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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Shines on Coach John Teerlinck, Friar Class of 1969

April 25, 2019

The former LaGrange Park resident and NFL ‘sack tasker’ is Fenwick’s newest inductee into the Chicago Catholic League Coaches’ Hall of Fame.

By Mark Vruno

A defensive lineman, the 6’3″ 225-lb. Teerlinck (#77) was CCL All-Conference for the Friars in his senior season of 1968. “Playing for Fenwick was a big deal,” he says.

Fenwick Fact: Highly acclaimed Defensive Line Coach John Teerlinck ’69 is the only Friars’ alumnus with three Super Bowl rings from the National Football League (NFL). Teerlinck knows how to creatively apply pressure — in a football context, that is.

Teaching elite athletes the proper techniques needed to effectively rush the passer is his specialty, and the coach excelled at the collegiate and highest professional level. Teerlinck has coached in 32 NFL playoff games, including six AFC Championship Games and four Super Bowls.

He is one of only 23 coaches to win a Super Bowl with more than one team: two back to back with the Denver Broncos (1997 and 1998) in the John Elway era and one with the Indianapolis Colts (2006) in the Peyton Manning era. (“Sorry, Bears fans,” jokes Teerlinck, whose family moved when he was eight years old from upstate New York to suburban LaGrange Park, IL.)

In recognition of his sideline accomplishments, this evening the Chicago Catholic League (CCL) will induct Teerlinck, its native son, into the 2019 Coaches Association HALL OF FAME class. Many football observers refer to Coach “Link” as the GOAT: the greatest defensive line coach of all time. The “John Teerlinck Award” is given annually to the best defensive line coach in the NFL.

Teerlinck is being inducted into the CCL Coaches Association Hall of Fame on April 25, 2019.

“Coach Teerlinck has coached many former teammates of mine, and we have friends in common from throughout our professional careers,” says Gene Nudo, Fenwick’s present Head Coach, who was a coach and executive in the Arena Football League before joining the Friars in 2012. “It surprised me to learn that this great coach was an alum of Fenwick. He, like so many others, has done the ‘Shield’ proud with his many professional achievements,” which is what led Nudo to nominate Teerlinck for the CCL HOF honor.

Without much offensive fire-power, the ’68 season was a bit of a disappointment for the Friars and Teerlinck (#77).

When he played defensive line for Fenwick in the 1967 and ’68 seasons, the Fighting Friars’ varsity went a combined 10-5. After a 7-2 junior campaign, a 3-5 record as a senior was disappointing. The defensive unit gave up a respectable 15.5 points per game (ppg) in the autumn of 1968. However, an anemic offense could muster only nine touchdowns all year for a paltry average of 7.25 ppg. Teerlinck was an All-Conference selection and went on to become an All-American for the Western Illinois University (Macomb, IL) Leathernecks. “We used to get New York Giants games at Western and I’d watch No. 89, Fred Dryer, and copy his moves,” Teerlinck told Chicago Tribune writer Don Pierson in a 1992 article.

When he wasn’t playing football in college, Teerlinck was studying the moves of New York Giants’ 6’6” 240-lb. DE Fred Dryer on TV.

A member of Western Illinois University’s Hall of Fame (inducted in 2000), Teerlinck was a team co-captain and defensive MVP as a senior in 1973. He was the first WIU player ever to record four sacks in a single game and still remains one of only four Leathernecks to ever accomplish that feat.

Teaching the Art of the Sack

In 1974 he was drafted by the San Diego Chargers (fifth round, 101st overall pick) and started as a rookie. Teerlinck played four seasons, on the other side of ball from an offense led by future Pro Hall of Fame QB Dan Fouts, until a severe knee injury led to his early retirement as a player. “When I played for the Chargers, I’d get updates on Fenwick and Chicago three to four times a year from referee Jerry Markbreit, who coached in the Catholic League,” Teerlinck said. (Markbreit is a fellow CCL Hall of Famer.)

50 years ago: John Teerlinck’s 1969 yearbook photo from Fenwick.

Some of football’s best quarterbacks feared many of the defensive linemen who trained under Teerlinck’s tutelage during nearly four decades spent coaching college and pro football. With four pro teams – the Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings, Broncos and Colts — his players either set the record or came in second in total sacks.

Coach Teerlinck, who now is retired and recently celebrated his 68th birthday, stands 6’5” but many of his star speed rushers over the years were not quite as tall (see below). He coached 31 Pro Bowl (All-Star) players, including four defensive MVPs:

Perry

Michael Dean Perry, AFC Defensive Player of the Year (’89), Cleveland Browns. Out of Clemson, the Fridge’s younger, “little” brother, who is 6’1” and weighed 285 pounds, tallied 61 career sacks.

Doleman

Chris Doleman, NFC Defensive POY (’92), Minnesota Vikings. At 6’5” 290 lbs., he was a tall one. Doleman played collegiately at Pittsburgh, then registered 150.5 sacks during his NFL career.

Randle

John Randle, Minnesota Vikings; NFL sack leader in ’97; 137.5 career sacks. Randle stood only 6’1” and struggled to get his weight up to 275 lbs. College(s): Trinity Valley Community College and Texas A&M University – Kingsville (Div. II).

Freeney

Dwight Freeney, Indianapolis Colts; 125.5 career sacks and a “patented” spin move. At 6’1” 270 lbs., he sprinted 120 feet in 4.48 seconds at the NFL Combine in 2002. The freakish athlete also could leap up to 40 inches vertically. College: Syracuse. (Freeney was a four-sport athlete in high school, playing football, basketball, baseball and soccer!)

During his tenure, Teerlinck coached seven players (Bubba Baker, Doleman, Freeney, Kevin Greene, Robert Mathis, Randle and Neil Smith) to reach 100 career sacks: the ultimate benchmark for a defensive lineman. Both Doleman and Randle have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (HOF). Teerlinck became only the ninth assistant coach selected to present a player at a HOF induction when he presented Randle in 2010. 

Motivational Coach

“Wax on, wax off, Daniel -san.”

His players remember their coach as an unconventional teacher who believed in their abilities and who also helped to motivate them to reach their potential. “John Teerlinck is kind of like Mr. Miyagi [the character in the ‘Karate Kid’ movies],” John Randle has said. “He’s very unorthodox: a different breed; rough around the edges. He tells you things that are funny, but they register if you just listen. That’s why he’s the guru.”

