The thirty-nine year old Novice Master chose as his first address to his first group of novices the topic of "solid virtue." He was quite unaware at the time that he would repeat that address or one very similar to eighteen groups of novices and countless other brothers and candidates in varied settings. It is clear from the many recollections sent to this writer that Brother Victor Chapman was the message. We confess repeatedly in our creeds that we believe in "the communion of saints" but it is a much neglected spiritual category. It refers to the intimate link which exists between all those living and dead who confess belief in the power of God in Christ through the Spirit. A respected contemporary theologian, Lawrence Cunningham, captures the vector of sanctity well: "A saint is a person so grasped by a religious vision that it becomes central to his or her life in a way that radically changes the person and leads others to glimpse the value of that vision." All of us are called to a life of friendship and are touched by the Spirit which contributes to making holiness a general and constant phenomenon in the sinful church. But at times the confluence of historical conditions brings forth people who with their own unique giftedness and initiative gives them a beneficial function in the wider circle of their fellow pilgrims. Their names are remembered as a benediction. Victor Chapman was one of those saints for the Christian Brothers in North America. I was a novice in that first of many groups and I served in province leadership with him for eight years and it is a privilege and a challenge to reflect not so much on his life, but on his message.

The Chapmans were a New Rochelle family. Francis was named after his father who together with Elizabeth Hussey Chapman raised seven children in this then rather rural community just north of New York City. It was a blessing that so many of Victor’s later years were spent close to his family, whom he would frequently join for a meal on Sundays. His sisters Maria Kennedy and Betty McManus raised their families in New Rochelle. His brother, Jim, who remained unmarried was a traveling companion and a true brother to him in these later years. One of their annual trips in the years Victor lived at Pryer Terrace was to Maine to visit his sister Loretta Barletta whose husband had become blind in later life. His brother, Christopher and his sister, Marguerite, predeceased Vic. On my last visit to his room in St. Joseph’s Care Center in October of 1998, just ten days before his death, Jim and he were conversing. We passed a few pleasantries and I struggled to remember a nick-name which Jim had used on occasion to refer to his older brother. It was a week or so later that I recalled his use of "The Rev" to lightly banter about his sibling. Clearly he was both revered and indeed reverend.

Recent visitors to New Rochelle, which has become in many ways the center of the activities of the Eastern American Province and is a rather large mixture of urban and suburban life, must step back to the early years of the twentieth century. The city was established much earlier by Huguenots who had escaped persecution by Catholics in France, hence its name. One is reminded of its origin by both street names and statuary. The infant Frank Chapman was born in 1911 just five years after the Christian Brothers had come to New Rochelle to establish The Iona School, which was the congregation’s second privately owned school in the United States. The Chapmans attended Blessed Sacrament Parish in the south end of the city and young Frank went to the parochial school attached to the parish.

In September of 1927, Frank was enrolled in the secondary division of The Iona School and thus his love affair with the Christian Brothers began. Brother Alexander Thomas recalls that when he first started teaching in the lower school, Frank Chapman was in his last year at Iona. "He was an end on the football team and the Prep’s lone polevaulter. I can still see some of the brothers lifting a leg as Frank tried to clear the bar in competition!" In the school annual under the picture of a handsome young man, we read: "Frank is a typical Ionian in spirit and general aspect. This quiet, non-pretentious fellow has won the esteem of all his colleagues by reason of his sterling qualities as a student and a sportsman." He was graduated in June of 1931 and entered the Congregation the following February in West Park, New York on the banks of the Hudson River.

Brother Carthage Ryan was appointed Novice Master in 1919 when the novitiate was in rented quarters in New Rochelle. Through the assistance of Msgr. James Power of All Saints Parish in New York City, who had brought the first Brothers to the United States in 1906, Brother Joachim Ryan, the Provincial, purchased a thousand acres in West Park and situated both the novitiate and the provincial residence there in 1921. Little did Frank envisage when he arrived there as a postulant that he would spend such a significant portion of his life in those surroundngs.

Novice Masters of late have not spent many years in the position and changes of approach may be enriching, but while the North American Provinces have been blessed with many wonderful men in formative positions, Carthage Ryan and Victor Chapman must stand out. Carthage for twenty-six (1919-45) and Victor for eighteen (1950-68) were in a privileged position to form the spirituality of a region of the congregation. The word that most comes to mind is humane. Brother Gabriel McHugh refers to Victor as "a man without guile." He also says: "Of all the virtues he lived, I would place simplicity, sincerity, integrity at the top of the list." While these seem to have been innate in Victor’s character, the influence of Carthage, for whom the adjectives are equally apt, on the youthful novice must have been profound.

