Gael Glimpses, 1960-1969
1969
| Matt Kelleher, Steve Ledyard and Mike Thor celebrated their 60th birthdays in July. All three traveled to celebrate this milestone (Matt and family to Bali; Steve and wife to Tibet and Mike to the Rugby World Championships in Paris). Matt’s son, Blake, is a sophomore at Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley and an excellent soccer player. Matt chairs the school’s annual golf tournament. |
1967
| John Karnowski left Saint Mary’s after his sophomore year and graduated with a B.S. in business management from Cal Poly Pomona. He moved to Texas with his family, received a commission and served three years in the U.S. Navy, spending time in Vietnam. He then earned his CPA certificate and an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he has lived for 40 years. He and his wife, Ann, have been married for 32 years and they have two children: Michael, a Dallas architect, and Sarah, an early childhood intervention specialist in Dallas. Ann is an ESL teacher at Richland College and John is a financial consultant with Jefferson Wells, an international professional business services firm. |
1966
| Leo McGinnis retired in 1997 after 30 successful years in IBM Corporation management. Living happily with wife, Kathy, for the last 19 years, Leo volunteers with the Colorado Historical Society and the Boulder Library in elementary school educational programs. He also launched a tourism business, BeWithMe Custom Tours, Inc., in 2004. |
1965
 Thomas M. Collins retired in July 2006 after 30 years of service as a general surgeon at Goodall Hospital in Sonford, Maine. Tom received his medical degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. Prior to his general surgery residency at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Tom served three years in the U.S. Navy. His first assignment after his internship was as a general medical officer aboard the hospital ship USS Sanctuary, on duty at Da Nang, Vietnam. Prior to his retirement, Tom was on a large white boat again — in summer 2006, he was on a volunteer mission with Project HOPE aboard the LISNS Mercy, with work stations at Chittagong, Bangladesh; Nias, Simelue, Banda Aceh and Sumatra in Indonesia. |
| Gary M. Flinders, a counselor at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco, will retire from education after the 2007–2008 school year. It is his 35th year at Sacred Heart. He is completing his first year as district council president for the Alameda County Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He and his wife, Lita, became grandparents for the first time when their son, Joe, and his wife had twin girls. |
1963
| Kerry Koller, who earned a Ph.D. at Notre Dame, was one of the founders of Trinity Schools, which operates three schools in South Bend, Ind., Bloomington, Minn., and Falls Church, Va., serving students in seventh through 12th grade. The schools stress the importance of learning rather than grades and test scores. Teachers do not put letter grades on student work and the semester evaluation consists of a written narrative of what and how the student is learning. Ninety-six percent of graduates enroll in college. |
 Jim McNalis is a professional artist and enthusiastic world traveler whose work includes a sculpture of Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. McNalis traveled to Burma in 1998 and was moved to discover the ability of people to endure and rise above the tyranny of an oppressive government. He learned of Suu Kyi from the Burmese people, who regard her as a hero taking risks for democracy.McNalis began work on a sculpture of Suu Kyi as soon as he returned to the United States. In 1999, the sculpture was presented to exiled Prime Minister Sein Win and the Burmese people to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the National League for Democracy by Suu Kyi and her colleagues. The celebration was in Washington, D.C. and attended by expatriate Burmese families and friends. When McNalis travels to Burma, he passes out photographs of the sculpture. In March 2005, one man told him, “These are like pictures of the Dalai Lama in Tibet. They are illegal but people have them to keep their spirits up.” |
 Michael J. Smith served in the U.S. Army for two years after graduation. He received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of British Columbia in 1969. He served as an assistant professor of zoology at University of Nebraska (1969–1971); research faculty member in biology at Cal Tech (1971–1976); and assistant professor and professor at Simon Fraser University (1976–2004), when he accepted a postretirement contract at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. He was chair of the Biology Department at Simon Fraser for three years and chair of the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department. He was married to Margaret in 1978. His daughter, Jennifer, a graduate of Georgetown and University of Toronto, is an attorney in Vancouver. His son, James, is finishing his B.A. in English literature at Simon Fraser University. At present, Michael is an unemployed (not RETIRED) professor emeritus in molecular biology and biochemistry at Simon Fraser University. |
1962
| Brother E. Martin Ash celebrated his 50th anniversary as a Christian Brother, having received the habit on Aug. 14, 1957. He was at SMC for 23 years as a dorm counselor, director of Ferroggiaro Center, moderator of the Rugby Club and travel coordinator of the Annual Easter Rugby Tour. He now resides at the De La Salle High School community in Concord. |
1961
| Paul Alvarado has twin sons, Robert and Nicholas, in college this fall. Robert began his first year at the U.S. Naval Academy and Nicholas is in his second year at Seattle University. |
