News

As Patrick L. McCarthy ’63, P89, 87, 86, sits behind his desk on the second floor of O’Kane Hall and looks to his right, at a wall of his office covered with framed photos of many great moments captured during his almost 40-year professional career at Holy Cross, he laments the fact that he didn’t ask more of the famous folks he’s photographed with for autographs.

The photos depict a more youthful McCarthy with Helen Hayes, Joe DiMaggio, and others. McCarthy brightens then and recounts the day he met Mother Teresa, who received an honorary degree from the College in 1976. On that occasion, he pulled out the actual citation and asked the holy woman for an autograph. The note that Mother Teresa wrote on the back of the citation is cherished, and hangs in the McCarthy family home. Mother Teresa wrote: “May you love others as God loves you.”

To say Pat McCarthy has made a career of loving others might sound too emotive a depiction for this Marine, and it might embarrass him, but it’s also true. McCarthy graduated a football hero from Holy Cross in 1963, served in the Marine Corps for five years, spending 13 months in Viet Nam as an Artillery Officer, and returned to Holy Cross in 1968 to work in the annual fund. For the next 39 years McCarthy forged relationships with other College faithful, and made a career and a life out of cultivating those friendships.

McCarthy never really expected to do anything other than serve in the Marine Corps, but family illness brought him back near Worcester. A classmate, Denny Golden, tipped him off about a job that he thought would be a perfect fit back at Holy Cross. Initially McCarthy worked in the annual fund with class agents. He traveled to meet with class chairs around the country to introduce them to the class agent program. Some of those people he met in his travels became longtime friends.

After completing his tasks for the annual fund, McCarthy was asked to consider the Director of Alumni Relations position. He became executive secretary of the General Alumni Association as well, a responsibility he has enjoyed for 35 years. “I only thought I’d be here a year or two, but it evolved,” McCarthy says with a laugh. Holy Cross and the GAA have benefited from continuity and longevity almost unheard of in higher education. “The overriding factor that kept me here was that friendships grew as I grew in the position,” McCarthy says.

McCarthy cites getting to know many incredibly dedicated volunteers as a principal reason for the joy in his job. And he found mentors: “Matt Cavanaugh ’20, Joe Perrotta ’28, Father Brooks ’49, and Father Miller ’46.”

“Through Father Brooks’s presidency, and all of our travels, we were a companionable group. It was a good group to work with,” McCarthy says. “The friendship. The compatibility. That captures it. I came from the Marine Corps, where there is a strong fidelity among a group, so it was very easy to fall into fidelity here. It made it easy. It’s been a vocation.”

As the McCarthy family grew, they all enjoyed the social aspects of the work of alumni relations. “My work drew in and involved my family,” he says. “There were lots of home basketball games we attended, and football games.” Pat and his wife, Beverley, no stranger to Holy Cross events of all kinds, had four children: Patrick ’86, Sean ’87, Kevin 89, and Beth. Patrick Jr. played football at Holy Cross. Sean played varsity baseball, and married a classmate, Christine Ryan McCarthy. The oft-heard phrase “the Holy Cross family” has been, in many respects, symbiotic with the McCarthy family.

It is the association with the many alumni he’s been friendly with over the years that McCarthy will miss most when he retires on June 30 of this year. He looks forward to time for travel and leisure—time spent with family—including his four grandchildren: Patrick, Brendan, Connor, and Meaghan, and perhaps a little time spent at O’Connor’s Restaurant and Pub.

So why not make it 40 years even? McCarthy says, “My time has come. My replacement (Associate Director Kristyn Dyer ’94) is here. She is knowledgeable and will do a spectacular job. And she will find it is the best job on campus when viewed by the associations you develop and the friendships you gain from.”

We wish our dear friend, Pat, the very best. The words of the Irish seem fitting here.

“May God grant you always…A sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.”

By: Joyce O’Connor Davidson
Send a note to Pat:

pmccarth@holycross.edu

You could say Elizabeth K. Green, who is slated to graduate in just a few weeks, has made the most of her time at Holy Cross.

In fact, all her extracurricular activities in the last four years are too long to list here. Instead, a summation is in order.

Green has held four leadership positions on campus; sat on three College committees; completed three internships, both on and off campus; presented at three regional and national conferences; and was involved in four other activities ranging from Admissions tour guide to student event coordinator. All this while maintaining a high GPA, and being inducted into Phi Alpha Theta, the National Honor Society in History, and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

It’s paid off.

Next year, Green will attend the University of Connecticut in pursuit of a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs. She has secured a graduate assistantship in the UConn Programs Office where she will be working closely with UConn’s programming board.

