P«*e « - CROSSROADS - April 1978
$[ClUGrT
^Srni.MBIB880LAIti, O.8.B.
Editor Note: As Fr. James
Solari, O.S.B. has resigned from
his position as academic dean of
Belmont Abbey College, this
will be his last “^tlight”
column. The editor would like
to thank him for the many
columns he has written over the
years. Many alumni have in
dicated how much they have
enjoyed his column, and I’m
sure they will miss the unique
way in which he has
“spotlighted” the Belmont
Abbey College faculty.
Dr. Mike Reidy; A Man On The Move
What weighs in at 210 button
popping pounds, stands 6’4”,
and runs the mile in a blistering
12:03? If your answer was Dr.
Mike Reidy, chairman of the
recreation department of
Belmont Abbey College, you
are correct! New York City’s
sights and sounds provided the
atmosphere in which he grew
up, one of seven children in an
Irish family. A product of
parochial school and the
‘maturing’ process of Bronx
playground sports, Mike at
tracted both attention and a
basketball scholarship to Al.
Hallows High, conducted by the
Christian Brothers. These
highly respited teachers and
disciplinarians were not
overawed by Mike’s size and
managed to keep him on a .
reasonably short leash. Ac-'
tually, Mike finished his high
school at the perennial
basketball power, DeMatha
High in Washington, D. C.
During this year in the nation’s
capital he landed a job at Lido’s
restaurant out near College
Park, Md. In the summertime
he was employed by Pelham
Manor, a special school for
disadvantaged children. These
provided some income to
finance tickets to pro football
games.
As a senior, Mike was scouted
and recruited by several
colleges, and he finally decided
to accept a scholarship to
Campbell College in Buies
Creek, a Baptist-related
liberal arts coUege, located in i
the pine woods of central North
Carolina. He became a stan
dout on the Camel’s squad
which defeated the Abbey
Crusaders several times during
his stay there between 1960 and
1964. Mike majored in physical
education and recreation and
was a Dean’s List student.
Returning home during the
summers, he went to work for
the Youth House for delinquent
boys in the Bronx.
It was while he was at
Campbell that he met and
began to date a fair young lass.
Miss Bonnie Peoples, from
Henderson, N. C. Bonnie was a
history major and was active in
campus life as a student
government representative.
She was chosen May Queen in
her senior year. Fellow
students at the College agreed
that this was the story of
‘Beauty and the Beast’ come to
real life! Bonnie and Mike
eventually would decide to
make theirs a permanent
partnership and were married.
Upon receiving his bachelor’s
of science degree, he set out to
explore career possibilities, and
accepted a teaching position at
Mullins High School in South
Carolina. He then moved on to
Hartsville Junior High for two
further years. In 1967 he took a
position as counselor for the
South Carolina Department of
Vocational Rehabilitation.
Deciding at this point that he
really was suited to teaching
and enjoyed working with
the graduate program at Ap
palachian State University in
Boone, N. C. As a graduate
assistant he was involved in the
intramural program there. In
1969 he was awarded his
Master’s degree.
* It was at this time that
Belmont Abbey College offered
him an appointment as an in-'
structor in physical education
with the responsibility for the
campus intramural sport
program. In addition to in
struction, he has also assisted
Coach Bobby Hussey with
Crusader basketball. He holds
a water safety instructor’s
rating from the Red Cross and
has coached an Abbey swim
ming team. Currently he is
tennis coach with a promising
young squad in tow.
In 1971 Mike began his quest
for the doctorate at Nor
thwestern State University in
Natchitoches, La. It constituted
a major financial struggle to
take graduate work there each
summer, and he fulfilled his
residency requirement during a
leave of absence from the
college in 1976-77. He had been
particularly interested in
developing a degree program in
recreation for the Abbey. With
the able assistance of Mrs. Pam
Allison, he designed the major
and introduced it in 1975-76. Hr
has now received the Ed.D.
and is concentrating on building
a solid )>rogram. Already the
new recreation major is at
tracting a number of students;
career prospects look,
Ms
1
■mi
DR. MIKE REIDY
promising for our ^aduates.
Besides his administrative
and advisement duties as
department chairman, Mike
also serves on the College’s
Disciplinary Committee and is
the moderator for the Tau
Kappa Epsilon fraternity. To
show their appreciation for his
interest and help, the brothers
have dedicated their renovated
house in his honor.
A quiet-spoken man of
congenial personality and good
humor, Mike was named
recipient of “An Outstanding i
Young Man of America’’ award
in 1OT4. He is a member of the
National Recreation & Parks
Association. With typical civic-
minded generosity, he con
tributes a large portion of his
free time to coaching basketball
with the Boys Club in Gastonia.
He has taken up gardening as a
hobby and has set a project for
himself of growing the greenest
thumbin his neighborhood! His
colleagues at Belmont Abbey
wish him great success in this
endeavor with the ancient Latin
word: Vigoro!
Alumnus Publishes
First Book
Ed Finn, a 1972 graduate of
Belmont Abbey College is in the
process of having his first book
published by Dorrance A Co. of
Philadelphia.
His creation, “Windswept
Dreams,” is a book of prone and |
free verse. It contains eight pen
and ink illustrations by Sandra
Long, a professional artist from
Blacksburg, Va.
Finn has been a resident of
Blacksburg since August 1974,
and has been employed for
three years by Hoprin Food
Stores, Inc., a chain of con
venience food stores. He is
presently an assistant manager
in one of their Blacksburg
stores.
Of “Windswept Dreams,”
Albert Tarquinto, editorial
director of Dorrance & Co., has
previously stated to Finn:
“You begin one of your poems
‘tonight my friends - we shall
ride the wind together’ and I
can think of no better way to
describe your work. You travel
from the ‘soft sands below the
waters’ to ‘yesterday’s
stillness’ and paint scene after
scene wiUi rich images and ^
careful language ... This ability
to provide vivid description
while remaining soft-spoken is
your strongest point.”
Of his accomplishment, Finn
stated: “My prose and free
verse is written in a rather
ED FINN
simplified manner. In having
done so, I feel, as does
Dorrance, that it will appeal to
a wide range of people and an
equal range of age groiqM. II
have two other books which are|
yet in early stages of
development: another com
posed of prose with
photography (hopefully) by
Phil Nofal (BAC ‘75) of
Florence, and a childrai’s booki
with illustrations by Sandra
Long.” i
“Windswept Dreams” is
expected to be on the market by
late Mardi of this year.
T'*
IS
Aa illMtratloa (above) and free verse (right) from “Windswept
Dreams,” Ed Flaa’s aew book.
somewhere in the distance
could be heard a gentle
melody
inspir^ by the mind of a
great musician -
high-pitched notes of a
flute,
soft, mellow drumbeats
(or perhaps it was simidy the
winds
blowing through the valley
accompanied by distant
thunder).
foretold by the crackling of
twigs
and silent echoes
resounding off the blank walls
of the mountains,
a man roamed the forests,
about his neck he wore a
talisman
of bloodstone wreathed in
silver lacing.
not only a poidant of good
omen,
this very stone has been
sought
by mystics for centuries,
how he came iqx>n it, no one
knew;
not even the shadows
of his very soul could
determine the reason
he was chosen to wear it
within him was sphere of peace
and without him a feeling of
contentmoit.
he’d traveled the countryside,
been givm the love of many,
and now searched the man or
people -
’The birthplace of this pendant;
which had made rlaim of hia
spirit.