Jack Park on Recovery Road

On May 10, 2014, Mike Heydinger emailed worrisome news regarding Jack Park.  Fortunately, it sounds as though Jack is healing to the extent that he still intends to make it to our Dallas reunion in the Fall.

I'm going to let Mike share his news with all of us as only he can do in his own gifted way by copying his email.


Hi, all,

Sorry that I have been more than a little remiss in my duties here, but
this week had me hopping like a one legged butt-kicker.

Last Saturday I learned that our classmate Jack Park. had suffered a
stroke - way back on March 3, at home in the night time. The EMT's were
called and strapped him up for transport, but while carrying him
downstairs, they dropped him.  They did transport him, the hospital got
the shot into him, and then they discovered that he had two fractured
vertebrae, one in the neck and the other in the back.  So to prevent his
moving while things healed, they induced him onto a coma and didn't wake
him up for almost a couple months.  But he healed, almost.

I ran up to Perrysburg to the care facility where he is for a visit last
Sunday afternoon.  I was soooooo surprised and relieved to find him
fully alert, able to sit up, speak clearly, and with almost no memory
impairment.  He is able to walk with support and a walker and is
gradually stretching it out.  He was supposed to have an appointment
Friday this week to see if they can do surgery on his neck to repair the
movement in his hands.  That was more drop-related than stroke.  I
called him tonight to check up on him and his spirits are only fair
because they will do the procedure Wed. next instead of on Monday.
Jack, as you know, was always VERY impatient.

Keep Jack in your prayers that he makes a complete and full recovery, as
he seems to be well on the way to it right now.  Hopefully no relapses.
The only negative right now is they can't get his BP up over 100.  Now
how is this for motivation - he is determined to make it to Dallas in
October!!!!  So yu'ns that haven't made up your mind yet, get with the
game plan.

It would really help Jack if you sent a card or even made a call.  His
direct in-room line is 1-567-336-6428. Be patient as he doesn't move
fast.  If he is sitting in his tilt-back chair, he can't answer as the
phone is on the wrong side of the bed.  You'd think that at a brand new
facility they would have ordered the extra long phone cords! He will
start out weepy on the call, but just give him time to get over the
shock of your call and you can then understand him better and it;s good
old Jack! His address at the home is St. Clare Commons, 12469 Five Point
Road /Perrysburg/, /Ohio/ 43551.  This is a brand new home run by the
Srs; of St. Francis of Sylvania.  It sits out in the country with a corn
field on one side and a fairly new church on the other.  The two places
share a parking lot even.  And guess who the pastor is there that visits
Jack - Lenny Weber's younger brother Herb. Small world.


Pax, in Him,
The Dinger

The Story behind "Shang"

I'm wondering how many of you know or recall how Ed Pasterick received the nickname "Shang."  Occasionally I have wondered about this important, historical fact.  Certainly, if I were playing a game of Trivia Pursuit, I would fail with this question; and I could lose the game.  So, with so much weight hanging in the balance on this matter, I decided to go to the source.  (That was the methodology Msgr. Hofer instructed us in understanding Scripture, right?  Go to the SOURCE.) 

I emailed Ed regarding the origin of his nickname and he enlightened me.  Ed wrote, "Joe Mammola gave me the name 'Shanghai' in Sexta because of a sweater I used to wear that apparently looked Asian to him.  It got shortened to 'Shang' and stayed that way for twelve years.  I lost it after the Joss, but Jim Byers still uses it when he drops me a note."  Thanks to Shang, I am now prepared for that game of Trivia Pursuit.   

Ed further updated me in February regarding himself and his family.  "I just retired last week, figured it was time to move on.  I suspect I'll get some feelers along the way.  I will humbly say that I know more about the National Flood Insurance Program than anyone alive.  Long way from Schillebeckx.  Sharon is also retiring at the end of this school year. She has been principal at Elizabeth Seton High School for about 15 years.  My daughter, Emily, and Gus (Pedrozo) have two boys, Gabriel (5) and Daniel (3), and another on the way at the end of April.  Jonathan (and Mary) have Evan (2).  Jonathan was just made a partner at his law firm in Annapolis.

"Tom, Sharon and I are not big on group affairs, so while it's great to hear from people like you, get-togethers might not happen.  That said, I need to do a better job of chiming in more on the blog.

"How about that Francis?  Nice to see a restoration happening."

Bioethics Consume Len Weber

The practice of ethical decision-making in the field of healthcare critically needs the astute and adept skills of moral reasoning in the midst of complex options and choices in the 21st century.  Len Weber is applying his giftedness to these challenges in the Detroit area.

When Len replied to our class reunion correspondence this past February, he wrote the following:

"Thank you for the Class of 68 letter. I will not be able to join you this year. I am working full time (the Ethicist for a couple major hospitals) and have already scheduled my limited time off.

Thank you for keeping me on the list."

