The E-Flyer
Loyola College Prep’s on-line newsletter
Sept. 15, 2005      Issue No. 59
www.loyolaprep.org

LCP receives amazing support

When I sent the Special E-Flyer last week in regard to Loyola's enrolling students from the New Orleans area (http://www.loyolaprep.org/alumni/eflyer/eflyerSpecial1.htm), I had no idea what to expect. That's my fault; I should have known what to expect.

I should have known that the outpouring of support would be beyond our expectations. I should have known that our alumni would step forward and assist in whatever way necessary. Not just financial assistance, but also offers of housing, clothing, transportation, volunteer assistance. The list goes on and on.

A week ago, we had enrolled 90. Now it's about 120. We expect more, though a few have already returned to their New Orleans. Every day, we simply adjust some more and continue to feel blessed that we are in a position to offer the assistance.

Please allow me to tell a quick story ...

Whenever a credit card donation is received, I get a flash on my computer that a donation has been received and is ready to be processed. When I get to the information, I usually recognize the sender as an alumni. But last Friday, the name didn't register.

As I looked through the personal information, it was from a donor in New Jersey. I did not recognize her name, but in the message section she indicated that she was "a friend of ..." But even THAT name didn't register as someone from our alumni community. 

Then I figured it out -- some of you took the Special E-Flyer from last week and began forwarding it to your friends and family; an impromptu "chain e-mail," if you will.

When I sent a thank you message to our New Jersey donor, her reply was simple:

"God bless you for your mercy towards them."

Indeed, God bless us all.

-- John James Marshall '77

Some New Orleans priests ended up on familiar ground when they evacuated their retirement home before Hurricane Katrina struck.

About a dozen retired Jesuits, who were former teachers and administrators at what's today Loyola College Prep, are now living in Bossier City. Most of the priests and brothers were there in the 1940s and '50s when it was still St. John's High School.

Among the Jesuits staying in the area are (from left) Rev. Herve Racivitich S.J., Rev. Charles O'Neill S.J., Rev. Ed Buvens S.J. '52 and Rev. Thomas Culley S.J.  (photo by The Times)

Another Jesuit priest who has made it to Shreveport is Rev. Norman O'Neal S.J. (pictured above with Principal Frank Israel). Fr. O'Neal, who is a 1943 graduate of St. John's, has been on the faculty at Jesuit-New Orleans since 1960 and stayed at the school in the days after the hurricane until he and other school officials were rescued by boat. He has been assisting the faculty and administration at Loyola.t

While most are quite elderly, some of the men were able to visit their old school. They said it seemed a little strange to see girls in the hallways of the once all-boys school, but they were pleased at the growth.

"Those we met were polite and friendly and looked happy," the Rev. Herve Racivitch said.

Racivitch said he had some misgivings about the school when he started teaching there. He had been at the prestigious Jesuit in New Orleans. But after the first year he was won over by the students and agreed to come back a second year. He remembered the students as being "very spirited."

"After the second year, it was I who asked to stay," he said.

The staff is also radically different, made up of mostly women and all lay people. But the former teachers say that's OK. "We came to take on the job nobody wanted," Fagot said. "We're proud they continued what we started -- and did it well."

At the time they were here, the city was growing and the young priests became active members of the community.

The Rev. Michael Kennelly was principal of St. John's when the gym was built and the building expanded. He remembered getting great help from the Protestant and Jewish communities. "With them we became a success story in a much shorter time," he said.

Since being in Bossier, the men have had some former students visiting them and they welcome others. They are waiting for the power and medical facilities to be back before they return home.

The priests had a few pieces of advice for the current Loyola students, including reminders to listen to their teachers, but mostly encouragement. "Keep up the good work," Fagot said.

Fr. Welsh in the 1970s (left) and at the Centennial Celebration in 2002

Rev. John R. Welsh S.J. passes away at 79

By John Andrew Prime '74/The Times

John Robert "Jack" Welsh, SJ, for two decades one of the best-known Jesuit educators in Shreveport, died Monday afternoon in south Louisiana shortly after being transferred from one hospital to another in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He was 79.

Welsh, ordained in 1956, attended St. John's High School, now Loyola College Prep, in the early 1940s but left before graduation to attend seminary. He returned to St. John's to teach from 1959 to 1976 and served as its president and then as rector.

"He was the driving religious force in keeping the school alive in the late 1960s," said Shreveport attorney Art Carmody, who attended St. John's and played on the school football team with Welsh. Order leadership in New Orleans had decided to pull out of the school, which then was called Jesuit, but Welsh and a group of community leaders who assumed the school's debt convinced New Orleans to keep religious faculty there. "He was the one we could always turn to for support."

Welsh, who suffered from diabetes, died at Pauline Faulk Center in Rayne, where he had been evacuated from New Orleans' Touro Hospital in the wake of the hurricane.

To 1974 Jesuit graduate Scott Appleby, a history professor at Notre Dame University and director of its Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Welsh "was the icon of the Jesuit master. Stolid, scholarly, a bit mysterious, he was also blessed with infinite patience. I have forgotten much of the Latin -- sorry, Father -- but not the marvelous example of a cultivated Christian gentleman dedicated to the moral and intellectual growth of others."

