Memoirs

From Steve Travis, MLPS '88

John & Thomas,

This is Steve Travis (MLPS 1988). I’m in possession of this old Champion Knight (see pictures attached) that was maybe used for a pep rally or something. Back prior to my arrival on the campus in Prairie du Chien. For years I have been meaning to reach out to share the story of how I came upon it and see if a Campion alum would be interested in it as a keep sake.

I believe it was in 1986 (sophomore year for me) a couple of classmates and I (I believe it was 2 of us younger and 1-2 older = 3-4 of us total got into the Old Campion building – sorry to admit I don’t recall the name of the building. MLPS never used most of that building. It was the biggest building on the north end of campus, we did use the old gym that was the east side of the building. Anyway - one evening we got into the building (which our access point into the building was through the heating tunnels – an adventure in and of itself) to explore and fill some time with adventure, rummaging around looking at all the old desks, some of the chalkboards still had writing on them, we made our way up to what I recall was the top floor more of an attic feel to it. I came across this Knight, face down. The back side of it covered in dried up pigeon poop, but for whatever reason I felt inclined to pick it up and Wow the front side of it was in really good shape. So of course snuck back out of the building with this “treasure” and I’ve kept it ever since.

 

Steve

From Tom Leyden '72

'72 Knights ramble across the Scottish Highlands

Seven members of Campion’s class of 1972 and their spouses traveled to the Highlands of Scotland in September.

This hardy party consisted of host and Scotland whisperer Chas Gore and wife Laila, Wills and Judy (Lauterbach) Ryan, Steve and Sue Rathford, Mark and Patricia Waickman, Mike and Jan O’Malley, Jim and Marina Berhendt and Tom Leyden. Tom and Maggie Freeman were forced to withdraw due Maggie’s injury in a Scottish hiking accident prior to the start of the conclave. She’s recovered nicely.

This group, with several other Knights, comes together annually for a golf outing. Our founding force was the late Tom O’Brien.

Since Chas’ mother was a native Scot, he spent summers in Scotland as a boy, putting in a day’s work on his grandfather’s farm before breakfast, he asserts. His itinerary was a perfect blend of hiking, castles, ruins, whisky (never Scotch), touring picturesque towns, fishing, golf and delicious food. (Never turn down Cullen Skink, haddock soup.)

We headquartered in the amiable village of Dornoch. Go any farther north and you’ll fall off the earth. The soggy Scottish weather hid away (mostly) and sunshine warmed these Rowdies and their lassies.

A few highlights of the week:

– A tour of the 189-room Dunrobin Castle. This included a falconry demonstration and a weird collection of taxidermy.

– A whisky-tasting class by a New Zealander in the dungeon-like cellar of Dornoch Castle Hotel.

– A tour of the idled Glenoranje distillery, where the corporate mascots are giraffe images. Then high tea at Glenoranje House, where the table strained under the load of delicacies. The distillery was on break due to tariffs and a worldwide decline in whisky sales.

– Mini-vanning with guides through Shin Falls, the harbor town of Ullapool, a hike through the box canyon at Corrieshalloch Gorge (with a whisky reward at the end) and finally the Victorian spa town of Strathpeffer.

– It would only be polite for us to golf while in Scotland. Three courses tried our skills, culminating at Royal Dornoch, with its distracting vistas of the North Sea. We cried for mercy.

It was a joyous trip filled with discovery, laughs and getting to know the amazing spouses.

– By Tom Leyden

(Front row, left) Steve and Sue Rathford, Judy and Wills Ryan, Mark and Patricia Waickman. (Back row, left) Laila and Chas Gore, Tom Leyden, Marina and Jim Berhendt, Jan and Mike O'Malley.

Chas Gore (left) and Steve Rathford enjoying canyon hike.

Tom Leyden (left), Mark Wickman, Jim Berhendt and Mike O'Malley at Royal Dornoch Golf Course.

From the desk of John Duskey '63

There were several Campion-related events during this past year. Several noteworthy alumni died, and the list should begin with Fr. Cletus Pfab, class of 1954, who died on June 28. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pfab who lived in Bernard, Iowa in those days. Fr. Cletus was preceded in death by his six brothers: Ernest ‘53, Irvin ‘51, Fr. Martin, ‘54, Edmund, Clarence, and Henry. He served his regency at Creighton Prep and also taught there as a priest in 1972-74. There were also several cousins who attended Campion and the Pfab name is one of the most common names among those who attended Campion. Mary Ann Nida, the daughter of Irvin Pfab, has given me some items for the Campion archive.