Having worked as a clinical social worker in acute healthcare, I personally encountered families staring at confusing and troubling courses of action with their acute healthcare team in behalf of the well-being of a loved one.

Dale Schmitz's "Hobby" Farm

A "hobby" farm?  What has our Dale Schmitz gotten himself into?  Let Dale describe what he is busily doing.  In his email to me in February, he began by expressing his hope to attend our reunion this coming October:

"Hopefully I'll be able to get to Dallas this fall for the reunion. It's been since 1993 at the JOSS that I've seen you and others....... I always wondered where and how Tom Radascy is, along with others.

Seems like retirement, now 9 years for me, is so busy, but with much more enjoyable things. Family and grandkids, family reunions, and uncles and aunts now in their 90's.

We've got a 50 acre "hobby" farm/woods about 50 miles from here. And so I go there quite a bit to putz around like when I was a kid on the farm, driving tractors, mowing grass, and cutting down lots of trees. Have 3 ponds there, just dredged this past winter. A very good place for deer, turkeys, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels, and I even saw a cougar/mountain lion there last summer.

The farm is on the way to a house we have on Sun Valley Lake, that is 75 miles from here. I should fish more but seems like always things to do. And we still have the first house we bought there, but hopefully it will be sold yet this month.

Frances and I leave for Honduras Feb. 19 and return April 8. Some of my time there is spent working on projects (electricity, plumbing, painting, etc.)for friends and family. And visiting family and friends.

I'll also spend a week in March working with two other guys coming then to provide donated carpentry tools we collect here and "give" to carpenters in Honduras and in El Salvador. We also provide training classes on some of the tools. I'm the only one on the Board here fluent in Spanish and so spend considerable time corresponding and setting things up from here, and there. ......... To earn the tools, the carpenters have to donate 40 hours of work to their community, school, church or a person with needs, plant 3 trees,and mentor another person. ........ Our goal is to improve the lives of families by increasing the income of the carpenters. The organization is Tools for Opportunity, www.toolsforopportunity.org/.

Winter has been like an öld-fashioned one we remember from the 50's, 60's and 70's. We have lots of snow on the ground, and it has snowed 1-2 inches three times this week. In fact, it's snowing now again. But a warm-up is to finally come next week, with temperatures up into the 40's for a day or so.

Enough rambling for now. I hope all is well with you and your family."

Dale is a testament to an ol' sayin':  "The farm boy may leave the farm, but the farm never leaves the farm boy."  I was recalling this very verse during this past week as I was weeding and tilling our landscape beds and spreading cubic yards of mulch around our house in 90 degree weather.

Sam Pezzillo into Philately

After I received Sam Pezzillo's "regrets" with regards to our planned class reunion, I emailed him to ask what was going on in his life.  He sent an interesting email back:

"I am now retired from teaching and travel a lot, an extension of some of what I did while still teaching where the college had a January term/Interim term and I took students to Italy most years. Now I travel with an adult group and we are off to Turkey next month, did China last Spring, and will be going to Peru next year. All in all we have done about 12 group tours together. I'm still involved in philately, mostly airmail history and Germany. I travel a bit for that, attending a show in San Francisco last April, one coming up in May in Portland, and then a seminar presentation in the Fall at the APS Postal History Seminar.

Also deeply involved in local political issues as part of an activist group for the Birmingham area and in my little home town as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Redevelopment Authority, and the Historical Commission, all of which involve 4 or 5 meetings a month. And just this last year I took up duplicate bridge. My wife and I play once or twice a week at the Birmingham club. Just trying to keep busy as long as I can.

Give my regards to everyone."

When I read that he was "still involved in philately," I was dumbfounded.  Philately???  I wondered what kind of misspelling this word could be.  I reread the sentence and the context several more times and I still could not make sense out of "philately."  So, I finally looked for a possible definition of this word.  Well, I discovered this is a real word.  Do you know that philately is a noun which means "the collection and study of postage stamps"?  I do now!  I wonder whether Fr. Durst, our stamp guru at the Josephinum, had some influence on Sam's interest.

Bob Sefcheck Still Teaching

This past February Bob Sefcheck informed me that he would not be attending our class reunion in October because he expected his work schedule to be quite busy.  So, I emailed back to him to ask him what he was still doing.  "Are you not retired," I was asking him.  He responded with the following:

"I supervise student teachers for California University of Pennsylvania, the university from which I eventually graduated. I teach their practicum class for five hours every other Friday. The rest of the semester I drive all over Southwestern Pa observing and evaluating them so they can become certified. After spending thirty-seven years teaching fifth graders, I am now completing my ninth year at the university teaching seniors and grad students. Currently I am working with thirty-two students. With the bad winter we have had in my area this has been a very difficult semester. The associate dean/director of Student teaching has told me to expect a large number in the fall, so I am loathe to make plans for leaving the area during that time. I would really like to see the guys again."

I am impressed with Bob's continuing commitment to the field of Education!