Untitled Document

Willis Reilly...called it

"55 at 55".. and so this is our theme!

We want to continue the "55 INNOVATION.. and so we will do something different for our 55th reunion in June, 2010.

Contribute your ideas...to how we can enjoy the union of the best class in FORDHAM history, while having an event we, and our loving wives, can enjoy...

email ..bill@strategyleader.com

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Your Insights about

Joseph R. McCarthy Fordham College Senior Protest

Smitty responded--see below..what are your responses???

You may recall that 101 members of our class signed and published a letter challenging Joseph McCarthy..

Sean Kensing, Henry's son, would like to interview those who signed the letter... these are his emails:

My name is Sean Kensing. I am the son of Henry Kensing, your classmate (and fellow liberal rabble-rouser) atFordham University.

I recently came across the letter signed by over 101 members of your class (including my father) in response to the tacit approval of the Catholic church for the activities of Senator Joe McCarthy. I found the letter to be incredibly well put and eerily relevant to certain present-day debates about the intersection of religion and politics in America.

I was wondering if you had any thoughts or reflections on the ideas contained in the letter, and if you would be willing to share them with me. I wonder how the political and religious beliefs of the various signatories have changed over time, if at all. Do you still believe strongly in the concepts outlined in the letter? Would you sign it today if similar circumstances presented themselves? Or was it perhaps expression of a fleeting, youthful fervor that has dimished over time?

As for my father, I can attest that he still believes strongly in the separation of personal faith and public policy.

I thank you for making that letter available online. It has given me a unique insight in to my father's history - certain parts of my family have sought to blame my mother for his insidious, bleeding-heart liberalism. Turns out he had it in him all along!

I would appreciate any response you are willing to give concerning your feelings about the letter as well as how they have changed over time.

I hope you are well, and thank you in advance for any response you are inclined to give.

Sincerely, Sean M. Kensing

I work in the talk radio industry as a producer and on-air contributor. I am just now embarking on a series of freelance radio projects (creating independent radio pieces to air on NPR and/or be independently distributed on the web). Because I am always on the lookout for a good story, it strikes me that the Class of '55 could be a very interesting starting point - the idea being to attempt to contact as many signatories of the list as possible and solicit their memories and reflections of the time period. Most interesting would be to see how they've changed over time...this is obviously still in the early planning stages, but if you are at all interested in the idea, I would love to conduct an interview with you at some point in the future.

Rest assured that I have no interest in defining you (or any of the signatories) as idealized liberal "heroes". Nor would I seek to mourn or criticize any shifts towards more conservative beliefs over time. As I said, those labels and their associations are not all that important to me. The interviews would be objectively focused on the memories of those times and whether or not you would respond to a modern day "witch hunt" with similar dissent...if not, why not (what has changed?), etc...

Long story short: please feel free to post my initial letter on your website, and please consider the notion of participating in an interview-based documentary based on this idea. You would be an invaluable resource for any investigation of this intriguing slice of history.

I have already lined my father up for an interview on the subject. He has assured me he would pencil me in.

THE MCCARTHY LETTER AND THE FORDHAM SENIORS:

A SIGNER’S LOOK BACK

Looking back, what strikes me most are the parallels between1954 and 2009. When we signed the letter, the United States was five years away from the first Catholic President. I think many Americans believed it could never happen, just as most Americans in our time believed it impossible that an African-American could be elected. Vocal reformers were calling for a liberalization of Catholicism, which didn’t occur until seven years later. Today, equally vocal reformers are crying for a return to the Church as it was before Vatican II. Americans were so appalled by Communism, that they were willing to endorse the demagoguery of Senator McCarthy. Now they are so fearful of terrorism, that they accept the fracturing of the Constitution and the erosion of individual liberties in the name of safety.

To me, the key phrase in the letter was, “…there is a demanded a deference to authorities who have no specific competence in the field of political endeavor.” What that meant (and still means) to me, is that, when individuals or groups within the Church begin to equate their political views with morality, they run the risk of betraying both morality, the right of other Catholics to dissent, and the legitimate position of the Church as a whole. Fifty-odd years later, the risk has resurfaced in the debate over voting for someone who is pro-choice. I am vehemently opposed to abortion, but I refuse to be told by individuals in the clergy that I must not vote for a candidate whom I believe to be the best person to serve the overall interests of the community.