We also remember the death of Fr. William Gerut, also of the class of ‘54, who died last July 17 at St. Camillus in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He had two brothers, Charles ‘62 and Robert ‘60, who also graduated from Campion. He served his regency at Creighton Prep, 1961-64, and taught at Creighton Prep from 1974-81. He also served as pastor at the parishes in Prairie du Chien from 1995 to 2002. The complete obituaries for these two priests can be found at jesuitsmidwest.org We, as Campion alumni, owe a debt of gratitude to the parents of Fr. Pfab and Fr. Gerut, not only for their support of the Jesuits, but also for their support of Campion High School all those years ago.

Another Campion alumnus who died this year was actor George Wendt, of the class of 1966. George did not get involved in acting while at Campion. His obituary was a national news story because of his well-known appearance in Cheers, and on several other films, comedies and variety shows. The Chicago Sun-Times, in its December 26 issue, printed an obituary for Pat Finn, who connected with Chris Farley during their years at Marquette University. The story was that the pair went to Second City and sought out advice from Joel Murray (brother of Bill Murray) who grew up not far from Mr. Finn’s family in Wilmette, Illinois. Farley and Finn landed gigs at Second City. In 1994, Finn was performing in a Second City show in Rolling Meadows when Bernadette Birkett, the director of the show, brought her husband, George Wendt, to the performance. This connection brought Mr. Finn a role in the (short-lived) George Wendt show. Farley had joined Saturday Night Live in 1990, and his career went on until his death in 1997. In December 1991, Chris Farley played the role of the corpulent nemesis to Johnny in the sketch “Johnny Letter” which starred Mike Myers in the title role. I knew who all the characters were in real life—I had a friend, since deceased, who regularly gave ideas to Lorne for SNL sketches. Later in December 1991, I requested that the Johnny Letter character not be continued, as it was important to me that my letter-writing campaign not be exposed in such a public way. It should be noted that the kinds of connections that lead to show-business career advances are, in many cases, not disclosed to the public, so the connections among Farley, Finn, and Wendt were not very well known.

There were some other memorable deaths among Campion Alumni in 2025. Dennis Knipp ‘63, gave me considerable assistance in all my reunion work. He (and two other classmates of ours who died in the early 2000s) suffered from cancer as a result of smoking cigarettes. Dennis’ doctor gave him a treatment in 2005 and told him he could live another twenty years. He did exactly that, and left us in May 2025. I think we are all aware of the damage to health that smoking causes.

I was also saddened by another death, in October, that of Jack Egan ‘64. When we were planning a reunion for summer 2022, our English teacher Mr. Reynold Frutkin, asked if we could invite members of the class of 64 to the reunion, as he had taught Honors English to some in that class. The Social Committee met and decided to invite the whole class. Four members joined us at that reunion: Bob Anderson, Tom O’Donnell, John McGinnis, and Jack Egan. Our class, in general, was very happy to have them join us. I had worked with Bob on the Campionette, and McGinnis was on my floor in Lucey Hall, but I especially enjoyed all of them—even those whom I rarely saw during our Campion years. Egan was, to me, a lasting friendship. We talked on the phone after the reunion and grew even closer. Jack was particularly interested to know that the house where Thornton Wilder lived when he wrote “Our Town” in the 1930s, was the same house that the Poet and Songwriter Paul Simon wrote about in “My Little Town” which was probably recorded in the late 1960s, but was not released to the public until 1975. I have included that house in the photographs included with this issue.

In 2025, we were able to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of our school. I have will share some observations here.

For one thing, I saw an article on the Internet that indicated an American bishop had modified his seminary training program for diocesan priests to include, for each seminarian, to spend some time as a high school teacher. The person who posted the article was somewhat critical of this move, as he thought it would take men preparing to be priests away from what he felt should be a strict focus on parish work. He was particularly critical of the fact that, while teaching high school, the seminarians would, by their dress and lifestyle, be taking time away from their normal seminary life.

This should raise some interest on the part of Campion alumni. You may recall that the Jesuits had such a program “back in the day.” The young men we knew as Jesuit scholastics at Campion, were doing exactly that, except that they continued to wear cassocks, continued to attend a daily community Mass in the faculty chapel in New Lawler Hall, and actively brought their Christ-centered lifestyle with them as they served as prefects in the rec room, study hall, dining hall, and just about everything else. In talking to some Jesuits at Camillus in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, I heard of the logic of this part of the Jesuit seminary program. Priests-in-training needed (and may still need) the experience of public speaking, especially in speaking to a group of young people, as that would enhance their ability to preach sermons and interact with lay people throughout their years of ministry as a priest.