The player and coach at Randle’s Pro Football HOF enshrinement nine years ago.

Here’s how Randle began his HOF acceptance speech in 2010: “First of all, I want to thank John Teerlinck for presenting me, motivating me, focusing me on the game that I love. I also want to say, John, thank you for saying I could excel and play in the National Football League, even though I wasn’t drafted, didn’t play for a major school. Also thank you for showing me what sometimes I didn’t see in myself.”

VIDEO: Coach Teerlinck shares his memories of DL John Randle.

A Proud Friar

Before coaching in college and the pros, however, Teerlinck was just proud to be a Fenwick Friar. “Going to Fenwick was a big deal,” he recalled last week from his home in Indiana. Literally thousands of boys would take the admissions test in those days, he said. “Only three of nine [boys] from my school got in,” remembers the straight-A student from St. Louise de Marillac. “About 150 guys would try out for football in those days.” Youthful John is pictured among the 47 new Friars in his freshman Blackfriars yearbook (1965-66) photograph. (The team finished 3-2-1.)

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Let There Be (LED) Light!

EARTH DAY SPECIAL

Green initiatives on campus, including “smart” lighting upgrades, keep Fenwick’s facilities cleaner and more energy-efficient — while saving the school nearly $84,000 last year!

By Mark Vruno

If Fenwick seems a little brighter lately, that’s because it is. Beyond the sharp, young minds honed in classrooms, we literally are talking light bulbs – namely, vibrant ones employing LED (light-emitting diode) technology.

The Fenwick Library was empty and dark during Easter Break, but the new LED lights were turned back on Tuesday, April 23.

From the John Gearen ’32 Library to labs and classrooms; from the Fieldhouse Gym to the Dan O’Brien ’34 Aquatics Center and adjacent locker rooms/showers; from hallways, stairwells and the Auditorium to parking lots and emergency-lighting systems; the LED lights shine more brightly nearly everywhere in our building, parts of which are 90 years old come fall. In the past year or so, hundreds of fluorescent and metal-halide fixtures have been replaced by Custom Light Solutions (CLS), a retrofit firm based in Roselle, IL. CLS is a business agent for American Green Lights, a manufacturer of LED and induction lighting headquartered in San Diego, CA.

“Thanks to the Fenwick facility team’s leadership and foresight, the school has quite a story to tell from a savings, energy and environmental perspective,” says CLS principal and Fenwick alumnus Dave Segerson ’71, who grew up on Chicago’s West Side and attended old St. Thomas Aquinas Church in the Austin neighborhood. The latest Friar lighting “footprint” improvements since 2016 have resulted in “a significant reduction in electricity expenses,” according to Mr. Segerson’s calculations.

Fenwick Operations Director Jerry Ruffino notes, “The savings is not only in energy but also in ‘man power’ and labor. My guys don’t have to replace bulbs and ballasts nearly as often with these LED lamps.” Adds Denis McCauley, Special Projects Manager at Fenwick: “They last substantially longer [than fluorescent and metal-halide ones], with warranties of five years and longer.”

Fieldhouse Gym

More than four years in the making, the lighting conversion project is spearheaded internally by Mr. McCauley and overseen by Mr. Ruffino. The total team effort is led by President Fr. Richard Peddicord, O.P., Chief Operating Officer Nancy Bufalino and the school’s Finance Committee.

“Upgrading our lighting from incandescent, fluorescent and metal halide [MH] to LED has reduced the load on our existing electrical system,” McCauley says. (A type of high-intensity discharge (HID) gas lamp, MH produces light by an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of vaporized mercury and metal halides — compounds of metals with bromine or iodine.) He cites as an example the building’s upper West Wing hallway, where 77 single fluorescent lamp fixtures have been replaced with 41 LED units. “We went from 2,464 kilowatt-hours [kW⋅h] to 1,640 kW⋅h. So we are saving more than 800 kilowatts just there, every hour of every day. The payback comes quickly!”

Another dozen fixtures in each of the wing’s 11 classrooms also were replaced, he adds. Electricity provider Commonwealth Edison (ComEd)/Exelon estimates that, since incorporating the LED technology, Fenwick is saving about 40 cents per watt reduced.

$aving energy and money

As down in the pool, MH fixtures were replaced upstairs in the new gym – 48 of them, each with two lamps – with 144-watt LED high-bays. The energy/wattage savings amounts to 68% per fixture, according to CLS statistics, which translates to more than $11,300 off Fenwick’s electricity bill in the Fieldhouse alone (factored on a cost of 10 cents/kWh). Nearly 100 more LED installations can be found in the Fenwick Auditorium, including house lighting and on-stage “show” lights.

The pool area was the “guinea pig” for Fenwick’s LED lighting experiment, receiving 48 new units.

Tack on another almost $6,000 a year in maintenance savings and more than $26,000 in federally funded incentive rebates from ComEd as well as state-funded Illinois Energy grants, and the cost benefits become apparent. Similar savings (of nearly $40,000 annually) are being realized in the pool area. The total 12-month savings for those two areas adds up to $83,424, which is the equivalent to about five full tuitions for the 2019-20 school year.

McCauley adds that the brightness effect is no optical illusion. Everything under roof at Fenwick “looks more brilliant,” he explains, because LEDs offer a high color rendering index (CRI) — the measurement of how colors look when compared with sunlight. The green tint under fluorescent lights is noticeable, he adds. (See graphic.)


Comparing full-spectrum to intermittent-spectrum light sources: The top image is the spectral color distribution of light produced by American Green Lights’ PerformaLUX LED. Every wavelength within the visible spectrum of light is present and in significant strength, while the fluorescent lamp’s spectral distribution is full of peaks and valleys — with dominant wavelength in the green color wavelengths and smaller peaks in the orange, yellow, cyan and blue wavelengths, and a tiny little peak of red.

Going forward, “every replacement bulb at Fenwick High School is going to be LED,” Ruffino announces. Or at least until a newer, more energy-efficient lighting solution is invented in a near-future decade or two.

Editor’s note: CLS supply partner American Green Lights is one of only eight such companies in the Greater Chicago Area — and approximately 200 nationwide — recognized with an Illumination Merit Award from the Illuminating Engineering Society in 2017.

