UPDATE: Peter Picknelly, CEO of Peter Pan Bus Lines, according to the Springfield Republican, has said he will purchase the Student Prince and Fort and plans to open it again in the fall with only “a few tweaks.”

Earlier, it was Gus & Paul’s, the deli in East Forest Park. Now, according to the Springfield Republican, Springfield may lose the Student Prince and The Fort, downtown. The owners, citing decreasing usage, are closing the operation down. (The Fort, for me, was a place I hoped to visit when I came back in October for the reunion.)

Frequenters of the Fort Street business — much of the Springfield establishment due to its proximity to City Hall and federal buildings — are hoping for new owners, and a sale is possible.

Yet another example of how the Springfield we once knew continues to change. That’s often a good thing. Is it in this case? What’s the future of downtown? Will a casino be a boost? Short-term or long-term?

It’s Bill Danoff’s birthday today. I only know that because he is, most likely, the only member of our class whose birthday is listed among famous people and celebrities on websites and in newspapers, etc. You know, “Notable birthdays today,” stuff like that.

Each of us, of course, is special. And probably most of us have been blessed with successful and happy lives. But I think you would have to agree Bill Danoff is the most famous member of our class. And not because he was vice-president of our class.

In case you had not followed his career after Cathedral, Bill continued to make music, as he did on many occasions at school (examples from PantherPix at left, and leftmost in the header photo). His career, which you can trace at billdanoff.com, includes writing many successful songs (among them, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Afternoon Delight”), and has brought him two Grammy Awards.

The anecdote may not be accurate, but I remember hearing or reading that Bill, who graduated from Georgetown in 1968, once said he would have been the most famous member of that class if it wasn’t for some guy named Bill Clinton. I think Bill Danoff nailed it for our class.

And, of course, best wishes to all of you, as well. 🙂

At a press conference this afternoon, in front of the damaged Cathedral High School building on Surrey Road, officials from the Springfield Diocese and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a $38 million agreement that will reportedly lead to the rebuilding of the high school, as well as an adjacent pre-school and middle school.

Springfield Republican report

What the new high school will be remains to be seen. Enrollment, which was more than 3,000 students in our time, is now 228 high school students, and a building of smaller scale may be appropriate. It appears, however, that a new Cathedral High School will replace the building in which we spent four years.

What do you see in Cathedral’s future? Continuing small enrollment? A return to the “glory days”? 🙂

This is an interesting illustration on the CHS home page.

“. . . new Cathedral High School on Surrey Road.” That seems to imply a rebuilding of the school building, heavily damaged in the 2011 tornado and closed since. But wait. The Springfield Republican, in an article Jan. 26, says the future of CHS is “on hold.”

The spokesman for the Diocese of Springfield says decisions about the school depend on final resolution of efforts to secure funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the success of a drive to fund the “Cathedral Endowment Fund for Tuition Assistance.” When you click on the above illustration on the CHS website, you go to a page describing that fund.

In a letter to the editor Feb. 2, Ralph Hess ’78, secretary of the CHS board of trustees, provides more information and lays out the case for the endowment fund.

What do you think is going to happen? Do you want a new Cathedral High School on Surrey Road?

It was late in the school day, wasn’t it?, on that November Friday 50 years ago, when we heard an announcement that shocked all of us and reverberates in many of us still. The President–that relatively young man, that Catholic, that Massachusetts man, that husband and father–had been shot in Dallas and was dead.

The photo of JFK from the 1964 PantherPix, dedicated to the memories of him and Pope John XXIII

Once we were out of school, then began days of grief and of watching television. The constant eye of TV was part of how we expressed and experienced that grief and anxiety. We didn’t know then that the rest of the Sixties would bring us more killings, at home and across the Pacific, in Vietnam. That this killing would somehow mark the beginning of years of strife, death, protests, and more.

On that Friday, all sorts of things, including after-school activities, were canceled. That weekend, the focus was on Dallas and Washington and many people stayed home to watch the President’s body brought to the White House, then the Capitol, then to Arlington National Cemetery in a three-day state funeral, ending that Monday.

What do you remember of that day? That weekend? Did you see the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald live on television?

Many of you, certainly those in the Springfield area, know of the terrible damage done by the summer 2011 tornado to the Cathedral High School building in which we went to school. The building, in fact, is vacant and has been partially demolished. Classes are being held in a former Wilbraham elementary school, as the diocese determines how to proceed.

The science wing, as we knew it, was particularly damaged in the tornado.

The diocese received a reported $50 million insurance settlement in September and is seeking additional financial support through FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to an article in today’s Springfield Republican, there remains uncertainty and concern about what the new Cathedral High will be, and where.