In 1994, I graduated from CBU with a degree in Religion/Philosophy. I was the only Brother receiving a degree that year and the only person getting a degree in RELP, as they called it. For me, it was quite an achievement because I was already 44 years old, having joined the Brothers at age 42. It was also one step further on my journey to becoming a fully professed Brother. 

The years at CBU as a new Brother and the only one on the student side of the desk were very happy years for me. I enjoyed the students, some who became friends. I also received much encouragement and advice from the Brothers at Lambert Hall. During my senior year, I took ten students on a Mission trip to Ashley County, AR. We ministered to migrant workers and other more permanent Latino people there. We collaborated with the Glenmary Fathers and Brothers and the Daughters of Charity. 

Many years later, I would return to CBU to work in Campus Ministry. I stayed four and a half years until I turned 75 last January. Starting out in Campus Ministry in 2020 was right in the middle of COVID. So my introduction to Campus Ministry was largely virtual.  

I am grateful for my CBU connection. Like Brother Vincent Malham, who unfortunately died suddenly in a car accident in 2008, I can say: “I bleed red.”  I didn’t know the significance at the time, but, back in 1970, I was in a car heading to Millington to see my brother as he was stationed at the Naval Base there. As I headed down the Parkway, I passed CBU, which I had never seen and had a strange feeling I would return there someday.  So what came to pass in 1992 was that CBU would become my home as I began my life as a Christian Brother. We never know where life will take us, but I am so very grateful for all that happened since that night in 1970.