Frank was given the religious name of Victor, completed his novitiate and did academic studies in West Park until 1935 when he was assigned to All Hallows, which had recently moved to its new building facing Joyce Kilmer Park in the borough of New York City known as "The Bronx." There were a quite a few brothers at All Hallows in those days since students ranged from grades one through twelve. For his first years there, Vic taught in the elementary school and then moved on to the secondary department. The two divisions were kept quite distinct. I entered All Hallows as a first-grader in 1937, but have no recollection of ever meeting Vic who was by then in the high school. Brother Simon Barry was a high school student in those years and recollects meeting Victor who had a "serene countenance...(and)...a friendly smile and greeting." One of his seventh grade students, who became his assistant in the novitiate years later was Edmundian Victor Martin. From the teacher in grade school, Vic Martin recalls there "followed many years when we were friends and associates in the Brothers’ apostolate. To sum it up -he was one of a kind, a great Christian Brother, and I admired and respected him for his character and achievements."

The academic study begun in West Park following his novitiate continued, as was customary in those days, through Saturday and summer study until he was awarded as Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Fordham University in 1943. Truly a Brother’s education took place through assignments to teach new subjects when needed. Vic was assigned to teach mathematics and chemistry as well as English. Naturally, he taught religious education each day. In 1940, Vic and two other brothers were assigned to live in the Iona Prep community

but to teach in St. Gabriel’s High School also in New Rochelle. Although it was a high school which served both young men and women, the Brothers taught only the boys. Brother Simon Barry recalls living with Victor at Iona Prep in this period and he alludes to difficulties at St. Gabriel’s which Victor rarely brought back to the community. Simon states: "To me it was All Hallows all over again...the same control of his outer self; cheerful and at peace with God." In 1942, the male students were moved from St. Gabriel’s to Blessed Sacrament Parish and Blessed Sacrament High School was established under the direction of the Christian Brothers. A local house was purchased by the parish as a community residence. Brother Pius Mulvany was named the first superior/principal and Victor moved from Iona Prep to the new setting. Pius had gifts, but the ability to direct a school of secondary school boys was not one of them. In 1943, Victor, at the age of thirty-one was appointed to take charge. Brother Cathal Fleming lived there from 1943 until 1947. His major recollection is that Victor "was always kind and generous with very little available." The community funds were completely dependant upon the agreement with the parish and exceedingly limited. One would expect that Victor in later years would have used the brothers’ circumstances as an example for living the vow of poverty. To the best of my recollection, he never did. I do recall one conversation many years later at the Provincial House when we were decorating for Christmas. He said that in Blessed Sacrament they would always wait until after Midnight Mass to get a Christmas tree since it would be given away then. They couldn’t afford one earlier. Naturally, his own elementary education at Blessed Sacrament together with his seven years there in the high school made it a special place in his memory. Undoubtedly, it was also because that was the last time for many years that he was in what might be called an "ordinary" school situation.

In August of 1949, Victor was notified by the provincial that he was being assigned to the novitiate in West Park together with the elderly former provincial, Brother Ambrose Kelly. Ambrose was to be Novice Master and Victor, his associate. It must have been clear that he was being given a year to "switch gears" and get ready for a new mission. Without any formal preparation, he was selected obviously for his genuine "solid virtue." The experience and wisdom of Ambrose Kelly, who had been one of the original four to establish the Christian Brothers in New York was also an opportunity to learn. Novices at this period were coming from Newfoundland, the first site of the Brothers work in North America, British Columbia and many places in the United States. Vic’s mission life had been limited to New York; Ambrose had been in Newfoundland and the Western United States and without the responsibilities of being ‘in charge," Vic could learn. The Brothers in that novitiate group experienced the serenity and sincere spiritual depth of a profoundly good man.

