Vita Mutatur, Non Tolitur
We mourn the passing of our classmate, Gerry Magliano, and offer our condolences to his family. Gerry left us on June 13th, 2025.
May God have mercy on his soul.
You can see Gerry's memorial page here.
We just got another Bio!
We were stuck at 39 Bio's for a long time, and then last month we got our 40th from Norm Sippel... and 2 weeks later - Bingo! - we got another from Joe Rodino.
Thank you, Joe.
You can see Joe's Bio later on in the Blog. Bio cookies are on their way to Joe and Norm!
67 and counting...
We celebrated the 67th anniversary of our graduation from SPP on Tuesday, July 15th. We had a great crowd, and the folks agrees that it was the best one to date. You can read the stories - and see the video - later in this edition of the Blog.
We heard from Bob Bennett about... Gonzaga
"Vince:
At my session, the retreat master would always start by reciting the poem, 'Isn't it strange'...
There were a few word changes, but he used that poem to focus on our unknown - and possible - futures.
The retreat - and poem - was a big influence on me in the 67 years since.
I had a pensive view of the nearby snow-covered hills and the surreal vision of the snow falling.
It was then I toyed with becoming a priest - but getting back to normal life erased those thoughts quickly.
The code of silence was compromised when a few guys had a 'silent' snowball fight during an outdoor break. That's what most will remember.
Could I book a week-end and relive those days? Is Gonzaga even still open?
Realistically....can you ever go home again?"
Prep '58 Cuppa Club
We did not schedule a Reo Cuppa for July in favor of the Reunion Summa Bash held on July 15th at Bar-A in Belmar. See information on the Reunion later in this Blog edition.
Our next Cuppa Club at the Reo Diner in Woodbridge is scheduled for Tue, Aug 19th at noon EDT.
Zoom Cuppa
We held a Zoom Cuppa session on July 14th.
Rich Campion joined from Canada; Vince, Peter Donnelly, George Armbruster, Dave Connolly, Bob Pipchick and Bob Filoramo from NJ, with Tom Reilly CO, Jim Heaney MD and Phil Campana TN rounding out the group.
We started with Bastille Day stories and anecdotes, and shared the fact that quite a few of our family and friends were celebrating a birthday on Bastille Day.
Prep '58 Website - It's worth another look...
On the Zoom call of May 12th, we had a discussion about the Prep '58 website, and discovered that several guys on the call did not know that there was such a thing as a Prep '58 website. Some thought that the Blog was the only thing available for viewing.
Vince went thru a very quick report on the website (see image of the Home page to the left) and invited everyone to check out all that's available. And there really is a whole lot to see!
- The entire collection of Petroc's from our 4 years at Prep;
- the '58 Book Library with reviews by the gang; various photo and video collections, and other features of interest.
- We have all six of the photos from our senior retreat at Gonzaga, with most of the guys identified.
- G'Kid photos sent in over the years;
- Links to the '58 Petrean, past Reunions, the After '58 Bio's, and a whole lot more.
If anyone has a suggestion for another feature for the website, send in your idea to Vince, and we'll give it a look.
Click here to visit the Prep '58 website.
Happy browsing!
We made it to 41!
We send our thanks to Norm Sippel and Joe Rodino for their Bio's, and we will be sending out their Bio cookies shortly. We hope those who have not done so, will follow Norm and Joe's lead. There's a dozen delicious chocolate chunk cookies just waiting to be shipped for sending in your Bio.
How After '58 got started... In March, 2017 we received this suggestion from Bill Kretzer to collect stories from the '58 gang about what they did after graduation.
"I think there would be a bushel of interest in interviews with each & every ‘58 graduate. I for one, since I went away to college and never returned to NJ, didn’t keep in touch as much as I should have and would be curious to hear how everyone’s life turned out."
The Editor asked Bill to send in his story and that was the beginning of the After '58 Bio era. 8 years later, we are at 41 Bio's. We should be approaching 100 Bio's, and we need your help to get there.
And with the offer of a baker's dozen cookies for each Bio sent in, we've shipped out over 500 of the best chocolate chunk cookies you've ever tasted.
We hope every one of the '58 gang will pick up on Bill's suggestion and send in their story in an email to Vince. It takes no more time to put your story together than it would to tell it to your grandkids, so how about it? We will return the favor by sending a baker's dozen of Stephanie Grillo's famous Chocolate Chunk cookies. We've already shipped out over 500 of the best cookies you've ever tasted, and there's more where they came from.
Take a look at Norm and Joe's Bio's and the whole collection of Bio's so far.
We started the Blogtoons feature to share some of the humorous cartoons we get from time to time.
Some of them are not technically cartoons, but they all got a chuckle out of the Editor.
Most of them are from '58 guys, but occasionally we will get contributions from a few others...
If you come across one you think the gang would enjoy, send it in to Vince in an email.
Here's a peek at the best of the bunch, so far.
Maruska Graduates!
Stephanie's niece, Maruska, graduated in June from high school in the Czech Republic. A true scholar, she graduated at the top of her class! She is seen here with her mother and G'mother.
She technically is not a G'kid, but we have the authority to grant an override, in light of her accomplishments.
"Congratulations, Maruska. The world is yours for the taking. Go get it!"
G'pop & Stephanie