I well remember the fulminations of the Brooklyn Tablet and the denunciations from various pulpits that resulted from the letter. I also remember that it didn’t take very long for the critics to forget about us and find someone else to pillory. What was interesting was that, whatever individual faculty members or the Jesuit community at Fordham thought about the letter, the University officially took no public position at all, either to agree with or condemn us. I like to think that a regard for the right of free expression of opinion was the reason. However, I can’t help suspecting that the administration shrewdly realized that, if you have a teapot with a tempest in it, the worst thing you can do is put it on the stove to boil.

Smitty...

Rest in PEACE

Reston Myron

Reston F. Myron Jr. of Lauderdale Lakes and Pompano Beach, Fl. Born in the Bronx, January 11, 1934 to Dorothea and Reston F. Myron Sr. Alumnus of Regis High School and Fordham College. Executive for IBM Member of multiple 100% Clubs, American Express and Chase Manhattan Bank.

Predeceased by sons Robert and John, mother Dorothea and Aunt Virginia Whalen. Survived by children: Reston F. Myron III (Susan), Patricia (Beth), Michael (Nancy), Kathleen Myron-Love (Rich) and daughter-in-law Fran, Grandfather of 14 and Great Grandfather to four and Patricia, mother of his children.

Reston passed away peacefully, after a long illness. A true friend to many, a long time volunteer in his community and to his church. A long time coach and avid sports fan. He will be missed by his children, grand children and great grand children, and all his life long friends.

The family will receive friends at the Beecher Funeral Home, Inc. in Pleasantville on Wednesday from 4 - 8 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Holy Innocents R. C. Church in Pleasantville on Thursday at 11 AM. Burial will follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery. In lieu of flowers kindly make donations in his name to Imperial Point Medical Center 6401 N. Federal Highway Fort Lauderdale, FL., 33308, ATTN: Administration

For 150 Years, Fordham Baseball’s Tradition of Winning

The team with the most victories in college baseball history practiced energetically Thursday. Players ran from behind the batting cage to the plate to take their swings, outfielders dashed after fly balls and infielders vacuumed up grounders. The practice had a nice rhythm.

This scene did not occur in California, Florida or Texas, places where college baseball is in the spotlight. It occurred on a cool afternoon in the Bronx, six subway stops away from Yankee Stadium. It happened at Fordham University, the humble home of the team that surprisingly has the most wins of any N.C.A.A. Division I baseball program.

And it is not close. Fordham has 4,010 wins; Texas is second with 3,117. Of course, Fordham had a huge head start since it began playing baseball 150 years ago, which was 36 seasons before Texas did and more than half a century before many other teams. Still, Fordham proudly relishes having more victories than elite programs like Stanford and Miami.

“It’s truly an enviable record,” Fordham Coach Nick Restaino said. “We talk about that with our players all the time, from the recruiting process until they get in the program. We want them to be proud of it and to make sure that it continues.”

As an ode to Fordham’s first game on Nov. 3, 1859, the Rams will play Williams College, which also played its first game 150 years ago, on Tuesday. The Rev. Joseph M. McShane, Fordham’s president and the man who conceived the idea for the game, will toss out the first pitch on the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. Fordham was trying to entice Hal Steinbrenner, a co-chairman of the Yankees and a graduate of Williams, to throw a second pitch.

The Fordham players have “150 years” patches on the left sleeves of their uniform jerseys as a link to the famous names of the past. The roll call starts with Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash, who held the program’s single-season stolen base record for 67 years, played 19 seasons in the major leagues and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

No one can outdo Frisch’s alliterative nickname, but Jack Coffey, who played and coached at Fordham, has his own neat distinction as the only player to be a teammate of Babe Ruth’s and Ty Cobb’s in the same season. Then there is Gil McDougald, a former Yankees All-Star who coached at Fordham; Esteban Bellan, who was the first Cuban and the first Latin American to play professional baseball; and Vin Scully, an outfielder who wound up doing more with his silky voice than with his arm or legs.

In an interview on Fordham’s Web site, Scully recalled how he hit one home run in his “inglorious career.” Scully said he swung left-handed and was quick to explain that “I didn’t say I hit left-handed.” In a game against Yale, Scully competed against George H.W. Bush. When Scully played golf with the former President Bush decades later, he reminded him that they each went 0 for 3.

