Alums & Friends was launched in 2007 as a way to help St. Matthew’s alumni renew ties to their old neighborhood and former classmates as well as provide an opportunity for them to support the school.  A&F has been a tremendous success.  During its first three years, A&F has raised over $400,000, all of which has been used for scholarships for families who could not otherwise afford to send their children to Catholic School.  Because of the scholarships, enrollment has risen almost 40%.   

A&F, together with St. Matthew’s Parish, has taken a number of steps to help reconnect with alums and encourage alums to reconnect with each other. A&F publishes a bi-monthly newsletter which features stories about the present day school and parish ministries, as well as stories from the old days.   We host an annual Reunion Sunday that is open to all our graduates and we work with alums who are organizing class reunions. 

Please let us know if you’d like to be added to our mailing list, are interested in a reunion event or would like to support our scholarship fund. 

Good News Stories

Coach Krueger Story - Coach Krueger remembers his former players and his years coaching at St. Matthew's (from Good News Sept/Oct 2009).

Schmid Family Memories - Dad and all 10 kids attended St. Matthew's (from Good News Sept/Oct 2010).

A&F Scholarships in Action 

Meet Kiara and Mirka 

Kiara and Mirka are identical twin sisters who will be graduating from St. Matt’s this year.  The girls are difficult to tell apart but they try to help people out by wearing different eyeglass frames:  Kiara’s are clear and Mirka’s are dark.  When you talk to them, they have a habit of completing each other’s sentences and they always seem to agree with what the other said.  They’re also a great example of the kind of students to whom St. Matthew’s has committed to provide a Catholic education.

Kiara and Mirka started at St. Matthew’s in 5^th grade, right after Christmas vacation.  It was the third 5^th grade class they’d attended that year.  Their mother, Maribel, had recently moved the family from New York City to the Twin Cities, which she judged was a safer place to raise her children.  The girls started out in public school in Minneapolis while they lived with a cousin.  Later, the family moved into their own home on the West Side and the twins enrolled in a magnet school, but, the girls say, “We didn’t like it at all!” 

Maribel had a friend at Catholic Charities who helped connect her with St. Matthew’s.  Doug Lieser, St. Matthew’s principal, remembered their first meeting.  He says, “Maribel really wanted a Catholic education for her kids but she didn’t have the means to make it happen.  We knew we needed to do everything in our power to make that possible.” 

Maribel agrees, “The scholarships made a difference.  There is no way my kids could go to a private school without help.”  In addition to the girls, Maribel enrolled her son, Timothy Lee, who is now in 7^th grade.

The first day the girls started school, they knew St. Matt’s was different, as they explain, “We felt more welcome.  I remember the first girl who talked to us.  She said, ‘Hi, what’s your name.‘ She introduced us to everyone and showed us around.”

Doug thinks the girls have been a great addition to the school, “They’re good students but what’s more impressive is that they’re extremely good people.”

The girls have had to work hard at their studies, as one of them says, “I feel like I’m in high school!”  But they appreciate all the support they get from their teachers. “I love the teachers here.  They’ll stay after school to help us.  They keep saying, ‘Ask questions!’ which helps a lot. They know us a lot better since we have small classes.”

The girls plan to attend Cristo Rey High School next year, and they both say they want to go to college at the University of Minnesota.  Kiara, who’s favorite subject is science, says she’d like to study engineering but she knows it will be tough, “You have to know a lot of math and science.”  Mirka’s favorite subject is religion and she thinks she’d like to become a veterinarian.  Their choices reflect their mother’s philosophy, which Kiara explains, “Mom says don’t pick something simple.   Have a job that will make for a big experience in your life.”

Maribel has followed her own advice.  She was born in Honduras and immigrated to New York when she was 18 years old and lived there for 20 years. After moving to Minnesota in 2006, she worked at cleaning jobs while going to school to earn her GED.  After that, she completed two years studying child development and now teaches preschool at the YMCA. 

Maribel acknowledges that getting an education as a single parent wasn’t easy, and she appreciates all the support she got from St. Matthew’s.  She says, “They’ve been very patient with me.  Sometimes I didn’t have the money.  But you talk to them and you can get help.”

Doug thinks Maribel experience reflect the school’s sense of community.  He explains, “With a parent like Maribel, we know she has a lot going on between getting her GED and raising her kids.  At St. Matt’s, she doesn’t have to choose between her own education and her daughters’.  We want her to be successful and we want her kids to be successful.”

The girls are excited about high school next year but they will be sorry to leave St. Matt’s.  Mirka says, “I feel like St. Matt’s is my second home. For me, there’s never been a day I didn’t want to come here.”  Her sister agrees.

 

Submitted by Jim Curran (’45)

John O’Connor passed away last May 31.  The following are some memories his classmate and friend, Jim Curran, shared at a memorial held last summer.

John and I went to grade school, high school and into Salesians of St. John Bosco Order together.  His mother died at childbirth, his father a year and a half later, and his grandfather about the same time.  He was raised by his paternal grandmother.

In grade and high school, he was extremely disciplined. He tried in every way he could to please his grandmother and his teachers.  From my point of view, however, he was a Pied Piper, and I was one of those who followed where he led. He was always inventive, always creative, had a million new ideas, and excelled at most everything he did. So I, looking for excitement and something new, fell in behind.

He excelled in grade school at St. Matthews where he graduated in 1945.  He was class officer every year, captain of the school police and a great piano player.  He took lessons at St. Agatha Conservatory since four years of age in speech, drama, and music. We started having dance parties in 6^th grade and later he was voted best dancer in his class at Cretin.

He was big into magic and sleight of hand, spending hours perfecting coin and card tricks.  During high school, he was hired to do sleight of hand magic at the tables at the old Diamond Jim’s supper club in Mendota. He built a dummy out of discarded cans he named Wilson McCann and performed as a ventriloquist.

He was active in Boy Scouts and belonged to Troop 107 at St Matt’s; we camped out in the winter and he organized long hikes all over Cherokee bluffs and out to Mendota and beyond.  He was selected to the Order of the Arrow on the way to becoming an Eagle Scout.

He asked me to join him in trying out for parts in religious radio dramas that were

broadcast locally Sunday mornings. One I especially remembered was The Life of St. Bridget. He got the lead, as usual; I was selected to be background crowd noise.

He was the instigator of my becoming Homecoming Queen at Cretin in 1949, a big stunt that no one had any inkling we were doing (including the Brothers at Cretin). He used the CYC mimeo machine and plastered flyers all around Cretin using a phony name and story. I won the election in a landslide.

He realized he was called to be a priest so he left right after high school to join the Salesians of St John Bosco.  I went with him. But the Salesians were the wrong order for both of us. Simplicity and humility were emphasized, but neither of us were that, though we tried.  I left the Order after about four years, for I knew I was in the wrong place. He stayed and was ordained . . .  Many years later, he left the priesthood and the Salesians. Some might look at that and be critical of him for leaving his vocation. But I know that after all those years, he finally found happiness and fulfillment and peace, and he knew he had made the right decision.

He began working as a teacher in Saudi Arabia, spending over twenty years there. His high school sweetheart, Marquita Finley, who had become a lawyer, joined him teaching in Saudi Arabia, and they married. They traveled the world collecting furnishings for their retirement home in County Clare, Ireland.

When asked what he did, John would say he was a poet and dramatist. He became a noted director of plays in the south and west of Ireland and he directed and acted in plays throughout the country, some of which he had written. He was an outstanding poet; he entered his poetry and won prizes in various European competitions.

He died of cancer in 2010 and left many friends all over the world.  He lived a varied, stimulating and wonderful life and he is very, very missed by us all.