Bye, Bye “Big Bertha”

As part of the construction preparation for Fenwick’s new, six-level Michael R. Quinlan ’62 Parking Center, set to break ground in June, McCauley and Ruffino also are supervising another massive undertaking: the replacement and relocation of the school’s back-up generator. The existing 500-kVA diesel model from Generac Power Systems “is absolutely huge,” McCauley observes, “and pumps out half a million watts of power.” (1 kilo-volt-ampere is equal to 1,000 volt-ampere.)

About to be retired, “Big Bertha” is almost the size of a school bus!

This past weekend, power was shut off to the entire school building(s) as “Big Bertha” was disconnected. In her stead is a pair of smaller, natural gas-fueled Generac units (250 kVA each) installed atop the Priory roof. The end result is the generation of cleaner-burning power when the need arises during a power-outage emergency. “Without a doubt, these gas generators burn cleaner [than diesel], resulting in the discharge of fewer emissions” into the atmosphere, say thermal engineers from ThermFlo, Inc., the Buffalo Grove, IL-based firm working on the project. LaCrosse Electric Co. (Bensenville, IL) is the other key contractor.

“Plus, we won’t have to rely on a tanker [for diesel fuel],” McCauley notes. “This is a more up-to-date system for our purposes.” So far as the nuts, bolts and piping of the operation, the rooftop is a natural choice that provides convenient service access. “The Priory is built like a fortress,” he says. The choice of location on this sturdy structure is ideally suited to handle the weighty steel of the two gas generators. “The West Wing or the Link simply couldn’t handle them,” McCauley points out. “The main [old] building could, but it’s farther away. The piping runs up to the Priory are minimal.”

To ensure that his calculations were correct, McCauley sent his drawings to structural engineer and Friars’ alumnus David Fanella, Ph.D. ’78, Senior Director if Engineering at the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute (CRSI) in Schaumburg, IL. “Dave came highly recommended by another alum, Tony Garippo ’76, who is a Fenwick Life Trustee and serves on the Facilities Committee.”

Denis McCauley (far left, without hat) supervised the new generator deliver on the Priory roof.

Each generator unit is enclosed in boxes to muffle the noise if and when they run. “We don’t want them roaring across the neighborhood,” McCauley concludes. “That’s not fair to the residents who live across the street and nearby.” As for Big Bertha, a crane and flatbed truck soon will take her away to be recycled and reused.

How LEDs Work

Extreme close up of an LED bulb.

In scientific terms, a light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence. 

According to the howstuffworks.com website: LEDs are just tiny light bulbs that fit easily into an electrical circuit. But unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs, they don’t have a filament that will burn out, and they don’t get especially hot. They are illuminated solely by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material, and they last just as long as a standard transistor. The lifespan of an LED surpasses the short life of an incandescent bulb by thousands of hours. 

An electrical ballast is a device placed in line with the load to limit the amount of current in an electrical circuit. (It may be a fixed or variable resistor.) In a fluorescent lighting system, the ballast regulates the current to the lamps and provides sufficient voltage to start the lamps. Without a ballast to limit its current, a fluorescent lamp connected directly to a high voltage power source would rapidly and uncontrollably increase its current draw, according to the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), which for nearly 30 years has sought to “advance the effective use of light for society and the environment.”

Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22. Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day now includes events in more than 193 countries, which are now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network.

Green Photo Gallery

Fenwick’s hallowed halls are brighter and less dingy with the new lighting source.
Bright classrooms for bright students (not pictured!).

Even the bronzed cleats of Johnny Lattner ’50 (below, right) look better under the new, brighter lights.
LED components from Custom Lighting Systems (CLS) and American Green Lights.
CLS’s Retrofit Kit
The two new, gas generators await a crane on Scoville Ave. in late March.
Up, up they go to the Fenwick rooftop!
“Steady,” says the LaCrosse Electric engineering crew.

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The Moments Between the Moments

Seven Days. Three Countries.
Much Schnitzel.

By Garett Auriemma ’85

I’m 4,700 miles from home, I’m sitting in a church organ loft, and I’ve got chills.

Not because I’ve managed to cajole the church administrator into finally shutting down the giant heater that, until just moments before, had been noisily baking the left side of my head. But because below me, 44 members of the Fenwick Band and Choir are giving a performance that most musicians—most anyone, really—could only dream of.

We’re in the Minoritenkirche, a nearly 700-year-old Gothic cathedral in Vienna, Austria. It’s Spring Break, and we’re at the halfway point in the Fenwick Band and Choir European tour— seven days, three cities, three performances.

This is the group’s second performance. The first performance, two nights earlier at the Danube Palace in Budapest, had led to raucous applause and requests for encores. Likewise, the final performance, at Hlahol Music Hall in Prague two days later, would see the student vocalists and musicians in top form before another packed house of enthusiastic concertgoers.

The Minoritenkirche concert, however, elevates the already extraordinary to the sublime. The choir voices spread throughout the cathedral, becoming one with the building, while the instrumentalists’ final notes resonate throughout the structure for what seems like an eternity.

Had you told me the church walls themselves were singing, I would have believed you without hesitation.

*  *  *

When I initially decided to take part in the trip, I did so as an opportunity to visit parts of Europe that had thus far escaped me, and to share the experience with my son, Evan, a sophomore and member of the Fenwick Wind Ensemble.

Although our itinerary was jam-packed, a few weeks removed from the trip, I’m finding that, along with the performances, what my mind flashes back to frequently are the “moments between the moments.”

The “moments” are exactly what you’d expect: the walking tours, the museums, the guided visits to landmarks and castles—the itinerary items that were carefully planned out, timed, and pre-arranged. The “moments between the moments,” though, are those bits that didn’t show up on the itinerary—the times we took Europe into our own hands and decided to see what was there.

The Hogwarts of Eastern Europe?

In Budapest, one of those moments between the moments was a post-performance, after-dinner walk (fully condoned and chaperoned) to a castle-like structure that we had glimpsed from our touring coach earlier in the day. Crossing under the regal entryway, we learned that the building was actually the “Magyar Mezogazdasagi Muzeum,” or Hungarian Agricultural Museum, although from a distance, and illuminated under the night sky, it could have served as a stand-in for Hogwarts’ Eastern European counterpart in the Harry Potter universe.