“I loved every minute of it,” Scully said in the interview. “I loved my teammates. We had so much fun, and it was definitely a good portion of my memory bank in those wonderful years on the Fordham campus.”

Restaino, who graduated from Fordham in 1993, said he did not know the details of the team’s rich tradition as a student. Now that he is in his fifth season as the coach, Restaino said that even the most ardent college fans often did not know Fordham’s elevated place in history. These days, Restaino said with a laugh, he was more likely to be asked if he met Bono when U2 played a show at Fordham last month than he was to be asked about the team’s victory total. For the record, Restaino met Bono.

“I was standing there when his car pulled up,” Restaino said. “He said hello.”

The Rams, who are 10-17 over all and 6-3 in the Atlantic 10 Conference, are competitive, but they are far from being among college baseball’s elite. Fordham has not qualified for the N.C.A.A. tournament since 1998. Still, the Rams have had 10 players selected in the amateur draft in the last four years and have averaged 30 wins a season in that time.

Fordham is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its initial game, but this is the university’s 149th season. Play was suspended for World War II in 1944. In the first 148 seasons, Fordham had 19 losing records. There have been 56 players from Fordham to appear in the majors, but only four in the last 45 years.

To commemorate the anniversary, Fordham tried to schedule games against Williams and Amherst College. Those two Division III universities played the first college game, on July 1, 1859. But Williams and Amherst played under “the Massachusetts rules,” a much more wide-open style than today’s game. According to the Baseball Almanac, the teams used 10 to 14 players in the field, there was no foul territory and there was one out per half inning. Amherst won, 73-32.

When St. John’s College, Fordham’s original name, opposed St. Francis Xavier College a few months later, they played the first college game featuring nine-man teams. The Rose Hills, as Fordham was known, won, 33-11. Fordham and Amherst will not play; Fordham is meeting Williams for the third time ever.

“It’s very cool to be part of that history,” pitcher J. P. Mack said.

During Fordham’s practice, the loudest sound came when a coach screeched, “Base-ball!” to some outfielders. He was reminding them to retrieve a foul ball. Even the most victorious program in history must collect stray baseballs.

Restaino acknowledged that a major reason for Fordham’s victory record was “because we were around before other people,” but he stressed that the Rams had had sustained success, too.

Restaino said he searched for “teachable moments” with his players and called himself an educator. At Fordham, history lessons are always appropriate.

“I tell them, Listen, for the rest of your lives, you’ll be able to look back and remember that you were a part of the 150th year,” Restaino said. “It’s a special year.”

On March 30, Fordham University launched the public phase of a far-reaching fundraising campaign in support of new levels of academic excellence at Fordham and greater stature for the University as a nationally prominent center of learning.

Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham seeks $500 million to support new facilities, more student scholarships, more endowed faculty chairs and more funding for academic endeavors throughout Fordham’s colleges and schools.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, announced the campaign before an audience of more than 900 supporters gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.

“For 168 years, Fordham has always told its sons and daughters to move beyond the limitations or constraints that they feel hold them back,” Father McShane said. “This night, we return the favor. This night, we pay back this institution that embraced us with faith, nurtured us with love and sent us out into the world with hope. This night, we announce the public kickoff of the most ambitious capital campaign in Fordham’s long and storied history."

Watch the campaign video here.

Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham seeks new stature for the University by 2016, the 175th anniversary of Fordham’s founding. It comes at a time when the University is climbing sharply in college rankings, gaining more recognition for its academic programs and attracting more of the nation’s top students.

“The campaign for Fordham University will be a transforming experience for this University,” said John Tognino (FCLS '75), chairman of the Fordham Board of Trustees. “It will be the catalyst to propel us to 2016, when we will be the premier Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States, and it will afford us the opportunity to continue to fulfill our mission, and that is educating men and women of distinction.”

The campaign is more than halfway complete, with $266 million raised. It has been leaving its mark on the University since 2004—during the campaign’s “quiet” phase—in the form of endowed faculty chairs, endowed scholarships and new residence halls being built on the Rose Hill campus.

The campaign has already drawn three gifts of $5 million, four gifts of $7 million and three gifts of $10 million.

