Crystal snow twinkling at night on campus amidst old-fashioned lamp posts…mornings in the spring…the laughter of the Ursulines during their evening walks…the Good Humor man—getting permission to “leave campus” to cross the street to get ice cream…baby sitting for faculty…”this is the life”…Mother Philomena and her cats…a young woman’s yearning for life to begin and not realizing it already had. Joan Foster King Class of 1949 In senior year, Mother Marie Madeline Cleary of Seneca Falls, NY, was our Hall Mother. I had met her early, just after arriving on campus, as she made it her business to welcome all “up-staters personally. Thereafter, whenever you met her on campus, you needed time to tell her how life was treating you and what was new up home. Mother Madeline was a soft-spoken, pretty, bouncy little lady, always beaming, so it was fun to talk with her. After I had been at CNR only a week or two, my diary reads, “I really love this place”! I believe Mother Madeline was one of the main reasons. She seemed to be glad you were there, and made you happy to be there. Lois Frey Taylor Class of 1945 From birth, CNR was a part of my life, welcoming me in a letter sent to mom from the “Ursuline School” in New Rochelle. My sister Mary ’33 sent it and I still have it. Mom was first president of the Ursuline Guild. My brothers John and Joe were on call for proms, plays, “T” dances, etc. When it was my turn, there was art, the wonderful Thompsons, work for Mrs. Ostertag and the public library. I’ve always wanted to return, but….it’s not a possibility. Sue Kilmartin Scully Class of 1942 A half century ago, I was dashing across campus daily in a collegiate cap and gown, the folds of pleated black serge swirling around my ankles, while my hand secured the mortarboard to my head. I recall the exhilaration that owning and wearing an academic gown brought me: the most important goal of my life to date—a college education—was being fulfilled. From investiture to graduation, wearing CNR’s cap and gown, its tassel annually rotating the four sides, symbolized one of the most significant periods of my life’s development. Sr. Eileen Kelleher, OSU Class of 1945 The first day for the Class of ’42, in the fall of 1938 began in the rain. In fact, the rain became a hurricane. I remember riding home that day with my junior sister, Sis Horgan, down the Shore Road in driving rain, with trees bending and branches breaking. Rainy weather seemed to follow our class for so many events—but we called ourselves the “super class”—with even rain for graduation, and Cardinal Spellman kidding us that our class song ended with “But we graduate on the lawn”! We didn’t. We met and benefited from three characteristics of CNR: friendliness, love of learning, and sense of family. Mother Thomas Aquinas, our dean, insisted on the first, saying with her inimitable grin, “don’t pass anyone without a smile or a ‘hi’.” College was small enough, about 800, so that we could get to know so many through this simple gesture. It has been a good habit for me in so many circumstances to break the ice with a smile and a hi. We were fortunate to learn from a great faculty—many of the legends of CNR history. We knew Ursulines Grace, Marie Louise, Berenice, Dorothea, Gerald and Justin. Then there were Sheedy, Ostertag, Vallerie, Becerra, Toole, Turner, Rogick, the Thompsons, Scully, Brennan, McBride, Farrell, Eagan, McManus, Kacmarynski, and Fathers White, Moody, and Darby—all helped us to enjoy the love of and the exhilaration of learning. CNR gave us a sense of family, which has lasted through alumnae years and many reunion celebrations. The Class of ’42 shared in this love of CNR and the sense of family by joining the faculty. Our Ursulines Alice Gallin, June Baumann, and Charlotte Mietzelfeld were joined by Pauline Koisch, Ruth Byrne, Jeanne French and myself to teach at CNR. I enjoyed seven years on the faculty, and appreciated the true academic freedom taken for granted at CNR. Loretta Corcoran Flynn Class of 1942 Dr. Sheedy asking me for my mailbox number and then saying “I shall easily remember that as it was the year the Ostrogoths conquered the Visigoths.” Calling Dr. Brennan anonymously on the phone and saying, “We’re sitting down to enjoy reading Plato in our easy chair, but we’re having trouble finding that glass of sherry and pipe you recommended. Elizabeth Crawford Connelly Class of 1943

 

O F F I C E  O F  C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
29 Castle Place, New Rochelle, NY 10805
info@cnr.edu