In September of 1950, Vic was launched on a eighteen year mission of challenging neophyte Christian Brothers in a most important formative year. In each group, there were some young men who had entered St. Joseph’s Juniorate, located on a lower property in West Park, for their high school education; others joined in July after completing their education someplace else and spent six weeks in "postulancy" before moving to the novitiate. Some older men joined just a few days before the eight-day retreat prior to the reception of the religious habit. While the vast majority were entering with the idea of becoming teachers, some aspired to do other works and were called "co-adjutor" brothers. On September 6, Victor gave the habit to forty-six men on the back lawn of the novitiate property. The ceremony was always an attractive one because of the external symbolization of taking off "the old man" ( a jacket) and putting on ‘the new." Parents and families were present, where they would not be for "First Vows." Two remembrances come to my mind from that day -neither of them especially significant. My mother thought the Novice Master was a most handsome man. She remarked about that many times in later years when she would meet him - but never to his face! My uncle, who had been educated by brothers from grammar school at All Hallows, was amazed to see so many clean habits! In addition to the forty-six of us there were four men already in the novitiate preparing to be co-adjutors. Hence, Victor had fifty novices under his care in 1950. Little did he know that much bigger numbers were ahead.

For his first four years as Novice Master, Victor was in Santa Maria on the hill in West Park. This building had served as novitiate -and in earlier times sole formation house - since the move to West Park in 1921. At no time, however, were the numbers of entrants into the province so large as they became in 1950 and the subsequent years. More and more dormitory room was needed. An old cannery, which at one point had been turned into a bowling alley, was converted to house novices. Additional staff as associates was needed. The small dining room was extremely crowded. While the Provincial Council had moved to New Rochelle in 1950, there was still a community of brothers there to care for the farm, grounds, and infirm brothers in residence. An added complication was created by the fact that there were three formation houses on West Park property. St. Joseph’s Juniorate, the high school division, was located on the east side of Route 9W, closer to the Hudson River. Just south of that was St. Gabriel’s Scholasticate where the recent novices began or continued their tertiary education before being missioned to a teaching assignment. While each house was independent, there were necessary interchanges. Some faculty in the Novitiate would teach courses in one of the other houses and vice versa. Three Redemptorist priests were brought down from their seminary each morning and hence the time for Mass had to be the same in each place. Novitiate solitude was taken quite seriously and hence interaction between the novices with the other young men in formation was kept to a minimum (officially, at least!). In 1952, it was decided by the Provincial Council to attempt to gradually develop a scenario in which all young brothers could acquire a Bachelor’s degree before being assigned to teach. Hence some members of each of the next few groups were sent to a newly established house of studies at Iona College in New Rochelle and others were assigned to teach after an initial year of studies in the Scholasticate..

In 1954, the accommodations at Santa Maria were just too limited and a new piece of property with a large mansion was purchased in South Kortright, New York, about a hundred miles north of West Park, and Victor and the novices moved there for the next twelve years. About the same time, property was bought from Maryknoll Foreign Mission Society in Lakewood, New Jersey for the high school and post-novitiate years. The influx of young men kept coming and the Mary Immaculate Novitiate in South Kortright became too small. The old St. Joseph’s Juniorate became another novitiate with Brother Alphonsus Heeran as Novice Master. In 1963, the North American Province was divided into Canada and the United States and in 1966, two US provinces were established. Each of the newly formed provinces established its own novitiate and hence only one was now necessary in New York. The property in South Kortright was sold and Victor returned to the old St. Joseph’s in West Park (now Santa Maria Novitiate) as Novice Master for two more years. Hence, while Victor remained as Novice Master for eighteen years, no year was truly similar to the previous one in this period of rapid growth. The novitiate of Mary Immaculate in South Kortright knew no other Novice Master. He opened it, developed it, and was called upon to close it. It must have been a wrenching experience for him. Although I and many others would just say "Kortright," I never heard Vic call it anything but "South Kortright." and he almost bowed his head when he did!

A good number of Brothers have been kind enough to share their memories of Vic as their Novice Master. Edmundian Victor Martin, who was in Vic’s seventh grade class at All Hallows, was one of the many that served as Socius to the Novice Master. He writes: "Brother Victor was, for all his spirituality, first and foremost a MAN. Though he never lorded over anyone, you always knew he was in charge. And there was no sentimental piety or softness connected with him. His approach to those under him was firmly based on the rule and everyone was treated the same. For two years I worked under him but I never felt close to him or regarded him as a good friend. We shared many a laugh together, but there was always that wall of separation that I never breached."

Brother Jack Driscoll, a member of Victor’s first group of novices reflects almost fifty years later that "many of the activities that Vic designed for us that year with such confidence were primitive learnings for him also. When he saw a number of us gingerly tearing poison ivy from the low stone walls near the baseball field, he rented a flame-thrower in Kingston and showed us how to burn out the plant with efficiency, as in battle. What he didn’t know, nor did we, was that vaporized poison ivy sap is much more dangerous than the plant itself ...a number of us working on the project were serious patients as a result. The extra soda, Tootsie Pops and ice cream that were featured the next few evenings were some sort of consolation." Brother Harry French, a member of the same group, recalls that Victor spoke to us as a fellow traveler. He shared stories of his very human life. He was able to blush, get angry, laugh and pray. I, for one, was filled with awe, love and respect for that man."