Though the museum was closed, the grounds remained open, providing us with a serene, fairy tale evening in the midst of modern-day Budapest. Harry Potter never turned up, but it was magical nonetheless.


*  *  *

In addition to chaperoning my own son, I was also assigned the responsibility for a small group of additional students. My group —”Best Group Ever,” as we humbly christened ourselves—quickly bonded. Specifically, we bonded over schnitzel.

An initial lunchtime excursion in Budapest had led us and another chaperoned group to a small 20-seat cafe, 18 seats of which we filled. While the server tried his best to steer us toward the (likely already prepared) “Tourist Lunch,” we opted for variations on prepared-to-order Hungarian schnitzel. We were hooked.

Flash forward two days, and fresh off the coach in Vienna, there was a temptation among several of my bus-weary charges who eyed familiar-looking arches on a restaurant storefront to take the path of least resistance, food-wise. Risking the wrath of hungry teenagers, however, I stood my ground, reminding them that we were only in Europe for a short time, and that we had only a few meals on our own. And I could not, in good conscience, allow those meals to take place at an American fast food chain.

The area in which we alighted was rich with open-air food stands and vendors–many of them schnitzel-based. Recalling the experience in Budapest, we picked one, and thus began another moment between the moments—my group’s obsession with “street schnitzel.” From that point forward, any independent dining opportunity included at least one — and sometimes several — attempts to secure additional schnitzel.

*  *  *

Later in Vienna, following the performance at the Minoritenkirche, an after-hours visit to — of all places — an amusement park, provided yet another unexpected moment between the moments. From our hotel, we could see the Wiener Riesenrad, or “Vienna Giant Wheel,” a 200-foot-tall Ferris wheel that pierced the Vienna sky. It was originally constructed in the late 1800s, and until the mid-1980s, it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. We were later reminded that the Reisenrad had a rich cinematic history as well, having been featured in classic films such as The Third Man.

At the time, however, we knew none of that. What we did know was that it was still relatively early, the weather was beautiful and there were a whole bunch of other rides near the Ferris wheel. Those other rides were part of the Wurstelprater, or just “the Prater,” as it is often referred to, an area of a park in Vienna that has been designated as a public amusement and recreation area since the mid-1700s.

While the Prater at first appeared to be closed (or closing), the rides were in full swing. So, armed with Euros for admission to the rides and the boundless energy that can only come from being a teenager roaming an amusement park in Europe, the kids (and a few chaperones) embarked on an impromptu history lesson/adrenaline rush that lingered long after their curfew and lights out.

*  *  *

Prague, the final stop on our tour, provided more moments than should logically be able to fit into one day. As we walked the city, from Prague Castle through Lesser Town, across the Charles Bridge into Old Town, every turn, every street in Prague revealed itself to be more beautiful and more majestic than the one prior. It gave us enough moments — and enough moments between the moments — to last several lifetimes.

It also gave us trdelník.

A trdelník, for the uninitiated, is a rolled pastry cylinder that is baked, stuffed with Nutella, ice cream or other filling, and then—and this is the important part—coated in actual magic. By my unofficial estimation, it is literally impossible to take more than five steps in any direction in the Czech Republic without encountering a trdelník stand. Failure to consume a trdelnik in Prague is, I believe, punishable by law. Or at least it should be.  

*  *  *

I’m back in the Minoritenkirche organ loft. Not literally, of course. Literally, I’m in an office in downtown Chicago, 4,700 miles from that loft. But mentally, I’m back in Vienna, surrounded by the majesty of the cathedral and embraced by the sound of our student musicians. I close my eyes and I hear their performance anew.

The church walls sing again. And I still get chills.

*  *  *

My thoughts on this extraordinary trip would not be complete without a shout-out of gratitude to Fenwick Band Directors Ms. Rizelle Capito and Mr. Andrew Thompson, without whom the promise of this unforgettable adventure would have remained unfulfilled; to Mr. Brennan Roach and Mr. Phillip Videckis for leading and accompanying the Fenwick Choir; to the other Fenwick parents who helped make the week so memorable for everyone, especially the students; and to “Best Group Ever” for being .. .well, you know, the best group ever. Thank you. The next round of street schnitzel is on me.

About the Author

Alumnus Garett Auriemma ’85, is Director of Communications and Development for the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS), a Chicago-based national animal protection nonprofit organization. He has worked as a marketing, communications and development professional in the Chicago area for 30 years, primarily in the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining NAVS, Mr. Auriemma was Director of Marketing and Communications for the American Brain Tumor Association and Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago (EFGC). He served as Interim President of the EFGC from 2005 to 2006. Over the course of his career, Mr. Auriemma has also directed general marketing, public relations and communications activities for Oak Park Hospital, Borders Books and Music, the Chicago Sinfonietta, Levy Home Entertainment and Proviso Township High Schools. 

Mr. Auriemma received his B.A. in English from Rosary College in River Forest, and his M.A. in Communications from Northwestern University. While at Fenwick, he served as editor of The Wick. He and his wife, Brenda, live in Chicago with their son Evan (’21), daughter Rowan (Future Friar ’24) and dog Maddie.

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Alumni Spotlight on Richard Cochrane ’59

Black History Month 2019

Pioneering perspective: Fenwick’s first black graduate reflects on the segregated life of his youth. “Mine is a difficult story to tell,” he says, offering a history lesson in the process.

Interview by Mark Vruno

Introduction

School records dating back 64 years confirm that alumnus Richard Cochrane ’59 blazed a trail as Fenwick’s very first African-American student and graduate. Originally from Maywood, IL, Mr. Cochrane now lives in the sunny Southwest. In high school, he was active in student government (class treasurer and secretary) and played football and basketball (captain).

Last February, one-time Fenwick student turned educator Marlon Hall, PhD. shared his freshman-year experience of the early 1970s, when he endured verbal abuse and physical bullying – all racially inspired.  In one of several replies to Dr. Hall’s guest blog, Cochrane pointed out that his memories of Fenwick were quite different and much more positive 17 years earlier:

“Dr. Hall, I appreciate your sharing your Fenwick experiences and the strength they gave you. In context, in 1950 the world-renowned chemist Percy Julian became the first African-American to take up residence in Oak Park. His home was fire-bombed on Thanksgiving Day of that year and again in 1951. In May of 1954 the Supreme Court rendered the ‘Brown vs. Board of Education’ ruling. In September of 1955 I walked into Fenwick as a freshman, two years before the ‘Little Rock Nine,’ and I am black. There were no other black students and there would only be one more in the next four years.

