Education Commons^™

Interview Of Mary Butler, Mary Butler, Zach Bower

All Oral Histories

Mary (King) Butler was born in 1942 in King and Queen County, Virginia. Her parents are Hayes and Blanche King. Her father’s parents were Archie King, Sr. and Rossie King. Her mother’s parents were Joshua and Peggie Whiting. Mary is the oldest of four children. Her two brothers were born in 1943 and 1951, and her sister was born in 1961. Her nuclear family lived close to her father’s parent’s farm in Plainview, VA. Her family was active in both Union Prospect Baptist Church and First Baptist Church.

Butler worked often on her grandparent’s farm as a child. Butler and …

Interview Of Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., M.A., M.Ed., M.L.S., Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., Wesley Schwenk

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Brother Joseph Grabenstein is the Head Archivist of the La Salle University Archives and also manages the Brothers of the Christian School, District of Eastern North America Archives that are housed here at La Salle. He worked as an assistant archivist from 1992 until 1994 and was made head archivist January 1, 1994. Grabenstein was born in 1950 in Cumberland, Maryland to Herman and Irene Grabenstein. He is a 1968 graduate of Bishop Walsh High School and received his Bachelor of Arts in History in 1973 from La Salle College. He taught a variety of classes including history, geography, religion …

Interview Of John Lukacs, Ph.D., John Lukacs Ph.D., Leo Wong

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John Lukacs was born in 1924 in Budapest Hungary. He grew up in a middle class family raised by a Roman Catholic Father, and a Jewish mother. While he received most of his education in Hungary, he went to high school in Great Britain during his teenage years. During the Second World War, he was drafted into a forced labor battalion for much of the war. When German troops occupied Hungary in late 1944, he had to avoid getting sent to death camps by avoiding German patrols. In addition, he had to avoid being caught in the crossfire during the …

Interview Of Thomas J. Wurtenberger, Thomas J. Wurtenberger, Charles D. Muzyczek

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Thomas J. Wurtenberger was born and raised in the Lower Olney (Feltonville) section of Philadelphia in 1935. He was raised primarily by his mother after the death of his father in 1944. Tom attended North Catholic High School where he took business courses. He did not have aspirations to attend college right out of high school. He was encouraged by a former employer to better himself by going to college and earning a degree. One year after graduation Tom enrolled at La Salle College. He chose La Salle because of its reasonable tuition and proximity to home. Originally Tom desired …

Interview Of Frederick Van Fleteren, Ph.D., Frederick Van Fleteren Ph.D., Leo Wong

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Frederick Van Fleteren was born in St. Clair Shores, Michigan in 1941. He was raised by two devout Catholic parents who valued his education. He went to Catholic grade schools and colleges in the United States, as well as two Irish universities when he was getting his Ph.D. in philosophy. His interest in philosophy would guide his academic and professional career from his undergraduate years to his time as a Philosophy professor at La Salle University. From 1967 until 1978, he was an ordained priest with the Augustinians. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Villanova in 1964 and 1968 …

Interview Of John P. Rossi, Ph.D., John Patrick Rossi Ph.D., Kevin N. Bretz

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This interview examines Dr. John Rossi’s life since his formal retirement in 2006. Major topics in the interview include Dr. Rossi’s publication of the La Salle history book, Living the Promise. Rossi details the archival experience, the research, drafts, and publication of the book. He also discusses the book’s reception at the school, as well as the community. Another major topic that was explored was Dr. Rossi’s travels and experience in Great Britain while he was researching his doctoral dissertation in the 1960s. Other topics include his analysis of history and his perspective on how technology has affected the …

Interview Of Charles A. Desnoyers, Ph.D., Charles A. Desnoyers Ph.D., Remus Lee

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Dr. Charles Albert Desnoyers (b. 1952) was born and raised in North Plainfield, New Jersey with his parents and five younger siblings. He attended St. Joseph’s Parochial School and North Plainfield High School for the duration of his primary school education; it was in North Plainfield High School where he began showing an interest in history, due to the influences of his history teachers. He later attended Villanova University, changing to a sociology major after a year of general sciences. His graduation from Villanova University with a minor in history led him down the path to getting a Ph.D. and …