The word "simplicity" which so many use about Vic extended into his practical understanding of what was suitable for a brother. Brother Conan Armstrong, one in a group of seventy-two to receive the habit in South Kortright, recalls being sent upstairs one day for a bar of soap. "In the storage closet, there were many containers of different deodorants that were turned in by the novices. Vic believed if you took a daily shower, you didn’t need deodorant." Brother John Dornbos reflects on his personal feelings that same year. "Victor, in the midst of so many people in our novitiate, was a surrogate father to me. I needed a father. My father had left home a year before. I was also far from my family and in many ways the brothers themselves filled this need for me. As Novice Master, Victor had a profound way of forming young brothers. It wasn’t done one-on-one to a great degree. It was done in the midst of the group through classes, activities and sports. He was always right in the middle of everything."

Brother George Fitzpatrick, also from the 1950 group, uses the same word simplicity and says: "he was not a complicated man. He seemed to derive great pleasure from the short story, the poem, the honest reflection and a job well-done. As uncomplicated as he was, he possessed a wisdom that showed up in his talks to us. Like a good father figure, he led us through the spirit and meaning of being a brother. And he did it by example. When youthful exuberance looked as though it might ‘get out of hand,’ he would merely say ‘NOW’... and that was enough to show that he didn’t approve of whatever prompted the ‘rebuke.’" Brother Michael Colasuonno, who was not one of Victor’s novices, but who came to know him over the years sums it up well: "Victor Chapman was one of those men who give you hope in religious life that it really is a path to holiness, because he was a holy man. He was all the holier for being unconscious that he was unusual and unaffected in his spirituality. He clearly saw himself as the average brother, although few others saw him that way."

During these years, of course, radical changes were taking place in prayer forms, attitudes towards isolation, solitude, and even fitness for acceptance into the novitiate. John XXIII’s announcement of an Ecumenical Council in 1959 startled the world, but few could predict the outcomes would be so staggering. The youthful idealism of a young president of the United States, who was assassinated in Dallas, a failed invasion of Cuba, and a controversial involvement in a war in South-east Asia made the sixties a tumultuous time. Isolation in South Kortright or West Park did not insure complete tranquility. Within the Congregation, the General Chapter of 1966 elected Brother Austin Loftus, a man known for his strongly-held views and committed to the missionary expansion of the congregation. The same chapter also changed the daily prayer life quite noticeably. Another extraordinary General Chapter in 1968 continued the tide of change. Vic was always elected by the members of the province to participate in Provincial Chapters.

His natural reticence and need to reflect meant that he did not speak much or advance new ideas, but he was the touchstone in many cases for the authenticity of what change was being suggested.

The saying among some of us younger members -moved by a then famous advertisement on TV for a brokerage establishment was "When Vic Chapman speaks, everybody listens!" When a decision was made, and approved by the General Chapter, if necessary, it was then the rule and the "old" must give way. He never expressed a longing for former practices.

Brother Alexander Dogan, a novice in West Park in one of his last years recalls how by force of habit, Vic would begin morning prayer with the assembled group with "Angelus Domini nuntiavit Maria..." and "then clear his throat in his typical manner of covering a mistake and begin again in English." The impression he made on this novice in his later years is no different from before: "He was a legend, a mystery, a master of novices whose long experience knew when to pull, push and/or let go of the group in its teenaged dynamics."

Reflecting shortly after my own novitiate, I remember experiencing some disappointment, if not resentment, because I had only one private conference with the Novice Master the whole year. Brother George Fitzpatrick seems to have had a similar feeling. He says: "My one regret is that the one-on-one between novice and Novice Master was not in vogue in our time." A number of years later when I was responsible for a considerably smaller group of young men in formation, I found myself spending most of my "conference time" with a limited number each year who needed to talk about vocational and other issues. It is perfecting reasonable that Victor would have spent time with these. My resentment has completely disappeared!

