1930s

37 Class Secretary — Kathleen Coverick ’08;

kathleen.coverick@gmail.com

 

38 Class Secretary — Meg Julian ’03, ’06JD;

804 Jersey Ave., Spring Lake NJ 07762; 646-246-5480; megjulian@gmail.com

 

39 Past Officers

Richard Joseph O’Melia was president of the graduating 1939 class. Prior to his death in October 2005 he served as vice chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board for both Presidents Nixon and Ford. Before this, he fought during WWII in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa campaigns as a Marine Corps fighter pilot, retiring in 1968 as a lieutenant colonel. Class Vice President Carl Henry Fricke Jr. passed away in April 2005. He served in the US Army during WWII and landed in Normandy less than two months after D-Day before spending nearly two years in the European Theater. An avid outdoorsman and volunteer with the Boy Scouts for over 40 years, Carl spent his career as president of a wholesale paper company in southern California. Thomas Joseph Schriner, then class secretary, hailed from Lakewood OH and graduated from the College of Commerce. Robert “Bob” Michael Ortale went onto Albany Law School. His returns to campus and participation in alumni events were mentioned often in the archived Alumnus class news and “Reports from the Dean” of ND Law School as a scholarship donor. The Archives provide access to the Alumnus magazine and, 60 years ago in the October 1962 edition, the 1939 secretary was James N. Motschall. His notes spoke of men in the midst of successful careers and their families. Bankers, managers, lawyers, engineers, social workers, athletic directors, real estate, newspapermen, businessmen, physicians, teachers, and fathers (Harold A. Gottsacker had nine children and Don O’Melia 11 as of that writing)! Travel was often and there was clear joy in corresponding (and visiting) other members of the class. In the same magazine, Thomas J. O’Donnell, CSC, ’41, wrote about the Bells of Notre Dame, saying, “At another time I’ll tell you some of the history behind the bells at Notre Dame. . . . I leave you with the hope that these bells of Notre Dame and their ringing in your memory may bring to each of you ‘voices of forgotten friends, the old plans and designs, the old energies and brightnesses of the unshadowed life.’ The sound of Notre Dame is a bell, and the bells of Notre Dame leave an imperishable memory among perishable men.” We welcome any updates. — Seth O’Donnell ’04; 17 Marion St., East Greenwich RI 02818, 603-828-7335; seth.odonnell@gmail.com