Here we are, at it again. We^'ve had a good response to our last newsletter, so we^'ll keep at it, "The good Lord willing and the creeks don't rise!"

I^'ve been devoting a section of this newsletter each time to a review of the history of the seminary, going by decades. We^'re up to the 1940s now, but will continue to publish stories or questions from the beginning in 1926 to the closing in 1984, so don't hesitate to send such items when the Spirit moves you!!!

As it happens, this is the decade of your editors. We could easily be tempted to call this decade THE decade, biased as we might turn out to be. But in a certain sense, it was sort of the heyday of the seminary, especially if you look at enrollment figures. Classes grew in size during this time, and the increasing numbers led to a building boom of sorts. The fifth and sixth year students began to live in what was known by a number of names. It was the Provincial House, the house closest to Main Street; red brick that was later painted white. Then, St. Mary's Hall was built as "temporary^" housing but it lasted into the late 80s. DeMazenod Hall was built which provided not only a badly needed gym, but also a laboratory for science, a music department and a stage for theatrical pursuits. There were many highly notable productions, some even ^"home-grown^", like Ed Hustedde^'s plays. After that, a dining hall was built in large part by student labor with recreation rooms and a student store -- really uptown! The old refectory in the basement of the main building had been woefully inadequate for years (but charm it had!) and we now really exalted in our new ^"digs^", with up-to-date everything, including dishwashers for us to learn that ^"trade^".

The class sizes, though increasing in the early part of the 1940s really picked up as the ex-GIs began to join us. We now had an abundance of older fellows with very different experiences to call upon rather than just those of lads newly out of 8^thgrade. In addition, the White Fathers of Africa (no longer called that, I'm sure, but I don^'t know their current name) opened a religious house in the old Gundlach place and their students who lived there motored (a favorite word of the times in notable small town newspapers) to St. Henry's each day in an old hearse! One actually brought his own car, a rare thing for any of us to actually own a car of one^'s own. The curriculum, set in stone for prior ages, changed slightly as the State of Illinois required Physical Education. It was led by the indomitable and indefatigable Jim Wynne, succeeded later by George "Tom" Golliher, of Murphysboro High School football fame. Who could ever forget those runs around the lake, and the side-straddle-hop?

Proof of the expanding seminary can be seen in the fact that the class which started in 1943 left St. Henry's variously but mostly in 1949 and would become the largest ordination class in the history of the Diocese of Belleville; eleven, joined with six Oblates in 1955. This class is preparing to observe their fiftieth year in the priesthood. The year after this class saw six ordained for the Diocese, five Oblates, and two for the Diocese of Springfield, one of whom, Victor Balke, would become the Bishop of Crookston, Minnesota. He now approaches the time for retiring.

We also began to wander off the campus more, and legally! Trips to Carthage, MO, to a shrine to Our Lady of Sorrows, to lectures held in downtown Belleville by famous national and international Catholic leaders, which provided an "illegal" stop off en route. This prompted a remark by our then Superior, Fr. James Kievel that we should be careful because this will ^"leak out" and get to the Bishop. Fr. Dan Miller began a custom of Saturday hikes through Dutch Hollow. More and more younger faculty members-- many alumni of the_, seminary-- came to teach and we imported a few Europeans, some called ^"DP^'s^" -- displaced persons because of WWII. So, many changes began to appear on the hallowed grounds of Priester's Park in the decade of the 40s.

Incidentally, if there is anyone of you who wishes to know ^"where is he now^", we'd be glad to try to answer, though we hastily provide a caveat that we may not be able to answer all inquiries.

Always, in this newsletter, we will make mention, as is appropriate, of Dan Miller. He is the Father Founder of this missive, and, as such, holds a dear spot in our hearts for that as well as for many other contributions to all our lives. While this will certainly not be a summary of his long and varied life, we do well to recall some salient things about Dan. He brought an energy and some innovations to St. Henry's as he descended on us in 1944 to teach English. He began, as noted elsewhere, those Saturday hikes through the woods. He had the audacity and bravery to stand up to the faculty, even though he was a neophyte among them, and demand an end to hazing and initiations. My own personal remembrance of him was that he was the one person who told me and convinced me that I could be a good student, especially in English and Speech. In another discipline which shall remain nameless, I was told quite firmly, ^"Blaes, I don^'t know what to do with you. You obviously can^'t learn and you never will." That convinced me and still does that I can^'t do that subject, something the psychologist Bandura calls ^"self efficacy^". If you think you can, you^'ll end up working harder, doing better than your ordinary ability; if you think you can^'t, you^'ll work less and do worse. So, when anyone asks me who of my teachers promoted in me a sense of self-efficacy, I would have to cite Dan Miller.