When he was moved from Blessed Sacrament to West Park, Vic had absolutely no formal training in formation work. This was not uncommon. It was recognized by the provincial that some studies would be of assistance. Victor and the other superiors of formation houses were sent to the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois for summer courses. As a result the writings of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. became standard fare in formation for a few years. It was in this period away from the novitiate that Vic began to play a round of golf every so often. He always enjoyed exercise and Brother Denis Wright reports that his errant shots brought about a typical response: "a display of disgust which was always controlled, never flamboyant or offensive." He also enjoyed some short vacation in late July, after River Forest, in Quogue, Long Island and then it was back to the novitiate to get a group ready for First Vows and welcome a new group ready to begin their journey.

All of this study, of course, was "on-the-job" training. When River Forest summers were finished, he and other formation directors, were encouraged to take courses in the Pastoral Counseling program at Iona College. Since courses were on Fridays, Vic would make the long drive down from South Kortright or West Park and then return that evening or the following day.

He was awarded his Master’s Degree in the field in 1968, the year he finished eighteen years as Novice Master! Vic had a great respect for studies. Although he never had much opportunity himself, he was always interested in seeing younger men progress in their fields.

There are countless humorous anecdotes from the novitiate years. Many of them have some connection with one of the many projects which Vic thought up to keep everyone busy.

Of course, there was always a purpose. Vic Martin relates that "he placed great stock in the value of work and was observant of how the novices pitched in and handled their assignments. I recall one day when he called me into his room to outline the day’s work. On the back of an envelope he sketched the rough outline of a three car garage. He handed me the envelope and the rest was up to me and the novices. Thankfully, many other brothers contributed skills over the next months and it came out quite good." According to Brother Denis Crimmins: "Victor had a child-like awe for creation, and he was ever ‘listening for the heartbeat of God’ in it. One could sense this in him, but I doubt if he was aware of it." Vic Martin says "he could communicate his enthusiasm and sell any scheme to the novices. One June we were both wondering how we could get time to correct our exams. Vic proposed sending the novices on a wild-flower hunt. When I tried to dampen the idea by pointing out the obvious incompatibility between young men and wild flowers, he took it as a challenge. The next thing I knew, he had the novices divided into teams and they spent the day searching out and bringing back every wild flower in New York State. And we had time to grade our exams." One can just imagine how little "free" time Vic had in those years. Brother Walter Leader says he now understands why on one Sunday afternoon during the novitiate when the novices were scheduled for a walk ("short" or "long" circle?) in the rain and Vic was asked if the older novices could have a break and stay home, the answer was negative. Sunday afternoon may have been one of his rare free times. After the introduction of television into the staff’s community room, Vic loved to watch a football game, a sport he really enjoyed.

Alex Dogan’s experience of being kept busy would ring a bell in everyone of Vic’s novice’s memory: saw logs; move stone walls, then put them back; drag wet blankets across the ice; lift radiators from below the float in the Hudson, only to re-chain them and drop them back in. Alex felt fortunate: "I was in West Park, but the Kortright groups were proud of draining, cleaning and re-filling the lake, year after year." Naturally humorous incidents with Vic in the center took place. According to Jack Driscoll, "on one occasion, when we were using axes to trim branches from felled trees bound for the cooperage, Vic, wearing habit, cape and biretta wanted us to see how an axe should be swung properly. His first hefty swing not only severed a tree limb; it cut a very tidy gap in his free flowing cape as well, and Vic, cape and axe were tied to the tree." Alex Dogan remembers Vic giving them a long lecture on the ice pond about being careful of soft spots and then "proceeded to fall through himself and flail his arms exactly as we were instructed not to." The 1931 school annual from Iona Prep reads: "It is not often that one meets a fellow like Frank...He is the kind of an Ionian that the institution wants, and he is surely a model for the younger boys to look up to. He is the kind of a student who gives his best in sports and studies, and as a result, has succeeded in both." Vic’s tenure as Novice Master was just a continuation of what he had always been. The man indeed was the message.

At the special provincial chapter of 1967, a number of decisions were made which changed the formation process in the Eastern American Province. The property in Lakewood was sold, the high school classes having been dropped a few years previously, and upon completion of the novitiate, the young men went directly to the student brothers’ residence on the campus of Iona College, known as Edmund Hall. It was also decided at the 1967 Provincial Chapter that a full year of postulancy was to be required prior to the novitiate. Hence, St. Joseph’s Hall was opened in New Rochelle within walking distance of Iona College. Vic was a member of that chapter and participated in all these decisions. After one more year, he left West Park and was assigned to Essex Catholic High School, then in Newark, New Jersey. He entered with ease into the large community and school which was Essex Catholic. He did some teaching, but mostly counseling and felt quite relaxed.

