Harry Flynn Helps Out

Harry Flynn helped correct and supplement our e-mail addresses. Thank you Harry! If you received the e-mail from us about this Blog, in the address portion of the mailing you can see the names of the people for which St. Ambrose had e-mail addresses. If you have been corresponding with any of our former classmates and have their e-mail address, we would appreciate you sending them to Ray (mailto:marco@aol.com) or Mike (m.vandekerckhove@comcast.net). The University had e-mail addresses for only 40% of our class.

In addition to helping us with the e-mail list, Harry suggested an alternative site to Arlington Park Race Track for our monthly lunches—Saratoga Race Track and the Travers Stakes race on August 29. This would be a nice venue. However, Harry says that everything is booked for this year. Perhaps we can do it next year. Maybe Ray and Mike can pool their winnings from Arlington and treat everyone. Unfortunately they have no winnings.

Also Harry reported on his trip to the old campus town: "I was in the Quad cities last month. Stopped by the campus and the ‘remains’ of Marycrest. If you have not been down, the chapel is unbelievable - especially the Catich stations of the cross and the stained glass window."

Is Anyone Running in the Bix?

That is Mike Van de Kerckhove finishing the Bix 7 race in Davenport in 2004. He was the 5741st runner across the finish line out of approximately 12,000 runners. Mike has been running the Bix every year (except for 3 years) since 1993. If you are running the Bix this year on Saturday, July 25, look for him there. He will be wearing the green tank top shirt and blue shorts like in the picture. You can probably find him after the race near the spot in the refreshment area where they give out beer, and he will be looking like he is still about to die even an hour after the race. Well, I guess everyone looks like they are about to die after the race…except for the runners from Kenya, or from Nigeria, or wherever they are from. Anyway they are the ones you see getting close to the finish line just as you are beginning the race.

Carl Kiefer Reported In

Carl Keifer reported in, and this is what he said in response to the question of what he has been doing since graduating from St. Ambrose: "Since I received my accounting degree from SAC, I spent 7 years in public accounting (McGladrey) , 8 years in women's pants (Davenshire), 20 years in industrial distribution (deWco), and 6 years in the dairy business (Swiss Valley Farms). I am still working part time at Swiss Valley trying to make enough money to retire full time with my first wife, Mary (an Iowa State grad), who celebrated 39 years of putting up with me on July 11. We have 4 great children, all married and self-supporting, 7 grandchildren, with one more on the way. Two of our sons got their bachelors degrees from St. Ambrose. The other son and our daughter got their degrees from Iowa State. I have been supplementing my income by playing poker for over 25 years now in a group that includes Ed Henkhaus. Unfortunately, both Ed and I travel quite a bit now, so my monthly income from that source has diminished significantly."

We heard from Charlie Sheridan

Ray and Mike heard recently from Charlie Sheridan. A lot of you may not remember him—he was one of the "Churchies." Charlie reported, "I was only at St. Ambrose for two years. Those were good years. Left Ambrose Hall to go to a monastery. Lasted 13 days, man was that a mistake. Went back to St. Ambrose and whomever the registrar was told me that registration had closed. So I went to Loras for two years and decided that I needed to make up for lost time (socially) and transferred to University of New Mexico. Two and 1/2 years there and my father made me graduate and become a productive member of society." It looks like his father got his wish, because Charlie was very successful after that. Those of you living in Eastern Iowa probably know that Charlie was the Auditor of Clinton County for a number of years and he retired on January 1, 2009. He recommends retirement to everyone, and it looks like he has a very busy schedule. He is driving a support vehicle for those bicycling across Iowa in the RAGBRAI in July and heads to China in August.

Let's Hear from You

The pictures on the posting below were taken recently of Mike Van de Kerckhove and Ray Gondek during a lunch at Arlington Park Race Track, and the pictures immediately above are of the same two people back in 1964 when they graduated from St. Ambrose. They have not changed much in 45 years, right?

What has happened to you in the last 45 years? We would love to hear from everyone about what you have done since leaving St. Ambrose. There are several ways to do this:

1. Just click the "Comments" link after a posting on this Blog. The "Comments" section will open up and it will say, "Post a Comment" with a box for typing in comments or perhaps telling us what you have been up to in the last 45 years. You do not have to register in order to leave comments. If you have a Google account or another affiliated organization account, the Comments section will automatically recognize you. However, you can select "Anonymous" in the "Comment As" part and not have to register. (You may, nevertheless, have to type in a distorted word that you see before you can proceed. This is used to prevent Spam from getting into the Comments.) After typing in your comments, you then just click "Post Comment" and you are done. If you do post the comment as "Anonymous," we would appreciate you putting your name somewhere in the comment, so we know which classmate left the message.

2. You can just e-mail your comments and/or pictures to Mike Van de Kerckhove (m.vandekerckhove@comcast.net) or Ray Gondek (marco1761101@aol.com), and we shall post them on this Blog.

3. If you intend to do a lot of posting or wish to help with this Blog, let us know and we shall give you rights to post directly to it.

Since we have asked what you have been doing, in fairness Mike and Ray should start this off:

Mike Van de Kerckhove:

Immediately after St. Ambrose, I went to graduate school at the University of Illinois and received a M.A. in Labor & Industrial Relations. I stayed on at the U of I to get a law degree. After law school, I went to work in the Law Department of Swift & Company in Chicago, then went to a law firm in Milwaukee (Mulcahy & Wherry). Finally I ended up in the Law Department of what was then called Universal Oil Products Company (now is UOP LLC, a subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc). I retired from UOP in April 2007 and that is why I have all of this time to write Blogs. In 1970 I married Carole Hartman, who was from Cleveland, OH, and was a University of Michigan graduate. We have two daughters—Amy and Wendy. Amy graduated from University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University Law School, and is an attorney with the Federal Communications Commission. Wendy graduated from Rice University and the University of Michigan and is a statistician with a consulting firm. Amy is married to Greg Wach, who like Amy graduated from Notre Dame and Georgetown. (However, they did not meet until they were at Georgetown.) Greg is an attorney with Fannie Mae. Amy & Greg have two beautiful children—Leo (3 years old) and Clara (8 months old). And I have to comment that Carole and I love spending time with our two grandchildren.

Ray Gondek

After SAC I worked for the Chicago Public Schools for 10 years.

Since then, I have managed real estate that we own. This still occupies my and Marianne's time, which is why I also appreciate Mike Van de Kerckhove taking the time and initiative to establish and promote this "Blog."

In 1971 I married Marianne Nawoj from Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and who is a Brescia College graduate.

We have a son Pat and daughters Ann Marie and Michelle. Pat graduated from Purdue University with a degree in chemical engineering.  Ann Marie graduated from DePaul University with a BS in Marketing and has a Master Degree in International Relations specializing in International Business and Economics from Boston University.  Both Pat abd Ann Marie live in the Chicago area.

Michelle graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Communications and also received a Masters Degree in Public Relations from Ball State University.  Michelle lives in Muncie, IN.

In my spare time I like to surprise a SAC classmate with a phone call, like Hank Eynatten in London, England; John Fatini in California; Rodger Moon & Fred Hadank in Peoria; Ken Choquette in Des Moines or Bill Gluba, the current Mayor of Davenport.

I also like to listen to Dick Biondi (yes, he is still here) on 94.7 WLS-FM "odies but goodies" music of the 50's & 60's and relive the old days.