She says her experience working extensively in Holy Cross’ student activities, residence life, leadership, orientation programs and multicultural education offices — all under the Student Affairs umbrella — have served her well. She’s off to a great start in attaining her ultimate goal of serving as a dean or vice president of a Student Affairs office.

But for Green, a history major, getting into a good school or landing a coveted job doesn’t please her as much as the enrichment that comes from the experiences that helped get her there. Serving as a student representative on the “Hate: Not Here!” committee turned out to be one of the most inspiring experiences of her college career, she says.

“I’ve learned so much from working on the committee. I became part of challenging and serious conversations about tough issues that I’ve never experienced or had been part of before. I found myself entering discussions about hate on campus and entering a challenging dialogue about what it means to be different at Holy Cross.”

Considering her own ethnicity, Green isn’t someone you might typically expect to have a deep interest in multicultural education. She says growing up “white and blond” in the racially mixed city of Lowell helped her gain an appreciation for different cultures at an early age.

“This is something that Holy Cross needs,” she says about the “Hate: Not Here!” initiative. “There have been instances of hate and bigotry on campus, as recently as last month when a student was called a racial slur. The ‘Hate: Not Here!’ campaign serves to combat hate and bigotry. Through its programs and posters, which hang proudly on windows across campus, a bold statement is made that hate is not acceptable. Diversity issues are often seen as taboo or controversial to talk about. The campaign brings these issue right out in the open. It challenges us to put our uneasiness aside and engage in discussions, ask questions, and attend programs.

“The initiative is important because it gets people talking. Programs such as Judy Shepard’s presentation, screening of films like Brokeback Mountain and Crash, and the ‘Lessons from the Cross’ luncheon series bring people together and challenge students, faculty and administrators and staff to talk about hate and what it means to be different at Holy Cross. This is important because it will strengthen our personal and collective responsibility to maintaining a community marked by respect, dignity and civility. It is also important because diversity is part of life.”

Green encourages other students to explore different cultures. She shared that commitment when she spoke at the first of the luncheon series.

“Experiencing other cultures and talking about our differences is something that we all have to do — both in and outside of the classroom. Everyone brings different experiences, perspectives and interests to the table. Appreciating and valuing these differences are crucial because it makes us a stronger community. By interacting with people who are different than you, you learn and grow personally. You learn new ways of thinking and doing things. It makes life more interesting and the human experience richer.”

Motivating others to get involved and joining the discussion is hard work. Personally reaching out to other students and inviting them to attend events is the best way to boost involvement Green has found. As a resident assistant, for instance, she turned Judy Shepard’s recent talk into a “hall bonder” by encouraging her hall mates to attend the event.

“I think that most Holy Cross students want to be engaged in the dialogue of what it means to be different and to talk about issues of diversity, but I think many students are afraid to. Talking about diversity and hate can be uncomfortable. Students may be afraid of saying something political incorrect or offensive by mistake,” she says.

In her leadership positions, including president of the Campus Activities Board (CAB), she’s making every effort to continue the conversation even after she’s gone.

“As my time at Holy Cross is coming to an end, I’ve been ‘passing the torch’ to emerging leaders on CAB to encourage them to continue my efforts. The newly selected president of CAB, Gillian Bearfield ’08, has embraced the spirit of collaboration and multiculturalism. She has big plans for collaborations among various campus groups.”

A conference under the aegis of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross titled “Understanding Other Minds and Moral Agency” will be held from April 19 to 21 in the Rehm Library (Smith Hall) at the College. The events are free and open to the public.

The conference will bring together prominent researchers from a variety of disciplines and distinct research traditions to discuss how one should conceive of the ability to know other minds, how it affects the capacity for moral judgment, and how one gains an ethical perspective toward other persons. It will reflect the explosive growth in research and the intense debate in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy about our capacity to understand the mind of others. Such everyday mind-reading abilities constitute the foundation for humans to be social animals and to become full members of society. Without such knowledge human beings are very limited in forming social bonds or in being initiated into basic social practices such as speaking a common language. In addition, the conference will link the discussion about the psychological processes involved in interpreting the minds of others with the ongoing philosophical and psychological examination of one’s ability to relate to others in an altruistic and ethical manner. The conference will thus unite two distinct domains of research that have been traditionally independent of each other.

Subjects covered during the three-day conference include: empathy; social cognition and folk psychological explanations; morality in humans and other animals; the ubiquity of imitation and mimicry; ethics and the nature of folk psychology; moral agency; and emotions and the moral sense.