The late 60's in the United States were times of tumultuous change and this was most apparent at the numerous tertiary educational institutions known as universities or colleges. Iona was not an exception. Protests against the government's involvement in Vietnam, the example of Fathers Daniel and Philip Berrigan and others supporting conscientious objection to the war in symbolic actions such as pouring blood on draft records, the movement for civil rights, especially for the African-Americans, Lyndon Johnson’s "War on Poverty ," the adventures in space were the subjects of many classroom discussions and campus demonstrations. Many faculty were attempting to interpret the new theological stances developed and accepted at Vatican II. The young brothers studying at Iona in their post-novitiate formation were right in the middle of this. Each day one could read in the newspapers of priests and religious leaving their parishes or communities. Those in charge of the houses of formation were searching for new paradigms and all of this had a very unsettling effect. A significant number of the large entrants into the congregation over the past decade or two now opted to leave. The superior of Edmund Hall, the residence for all of the student brothers, applied for and received a dispensation from his vows. Brother Austin Loftus had become General in 1966 and took a special concern for the Houses of Formation. He arrived at Edmund Hall in June of 1969 and within a few weeks, Victor’s peaceful existence at Essex Catholic came to an abrupt end and he was appointed superior of the student brothers. He was now fifty-seven years of age.

Brother Valerian Scanlon was provincial of the Eastern American Province and one can be sure that he and Austin presented a strong request to Vic emphasizing the respect with which he was held in the province and his experience. It was also assured that it wouldn’t be more than a three years term, which it was. Victor adapted to the scene with serenity and wisdom as was his wont. At his funeral, Brother Kiril Cavet, his eulogist who had been a novice a few year’s previously and was later in Edmund Hall reported: "He changed with the circumstances. He would say ‘Umm..yes’ more often than a ‘no, brother’ and he knew when to say it." I was with the postulants in nearby St. Joseph’s those years and we would meet every so often to plan some joint event. Vic was his usual wise and placid self.

Once again he breathed a sigh of freedom in June of 1972, only to be appointed to the provincial council. He returned to Essex Catholic to a position in guidance or counseling and made weekly trips to New Rochelle for meetings. In another series of appointments in 1975, however, he was appointed to the position of Deputy Provincial and had to move to the residence at 21 Pryer Terrace with the new provincial, Brother Michael Delaney, and other members of the council and staff. This was his home for the next twelve years. I too joined that council and lived

with Victor again, -the first time since my novitiate.

Besides his participation in the usual work of the council such as visitations and meetings, he assumed primary responsibility for the recruitment of candidates to the brotherhood. Convinced of the need for proper screening and with his pastoral counseling background, he took a special interest in each applicant. One of the methods used to familiarize prospective candidates with the life of a brother was to gather a group for a weekend in West Park. Despite his years, Vic entered into these with his usual dedication. I am grateful to Brother Kevin Barry for a remembrance of Victor’s presence at these events. After a meal on Friday night the young men and the brothers present would gather to become familiar with one another. One of the ploys for getting people to speak freely after they introduced themselves was to ask them to select a "name-in-nature" or some symbol which would tell what they thought of themselves in life. "The name had to be something living. Victor usually picked ‘shadfish.’ As a young brother Victor watched shadfish swim upstream each year as the defining moment of Spring in the Hudson Valley. Shadfish disappeared from the Hudson in the mid-sixties and returned in the late seventies. The Hudson is actually cleaner in 1999 than it was in the 60's. The fact that they returned at all was a religious and personal metaphor for him -an annual cycle of swimming upstream, a struggle yet an achievement." The fact that when the Hudson waters became cleaner new life took place was a wonderful image of Victor’s virtue of hope.

Kevin continues: "Victor loved the experience of the workshops and vocation work. He was so convinced of his own vocation that he was sure others would want to hear more about it and follow a similar path. Victor’s presence was a treasure. Young men and young brothers enjoyed his explanations and his company and felt blessed when he was there." In this period of his ministry, he would occasionally go from community to community to pray with the brothers at morning or evening prayer for vocations. He would prepare services and took great pains to attempt to make them relevant. One year he used a Rock song on a tape recorder which Michael Colasuonno describes as "sounding like Ray Repp sung by the Supremes." Needless to say when he completed the first community, the word went around the province like wildfire that Vic "had lost it"! Truly no one else could have gotten away with it. He didn’t repeat that song the next year, but he felt obligated to share the experience with about twenty-four communities, including our own community at the province center, that particular year so that no one would miss out on the laugh.

