Circular No 653

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 10 of May 2014 No. 653

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Dear Friends,

The Bandit, with “Calypso Girl”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjGNJwBwoe0,

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Choir photograph

Gentlemen,

Jon Golding has sent me a photograph in which, I believe, somee of you must have been involved. It is above with this Circular.

He has been able to identify most of your names.

At the same time, though, it would be of some help to us if you could yourselves have a look at the picture and see whether you can remember the names of the missing boys - the ones so far un-named.

Any suggestions - please colour your texts in RED.

Thank you in advance for your kind help.

This is Jon's educated guess of who’s who in about 1956, with further identifications from Eddie Lloyd and Jorge Iwaszkiewicz

This is my educated guess of who’s who in about 1956

Top row

1

2

3          Argentine guy?

4          Chris Knowles

5          Peter Boos     

6          Roger Henderson     

7          Mickey Howard

8          Ronald Charles

9          Len? Gorinsky

10       Brian Goddard

Next row

1          Pablo Figuera

2          Jon Golding (looking down)

3          Brent Gonsalves (in between Pablo and Jon)

4          Jeanzie de Meillac (bald headed)

5

6          Young Czaba?

7          Randall Galt

8          Alex de Verteuil (tall)

9          Michael Herrera

Next row

1          John Thavenot          

2          Daniel De Verteuil

3          Blotch

4          front row  ?

5          Marchack (below Jeanzie)

6          Stephen Clerk (glasses)

7          ??

8          Gerald Kenny (in jumper)

9          ?? below Czaba

10       below no 9 ??

11       Edward Lloyd (below Galt)

12       ??  below Edward

13       Englishman (below Alex)

14       Gordon Thavenot

15       Chris Date

Fr Francis

Black guy seminarian reading the music sheets.

(Editor)

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Joe

Mar 16

Will do Nigel.

I have also been told that Pope Francis has asked explicitly not be called Francis I:

Should I amend the letter to reflect this change?

Sincerely,

Joe

-----Original Message---------------------------------------------

From: Nigel Boos <nigelboos@yahoo.ca>

Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 22:26:22 

Subject: Honour for Cardinal Felix - the signed letter

Thank you, Joe, for signing the draft letter on the ASAA letterhead.

I do have one concern however, and it's a small one. It is this - I had submitted to you a photograph of the 1953 MSB Senior Football Team, with the names of the team members subscribed. I had considered that Cardinal Felix would be interested in recalling the names of his team-mates, but the 51 years which had elapsed since those footballing days might have erased some memories. For that reason, I had purposely attached the names of the players. I now see, though, that in the attachment being sent to him, the names have been removed. Might I respectfully request that they be replaced? In case you are unable to find them again, I am attaching hereto another copy of the same photograph, with the identifying names, to be attached to the signed letter.

There is absolutely no reason why I would personally want to forward the letter to His Eminence.

As President of the ASAA, it is your right to communicate with the Cardinal on behalf of us all.

I therefore respectfully decline your kind invitation to send the letter and the attachment to him, and request that you do so in your official capacity, yourself.

Thank you one more for your kind help.

Nigel

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On 2014-03-16, at 7:16 PM,

Joseph Berment-McDowald wrote:

Gentlemen,

Attached please find the letter to Cardinal Felix:

I presume that either Bernard and/or Nigel would like to make the necessary arrangements to get it to him.

Sincerely,

Joe

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On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 8:16:13 AM,

Joe <bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Chris,

There is absolutely no possibility that I wouldn't do the need full. I will attend to it in a few days.

Sincerely,

Joe

-----Original Message------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Chris Date" <chris.date@tesco.net>

Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 22:52:42 

Dear Joe,

This is a wonderful opportunity for the Abbey School at Mount St Benedict to be associated with a great and unique honour bestowed on someone who was certainly involved with the School.

It requires your endorsement and we would all greatly appreciate this.

I, for one, only have a very tenuous claim to be involved but am happy to share in the reflected glow.

Another old boy,

Chris Date

-----Original Message----------------------------------------------

From: Joe [mailto:bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com] 

Sent: 10 March 2014 22:10

Nigel,

I am sorry, but I have many emails to read and can't spend time reading every one.

Joe

-----Original Message---------------------------------------------.

From: Nigel Boos <nigelboos@yahoo.ca>

Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 18:05:59 

Dear Joe,

I have never requested nor received a copy of the by-laws of the ASAA, nor do I possess one.

I therefore cannot share anything of the sort with Bernard.

