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Bellarmine Magazine_Summer2013_single

6 BELLARM INE MAGAZINE THE READERS WRITE Bellarmine Magazine received a Grand Award at the District II conference of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in Atlanta in February. The Grand Award is the highest award given by CASE District III , which represents nine southeastern states. Bellarmine Magazine competes in its Division I, for institutions with a full-time enrollment of 5,000 or less. The magazine also won an Award of Excellence at the state level. Mystery cheerleaders It was a pleasant surprise to see the cheerleaders on the back cover of the Spring magazine. I cannot tell you how many people have mentioned seeing me in the picture. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they have stated I have not changed much since then. I believe this was my junior year, 1979. It seems like yesterday, but as the description on the magazine states, this was a picture from the archives. It brought back a lot of great memories of my days at Bellarmine. Amazingly, I think all but one of those pictured still live in the area. It would be interesting to see a group picture of everyone today. Here are the names of the cheerleaders shown (I know only the maiden names for the women): First row, L to R: Toni Grady, Tom McCormick, Eddie Marcellino, Meg Roby. Second row, L to R: Patsy Stewart, Jeff Wessling, Joe White, Mike Wendler, Joe Cowherd, Marc Veigl, Bettye Beasey. Top three: Sarah Martin, Kathleen Endris and Julie Miller. Mike Wendler ’80 Louisville Our cheerleader-pyramid photo got a lot of response! Thanks, Mike, for your help in identifying everyone in the photo. Thanks also to Jeff Wessling, Theresa Klapheke, Bob Zimlich, Don Mucci and Martha Thomas, as well as several of our Facebook friends, for their detective work. And finally, we apologize to Sarah Martin, whose face was obscured by the Postal Service’s mailing-label rectangle. If you guys want to get together for a reunion pyramid, the beer is on us. –Editor ‘Chesapeake’ and the Model T “Chesapeake” was the nickname of Robert Peak, Class of 1957. “Ches” bought a Model T from a lady who drove this writer and his mother to Friday night novenas at Our Mother of Sorrows in the early ’40s. I think it safe to say that “Tin Lizzie” was the oldest auto ever parked on campus by a student. His father died when Chesapeake was 15 and a student at Flaget High School. His older siblings were all married. It fell on Ches to support himself and his mother, a woman of frail health. Early employment was downtown at a Louisville department store. Chesapeake entered the Bellarmine Class of ’56 while employed full time at a railroad, hence the nickname “Chesapeake,” combining his surname and the Chesapeake Railroad. He made morning classes wearing an old wool mackinaw, a toboggan cap and a five-day beard grown in one day. Our paths crossed twice more following our days at Bellarmine. He took a job in public health – the same sector where yours truly was working. He went on to earn a master’s in education and taught in California. He married and had a daughter. The next contact was at my mother’s house nearly 25 years ago; both of us were visiting mom at the same time. I never saw him again. I think a lot about “Ches” and what he gave me: an example of what a person can do to beat the odds when handed very little. He never bragged about what he overcame; his pluck and bravado parried the uncharitable taunts of his peers. Oh! I almost forgot: He did it all the while suffering the ravages of muscular dystrophy.’ Rest in peace, Ches. Ray Barry Jr. ’56 Milton, Ga. Robert Peak ’57 died in May 1998. –Editor Bellarmine Magazine wins regional recognition


Bellarmine Magazine_Summer2013_single
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