Fame, and present Monsignor Michael Boland with the Lumen Tranquillum Award. For more information, or to register or become a sponsor, please visit the Fenwick website.
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| Smedinghoff Memorial Lecture on April 16th
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Please join us! Robert J. Callahan '67 (right) keynotes the 5th annual Anne Smedinghoff Memorial Lecture on Government Service at Fenwick on Monday, April 16th, at 7 p.m. in the John Gearen Library. Bob was a Foreign Service officer for 32 years, ending his career as ambassador to Nicaragua from 2008-2011. In addition to other assignments in Latin America (Costa Rica, Honduras, and Bolivia) and Europe (London, Athens, and Rome), he served in Baghdad as the press attaché and embassy spokesman from 2004-05. He also taught national security policy for two years at the National War College and spent three years as a diplomatic fellow at George Washington University, where he taught courses and lectured on foreign policy, public diplomacy, and international relations. He speaks Spanish, Italian and Greek.
Since his retirement from the Foreign Service, Bob has written articles on topics as varied as foreign affairs and education reform for the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Miami Herald and Cape Cod Times, among others. He has also led training classes for American diplomats and other Federal government employees assigned abroad and addressed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the U.S. government’s policy toward Nicaragua.
Bob, who was born in Chicago, has a B.A. in modern European history from Loyola University Chicago and an M.A. in American history from DePaul University. Before joining the State Department, he was an editor at Loyola University Press. Bob is married to the former Deborah Brown of Worcester, Massachusetts, and they have two adult sons. Bob and his wife currently reside on Cape Cod.
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| Larry Wert '74 Dives into CCL Hall of Fame
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Wert (center) broke Ken Sitzberger’s diving record by less than two points (1974 Blackfriars Yearbook photo). |
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Congratulations to lifelong Riverside resident and Friar diver extraordinaire Larry Wert '74, who is being inducted into the Chicago Catholic League Hall of Fame on Thursday evening, April 26th. While a student-athlete in high school, Wert was a swimmer, diver, golfer and on the water polo team. He broke the Fenwick diving record of Ken Sitzberger (1964 U.S. Olympic gold medalist) by less than two points and was a member of the water polo team that brought home two national championships.
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After graduation, Wert was a scholarship diver at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), where he earned a BA in journalism. His 30+ year broadcasting career in radio and television began in advertising. He ascended to become President and General Manager at WMAQ-TV (NBC 5 Chicago) and Central & Western Region President, managing NBC-owned, local television stations in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Wert recently was appointed President of local broadcasting for the Tribune Media Co., which includes 42 owned or operated local TV stations reaching some 50 million households as well as WGN America and the WGN-AM radio station.
Wert serves as a member of the Advisory Council of Columbia College Chicago’s Television Department, Board of Directors for the Children’s Brittle Bone Foundation, Catholic League Charities and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation of Greater Chicago and also is a Life Trustee of Fenwick.
For HOF ceremony tickets, please contact DePaul Prep's Dan O'Keefe, who is President of the CCL Coaches Association.
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| Fenwick Band Plays at Jazz Showcase Chicago!
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The Fenwick Jazz Band gave a terrific performance downtown on the evening of March 13th at the historic Jazz Showcase Chicago, one of the premier jazz venues in the United States. What a great opportunity to play under the hot lights of a professional stage! Director Andrew Thompson set up the event with Bob Lark, his former music instructor at DePaul University. Mr. Thompson, who plays trombone (center photo), also sat in with the headliners of the Bob Lark Alumni Big Band, which is comprised of former DePaul students who are now music educators themselves.
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| Friars' Baseball Games in Florida!
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Last week your Friars were "in the house" at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in central Florida, playing in Champion Stadium, which is where MLB's Atlanta Braves play their spring ball. (Fenwick got in one inning before the game was rained out.) | |
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Spring baseball in Chicago can be a tall, cold order. “Weather-wise, you never know what you’re going to get,” says longtime Fenwick Baseball Coach Dave Hogan, but it’s usually not good and sometimes involves snow flurries -- or worse. “This year we had five games scheduled in March,” Hogan added today, April 9th, as blizzard-like white stuff pelted down before the 1st-period bell. “We’re not going outside today,” he sighed.
