RIP Brother Benjamin

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Notre Dame High School shares news of the passing of
Brother Benjamin, the age of one hundred and two. For
fifty nine years, Brother Benjamin was a fixture at Notre
Dame High School, West Haven, beginning as a religion and
business teacher in nineteen fifty six. He was best known
to generations of students, myself included, and families for his

(00:23):
role in running the Notre Dame Bookstore. So that was
you didn't mess with. There are a lot of plates,
a lot of corrors, a lot of places in nd
where you got up to nonsense, not the bookstore. You
didn't mesa run the bookstore. You smack your I think
never forgot to tell you to just a right hook

(00:45):
to somebody's throat and I just started the kid go old.
I feel like it was John Horvac, but it couldn't
have been. He might have just been there with me
as we witnessed this extraord ordinary pummeling from a man
of God. Rumors abounded for many, many years that Brother

(01:08):
Benjamin had at one time been a boxer. I don't
see any of that here in this beautiful write up,
and maybe we did. That's just urban myth. I don't know.
I don't know if anyone can confirm, but I mean
he threw hands, you got you got punched, But yeah
ran The Notre Dame Bookstore hosted the annual Christmas Bazar,

(01:30):
moderated the Notre Dame Alumni Mothers Club. The former bookstore
is now a classroom to accommodate the growing academic needs
of the now co ed Notre Dame community, but it's
been named for him, for him forever, memorializing his contributions
to the school, Brother Benjamin wrote that while serving with

(01:54):
the Air Force during World War Two, this really got
me yesterday. Man, those are two great years my life.
I always regretted not sticking it out with Notre Dame.
Fantastic school, fantastic time in my life, he wrote. I
was fighting a vocation, attracted but not ready. But God
has a way of pushing. Ultimately I found my way

(02:15):
to Holy Cross. He celebrated his seventieth anniversary as a
Brother of Holy Cross just on April twenty seventh. It's beautiful,
they write, We know that generations of Notre Dame alumni
and families join us in mourning his passing absolutely, but
also in celebrating his long life and many contributions to
the brothers of Holy Cross and especially Endy. May God

(02:38):
grant eternal peace to Brother Benjamin and consolation to family,
friends and his brothers in Holy Cross. Look, I can't
say that I had millions of run ins with Brother Benjamin,
like I said, I was smart enough not to. I
know a lot of kids who did. I can say
this much. I pulled off probably twice. I mean it

(03:03):
was nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty three. Those are
the years that I attended. Think I pulled off twice
making him laugh. I hesitate to even say making him laugh,
but getting a smile, amusing him, and man, it felt
like an achievement. I'm not painting any picture. He was

(03:25):
just kind of a sarcastic guy and you know, a
wry sense of humor. He took no nonsense. You were
to respect, you were to conduct yourself, and accordingly, you
were to listen, not get distracted, or he'd get your attention.
So I don't want to paint some picture that he
was grumbled, But amusing him felt like such an achievement,

(03:47):
and I managed to pull that off twice. Usually it
had to be something self deprecating if I recall correctly,
but that's called It's an interesting word comes to mind.
Impact