“Many of my experiences were similar to yours but the negatives were overwhelmed by the support of the majority of the student body, and the faculty support cannot go without mention. There were whispers and some name-calling and even a fight or two, but the Dominican family pushed, nudged and refused to let me think of anything but finishing. I was also aware of the financial burden that I was placing on my family. In return, I received an excellent education both academically and socially….”

Cochrane’s heartfelt response prompted our Alumni Relations Team to reach out. We learned that Rich is “happily retired” and soaking up sunshine in New Mexico. Our questions and his answers:

Richard, where did you attend college? Please tell us about your professional background and STEM-related career.

RC: After graduating Fenwick in 1959, I attended St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, where I majored in chemistry. While there I played freshman basketball and varsity football for two years until my knee gave out. I got a job in the coatings and ink industry and, eventually, spent 35 years with Sun Chemical Corporation. I held positions in lab synthesis, tech service, lab management, operation management and national accounts. I retired from Sun in 2003.

What was it like being the only black student at the Fenwick?

Cochrane (bottom, center) was the only black student on this 1959 Yearbook page — and one of three in the entire school. (Sophomore Wayne Morgan ’61 and freshman Harry Smith ’62 were the others.)

RC: In 1955, I believe my freshman class enrolled about 354 students and the school enrollment was about 1,236. As I’ve said, I found the faculty very supportive and the student body mostly treating me like any other student, with a smaller group either curious or distant. Only one of the other three students from my parish in Maywood [St. James, which closed in 2006] was close to me at Fenwick.

On the first day of school, when I went to the office to pick up my class schedule, the staff called back one of the students I was with to ask if I was really going to attend school there. A notable few of the upper-classmen were kind enough to offer short words of encouragement. If I missed the Madison St. bus, I would walk west until the next bus came and would often find the Oak Park Police close behind to make sure I reached Harlem Ave. The single greatest factor was the Dominican community. I got the feeling that they would not let me fail (or even consider quitting).

Did you have a sense that you were making “history” at Fenwick?

A young Cochrane using a slde rule in 1967.

RC: I had no sense of making history but there was a constant feeling of not being totally “at home.” Remember, at that time Oak Park had a population of 62,000 [there are 10,000 fewer residents today] and had only one black family — and their home had twice been bombed.

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Alumni Spotlight: Paul Tierney, Jr. ’60

Fenwick nurtured the service seeds planted by the parents of this alumnus, who has been employing the power of business to solve social problems for five decades.

By Mark Vruno

Image courtesy of Notre Dame Magazine.

Fenwick High School and University of Notre Dame alumnus Paul Tierney, Jr. ’60 resides on the East Coast in Darien, Connecticut, and New York City. But his humanitarian roots were planted at home in La Grange Park, IL, and at St. Francis Xavier Parish & School.

“My mother and father always talked about the importance of doing good works for your fellow man,” says Mr. Tierney, who is three months into his retirement as chairman of TechnoServe, an international, nonprofit organization that promotes business solutions to poverty. The company works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. “Our clients are small, poor, grassroots,” he notes.

Tierney encourages the use of private equity and venture capital to fund entrepreneurial firms in locales such as Africa and Latin America. As he told Forbes magazine in 2010, he believes this funding approach “can be a superior alternative to the traditional development funds funneled through the likes of the World Bank,” the international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital projects.

Paul Tierney at a Glance

  • From La Grange Park, IL / St. Francis Xavier

  • Fenwick High School, Class of 1960

  • University Notre Dame, 1964 (magna cum laude)

  • Harvard Business School, 1968 (Baker scholar)

  • U.S. Peace Corps (Chile)

Tierney’s portrait in the 1960 Bkackfriars Yearbook.

Growing up Catholic had a lot to do with his public-service interests, especially helping those less fortunate. “My parents taught that with great gifts, great action is expected,” points out Tierney, who has had a highly successful career in investments. The then-youngster heeded the advice of Mr. & Mrs. Tierney, whose ideals and principles, in turn, were honed and nurtured by the Dominicans at Fenwick. Fifty years ago, using the power of business to solve social problems was somewhat radical; it definitely was not a mainstream notion.

Tierney graduated magna cum laude in 1964 from ND, where he majored in philosophy. He applied to law school, business school and several doctoral programs but instead chose the Peace Corps, U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s volunteer organization founded three years earlier. “I was sent to Chile on an economic-development program to work with farmers in the agrarian reform movement,” he explains. “My job was to help people structure and improve cooperatives.”

While in rural South America, Tierney says he met a lot of bright people in development. “but few of them knew business or had practical skills.” So, after his service, he went to Harvard Business School (HBS) on a fellowship from the Ford Foundation“to learn how commerce actually works. By the time I finished my MBA program [in ’68 as a Baker Scholar],” he adds, “I thought that more effective work in economic development would be done in the private sector.” In a 2002 profile written by the Harvard Business School, Tierney says he realized he could make a larger impact on society if he first succeeded in business. “I’ve really had two careers,” he observed, “one as a for-profit financial entrepreneur and one as a crusader for economic development.”

Tierney set out on what would be a 30-year career in investment management, first starting a merchant bank in London and then overseeing financial programs at the U.S. Railway Association, which would become Conrail (now CSX). Next, he was a senior vice president at White, Weld & Co., which Merrill Lynch purchased. In 1978, he co-founded Gollust, Tierney & Oliver, the general partner for Coniston Partners, which was a $1-billion value investment partnership focused on strategic block investing and private equity. The firm split up in the mid-1990s.

“After about 15 years of building my own company, I felt like I should come up for air,” Tierney reflects. “I’d made some money, I had some experience, I saw how the real world operated, and I understood capital markets. But I still had a taste for the work I was interested in when I was in the Peace Corps.”