Former Shreveporter George Gray, now an Episcopal priest in South Carolina, also graduated from Jesuit in 1974 but never took a class under Welsh. He got to know the priest in the 1990s when both men lived in Tampa, Fla., Gray as rector of The House of Prayer Episcopal Church and Welsh living at that city's Jesuit High School rectory. "Jack would be assigned to lead the large downtown Catholic parish in Tampa," Gray said. "I was on the outskirts of downtown Tampa, in the poor crime-ridden neighborhood called Tampa Heights.

"This was when we began to develop our relationship," Gray said. "Then Jack suffered a nervous breakdown and I was able to minister to him and he, in turn, ministered to me. Jack became my spiritual director."

Welsh embraced social causes during his tenure in Shreveport, particularly prison reform. After leaving Shreveport, Welsh taught in Florida two years before being sent to Brazil, where for a decade he did mission work, pastored, was superior of the Jesuit community in Centro Kennedy, Campinas, and directed the Apostleship of Prayer in Sao Paulo. He was editor of "The Dynamic Voice of Vatican II" published by Sisters of St. Paul Press and "A Sarca Ardente" Edicoes Loyola in Brazil.

After returning to the United States, Welsh helped direct retreats and held pastorates in Grand Coteau and Tampa. For the past year, he was assigned to Ignatius Residence in New Orleans.

The native of Ashland, Wis., was a son of the late J. Robert Welsh and Marcella Navarre Welsh. J. Robert Welsh worked at SWEPCO for more than 30 years, retiring in 1971 as the company's chairman; the Welsh Power Plant in east Texas, SWEPCO's largest generating facility, is named after him. Gray noted that Welsh literally sacrificed all that privilege for his faith. "Jack Welsh and his sister who (is) a nun left everything (and they came from a very well-to-do family) for Jesus Christ," Gray said. "Jack was a very humble man of great spiritual gifts in which he taught through Latin and English. He was not only a teacher of young boys, but a teacher of the Roman Catholic Church's best and most dedicated men: the Jesuits. Jack loved our Lord Jesus Christ, and he loved others as Christ loves us."

Welsh's survivors include his brother, Charles, of Smyrna, Ga., sisters Shirley Cashore of Willis, Texas, Pat Whelan of Belleville, Ill., Frances Hellinghausen of Horseshoe Bay, Texas, Kathleen Schwartz of Montgomery, Texas, and Sister Marietta of Lafayette.

Lunch with Loyola begins again on Sept. 21

The first "Lunch with Loyola" for the 2005-06 school year will be held Wednesday, Sept. 21 at Cambria Bistro & Bakery in Shreveport on Ashley Ridge Blvd. (behind Outback Steakhouse). The event begins at noon.

The cost is $12 and the price is all inclusive (beverage, tax & tip). The main purpose of the event is simply to get local alumni and friends of the school together. Come to renew old acquaintances, hear about what's going on at Loyola these days and discuss any other items that might be of interest.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR FUTURE "LUNCH WITH LOYOLA" DATES!
Wednesday, Sept. 21      Tuesday, Oct. 18      Wednesday, Nov. 16      Wednesday, Dec. 14      Monday, Jan. 9

Capt. Campbell returns to speak

Capt. Jimmy Campbell of the United States Army, a member of the Class of 1997, came to Loyola on Sept. 2 to speak to the freshmen religion classes.

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2001, he has served a year-long tour of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom 2 and was home for the Labor Day holiday. 

A former All-District linebacker for the Flyers, Jimmy also served as honorary captain before the Flyers' season-opener against Ouachita Christian.  

GEORGE GRAY '74 received his D.Min. at Seabury Western Seminary on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in June 2005.

HARLAN D. WHATLEY '82 received his MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College/CUNY in New York City in June of 2005.  He directs and produces documentary videos via his production company, Skye Films.

ELIZABETH HOGAN '95 joined Quinn Gillespie & Associates in May 2005 after more than four years working for the Bush Administration and the Republican National Committee.  Quinn Gillespie & Associates (QGA) is one of Washington , D.C. ’s top public affairs firms, providing strategic counsel, government relations and communication services to a diverse group of leading corporations, coalitions and trade associations.  

PATRICK MEEHAN '99 joined the Independence Bowl staff as the Media Relations Assistant. Patrick is a 2004 graduate of LSU, and most recently served as media relations assistant at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Prior to his time at UAB, Meehan served four years as a student assistant in the Sports Information Department at LSU in Baton Rouge. Meehan has also worked numerous NCAA regional and national events, and was a member of the 2005 Nokia Sugar Bowl media relations staff. Meehan is engaged to Lanie Freeman. The two will marry next summer.

JENNIFER MICINSKI '00 received seven ADDY awards at the Shreveport/Bossier Advertising Federation awards in 2004. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University in March of this year, with my BFA in Graphic Design. She took a job with the leading advertising agency in Monroe -- Newcomer, Morris, and Young.

Memorials

BRIAN O'LEARY '80 passed away on Aug. 23 in Monroe, where he worked as an insurance claims adjuster. He is survived by two siblings, including brothers Roland '78 and Dennis '84.  A celebration of life service will be held Sunday (Sept. 18) at Eagle's Nest Church in Monroe at 3 p.m.