Hogan and the team were looking forward to getting out of town in late March, donning their sunglasses and heading to a warmer clime in sunny Florida. Their destination, for the seventh consecutive year: Disney World in Orlando and the nearby ESPN Wide World of Sports. ESPN’s complex features seven fields, including Champion Stadium where the Atlanta Braves play their spring ball. The MLB guys left just before the Friars arrived, “but the minor-leaguers are down there now,” notes the Fenwick coach. Basecamp for the skipper and his Friars is the Caribbean Beach Resort, which caters to baseball teams.
The Florida experience has evolved to what amounts to the Friars’ preseason. “We’ll play six to eight games, including two JV games, down there in the sunshine,” Hogan reported. “It really is a great environment. The competition is tremendous. We’ve played teams from Nebraska and all over the country, but mostly east of the Mississippi [River], including Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin. I just hope we don’t draw anybody from Alabama this year because they’ll already have had 15 to 20 games in.”
On Easter Monday, April 2nd, the coaching staff and 27 players (and about 14 sets of parents, along with some of the boys’ siblings) took a red-eye flight early in the morning. Then, that night, the Friars took the big field at Champion Stadium. Their opponent was the Hornets of Passaic Valley Regional High, Little Falls, New Jersey, which is a suburb located about 20 miles northwest of New York City.
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| The Hilarious Case of Maguire University
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How the fictitious ‘school’ came to be – even though it never was a real college.
If the halls at Fenwick could talk ... The more we learn about Maguire University, the more our stomachs hurt from laughing. It is difficult not to laugh, or at least smile and smirk a little. We first caught wind of Maguire U last winter in the Faculty Cafeteria at Fenwick, sitting and chewing the proverbial fat with John Quinn ’76, Fenwick alumnus, longtime social studies teacher and Catholic League Hall of Fame basketball coach.
The conversation turned to the late, great John Lattner '50, who had passed away about a year earlier. Mr. Quinn was laughing, almost snorting, between bites: “Did you ever hear about Maguire University?” he chuckled, nearly choking. No, we had never heard of that school, wondering what the heck was so funny. Little did we know!
It is good that Quinn is one of Fenwick’s unofficial school historians because, as it turns out, there is nothing official about Maguire U. The infamous university was “created” 55 years ago in a semi-respectable Madison Street establishment in nearby Forest Park called, what else: Maguire’s. With the annual March Madness basketball craze just concluded, this is how the story goes …
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| Faculty Focus – Denise "Dee" Megall
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|  | Silver Teaching Anniversary:
Mrs. Denise "Dee" Megall has been instructing Fenwick students in Spanish for 25 years. |
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What is your educational background?
DM: I have a B.A. in Spanish from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin, and an M.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from Loyola University in Chicago. I have also studied in Guadalajara, Mexico, through Arizona State University and took classes at the University of Madrid. What did you do prior to becoming a teacher at FHS?
DM: I began my teaching career at Trinity High School in River Forest in 1970. I am a Trinity graduate and four years later I was back there teaching. I was on the faculty for six years until the birth of the first of our three sons. I stayed home raising the boys for 16 years. I was working on my Master’s degree when I started at FHS in 1992. I have taught the mothers of many of my Fenwick students due to my early years working at Trinity.
To what teams did you belong as a student?
DM: Trinity only had intramural volleyball and basketball teams when I was a student. I was on the volleyball team all four years. The game was completely different from what it is now. We just kept hitting the ball back and forth until someone missed. Only one girl in the school would spike the ball and we all just thought she was being rude!
What interests do you pursue outside of the classroom?
DM: I love to read. My next book is The Bridge at Andau, which is about the Hungarian Revolution. I am very interested in this topic due to family history. In 1956, when my husband was eight years old, his third cousin escaped from Hungary during the revolution and came over and lived with the Megalls from age 18 to 28. We just celebrated his 80th birthday, which was a wonderful family occasion. I also enjoy doing needlepoint and knitting in my spare time.