Technology in the Service of Mankind

Tierney started looking for ways of getting re-engaged and surveyed several organizations. “I found many relief organizations, but I didn’t find many development-assistance organizations,” he told HBS. “I wanted something that was hands-on and firm-based, not just a think tank or a Band-Aid.” A friend mentioned TechnoServe, and Tierney’s world changed

Businessman and philanthropist Ed Bullard founded TechnoServe in 1968 after his experience volunteering at a hospital in rural Ghana, West Africa. Bullard was inspired to start an organization that would help hard-working people harness the power of private enterprise to lift themselves out of poverty. He launched TechnoServe – short for “technology in the service of mankind” – to help poor people by connecting them to information and market opportunities. “It was a much smaller organization back then, with a single office in Norwalk, CT, and an annual budget of around $5 million,” Tierney remembers.

“I visited four of the countries TechnoServe operated in and, as I saw what was going on in the field, I became more and more confident that this was an organization with a good approach that was making a real impact.” Tierney kept stepping up his involvement with TechnoServe, starting as a volunteer member, then a board member, then chairman of the Executive Committee and, ultimately, chairman in 1992.

Tierney in Ghana.

For 27 years he was at the helm, steering the philanthropic “ship” into countries such as Haiti in the Caribbean, India in South Asia and Mozambique in Southeast Africa along the Indian Ocean coast. Based in Washington, D.C., TechnoServe today has grown to more than 1,500 employees and operates in 29 countries. “Thirty-five years ago, there were only five or six [countries],” Tierney reports. TechnoServe has become a leader in harnessing the power of the private sector to help people lift themselves out of poverty. “By linking people to information, capital and markets, we have helped millions to create lasting prosperity for their families and communities,” proclaims its website.

One of his favorite success stories from the field is set in civil war-torn Mozambique, where Tierney encountered female workers in a cashew-processing facility who were grateful for their jobs. “It was very hard, grinding work, but these women told me they were happy to be able to do it in safe conditions,” he remembers. “They were sending their children to school with the money they were earning.”

At a coffee project in Tanzania, people literally broke out in song and dance, praising TechnoServe for the work it did, which has contributed to a greater level of education in the community. “It is gratifying to see how this type of work allows a second or third generation to continue on a trajectory of significantly increasing their standard of living,” he shares.

Meanwhile, at Aperture Venture Partners, the other half of Tierney’s time was spent assisting portfolio companies interested in healthcare in a variety of ways – from strategy and raising capital to M&A, business development and corporate governance. He also is co-founder, managing member and partner of Development Capital Partners, LLC, a New York-based investment firm with an exclusive focus on “frontier” and emerging markets such as Africa, India and Latin America. His son, Matthew, is the other co-founder.

Fenwick builds on foundation

When he thinks back to his high-school days 59+ years ago, Tierney cites the overall culture and style of Fenwick: “Its tradition of education and achievement,” he notes. Father Regan had a particularly strong influence over young Paul. “He was the best theology teacher, in my opinion, and made the most sense out of Christianity and Catholicism.”

As a Fenwick student, Tierney remembered Dean of Studies Fr. Jacobs as “approachable.”

Father Jacobs was Fenwick’s Dean of Studies in the late 1950s. “He was approachable,” Tierney recalls, “and talked a lot about [my] interests.” He has fond memories of Latin Teacher Fr. Hren’s invitation-only “Mozarteum” group that featured pizza and music. “For me, it added a level of sophistication to school,” says Tierney, admitting that Gene Autry cowboy songs were about the extent of his play-list genre early in life.

“At Fenwick, I participated in a lot of teams, clubs and activities,” he remembers. The 1960 Blackfriars yearbook lists Tierney as a member of the National Honor Society as well as the golf and debate teams. “Father Conway taught math and coached debate at that time,” he says. “We also competed in oratorical contests,” which is where Tierney developed his capacity to think on his feet, argue, debate and speak in public. He reflects: “These skills have served me well, always.”

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Remembering Arthur T. Dalton, Jr. ’42

Fennwick High School received an early Christmas present in mid-December: a gift from an anonymous donor in the amount of $3 million cash! “This is the first leadership gift toward the second phase of our Centennial Campaign,” praises President Fr. Richard Peddicord, O.P. “The money will be used to help construct the Centennial addition,” Father Peddicord explains, “and the new dining hall will be named for alumnus Arthur Dalton, Jr., who was a proud member of the Friars’ Class of 1942.” Mr. Dalton passed away in 2003 at age 80.

Who was Art Dalton? According to the ’42 Blackfriars yearbook, he was a member of St. Eulalia Parish in Maywood, IL. A versatile student-athlete in high school, Art participated in basketball, boxing and track for three of his four years at Fenwick; he played tennis (doubles) as a junior and senior and tried football and track as a freshman. He also wrote for The Wick student newspaper as a junior and was a member of the Pan-American Club as a senior.

Later in life, Mr. Dalton became a resident of Western Springs, IL. He was a husband and family man: married to Regina (nee Frawley) for 56 years; the couple had four children — Thomas, Cathie, Nancy and Daniel. The latter, a medical doctor, is a parent of three Fenwick graduates: Ryan ’03, Kyle ’05 and Katie ’06. (Art’s younger brother, Ray, also was a Friar: Class of ’44.)

Professionally, Art Dalton was president of Park Corp. of Barrington, IL, and executive vice president of Jewel Food Stores. Civically, he was Chairman of the Board at Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, IL, and chairman of the Westlake Health Foundation. In his spare time, Dalton also was an avid golfer, with memberships at La Grange Country Club and the PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

This $3 million gift made in honor of Dalton matches the largest gift in school history. The new Arthur T. Dalton, Jr. ’42 Dining Hall (see artist’s rendering, below) will be housed within the proposed Centennial Building addition. The new building is estimated to be a $25-million construction initiative that will dramatically expand and enhance the facilities at Fenwick. One of the most visible and beautiful of all spaces within the new building, the dining hall will provide not only a much-needed new dining area and healthier environment for students, but it will also serve as a gathering space for alumni events, board meetings and community social events.

For more information, please go to www.fenwickfriars.com/fenwick2029/.

 

 

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Guest Blog: FRIARS FOR LIFE

A Fenwick father explains why his highly regarded twin daughters — student-athletes Caroline and Cecilia Jenkins ’19 — are staying put at Fenwick instead of transferring to an elite, East Coast prep school.