The campaign kickoff took place immediately following the Fordham Founder’s Award Dinner, which honored two Fordham benefactors and members of the Board of Trustees—James Buckman (FCRH ’66) and John Kehoe (FCRH ’60, FCLC ’85)—who are also co-chairs of the campaign.

At the event, Father McShane described campaign goals that will bring improvements throughout the University.

Academic support
Half of the money raised by the campaign will fund academic improvements. That includes $150 million for endowed scholarships and endowed professorships and $100 million in support for various academic endeavors: faculty recruitment and retention; research endowments for faculty; funding for Fordham centers and institutes; and support for academic programs such as on-campus living and learning communities and honors programs.

The University seeks more scholarship funding so it can continue to open its doors to the most academically promising students—now, and in future generations, Buckman said.

“I was very fortunate to be able to attend Fordham via scholarships provided to me by the University as well as by other sources. Had I not received that scholarship help, it would have been very difficult for my parents to send me to Fordham,” he said. “We still have a number of students who are in similar situations.”

Another campaign goal is to add 40 endowed chairs, thereby attracting more of the nation’s top scholars while improving the student-to-faculty ratio and allowing faculty more time for research and mentoring students. The increase is also expected to diversify the fields of academic expertise at Fordham and pave the way for innovative, interdisciplinary programs on topics of current interest, Buckman said.

Fordham wants endowed chairs in science education, immigration and refugee studies, interfaith dialogues and environmental science, among other topics with deep resonance in today’s world.

Annual Giving
The University has set a goal of $80 million in annual support that helps meet emergent needs throughout the University. These gifts, frequently matched by corporations and foundations, help keep tuition down and give the University financial flexibility for meeting new funding challenges.

Some annual gifts are unrestricted, allowing them to be used University-wide, while others may be directed to particular colleges and schools to support research, travel to academic conferences, or other academic needs.

Facilities
The University has outgrown its facilities since the last campaign, which was pegged to the 150th anniversary of the University in 1991, Kehoe said.

“In the interim, we have not had a campaign to go and fuel the resources of the University and to continue to build it,” he said.

One major project is a new building for Fordham Law School, widely acknowledged as one of the best law schools in the country. It has 1,500 students in a building designed for 650, and its space per student is less than half the amount offered by the nation’s top 20 law schools.

Other improvements sought for the Lincoln Center campus are a 400-bed residence hall, along with classroom renovations. One campaign goal for the Lincoln Center campus has already been realized—the Veronica Lally Kehoe Studio Theatre, a state-of-the-art facility, dedicated in February, which was made possible by a $2 million gift from Kehoe.

On the Rose Hill campus, the campaign is raising funds for the construction of Campbell, Salice and Conley residence halls, to be built on the southwestern part of campus by 2010. Groundbreaking for Campbell Hall was held last year. The projects are supported by benefactors including Thomas P. Salice (CBA ’82); his wife, Susan Conley Salice (FCRH ’82); Robert E. Campbell (CBA ’55); and his wife, Joan M. Campbell.

A new campus center and a recreation and intercollegiate athletics center will also come to the Rose Hill campus as part of the campaign. The 140,000-square-foot campus center will house campus ministry, student services, a ballroom, a food court and a career planning and placement center, among other features.

The recreation and athletics center—measuring 150,000 square feet—will reconfigure the outmoded Lombardi Memorial Athletic Center and the Rose Hill Gymnasium into a state-of-the-art center for sports and physical fitness.

The facilities projects will cost $170 million.

Kehoe noted that the University already has in place the essential infrastructure of learning—dedicated students and a Jesuit tradition of educational achievement.

“We don’t have the facilities other universities have. But we turn out excellence,” he said.

Apart from the specific improvements being sought, a central part of the campaign is Fordham’s Jesuit identity, with its attention to the full development of each student—intellectual, spiritual and moral—and its emphasis on being men and women for others.

“It’s not just about bricks and mortar, although that’s very important. It’s not just about meeting campaign goals, although that’s very important,” Father McShane said. “It’s really about investing in an institution that has, from its very founding, been all about the work of transforming people, transforming the city, transforming the world and serving God.”

Said Kehoe: “In Fordham, you find not just education, you find a way of being, a way of thinking. There’s love at Fordham. There’s redemption at Fordham. Fordham is a continuing way of life.”