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| Collegiate Friars:
Greg Lazzara '15 & Kelsey Sullivan '17
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Greg (with his Mom) and Kelsey on the Dayton and St. Ambrose campuses. | |
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Greg Lazzara
Fenwick Graduation: 2015
Hometown: Riverside, IL
Grade School: Hauser Junior High
Current School: University of Dayton (Ohio)
Current Major: Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Aerospace Engineering
Career Aspirations: Not entirely sure, I would like to work in the Chicagoland area either doing research/analyzing data or working for a private company. I am currently very interested in fluid mechanics and heat transfer. I eventually would like to obtain my MBA and work as a consultant or project manager. Lastly, I would love to retire from my engineering career and teach high school physics (maybe at Fenwick!).
Fenwick Achievements/Activities: Football, Baseball, Basketball, Banua (one year)
Fenwick teacher who had the most influence on you: Every teacher at Fenwick had some sort of influence on me and would always push me to my true potential. However, Mrs. Esposito and Mr. Kleinhans really showed me how mathematics and physics are applied to all areas of our lives, which really inspired me to pursue a degree in engineering. (Shout out to every teacher that I had while at Fenwick: You have influenced me to achieve great things in my life!) Kelsey Sullivan Fenwick Graduation: 2017
Hometown: Berwyn, IL
Grade School: St. Mary Riverside
Current School: Saint Ambrose University (Davenport, Iowa)
Current Major: Accounting
Career Aspirations: I hope to become a Certified Public Accountant and work for an accounting firm in Chicago.
What you’re involved with on campus: Currently on campus, I am a part of the swim team. I also participated in Dance Marathon and Relay for Life. I have also joined clubs such as SADD and College against Cancer.
Fenwick Achievements/Activities: Through my years at Fenwick I was a swimmer and also played water polo. My biggest achievement was being a part of a winning state title team my junior year. Our team felt so honored to have an assembly for us seeing the entire Friar Nation applaud when we brought our trophy on the stage.
Fenwick teacher who had the most influence on you: Not technically a teacher, but my work-study proctor Mrs. Tartaglia with whom I sat for two years. She guided me through many college decisions and influenced me to do better in my activities whether it be academics or sports.
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| Alumni Spotlight: Jeremy Ireland '14
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Jeremy Ireland '14 personifies perseverance. Cut from the high school team as a freshman, the former Fenwick basketball player is poised to finish what he started and live out his dream of playing college basketball.
Don’t let his charming smile fool you: Ireland's composition is gritty, just like his Berwyn roots. His Twitter profile description is short, sweet and reinforcing: “Can’t stop. Won’t stop,” which sums up his on-court experience over the past eight years. Pick an adjective: persistent, relentless, resilient, tenacious. They all fit Ireland.
“Let me tell you about Jeremy,” offers Fenwick Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach Staunton Peck, “highlighting” five points that illustrate his former player’s character:
1. He got cut from the freshman team at Fenwick.
2. He tried out as a sophomore.
3. He didn’t play much as a junior.
4. He wasn’t heavily recruited as a senior.
5. He never gave up on his dream to play college basketball.
Not making his high school team in 2010 definitely was a wake-up call for the 5’9” freshman, who says he was playing basketball and football “just for fun,” up to that point. “I came in raw and didn’t go to any camps or anything, so the coaches really didn’t know me.” Read more.
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| Friar Classic 'Early Bird' Pricing Ends 4/15
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Early-bird pricing for the 2018 Friar Classic Golf Outing ends on tax day: April 15th. We will hit the tees on Friday, June 15th, at White Pines in lovely Bensenville, IL. Register here to save!
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| Anne Smedinghoff Memorial Lecture: Robert Callahan '67
Monday, April 16
Chicago Catholic League Hall of Fame Ceremony
Thursday, April 26
New York City Alumni & Friends Gathering
Thursday, April 26 Fenwick Bar Association Annual Accipiter Awards & Luncheon
Friday, May 18
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Spring has sprung and college declarations will be announced next month by FHS seniors! By making a gift to Fenwick High School, you are helping to ensure that every class of graduates is as prepared for their college years as you were.
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Have something to share with your fellow alumni? Please send all of your alumni news and happenings to the Communications Department at communications@fenwickfriars.com.
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