Newsletter
for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 2 November 2019 No. 939
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Dear Friends,
I just recovered the following article “Our history –
swimming, PART 2: “Bro. Rupert &
aqualads/lasses”.
Missing PART 1 and maybe PART 3, can you help??
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OUR
HISTORY - SWIMMING PART 2: BR RUPERT
& AQUALADS/LASSES.
This
club took our school into the international arena thereby broadening the
reputation of the Abbey School and Mount Saint Benedict.
Congratulations
to Br. Rupert and all alums who were members of this illustrious club.
It
came as a surprise when, at age 19, this Woodbrook boy decided to enter the
Monastery at Mount St Benedict on June 1, 1952.
Brother
Rupert, his given name as a monk, has never been ordained priest:
“I
was never inclined to the priesthood and wanted to be a monk living that life
in the monastery where I still live to this day since monks never retire, and
through vows of stability, must remain for life with the monastery.
Monastic
life starts as a novitiate, then goes on to different classes, taking five
years to be fully professed as a monk.
I
am immensely happy and would not have changed this life for any other.”
Says
the quiet-spoken monk: “I was always involved in sports and thought I would
have to give it up, but actually got more and more involved in sport up there.”
In
1956, Brother Vincent, sportsmaster at The Abbey School, asked the then Abbot
Adelbert Van Duin, if Brother Rupert could assist him in coaching sports.
“My
first love is cricket so I started off coaching the two sports which I played,
cricket and tennis.”
In
1964, seven students, Gordon Mitchell, Russell Cunha, Bernard Lange, Peter
Boland, Edward Watson, Douglas Watson and Richard Knox, formed the Abbey Aqua
Lads swim club.
Brother
Rupert was assistant sportsmaster to the late Father Gregory Kloeg, who foresaw
that while a student swimmer would leave after sitting their Senior Cambridge
exams, Brother Rupert, as a member of the Benedictine community would provide
continuity as swimming coach.
Bernard
Lange, one of the founders of Aqua Lads and Lasses also served as assistant
coach to the team, a position he held for 18 years.
“By
1967 the first four Aqua Lads had made the National swim team,” says the former
coach.
In
1970, while on a swim tour to Venezuela, the Venezuelan coach was astounded
that there were no girls in the club, and told Brother Rupert it was the norm
to have swim teams of both boys and girls.
How
was Brother Rupert to get girls into the Abbey in 1970?
“Such
was the attitude that the Abbey was off limits to girls.
But
always ready to support change, I got the headmaster, the late Father Bernard
Vlaar, to agree to my sourcing girls from the Convent in St Joseph.
A
survey of the school by the principal produced 45 girls to the 12 Abbey boys,
so great was the interest.
And
that’s how the club became Aqua Lads and Lasses.”
“It’s
like a whole other family you have,” says Heather Hutton, who swam with the
Aqua Lasses in the mid-70’s.
“The
beauty of being a part of a swim club like Abbey Aqua Lads and Lasses is that
you have a whole new family, everyone is still in touch.
It’s
just great in that sense.
We
have benefitted so much from being part of the club in friendships, discipline
and in life generally.
This
is why we are looking forward to the reunion.”
“Obedience,”
says Brother Rupert, “a word never popular, moreso today, but I obeyed the
sportsmaster, gave up cricket and tennis and concentrated on swimming.”
For
12 consecutive years from 1974-1986, Brother Rupert took the Aqua Lads and
Lasses to the Miami Springs Swim Meet and other meets in the United States.
“In
1987, we won a meet in Pennsylvania.
It
was the best bunch of swimmers that we happened to get in all age groups,” says
the proud coach.
Other
Abbey teams went to Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbados, Grenada and were in
winner’s row many times.
Although
the Abbey pool is currently under repair, the indomitable Brother Rupert is
sure “there could be a resurgence of interest when it is completed, with all forms
of competitive swimming including the masters, water aerobics, water polo and
life saving”.
“Bruds”
says Hutton “is still very much a part of our lives, we still go to him with
our problems.”
Says
this dedicated monk: “It is my joy from 40 years of hard work and discipline
with thousands of young people who have passed through Mt St Benedict and as a
result through the swim club.
“Meeting
them now and seeing their development into wonderful men and women, I thank God
for the opportunity which was given to me to deal with these youngsters, and
that He gave me health and strength to work with them for 50 plus years in
sports.
“Sometimes
my boys come back from large American universities and are always thrilled to
give me the news that the people up there cannot understand that their swim
coach was a Benedictine monk.
The
foreigners had never heard of any such thing.”
Bernard
Lange
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1
Nov 2019, 12:14 (21 hours ago)
Hi, Ladislao,
I have news that Lillian Lange,
Bernard’s mother, passed away last week Friday at age 100.
The database says that Bernard died in
1994.
I remember him as the second editor of
Mount Inside, the school magazine which I started in about 1962.
He became a teacher at Mount, a
journalist at The Guardian Newspaper, and coached the Aqua Lads and Aqua Lasses
swimming teams.
Lillian was a good friend of my mother,
and visited her in Anguilla most years from Tobago well into her 80s.
She was usually passing through St
Maarten on her way to or coming back from a cruise!
It is amazing to me that some of our
mothers were still alive when so many of our younger generation were falling by
the wayside.
Best,
Don
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Empower
With Art
1
Nov 2019, 13:13 (20 hours ago)
May her soul rest in peace.
Recently some Past Students from Holy
Cross College in Arima had a discussion about Bernand and talked about his
mother who was very active.
The Cadiz family from Arima knew her and
the family quite well.
