John Cullinan Jr

MONDAY MORNING MUSINGS: Mercy AD Betsy Gilmartin in a class of her own

As soon as she saw me, she would welcome me and it was genuine. In the gym or on the soccer field, Gilmartin would ask if I needed anything. A chair? Some water? Heck, after one basketball game, she fed me pizza. One night, up against a tight deadline, she allowed me to use her office computer to file the game story before deadline. She waited until I was finished. There were times a coach took a little time after an evening event and Gilmartin, knowing the realities of a daily newspaper and the necessary time constraints, would gently remind her coach that I was waiting. She would do these little things not just for me; she did them for anyone who covered an event at her school. When the event was over, there was Gilmartin, thanking me for coming. The event that clinched my opinion of Gilmartin came in the midst of an unfortunate event a few years back. I won’t resurrect the story, but leave it at this: some of the school’s star athletes on one of the school’s great teams broke the rules while on an out-of-state, overnight trip. Mercy suspended the players for a period of time. In the world of local sports, that’s a big deal kind of story. I never enjoy writing those stories, but they have to be written. People pay good money to see teams play and they, as much as the privacy laws allow, have a right to know who isn’t playing and why. So I wrote the story and in a column, criticized the players for their short-sightedness, pointing out how they embarrassed their coach, their teammates, the administration at the school and ultimately the school itself. She wasn’t above a gentle criticism of me, either. Never has she said one word about what I have written. But one day I spoke to one of her coaches about an issue during an event. I was dumb, I should have waited until after the event and, in fact, I apologized to the coach at the event. The next time I appeared at a Mercy game, Gilmartin quietly and gently suggested that, while I had apologized, it was important to wait until the event was over as, “My coach had to coach, you know.” I will miss seeing Gilmartin at Mercy High. The role she played in advancing the cause of girls/women’s sports was enormous. Folks like Gilmartin have the CIAC treating girls sports on the same level as boys sports. Everywhere you look in this state, girls and boys sports are on equal footing.

Arrivals and Departures

I am pleased to announce that the DRE Search Committee has selected and the Board of Trustees has agreed to hire our new Director of Religious Education!

De Anna Hoyle will join us this summer in the director’s position. De Anna comes to us from Pagosa Springs, Colorado and the Pagosah Unitarian Universalist Fellowship there, where she as served as their RE coordinator for the past seven years. De Anna and the RE program at Pagosah have grown together over those years, with De Anna earning her Associate DRE credentials from the UUA one year ago. The search committee and I were very excited by our interview with De Anna, and by the weekend she spent with us in April meeting with the RE Committee and leading Time for All Ages on Sunday. She is our unanimous first choice for the position, and we’re thrilled she has accepted.

De Anna will have a chance to introduce herself to you all in next month’s issue of the Voice. She’ll arrive in Los Alamos later this summer along with her husband, Joe. In the meantime, I want to thank the members of the search committee that made this process a success: Mark Petersen (chair), Kristine Coblentz, Tom King, and Steve Tenbrink. Give them all a hearty “Thank You!” the next time you see them.

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Sadly, the arrival of De Anna also means the departure of our interim, Benette Sherman. Benette’s last day will be May 29 , she’ll be in the pulpit to share some reflections on her time here, and her dreams for our future as we move into the next phase of our RE story.

It’s been a tremendous pleasure to work with Benette these last two years. Her expertise and experience have been invaluable in helping us envision what our religious education (and our congregational life) can be. We shall miss having her here, and I wish her well in her next adventure.

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The month of May means the beginning of a downshift in congregational life. On May 29 , we’ll move back to our summer schedule, with a single service at 10 a.m. Over the summer months, I’ll be reprising my “Summer Blockbusters” sermon series. I have a few movies chosen for the series, but I’d like to hear from you about your favorites as well. Drop me a note and let me know what some of your favorite movies are, and what themes you think I might preach on from them. If you have other ideas for summer services, or are interested in speaking this summer, please contact either myself or the co-chairs of the Worship Committee: Mary Hrbek and TJ Ulrich.

Register and manual - State of Connecticut

... MJ Buechler, AH Bullard, George Burger, John T. Burns, Ebenezer Burr, ... Charles R. Crowther, John Cullinan, Jr.,* John J. Cullinan, AE Culver, ...

Connecticut State register and manual

Thomas C. Coughlin, John J. Cullinan, Edwin M. Curtis, HGB Cuzner, Karl 0. ... HM Knapp, Andrew Kolletar, David M. Lackie, J. Rudolph Laubscher, Jr., ...

Register & manual

... William Cohn, William H. Comley, Jr., Arthur M. Comley, John M. Comley, John A. Cornell, ... David A. Cronin, John J. Cullinan, Jr., Thomas M. Cullinan, ...

Register and manual of the State of Connecticut

Elmore S. Banks,* John W. Banks,* Frederic A. Bartlett,* Morris B. ... H. Comley ,* John J. Corr,* John Cullinan, Jr.,* Thomas N. Cullinan,* Howard J. Curtis ...

Catalogue

John Cullinan, Jr. Joseph Thomas Cunningham John Hubbard Curtis Thomas Hamlin Curtis Percy Walker Dana Henry Alexander Dann Stephen Howard Dennen Willard ...