By Paul Jenkins ’81

Cecilia Jenkins ’19

I can’t tell you how I felt when the call came in. I knew it was coming, and yet I hesitated to pick up the phone when I saw the number in my caller ID. One of the country’s premier boarding schools* was calling to offer my twin daughters scholarships for their senior year. Juniors at Fenwick, they needed only to say ‘yes’ to be carried away into the ivy-covered embrace of East Coast privilege.

They’re hockey players, and the head coach at the prep school had been recruiting them for years.  We’d been to visit the school several times. The coach had come to watch them play in tournaments around the U.S. and Canada. My wife and I had always said ‘no;’ we couldn’t see sending our youngest off to boarding school.

But the truth is, we all love that school. Imagine Hogwarts, filled with students who open every door; who greet every stranger by looking them in the eye and smiling; who almost uniformly go on to elite schools and then achieve greatness in life. Centuries of intellectual and athletic prowess seem to cling to the old stone walls of the place. The list of alumni reads like who’s who of American politics, literature and industry.

And we love the coach. He’s one of the most impressive people we’ve ever known. His athletes and his students adore him. We’d love to have our girls play for him.

I hung up the phone and told them it was official: They’d been tendered an offer and were on their way east. I was proud. I was sort of shocked. I was a little sad. My youngest would be moving away a year early.

But the girls said ‘no.’

Caroline Jenkins ’19

They couldn’t hold back their tears. They choked on those tears and it took both of them, together, to say, “We want to stay at Fenwick.” The floodgates opened:

  • They named teachers they wanted to thank at graduation.
  • They talked about their teammates — both hockey and water polo — and what they wanted to achieve with them as seniors.
  • They talked about classmates, coaches, carpools, dances, school plays, lunch-table discussions, the German Club, the Write Place and all the little things they’d be leaving behind if they took the offer.

All of those things, together, are the Fenwick experience.

I didn’t need to ask if they needed time to think about it.

In half-year’s time (God willing) there will be a couple of twin girls who will earn their diplomas with their classmates in the Fenwick class of 2019.  Their parents will likely continue to reflect on what might have been, but I don’t think they will. They made a mature, informed decision, and they’ve never looked back.

Fenwick is in their blood.

* The Hill School is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a 200-acre campus located approximately 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Annual tuition is $59,050 (for boarding students) for the 2018-19 academic year.

 

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Fenwick Junior Spent Two Weeks as a Cardiothoracic Surgical Intern

The adjective resourceful doesn’t even begin to describe Xonhane Medina, an ambitious teenager who excels in the classroom and in the pool as a girls’ water polo player.

By Mark Vruno

If there’s one thing that Fenwick go-getter Xonhane Medina doesn’t lack, it’s heart.

Most 16-year-olds can’t pronounce the medical term cardiothoracic, let alone know what is means. But last summer, Fenwick student Xonhane Medina ’20 — now a junior — spent two weeks in Northern California as a cardiothoracic intern at Stanford University. (For the record, cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thorax — generally treatment of conditions of the heart and lungs.)

Fenwick Girls’ water polo head coach Jack Wagner has a hard enough time pronouncing Medina’s first name. He affectionately calls her “Shawn.” And anyone who knows the gruff exterior of Wagner knows that Jack doesn’t brag. Here he was, however, bragging about Xonhane – not about her MCAC All-Conference status as a sophomore last season (his Friars took second in state, by the way). He was boasting about this phenomenal internship she orchestrated.

“This kid, she set up her own funding!” he exclaimed.

Every day, Medina received a new pig heart on which to slice and clamp.

Due in part to being a huge fan of the “Grey’s Anatomy” TV series when she was younger, Ms. Medina was interested in doing some type of a medical-related internship. She began her search online. Her cousin’s fiancée is a pediatric surgeon at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, so Stanford was on her proverbial radar. A similar opportunity at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, also had captured her attention.

“I knew they were a reach,” Ms. Medina admits. For one thing, Xonhane knew her family could not afford the $6,500 price tag. Yet, as the late advertising guru Leo Burnett once said: “When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.” So, Xonhane reached high.

Not knowing how to begin the process, she reached out to Paul Morgan, a director at the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, who became her educational sponsor.  Medina is one of the Fenwick students receiving financial aid from the Murphy organization, which for 29 years has been providing high school scholarship assistance and educational support to Chicago students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

She reached higher, next asking for letters of recommendation from Fenwick teachers, including Andy Arellano (speech) and Shana Wang (English) as well as, of course, Wagner, her coach. In early March she received her letter of acceptance. Subsequently, she received $4,000 from the Oak Park-based Farther Foundation. She put that money toward the $3,000 housing fee and air fare. She had enough money left over to buy some Stanford sweaters. “That was literally the only thing I bought,” reveals Medina, who, when she’s not doing homework or working out in the basement pool at Fenwick, works weekends as a cashier downtown at Navy Pier.

Internship Itinerary

The Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Center Stanford Summer Internship is designed to educate high school and pre-medical students considering careers in science, medicine and public health in basic and advanced cardiovascular anatomy and physiology as well as medical and surgical techniques that will be used in pre-medical and medical school. In 2018 the two-week experience ran from June 24 – July 7.

The typical morning (9:30 a.m. – 12 noon) was dominated by lectures, according to Medina. Anatomy of the entire body was led by a pair of third-year medical students. Then, discussions on different types of surgeries were led by senior scientist Paul A. Chang, co-founder of the Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Center. She learned that there are two main heart surgeries: 1) valve replacements and 2) coronary artery bypass grafts.

Xonhane clamped onto her two-week internship experience on the West Coast.

After lunch came four full hours of hands-on, laboratory time. “This was my favorite thing,” Xonhane offers, enthusiastically. Each day, she and her lab partner received a new pig heart on which to slice and clamp. They learned how to use several cardiovascular, surgical instruments, such as:

  • forceps: a pair of pincers or tweezers used in surgery or in a laboratory.
  • Debakey forceps: a type of atraumatic tissue forceps used in vascular procedures to avoid tissue damage during manipulation. (They are typically large, and have a distinct coarsely ribbed grip panel, as opposed to the finer ribbing on most other tissue forceps.)
  • Gerald Tissue Forceps: a light- to intermediate-weight instrument with very narrow tips specifically used to handle delicate tissue. They are often used in cardiothoracic procedures. About seven inches in length with serrated tips, Geralds feature 1 x 2 teeth to securely grasp the tissue, but also have a stop peg to prevent an overly harsh grasp that may crush the tissue.
  • Mayo: Straight-bladed Mayo scissorsare designed for cutting body tissues near the surface of a wound.
  • aortic cross-clamps: surgical instruments used in cardiac surgery to clamp the aorta and separate the systemic circulation from the outflow of the heart.