Thanks for sharing Don.
I did not know both Bernard's Mom and
your dear Mom were so close.
Blessings to all.
Kaz
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Fecha: 27/09/2004
23:01:44
Dear Friends
Good night.
At this side is writing Daniel Roberto
Michieli Carrizo, 48 years old, 1967 class.
I was in Abbey School from September
1967 until December 1969 (form 1, form 2 and one trimester of form 3).
I returned to Venezuela because of big a
familiar problem.
Since then, I don't remember having a
contact with friends (students, teachers or priests from Abbey School), and I
am very happy of having this moment.
I remember the following friends from my
class: Alfredo Montiel, Coscarat Brothers, Jose Costa, Frank Ibarra, Felipe
Dáger, Simón Dáger, Oscar Cantore, Winston Cabello, Carlos Carabańo, José
Antonio Luongo, Moffie Brothers, and from others classes Zanella (remember
Aqualads), Carlos Malavé (leader of my boy scout group, I was his second),
Franklin Malavé (captain of Saint Lawrence football team).
I can remember Mr Sheldon Gomes (our
football trainer), Mr Chow Fatt (geometry teacher), Brother Frederick
(chemistry teacher; he left the Abbey because he chose to get married with a
very pretty girl).
Remember Cutty (Father Cuthbert), Bobo
(Father Bernard, the principal), Father Theo (he went to Holland in my second
year).
I remember the bus driver when we went
to play vs Arima High School, football, and we lost; he said that the only good
thing we had was the colour, because all of us were white.
Six months later you had the big race
problem in Trinidad; civil troubles called The Black Power.
After that (January 1970) I didn't hear
anything of Trinidad and the Abbey School, until today.
At this moment I have a big family; my
wife (a very good woman, a black woman; a marriage of 30 years), 2 sons
(27;12), 2 daughters (24; 16) and 2 grand-daughters (3;1).
I am a physician (paediatrician and
paediatric internist) working in Lechería, Estado Anzoátegui, Venezuela, and I
am very glad to enter in this new-old circle of friends.
Perhaps we could meet someday, sometime,
and could have a good time, a good and long conversation.
Greetings to all of you, my brothers.
Daniel
---------------------------------------------------------------.
I have news from a long forgotten CD made by a Choir
The Assumption Folk Chorale directed by our friend and old boy Nigel Boos.
Here is the story:
Dear Las,
I'd very much like to be there with my
friends, but my work does not permit a visit to Trinidad at this time.
So I'll just have to leave it alone, I
think, and wish everyone who attends lots of love and peace and happiness.
I've already communicated this to the
group, but I'm quite sure they can get along fine without me.
The last time I met with the Choir was
in 1985 when I was asked to conduct them for the 15th Anniversary Celebrations
at Assumption Church.
It was really something special.
When I walked into the Church for the
practice, I could hardly believe it - - - so many of the "kids' had turned
up that 1/3 of the church was filled with Choir members and their husbands /
wives and muchos ninos.
I felt a great lump in my throat and
when I got to the podium eventually and started them off on one of our old
favourites, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", the years simply fell
away. It was as if they hadn't missed a beat since my last meeting with them 11
years before.
The Choir has formed an important part
of my life, Las, and I believe that God must have used me to draw some of his
children back to him, through music.
Many of these young people are today
extremely active in the Charismatic Renewal in Trinidad and elsewhere, so maybe
we did have an effect, after all.
Can you make a story out of all of
that?
Nigel
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Las,
This isn't really a news item.
But for the record, it's just a record I
made with a choir I founded in 1969 by the name of "The Assumption Folk
Chorale".
The Choir operated (and probably still
does) out of the Assumption Church in Maraval.
At the time of founding it, I had
intended it to be a forum for teenage religious expression and no effort was
ever made to exclude anyone of any faith whatever.
Basically, I tried to encourage
youngsters who wanted to meet together in a communal spirit to praise God and
to enjoy one another's company.
We had blacks, white, pinks, browns,
yellows, greens, purples, reds, and practically every hue of the human
condition.
We had a wonderful time, and the record
was one of our productions intended to document the fact of our existence, and
to demonstrate new forms of praise and worship.
The teenagers of 1969 -1974 are now
turning 50 and they're having a get-together in Mayaro in August 2002.
I understand that they're coming
together from many parts of the world for the occasion, and they'll be
attempting to celebrate the mass using the songs we loved back in the distant
past. So much for the news item.
Good luck in all your efforts, Las.
Nigel
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear Salvador,
Thank you for your kind words and for
the memories. I agree, our days at MSB were special, although perhaps we didn't
think so at the time.
It is wonderful to see how Ladislao has
been able to bring so many of us together through the use of the computer.
The record you're referring to was made
back in 1970 and it seems to have become a sort of rallying point for the
teenagers of those days, who are getting together again next month in Trinidad
to celebrate their "Group Age 50" since so many of them are turning
50 either last year, this year or next year.
Thanks also for the invitation to
contact you in Louisiana.
May I extend the same courtesy to you if
you should happen to pass through Ajax, Ontario.
God bless, and keep the faith.
Nigel
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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz, kertesz11@yahoo.com. Remember to subscribe and help the publishing
of the Circular, It takes time, effort and materials to prepare each weekly
issue. If you appreciate this, subscribe for one year..
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Photos:
08UN0010BDOBRU,
Brothers Dorset and Rupert
08UN0002BRUMPR ,
Brother Rupert and Manuel Prada
08LK2823FBEDIMSB,
Dormitory windows
08DM5221EDIMSB, St.
Benet´s Hall
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