The conference is organized by Karsten R. Stueber, associate professor and incoming chair of the philosophy department at Holy Cross, who has widely published in the area of philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and the philosophy of the social sciences. In the last few years his writings and research interest have been primarily concerned with providing an account of one’s ability to understand other agents. These interests are reflected in his recent book Rediscovering Empathy: Agency, Folk Psychology, and the Human Sciences (MIT Press, 2006), where he argues that empathy is epistemically central for folk psychological understanding of other agents — that it is something people cannot do without in order to gain understanding of other minds.

The schedule of events is available on the Center’s site.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross Chapel Choir is holding the third annual concert titled “Songs of Hope” to benefit Abby’s House on April 29 at 3 p.m. in St. Joseph Chapel at the College. A suggested donation of $8 is requested; $5 for children and seniors. Donations will be accepted at the door. The chapel is handicapped accessible.

Abby’s House serves the needs of low-income and battered women and their children. Founded in 1976 as an emergency shelter, today it is one of the most respected multi-service agencies in Worcester and the state of Massachusetts. In addition to the emergency shelter, Abby’s House currently provides low-income housing and services for women and their children at three locations in the city. In addition to counseling services and referrals, Abby’s House also operates a thrift shop where clothing and home goods are available, and a women’s day center where women can gather for educational programs, community building and recreation. Abby’s House receives no federal or state funds; its more than $1 million annual operating budget comes from grants, donations from the Worcester community and operating fees.

The Holy Cross event will help Abby’s House to continue to open doors to safety and opportunity for women and their children.

Holy Cross women students raised some of the initial funds for the shelter in 1976 and have been actively involved ever since. Students have staffed the emergency shelter three overnights each week throughout the academic year for 31 years without any other staff presence.

In addition, for the past six years Holy Cross students have run weekly programs at the women’s day center, staff the reception desk at one of the low-income housing buildings four nights each week and one student works at Abby’s House full time during the summer through the Lilly Grant, a private family foundation that follows its founders’ wishes by supporting the causes of religion, community development and education.

Will basketball standout Keith Simmons’ serious and fierce demeanor on the court become part of his new role as the judge of HC Idol? Or will he avoid Simon Cowell’s brand of insults and instead emulate the tender nature of Paula Abdul?

Twelve contestants undoubtedly hope it’s the latter when they show off their vocal ranges on April 15 at 8 p.m. in the Hogan Ballroom.

The contestants are Kendra Cerretani ’09, Tracy Espiritu ’07, Kaitie Farrell ’08, Julianne Fitzpatrick ’09, Jason Frank ’09, Kaitlin Lydic ’10, Al Monte ’07, Lauren O’Connell ’08, Emma Peterson ’08, Courtney Pinkham ’08, Gbenimah Slopadoe ’10, and Cara Wahle ’07. Auditions drew about 20 idol wannabes.

Sponsored by the Class of 2008, the Class Council has been working on the event, based on the hugely popular Fox hit show, since the fall. The talent show will run two hours and include three different sessions within the competition for students to flex their vocal prowess.

In addition to Simmons, Kimball employee Amarilis Irarragorr and Public Safety Officer Leonard Gabrila will serve as judges. Acting as host Ryan Seacrest for the evening will be “Last Comic Standing” winner Lisa Dowd ’08.

“The Class of 2008 is so excited to be sponsoring HC Idol 2007,” says class President Meg Moran. “We secured this unique opportunity early on in the fall semester, and have been planning and preparing for it ever since. The combination of contestants, judges, and host for this year’s event is spectacular and we are thrilled with how it is all coming together.”

The night’s events will consist of contestants presenting one song of their choice that will help the judges eliminate half of the hopefuls. The remaining six contestants will sing another song and the judges will narrow the field to three. One final song will be presented by the last three contestants, at which point the audience will be given the opportunity to vote for the next HC Idol.

Last year’s winner, Phil Landry ’09, says that the event “is a really fun experience all around. You’re just trying to go on stage and sing well. Hopefully nothing goes wrong with the DJ … and you don’t forget the lyrics. I found that the competition is great and the participants are really supportive of one another.”

Veteran contestant Kendra Cerretani ’09 echoes those statements.

“I’m participating again because it’s too fun to pass up,” she says about her second time performing. “Honestly I don’t really care if I win — it’s just a completely fantastic night either way!”

Tickets can be purchased for $5 through April 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the first floor of the Hogan Campus Center or $7 at the door.

Jon Landry has come a long way from being the last person to be picked on the team. At the age of 5, his parents almost pulled him out of Pee Wee hockey to save his self-esteem. Good thing they didn’t.