Your response to the question of whether or not Cardinal Felix ever was a member of the Abbey school student body has come as a bit of a surprise, in light of the fact that not only have substantial emails to this effect been in circulation for the past 2 months, but also, a formal motion to acknowledge his membership of the group has been submitted, seconded and voted upon with an open vote available to all the Old Boys of the School.

Twenty nine responses in favour of the motion have been recorded, and have been reported to the entire membership.  

For you to now suggest that Cardinal Felix should be willing to acknowledge some credible link with the Abbey School is, in my opinion, unfortunate and unnecessary. Dr. Ken Austin had cleared up the issue of Cardinal Felix' relationship with the Abbey School in no uncertain manner, in his email of January 19th, when he explained:

In the photograph of the football team which includes Hans Hermans and Kelvin Felix ,the individual on the extreme left is another seminarian John Mendes who went on to be a bishop of the Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain. This strengthens my statement in my previous email that the students and seminarians considered themselves one. Perhaps this was also because Father Bernard, the Principal of the School was also the Rector of the seminary and in fact was generally referred to by students as Father Rector.

The votes are in! It has been agreed that we should acknowledge that Cardinal Felix is a member, albeit an early one, of the Old Boys of Mt. St. Benedict. I have respectfully passed the baton to you, as President, and requested that you issue a formal letter to His Eminence re. the matter.

Unfortunately, again, you have refused to handle the matter and returned it to Bernard Tappin or myself to do so. 

I have therefore done as you suggested, and I've prepared a simple letter for Cardinal Felix. I am not, however, authorized to speak on behalf of the ASAA membership, but you are, as President. I am therefore forwarding my draft letter to you for your approval, amendment and signature. This email is being copied to all who have voted in favour of the referenced motion, to keep everyone abreast of the status of this matter.

With due respect.

Nigel

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On 2014-03-10, at 1:15 PM, Joseph Berment-McDowald wrote:

Dear Bernard,

Your interest in honouring Cardinal Felix (if he is indeed an old boy, former teacher or has some other credible link with the Abbey School, which he would be willing to acknowledge) is commendable and I am certain has the support of the existing members of the ASAA committee.

If memory serves, Nigel is one of the few who had requested a copy of the bylaws of the association, which he should share with you. Participation in the management of the association is entirely voluntary and the directors meet as the circumstances require: Given the personal circumstances of some of our members, we haven't held regular meetings for quite a while. I am only a presiding officer over formal meetings and have no authority to instruct anyone. We have no CEO, secretariat, regular income or source of funding.

Initiatives of the kind that you propose normally involve several hours work.

We have overdue priorities that we have already declared, most importantly organising a trip to Venezuela and acting to support the reunion initiative being spearheaded by Don Mitchell. It would be best that you, Nigel and others who are interested take this up as a private initiative.

I can assure you that we will support you with our endorsement.

Possibly, you may have an interest in holding office and serving on the committee, thus assisting the association to become more active and better serve the alumni. 

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Berment-McDowald

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Attila GYURIS

Mar 16

Nigel. 

You read my mind. I was thinking the same thing about the picture.

Attila Gyuris

MSB - 1964-1969

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Nigel Boos

Mar 17

Joe,

Chris Date has raised an interesting point. He suggests that wording of the last paragraph, such as the following, might be more appropriate and acceptable:

"As a result of your involvement with us, we wish to invite you to accept an honorary membership in our Abbey School Alumni Association. As a member we shall be pleased to include you in the general informational circulars and emails which from time to time emanate from our busy pens. We shall, naturally, need to obtain from you an acceptable email address, with which we can communicate with you from time to time."

I have no problem with such wording and I agree with Chris, in that it does seem more polite to invite Cardinal Felix, rather than impose a membership on him. If you have already sent off your letter, then, of course, nothing more can be done and we should leave matters as they now stand. However, if you have not as yet mailed your letter, you might wish to amend it as suggested.

I leave the final rendering to yourself.

Regards,

Nigel

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Joseph Berment-McDowald

 Mar 17

Gentlemen,

Sorry for the delay. There are some aspects of Windows 8 and the new Yahoo email which bedevil me. Attached are the updated letter and picture.

Sincerely,

Joe 

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Photos:

6003 East St. George Sports Event p03

03WK0058REUNION2003, A group that was celebrating

58RB0003a7UNKNOWN, UNKNOWNS

56UN0020CHOIR,  Please check it out as I might have changed some numbers.