The latest news on Dan comes from Murph. Dan has a phone number directly to his room now. It is (978) 369-8658. Murph just talked with Ed Froelich on March 19, and he had phoned Dan very recently. He had a good conversation with him and suggested that we call him at will. Dan will probably let you know if he is too tired or he will just ignore the phone. That will save you going through the nurses' station and perhaps never getting to him. Unless Chris Cook ( Dan's stepson) lets us know otherwise, we can continue to contact Dan. His mail address remains the same.

Fr. Tom Singer, OMI, he of many jobs, the latest of which was being one of a handful of consultors to the Father General in Rome, now is heading up the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate at the Shrine in Belleville (does it really go by "MAMI^"?). And they say you can^'t go home again! There he is, helping out worldwide efforts, just a few hops and jumps from his hometown of East St. Louis; now up there on the bluffs. He resides at the St. Henry's Oblate Residence on North 60^th St. in Belleville.

Fr. Dave Kalert, OMI, has been "provincialing" in various places and entities for so long that he now needs to come down from the stratosphere and take a sabbatical. And where else? In Belleville, just a few miles west down Highway 15 from his hometown of Freeburg. Murph ran into him at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio on Palm Sunday. David is down there for an intense three week Spanish language immersion and then heads for Menlo Park, CA, on his well-earned Sabbatical. He, too, will reside eventually at the Oblate Residence in Belleville.

Your Honor, the Mayor of Belleville, please correct those population signs and add two!

Don Dirks wrote us a long letter telling us how Dan Miller performed his marriage ceremony back in 1966. Good to hear from him, out there in Los Angeles. He took umbrage at the designation of Los Angeles as a "wilderness" (in detailing the whereabouts of Tom Lenert and his newsletter called A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS). But isn't Los Angeles known for its "crazies" and wild folk? You excepted, Don, by all means!

Bob Kotva regaled us with a story of an ^"invention^" he and others put together under the lake, a diving helmet made up of a five gallon can upside down with window sash weights. This was then placed in the swimming area, enabling ^"swimmers^" to walk around on the bottom of the lake. One wonders how on earth more of us didn^'t do serious damage to

ourselves. (Recall the story of the basketball game of amateurs against the varsity when I got on Angelo^'s shoulders for jump ball and fell on my head.) There were other stories of people using the fire escape for nefarious purposes. Guardian angels worked overtime at St. Henry^'s.

Teachers, as they say, cannot help but be teachers and remain such. So, thanks to a Latin teacher, Fr.Bob Braun, for correcting us, although both Murph and I are not his wayward students. We began Latin with Fr. Yost, the bursar, and never had the good fortune to be taught by Bob. We used an accusative case where an ablative case should have been used when we asked you to pray for Dan Miller; using "Ora pro eum^". Should have been ^"ora pro eo^". Thanks, Bob -- and why didn^'t we know that, familiar as we are with the phrase ^"ora pro nobis^", which is obviously ablative (but could also be dative--oops!). Both of us, now 74, and still making mistakes!

No, I didn^'t dig this title out of my alphabet soup dish. The issue here is, how bright were the students at St. Henry^'s? These days, we have gifted programs, even gifted highs schools and there are abundant tests to verify intellectual acumen. We, at times, see news articles about perfect scorers on college entrance tests.

So, I wondered, what was the intellectual power of the St. Henry^'s students? I recall being in absolute awe of upper classmen who I felt were really brilliant -- Rene Dufour, Kelcher, Gus Hagen, Bob Wesselmann. They, and others I can^'t now remember, seemed-- and probably were-- much more erudite, swifter and more gifted in vocabulary than the ordinary person. They certainly were more so compared to the students their age I now teach in college. While touting my own class (if we don^'t, who will, eh?) we seemed to be the class of principals and educators. Ray Orlet was a principal; so was Ed Hustedde; so was I; Jim Rohr was a Superintendent of Schools ; Tom Lenert and Paul Golliher taught in universities. Rather interesting, that out of a small class, so many ended up as professional educators. In a year, I will have done fifty years of teaching.

I look at a class younger than my class, one which has in it Cardinal Francis George, widely known and admired for his intellectual depth and brilliance. In that class, Jack Frerker with three novels to his credit and Len Baenen with a distinguished career in education.