Naturally Victor was called upon to give many days of recollection and community retreats. While he always prepared these diligently, he also enjoyed the travel to places in North America where he had never been stationed but about which he had heard so much. Brother John Holden recalls his visits to Newfoundland in this period: "I use to invite Victor to come to Newfoundland every other year to give retreats to our young Student Brothers just so they would all have an opportunity to experience this very holy man. He could get so excited about our rugged island nature, especially the icebergs which were in full force one Spring while he was there. We loved to listen to him as he was always a good storyteller. One of his popular presentations was on the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s which left us all with such love and respect for that sacred place. How could this New Yorker who was never stationed outside the New York area do that? As a young Brother himself, he had heard his old and revered mentors, Carthage Ryan, Ambrose Kelly, Joseph Culhane and others speak so lovingly of this sacred place that it left a lasting impression."

In his fifteen years on the provincial council. Vic aged from sixty-one to seventy-six. Gabriel McHugh, who had been one of Victor’s novices and later became Superior General, believes that "Victor was always a student, particularly of life and change. I was privileged to be associated with him when he was a member of the province leadership team. During my visits to the province house, formally or informally, Vic was open to discussing and learning about appropriate responses to change and challenge in religious life. Because he was secure in the fundamentals of his faith and commitment he was open to new possibilities." Michael Colasuonno recalls one day in Pryer Terrace: "I was packing my bag to return to Rome when Victor came to my room and asked if I had a few minutes. He said that he had been reading an article and wanted to understand the meaning of apostolic spirituality and would appreciate it if I could summarize it in a few words!"

He celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 1982, and Gabriel invited him to come to Rome and visit the Holy Land with the Tertians. Michael Colasuonno reports that " he was a bit daunted by trying to cross Italian streets, but enjoyed the whole visit, especially the antics of the Italian tour groups on the plane to Israel. During this period also Gabriel, Victor and I went to Assisi on a freezing wet day and were welcomed into a restaurant by the owner who sat us by the fire, took our things to dry and give us a liter of wine to work on telling us to not even think about ordering for a while. This to Victor represented the best of Italian hospitality, and he said that the experience was one of the highlights of his trip."

In our community life at Pryer Terrace, we did have a happy time when we were together and Victor was always an active participant. He surprised us one day by relating, upon a return from a visit with his brother to New York City that they had left a book store near St. Patrick’s Cathedral and were then mugged as they were in a protective underpass beneath a building being renovated. Naturally we were shocked and asked how he had reacted. He said "I swung the bag with the books at the guy and he ran!" Afterwards, he came to decide that perhaps that hadn’t been the best response. On another occasion, we talked about using the fireplace in the parlor which had not been used in a number of years. A few days later, I came home from teaching a class at Iona College to see Vic, now about seventy-one years of age, standing on the top of the chimney with a bag with a large stone in it and cleaning the flu. Catherine Campbell, the kind lady responsible for cleaning the house, was down in the parlor shouting instructions up the chimney to him!

Shortly after the new group moved into the residence in 1975, we agreed to do some redecorating and painting. I arranged with some of the more artistic student brothers to give us some ideas and then actually do the work. In one weekend the community room was completely transformed with a dark Harvest Green color to conduce restfulness. It was quite a change and Victor used to poke his head in the door as the progress was being made. The final pièce de résistance were to be swag lamps hanging from the ceiling so that one merely had to push a button and not fumble abound for a switch. They were barely up when Victor exclaimed that the room look like "a Spanish bordello!" The lamps came down and we wondered when Vic had been to Spain. He loved to work in the small green house, put up bird feeders that the squirrels couldn’t get at and in the Spring plant his flowers. The housekeeper, Mary McHugh, took good care of him and they developed a friendship which lasted until his death.

council remained the same, however, for the two remaining years of their term. Once again, Vic was called to change. He served with three provincials and each naturally had a different leadership style. He was always most supportive and made a suggestion which greatly aided my ministry. Up until this time, the provincial had been intimately involved in initiating all the personnel work revolving around transfers and specific school and community needs. Vic suggested to me that he thought many men saw the provincial only in that capacity and it also occupied too much of his time. His suggestion once again was solidly based and wise. He know that his time on the council was drawing to a close and one might have expected that he would want to avoid difficult decisions. He did not. He was faithful until the last day of his term.