Interview Of Richard Monastra, Richard J. Monastra, Pamela Johnson

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Richard Monastra is of the “baby boom” generation, having been born in 1946 in Philadelphia. He is the eldest of two children. He remains very close to his sister to this day. Mr. Monastra grew up in South Philadelphia in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He describes South Philly at the time as “magical”. He described his neighborhood as being made up of Euro-Americans who settled in South Philly after the Civil War. He attended St. Edmond’s Parochial Elementary School where there were as many as 60 kids in a class. After elementary school, he attended Bishop Neumann High School. While …

Interview Of Dominic Galante, Dominic Galante, Lewis T. Mladjen

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Mr. Dominic Galante was born in 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The youngest of three children and a first-generation Italian-American, the majority of his life, both professional and private, was spent in Philadelphia. As a child Mr. Galante was raised in a devout Catholic home and attended Catholic grade school in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. Upon graduating from Northeast Catholic High School in 1962 he planned on joining the workforce, as attending college was not financially possible. In the fall of 1962, with the help of his high school typing teacher, he was interviewed and hired at LaSalle College …

Interview Of John J. Mcgoldrick, F.S.C., Ph.D., John J. Mcgoldrick F.S.C., Ph.D., Christine M. Thieme

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Brother John Joseph McGoldrick (b. 1948), grew up in Southwest Philadelphia with his parents and older brother. Attending Most Blessed Sacrament School and later West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys, Brother John was part of a strong Catholic community. It was here at West Philadelphia Catholic High School, where Brother John was introduced to the Christian Brotherhood. It was at this time that he realized that the life of service with the Brotherhood was the type of life he’d like to lead. At the age of fifteen, Brother John attended the junior novitiate and after graduating high school entered …

Interview Of Michael R. Dillon, Ph.D., J.D., Michael R. Dillon, Ph.D., J.D., John A. Prendergast

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Dr. Michael Richard Dillon (1942-2020) was a Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at La Salle University in Philadelphia. He grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb just outside of Chicago, where he spent many years before opting to attend the University of Notre Dame for his undergraduate and, later, his graduate and doctoral degrees. Dr. Dillon first came to La Salle in 1968, where he spent 17 years as a member of the Political Science Department under the Chair at the time, Robert Courtney. After obtaining a J.D. from Temple University, Dr. Dillon left La Salle in …

Interview Of Sidney J. Macleod, Jr., M.F.A., Sidney J. Macleod Jr., M.F.A., Amy E. Brooks

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Sidney MacLeod (often called Sid) was born in 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the oldest of three children and the only boy. He earned his M.S.S. at Saint Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota and his M.F.A. at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. After graduate school he was drafted into the U.S. Army where he served two years on several domestic military bases. He began working at La Salle in 1959. In 1961 he married his wife, Mary Jane. They have four children (three sons and one daughter). He continues to work at La Salle full-time. When he retires he …

Interview Of Helen Gidjunis, Helen Gidjunis, Paula Gidjunis

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Interview topic: Mrs. Helen Gidjunis is a life-long resident of Philadelphia. The majority of her life she spent growing up in the shadow of La Salle College – now University. She moved to Uber Street in 1934, while La Salle’s groundbreaking occurred on February 29, 1928 at its fourth and current location at 20^th Street and Olney Avenue. She has observed the neighborhood change for seventy-nine years. When she married in 1949, she moved one street west to 20^th Street. She has been her block captain for many years and still retains that position and as such has …

Interview Of Peter J. Finley, Ph.D., Peter J. Finley Ph.D., Meghan Bassett

All Oral Histories

Peter J. Finley Sr. was born an only child to parents John J. Finley and Margaret Francis Dunn in 1931, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. He grew up in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. Peter attended St. Francis Xavier School for grade school, La Salle Prep School afterwards—located at 1240 North Broad Street at the time—and La Salle College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology in 1953. Peter’s connection to La Salle began early in his childhood; his father, John J. Finley, was in the College’s graduating class of 1924. Peter earned a master’s degree at the College …

Interview Of Eugene Colucci, Eugene Colucci, Robert G. Seelhorst Jr

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Abstract

Mr. Eugene Colucci (b. 1948) is a Spanish teacher at Buena Regional High School in Atlantic County, New Jersey. This is his twentieth year as an educator at BRHS in the New Jersey public school system. Before this, Mr. Colucci spent nineteen years teaching in the Catholic school system of Philadelphia (St. Peter’s Elementary, Bishop Neumann High School, and St. Maria Goretti High School). He has a unique perspective because he spent so much time in both the public and private school environments. He describes his youth in the Catholic school system of Philadelphia and describes growing up in …