There is, of course, no way to measure, verify, statistically prove this thesis that St. Henry's attracted a high caliber student. But the old gut feeling still seems to tell me that it was true. Your comments, please.

We haven^'t gotten any, and at the same time we haven^'t gotten answers to those we did pose -- such as where did students play basketball before De Mazenod Hall was built?

Can anyone name the music teachers at St. Henry^'s? I remember Fr. Emil Twardochleb (spelling?). There was also Fr. Ischler, Fr. Adamiec, Prof. "Bones" Miller from the Cathedral (who also taught us Greek), and Fr. Maronic. But who else? What did Koos Van Lent teach?

In the next Newsletter, Murph will attempt to scan and include a page which has all the Professors who ever taught at St. Henry's, he thinks. And, at the reunion on May 20, he will have a few extra copies of the publication from which he got that list. John Mueller (class of '50 high school) had the pub and made copies for Murph. Thanks, John.

But we did get a story from Fr. Al Svobodny, omi, about a classmate back in 1937, who drowned in the big lake, the Wednesday after Labor Day. Remember how we all came on the Tuesday after Labor Day each year, had classes on that Wednesday morning and then had the afternoon off? That pattern maintained throughout the year; half day of classes in the mornings on Wednesday and Saturday and then, after some manual labor, we had the afternoons of those two days for recreation, hiking, ball games, etc.

I, Murph, remember hearing about the drowning but never really knew the story. Al recalls it quite vividly:

"In 1937, my cousin Fr. Leonard Hirman drove John Maronic and me a sophomore from International Falls, Minnesota to Belleville , Illinois. The very first day we had a half-day of classes and then were free in the afternoon. A classmate Henry Bene was sitting behind me in class. He asked me if he could use my new swimming suit. I gave it to him. As the entire seminarians came out of the administration building, my cousin with his movie camera took pictures of all the students. Henry Bene went swimming and unfortunately drowned just about 10 feet off shore in the larger of the two lakes. We suspect that several were fooling around on the boat and he fell in and probably hit his head on the bottom of the boat.

Needless to say it was a gloomy and sad way to start the school year. Henry Bene was from Mascoutah, Illinois and the class and others went to the funeral. From the film that my cousin took we were able to pick out Henry Bene's picture and enlarge it and gave it to his parents as a remembrance."

I doubt many of us have such a sad memory of our first Wednesday at St. Henry's, but I am grateful to Al (whom I first met when he came up from Texas to help build that dorm on the east side of the campus, and I had a summer job at the seminary) for recounting this story. And when we think now of Henry Bene, let us (as corrected) "Ora pro eo!"

Al also reports he is now 82 and still working at Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo, Minnesota. Ad Multos Annos, Al, from your old friend Murph, and from all our readers.

Attached to this newsletter is the actual, official, one-and-only reservation form for the dinner MAY 20, 2005, at the SHRINE. Please don^'t file this somewhere for "future reference". Management 101 says, handle a piece of paper once, deal with it, get it done, don't just pile up papers. Remember, this is not a "black tie^" event for the few. It is open to any and all alumni, even those not receiving this newsletter. Go find them and bring them in (with $20, please) from the highways and byways, the lame and the halt (which of course most of us are fast becoming!).

We^'ve settled into a May gathering and at the same place, the Shrine. Such stability!

We invite you and yours to come anytime after 12pm. Those who come early will go off to a very informal lunch at the Shrine or elsewhere. Bring remembrances, pictures, publications, remnants. and, of course, yourself. We sit around, shoot the bull, tell lies, guffaw, recall (even sometimes truthfully) and otherwise just enjoy each other^'s company throughout the day. Murph has "inherited" much stuff and pictures from the Froelich clan and will seek help identifying some people on many old photos from hikes and mail calls at St. Henry's.

Dinner will be at 6:15pm, with cocktail hour beginning at 5:30 or so. Though the price has gone up slightly, with an anonymous supporting gift we can still get by on $20 per person. We DO need down payment and guarantees for the Shrine, so you must pay in advance, please. Unfortunately, I^'m not connected into Mastercard or Visa, can^'t take your plastic, and money doesn^'t come through E mail, so ^"snail mail^" remains the established method.

Send your reservation(s) WITH CHECK FOR $20 per person NO LATER than May 1 to:

(If you need to call me, (618) 558-4323
SHRINE OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS
Please Reserve
2005 - St. Henry's Seminary Reunion at the Shrine:
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