For the next seven years, he was in the Iona elementary school community on Stratton Road. Naturally all the members in the community were considerably younger than he, but they revered him. He got into grounds work once again -planting flower beds, moving trees, and enjoying nature. It was in this period that he decided that he had the time to develop his interest in art. Brother Kenneth Chapman relates that he offered to work with him. He says: "I drove to Iona Grammar School from the College every week to spend two hours with him. He was an excellent student and painted some beautiful works. Just talking with him about what he was trying to achieve was a rewarding experience for me. Expressing his feelings and thoughts visually was difficult for Vic because of his rigid academic approach to painting. He did share with me that when he was a young brother he asked if he could study art, but was refused because it would have been incompatible with religious life. I wonder what beauty and truth might have been realized in those uncreated works."

Brother William Carrothers tells of a visit to Victor in this period. "This incident happened in 1987, almost twenty-five years after my novitiate. I stopped at Iona Grammar to pick up a visiting Australian brother. I visited briefly with Vic and when I was ready to leave I asked him for directions to the New York State Thruway. He began to tell me and then just stopped and said ‘Follow me, I’ll show you the way.’ Rather casually, I said ‘I’ve been trying to follow you for twenty-five years and it hasn’t been getting any easier.’ We both got a good laugh and went on our way. After about fifteen minutes, I commented to my Australian passenger that I thought Victor may be lost as we seemed to be circling around. No sooner had I spoken than Victor pulled off the road and left his car and proceeded back to ours. I rolled down the window and Victor, blushingly explained that he was lost and not sure the way to go. I responded that it was no wonder it had been so difficult these past twenty-five years. We had a good laugh. I’ll always remember the ease with which we both laughed and the honesty and humility with which he said that he wasn’t sure of the way and might be lost."

In his early years at Iona, he would go to the school and tell stories. His love of sports brought him to all the games and practices. He took over the raising of funds among the students for our foreign missions with his traditional zeal. The younger men were so involved that at times he was left alone in the house. As time progressed he found this difficult. He was always welcome at the other New Rochelle communities for a meal and a game of bridge, but he became less inclined to travel. His doctors were concerned about his heart and he freely said that he was finding the expenditure of energy more difficult. In the summers of 1992 and 1993, he moved to St. Joseph’s Care Center when the Iona Grammar School community was on holiday. Finally in 1994, he asked to be moved there permanently. He was now eighty-three years of age.

In the early years at St. Joseph’s he would take walks on the grounds or go to Iona College for a feast day or a game of bridge. He would also play bridge in the community with Alex Thomas and others. Mary McHugh, no longer actively involved in the housekeeping duties at the provincial house had been given an apartment behind St. Joseph’s. She visited frequently with Vic and Valerian Scanlan and would invite Vic to her place for a cup of tea. His brother Jim and his sisters were regular visitors. There was no question, however, that Vic was nearing that goal which he prepared for so well. Michael Colasuonno says that he reminded him of "a candle gradually burning down until it would peacefully end." Brother Joques Roepke, superior at St. Joseph’s relates that "towards the end he had to rely on the assistance of others. He rarely, if ever, complained about pain and never really bemoaned his condition. He was a pleasure to live with. He was grateful for anything the staff or community did for him."

On October 22, 1998, Vic was experiencing more than the usual difficulty in breathing, so Brother Benedict Boyle of the St. Joseph’s staff took him to the local hospital, where the St. Joseph’s physician met them. He told Ben that Victor was dying and that it would probably happen within the hour. He went home to God peacefully about fifteen minutes later. During the next few days his sisters, brother and many nieces and nephews gathered at St. Joseph’s to pray, tell stories and remember this wonderful man. Brother John Holden came to represent the Canadian brothers while Brother Joseph Gattone and Vianney Corrigan, one of Vic’s many associates in the novitiate, came from the Western Province. Naturally many brothers and former brothers came to pay their respects.

John Holden wrote a description of the funeral for the brothers in Canada and I am dependent on that since I was many miles away. "The Mass of Christian Burial was held October 27 at 10:00 a.m. at Holy Family Church on Mayflower Avenue. The church was filled with family members, brothers, Edmundians and friends who came to celebrate his life and his entrance into eternity. The chief celebrant was Father James Lloyd, a Paulist Priest who is also an associate of the Congregation. Brother Kiril Cavet gave a fitting eulogy to this wonderful man and great Christian Brother. The resounding choruses of the "Ode to Joy" recessional as Victor’s body left the Church captured so well his lifelong love for the beauty of creation, as he so readily saw the Divine Presence in all of life." A few hours later Vic returned to West Park and traveled once more down Rosary Walk to the cemetery. He has left us a rich legacy and a wonderful example of solid virtue.