She and her partner even had to apply sutures or stitches to aorta-dissected hearts. “We had competitions [with other interns] to see who could stitch the fastest,” Medina reports. “We also competed to see how fast we could ligate six [blood] vessels on the aorta.” The athlete in Xonhane liked the contests, but the fierce competitor is quick to point out that she came to Fenwick for academics — not for water polo.

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Guest Blog: WHY DONATE TO FENWICK?

As 2018 draws to a close, an alumnus shares his personal story about the importance of all alumni Friars giving back to their beloved high school alma mater.

By Jack Flynn ’51

Jack Flynn, Fenwick Class of 1951

When I graduated from Fenwick in 1951 and moved on to the University of Notre Dame, I discovered that I was better prepared for college than many of my classmates. I also thought that I was at Fenwick during their Golden Years with almost a complete staff of Dominican priests in every position except athletics.

When my son, Michael, graduated from Fenwick in 1977 and went to Michigan, he also found that he was much more prepared for college than most of his classmates. He also discovered that he had such a wonderful group of Fenwick classmates that it was great to get a job in Chicago and be socially engaged with the same pals he had in high school, plus some from grammar school.

“Young men and women with strong learning skills, faith and discipline can succeed even during these difficult times.” – Fenwick Friar Jack Flynn

 

Jack’s son, Michael, graduated from Fenwick in 1977. (Photo courtesy of NAI Hiffman.)

Now I have four grandchildren who have graduated from Fenwick and seem to be on a path to do better than the parents or their grandparents. [One grandson presently is a junior.] Young men and women with strong learning skills, faith and discipline can succeed even during these difficult times. It takes great leadership and strong support from alumni and friends to keep Fenwick at the top of its game.

High school is very important in the development of young people, and I would guess that 80% of the students are indebted to Fenwick for a good portion of their success in college – and that carries forward. Close to 100% of the students that were serious about doing well in high school are probably delighted by the outcome.

We should all step forward to support Fenwick with a meaningful gift. Fenwick is not asking you for a great sacrifice, but at least to do something that indicates you feel good about the education you received.

Please consider making a gift today.

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Forever Friars: Ronald C. Smith, Class of 1951

Known as “Red Dog,” the U.S. Navy veteran and long-time teacher of the law was 84 years old.

Ronald Charles Smith, Professor Emeritus at The John Marshall Law School, died at about 2:30 a.m. on October 19, 2018, at St. Benedict’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Niles, IL, where he had lived for several months while undergoing treatment. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Mary Ann Scherer Smith; his sons, Michael (Liv Rainey) Smith and Matthew (Carolyn Chandler) Smith; his goddaughter,  Margaret Thompson Blumberg, and his cousins Philip, Jonathan and Mark Thompson.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, December 16, 2018, between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. at Loyola University’s Piper Hall, 970 West Sheridan Road, in Chicago.  Free parking is available at the Loyola lot at Sheridan and Winthrop.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to The Ronald C. Smith Scholarship Fund at the Rickover Naval Academy High School, 5900 North Glenwood, Chicago, IL, 60660. Please make checks payable to Friends of Rickover/Smith Scholarship.  Or donations can be made on-line at www.friendsofrickover.org.  As Ron was a devoted U.S. Navy veteran and a strong supporter of the education, this would be a most fitting memorial.

Ron Smith at Fenwick (1951)

Ron Smith was born in Chicago on December 9, 1933, and grew up mostly in the Chicago area. He graduated from Fenwick High School in Oak Park in 1951, and received a B.S. in Humanities from Loyola University in 1955. In college, he earned several honors and participated in many activities, most notably debate and the student newspaper. After teaching speech at Loyola for a year, he joined the U.S. Navy in 1956 as a naval helicopter pilot and personnel officer. In 1962, he left active duty to enter law school but remained a Naval reservist until retiring as a Lieutenant-Commander in 1977. (While in the Navy, Ron, a “seadog” with bright red hair, acquired the nickname “Red dog,” which he had the rest of his life.)

Ron attended Loyola (Chicago) University Law School from 1962 to 1965, writing for the law review and taking part in law school activities. After graduation, he clerked for Justice John V. McCormick of the Illinois Appellate Court in 1965-1966. During that year, a law school friend, Janice Metros Johnston, said that her husband Gil was running the legal writing program at The John Marshall Law School and suggested Ron apply to be an adjunct.  That post began his long association with John Marshall.

After the clerkship in 1966, Ron was a legal counsel for the Santa Fe Railroad, where he learned about governmental regulation and administrative procedure. In 1968 Dean Noble W. Lee asked him to come to JMLS. Ron taught many different courses but eventually specialized in constitutional law and criminal law.

In 1968, when Illinoisans voted to hold a constitutional convention, Ron decided to run with Elmer Gertz, a lawyer who lived in Ravenswood and Albany Park area near Ron, to be delegates to the convention. Elmer, a noted civil rights lawyer, and Ron ran as a team against two “machine” candidates backed by the regular organization of the Cook County Democratic Party. When the convention met on December 8, 1969, Ron and Elmer took their seats as members of the convention allied to the “independent bloc” of about ten delegates. Ron was a member of the Committee on the Executive, where he sponsored the amendatory veto provision.

Prof. Smith’s bio photo for John Marshall Law School.

In 1972 Ron ran for the Democratic nomination for the Illinois State Senate.  The party regulars conspired to deprive him of the seat by running a candidate who would win, but then resign the nomination in favor of a replacement chosen by the party.  Ron’s lawsuit, Smith v. Cherry, 489 F.2d 1098 (1974), was a notable federal elections lawsuit until legislation changed the situation. Unwilling to leave government life, he served as a member of Governor Walker’s Ethics Board, among other appointed positions, while continuing to teach at John Marshall until 2014.

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