Good Shepherd Men's Club

A Brief History of its Beginning

During the latter part of 1963, the Brothers teaching our boys and also working with them after school hours solicited help to drive the boys to various sport events, places of recreation and other points of interest. One of the contact, namely Frank Curran met with Brother Anthony Griffin, the principal of the boys department, with the ...idea to purchase a car for the Brothers. Brother Anthony G. sough additional help from Jed Meekins, Frank Bond, Bill Guinan, Don King, Ed Stapleton, Jim Gentilesco, Gene Ward and others.

The above group met with Brother Anthony in January 1964 and the ground work was laid for the organization of men who would be willing to join together to assist the Brothers of Good Shepherd in any way they could. Brother Anthony at this meeting said he would confer with Father Mitchell who was than our pastor and request his permission to form such a group. Father Mitchell graciously consented and on Feb. 25, 1964 the first official meeting of the Good Shepherd Men's Club was held.

An interim Board of Officers had been selected the previous month to serve until June of 1964, at which time officers would be nominated and voted upon by the entire membership. At the first meeting, Father Mitchell address the group saying that as a graduate of Manhattan Prep and College, he considered himself a Brother's boy and was happy to be part of the formation of this club.

At this first meeting the club paid its first bill, $49.90 for beer, soda, and other refreshments. Brother Anthony advanced the club $18.00 to help defray this expense, and the 'hat' was passed and $49.30 collected.

A $2.00 fee for dues was assessed for covering the period from Feb. to June,1 1964, as no constitution had been written, as yet. During these first five months the club recorded 59 dues paying members and it can be proudly stated that 16 of these men are active and still dues paying members.

Starting with the September 1964, the dues which had been voted upon the previous June were officially instituted at $10.00 per year, or $1.00 per month excluding July and August. During this same period Father William Micheli replaced Father Mitchell as pastor and requested that one of his Priests assigned to the club. Father Jerry Sullivan became our first 'Spiritual Advisor.'

Among some of the 'First' for the club was a $28.00 bill for repairs to the Brothers car. Though there was much discussion about buying the Brothers a new car, this idea was totally 'sacked,' and the purchase of various school needs was inaugurated.

During the early years of the club one of the main sources of income were the Sports Nights, an average of $100.00 was realized from the receipts at the door and the sale of hot dogs and soda at each event.

Many members will remember the club's first outing, a trip to West Point chaired by Jed Meekins.

Our first Communion breakfast was Feb. 1965 chaired by Jack Mooney and John Mullins.

Our first and present banner was donated by our first and only (thus far) 'Angel' Jere Lumbert, who also donated through the Men's Club $1,000.00 for the purchase of books for our school library.

Another and significant first was the initial YEAR END DINNER held in June 1965. This was a going away affair honoring Brother Steve Caplice who was leaving his assignment at Good Shepherd for a volunteer assignment with the Brothers Foreign Missions in Africa.

The following year Brothers Anthony departed following Brother Steve to Africa. We toasted him in June of 1966 and from that time on what is now known as our Year End Dinner got off to a rousing start. The dinner in June 1971 will be our 8th such event.

In conclusion, we feel it should be mentioned that though the club had its impetus through a desire to help the Brothers, many of us realized that a vast number of young and not so young men, whether they did or did not have children could have a common meeting ground to provide varied services to their parish. This has proven true since the club's inception as many of our members have served on parish related activities including among others, Fund Raising Campaigns, Catholic Charities, St. Vincent De Paul, C.Y.O. and more recently as elected members of our parish Lay Council.

HISTORIANS

Bill Devlin
Larry Hurley
Don King