A senior defenseman, Landry became one of the best hockey players to set foot on the ice at the Hart Center Rink, holding the Holy Cross Division I career record for most points by a defenseman with 86, while his 24 goals and 62 assists rank him ninth in the program’s history.

In addition, Landry was recently named to the Atlantic Hockey all-conference team for the second year in a row. Despite his season ending almost two months early due to a broken ankle, Landry was named the league’s Defenseman of the Year. This season he finished tied for second in assists and was third on the team with 9 goals and 27 points.

Landry is on his way to play in the NHL, following in the footsteps of recent grad Patrick Rissmiller ’02. He signed a two-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets on March 17.

Professional teams have had a lot of interest in Landry since the NCAA tournament last year, where the Crusaders beat Minnesota in an upset for the history books. Landry was recognized nationally by making the all tournament team for the NCAA alongside future NHL players.

“Jon always played best against the toughest teams, like Maine and Minnesota. He had some really big plays for a team that was at the NCAA for the first time,” said head coach Paul Pearl.

A humble Landry says it was more than his development and ambition as a player that led the team to success. He says Rissmiller, of the San Jose Sharks, gave the Crusaders motivation.

“Rissmiller’s performance last year in San Jose inspired our team to do well,” says Landry. “For Riss to come out of a small school like Holy Cross and play with the likes of players from top hockey schools across the country and Canada, he inspired us to play at a higher level and beat potential NHL players from Minnesota.”

Landry, from Lexington, grew up watching the Boston Bruins. Defenseman Ray Bourque inspired him to “skate” across the hardwood floor in front of the television and eventually on an ice rink with hockey stick in hand. Landry has an extensive hockey career playing for a variety of teams, from the Boston Metro League’s South Shore Kings, to the AAA New England Generals.

In high school, Landry played for coach Brian Day at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham. Coach Day had the perfect recruit for his friend Paul Pearl up on the Hill.

“Jon fit the mold. He fit into the school and academic profile, and he was a good and talented kid,” says Pearl.

As Holy Cross head coach for 11 years, Pearl has cultivated a team of many prominent players in the past. He makes sure that his recruits are not only stellar hockey players willing to grow, but are well-rounded individuals and good citizens.

“He has been a great leader on this team” says Pearl, “Jon is one of those kids that really developed over his four years here. He has done well by Holy Cross and Holy Cross has done well by him. That’s what we are ultimately looking for in our students.”

An economics major, Landry’s interests in the subject also came from his high school mentor Coach Day, who was an economics teacher.

After the fateful Quinnipiac game in late January, where Landry suffered his injury, fans and teammates feared his hockey career would be over. Perhaps it was the perseverance he learned when he was a kid because he kept fighting.

Landry’s response to the injury is “it’s nothing a little rehab won’t fix.” With that attitude and the support of his teammates and friends, Landry is almost ready to lace up again. When asked about his future as a professional athlete, Landry continues to be modest.

“Of course it is exciting, but I will need to continue to play harder to get myself up to that level.”

Pearl is not worried about Landry’s future in the NHL. “To do well in pro hockey, it’s all about opportunity and luck. If Jon gets his chance, he will shine.”

While spring has been very slowly making its way to New England, construction of the new Holy Cross integrated science complex is quickly getting underway.

Web site visitors can tune in and monitor construction progress on campus via a new real time webcam.

The first phase of the new $60 million state-of-the-art complex is construction of a new four-story building.  The 44,000-square-foot building will house lecture and lab space for chemistry students, as well as research laboratories for approximately half of the chemistry faculty. Occupancy is expected in January 2009.  The new building will be linked to the existing science and social science buildings on campus (Beaven, O’Neil, and Swords halls).

Immediately thereafter, top-to-bottom renovation of Haberlin Hall will begin. The 45-year-old building will be gutted and completely rebuilt, with an expected completion date of January 2010.

Designed to offer many more opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and learning, the new complex is the most ambitious building project in the College’s history. From the sharing of sophisticated equipment to the evolution of new research teams, the new complex is being developed to unite student and faculty researchers from across scientific disciplines and to stimulate new, collaborative approaches in the Holy Cross acclaimed undergraduate science curriculum.

Related information:

* Holy Cross Announces Plans for Science Complex
* 2006 President’s report

The Holy Cross music department will present the annual Suzanna E. Waldbauer Memorial Concert performed by the Holy Cross Chamber Players on April 12 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. The concert, free and open to the public, will feature works by Olivier Messiaen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Robert Schumann.