So, just as we were learning Algebra, Latin, English and History from Jesuit scholasitcs, those scholastics were learning from us—but their curriculum was not nearly so well-defined. Probably the majority of them were successful at Campion (and at other Jesuit high schools) but some were not so successful. We later learned of those who were not successful at other schools and were reassigned to Campion. We also knew of scholastics who were not successful at Campion and were transferred to other Jesuit high schools. Some stayed in the Jesuits and were eventually given assignments that were better suited to their skills. Some did not remain in the Jesuits. One of those is a part of the following story.

I can tell you the story of a Campion student who had done well in Latin, with Fr. Zachman, and in studying Caesar and Cicero. But when it came to the poetry of Virgil’s Aeneid, he had difficulty. His grade after first semester in senior year was 83-D. Note that was a D for effort, which automatically meant he had to take his study hall time in Kostka Hall, which meant a walk across campus in the months of January, February, and March for the 5:00 and evening study halls. Eventually he got out of Kostka Study Hall, and graduated in May 1963. Later, while attending Marquette U., he decided to read Plato’s Protagoras in which Plato stated that, in their discussions, they should not be like the poets. The poet, he said, will never tell you what the poem really means: “Someone says the poem means one thing and someone else says it means something else. In the end, the controversy can’t be resolved.”

By now you should know who that student is, so I will switch to a first-person narrative. I went to UCLA for graduate school and just happened to meet someone who, I found out later, was a friend of Paul Simon. After introductions, the first thing he said was “Isn’t poetry wonderful?” By now you should have figured out what my response was. My justification for that was from Plato, quoted above. The conversation went on for hours, and I can remember a substantial amount of what was said. I didn’t think much about it until June 1973. I had said how much I looked forward to our 10th anniversary reunion, and just at that very time, my statement about curriculum became a part of American popular culture.

In April of 2025, I heard on WTMJ radio that Paul Simon was coming to Milwaukee and would be seen in concert at the Riverisde Theater on May 17-18. I immediately started checking to see how soon I could buy a ticket. After paying for my admission to the concert, I assembled a group of four pictures that I felt would be of interest to Mr. Simon. They are included with this article. As instructed, I gave the copies to the person I was supposed to give them to who would hand them on to Mr. Simon.

The concert went on through the first half, which was his recent release called “Psalms.” After the intermission he sang some songs from his solo career, but only a very few from the many songs he sang with the person who became his former singing partner after 1969. About midway in the second half, someone in the next section to the left of where I was sitting stood up and shouted “Sing Kodachrome.” (I can think of several reasons why he would not sing that song.) I felt like responding “that wasn’t me” but didn’t think fast enough. A very helpful lady then said “Sing anything. We love you.” and nothing further was said. He did sing “Mother and Child Reunion” and I knew something about that song that meant there should be no applause afterward. Mr. Simon followed it immediately with “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard,” an upbeat song that took attention away from the sadness of the mother at her son’s death.

It was a few months later when I realized that the concert was scheduled on the 50th anniversary of the closing of Campion. I don’t think alumni or Jesuits considered that to be a cause to celebrate. But just as he timed the release of Kodachrome in spring of 1973, he may have scheduled the Milwaukee concert on the day they “took my Kodachrome away.” (The analogy is that education is to experience as color is to black-and-white.) There are some notes with each of the pictures which will explain.

House from My Little Town, as it was in the early 1950s. There was a pergola; it lead to the front porch This is the house my parents bought in August 1945, from Thornton Wilder, who wrote ‘Our Town’.

Car from Baby Driver, a 1967 Ford Galaxie 500, Candyapple Red. This and the photo of our house were from my father’s collection of family home movies, in 8 mm Kodachrome film. Therefore the resolution is poor, relative to today’s standards. I drove this car to LA in fall 1968 and drove it back to the Midwest in July 1970. “I wonder how your engine feels” could be answered “I need an oil change”

Mike Myers as ‘Johnny Letter’ on Saturday Night Live December 1991

This is an aerial view of Campion, the High School in Kodachrome. It was closed in May 1975, & later made into a prison. I graduated in 1963. Our 10 year reunion was in June 1973. Note the ‘greens of summer.’