Bruce Creditor will play clarinet; Mihae Lee piano; Carol Lieberman violin; Ronald Lowry cello; and Marcus Thompson viola. Carol Lieberman and Shirish Korde, Holy Cross professors of music at Holy Cross, are co-directors.

The Holy Cross Chamber Players, founded in 1985, is a mixed ensemble consisting of members of the Holy Cross music department faculty and distinguished guest artists from the Boston area.

In addition to Waldbauer, this year’s concert is dedicated to David Finch, violoncello, another former member of the Holy Cross Chamber Players. He died of cancer last summer. He had played with the Chamber Players since its founding in 1985.

“The unique sound of his playing conveyed both his intimate knowledge of the music as well as the exquisite beauty of his soul,” writes Lieberman in the program.

“We are featuring music which [Finch and Waldbauer] would have loved, and we hope that this concert will be a fitting memorial to them.”

Suzanna Waldbauer came to Holy Cross to teach music in 1970 and inspired scores of students over the next 20 years. A native of Devavanya, Hungary, Waldbauer studied at the National Conservatory of Music and graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, both in Budapest. After graduation, she studied with Hungarian composers Zoltan Kodaly and Leo Weiner. In 1947, she left Hungary and moved to Mexico where she supported herself by playing and teaching piano.

After arriving in the United States, she earned a master’s degree in music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. An accomplished performer of music for two pianos as well as the mixed chamber music repertoire, Waldbauer gave concerts all over New England, including appearances as a soloist with the Vermont Symphony. An influential teacher and music department chair at Holy Cross, she offered courses in music history, introductory structure of music and keyboard music.

For 35 years David Finch was a huge presence in the Boston classical music scene. Before he turned 30 years old he had become the principal cellist of the Boston Ballet, the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Boston Opera Company, the John Oliver Chorale, and the Newton Symphony Orchestra. He also often performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Finch was a founding member of the Beacon Chamber Soloists. He performed with Extension Works, the Ariel Chamber Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, Dinasaur Annex, the MIT Chamber Players, and the Harkness Festival Chamber Orchestra.

Finch received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and also did graduate work at Boston University. As a young man he attended the Tanglewood Music Center for two summers.

Leila Philip, a member of the Holy Cross English department faculty since 2003 who was recently promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2007. She is among the 189 scholars and artists selected from almost 2,800 applicants for this honor.

Guggenheim fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

A writer of literary nonfiction, Philip will use her Guggenheim award to continue her work on a book exploring the life of Hawaiian-born potter Toshiko Takaezu, 84. Now an internationally recognized ceramic artist, Takaezu’s career and personal life has never been documented or fully recognized in the larger art world. The daughter of Okinawan immigrants who worked in the sugar cane fields of Hawaii, Takaezu rose from her early years as a maid to become a working artist deeply influenced by the abstract expressionist painters in the 1940s and 1950s. Today her work resides in more than 40 museums and has been featured at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Kyoto.

Philip will be on leave during the 2007-08 academic year to travel, research, and write — with plans to complete her manuscript in early 2009.

“We are proud and delighted that the Guggenheim Foundation is honoring Leila Philip with one of the most prestigious fellowships available to scholars,” said Timothy Austin, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College. “This fellowship recognizes the excellence of Leila’s prior literary accomplishments, but it also gives her the time and resources she will need if she is to achieve equally impressive results in pursuing her current project.”

Philip earned her master of fine arts degree in fiction at the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York City, where she was a writing fellow from 1989-2001. At Holy Cross, she has taught courses in fiction, nonfiction, and Asian American literature. From 2004-2005, she was acting director of the College’s Creative Writing Program, in which she continues to advise creative writing students.

She is the author of three books of nonfiction, including The Road Through Miyama, for which she received the prestigious PEN/Martha Albrand Special Citation for Nonfiction in 1990, and the award-winning memoir A Family Place: A Hudson Valley Farm, Three Centuries, Five Wars, One Family. She has received numerous awards for her writing, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe. She lives in Woodstock, Conn.

This is the 83rd year of the Guggenheim Foundation’s United States and Canadian competition. Appointments are based on the recommendations of expert advisors and are approved by the foundation’s Board of Trustees, which includes six past fellows — Joyce Carol Oates, Joel Conarroe, Richard A. Rifkind, Charles Ryskamp, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and Edward Hirsch.

Philip is the third Holy Cross faculty member in twelve years to be honored with the sought-after fellowship: composer Osvaldo Golijov, associate professor of music, received a Guggenheim in 1995; photographer Robert ParkeHarrison, associate professor of visual arts, was a 1999 recipient.

The full list of year 2007 fellows is available at http://www.gf.org.