Ignore Pfleger and His Stunts - Keep Civil. Keep the Peace and Pfleger Loses

The Dan Ryan March gambit is only one incendiary in fiery Pastor Pfleger's arsenal. It is not a a nuclear bomb.  It is a a sparkler meant to put out the eyes of fair-minded people.

Getting fair-minded people blinded is what Michael Pfleger is all about.

Once people are blinded to his motives (accumulation of power, money and media focus) they depend upon others to lead them about in the darkness.

Fair-minded people blinded by Pfleger's sparklers go silent to his most egregious deeds and words and say things like, " Well, Father Mike really cares and has done great things for his people."

Name two things?

Thought so.

This latest stunt is meant to force politicians to bully business and philanthropy to peel off a few more millions for projects with Pfleger's imprimatur - nothing more. Pflger might even toss Base a bone, because Cardinal Kilroy Was Here got behind Blond Jesus again.

Full disclosure, I know Michael Pfleger and you can have him.   He is a brilliant, calculating Munchhausen.  If you were as 'afflicted and assaulted' as much as Pfleger, you would be pretty secure. No is after him; never were.

I have known the pastor of the Faith Community of St. Sabina  since July 1996, when I went to work for Leo High School, just east of his fiefdom that includes the Great Auburn Gresham Community Development , senior residences, real estate holdings on 76th Street and other Michael Pfleger Industries.

Leo Principal and CEO Bob Foster sent me over to meet with Pfleger, my first week on the job.  We met in the St. Sabina rectory.  Pfleger told me that he was more a "prophet than a priest."  I could not supress a laugh and Michael Pfleger redened to purple - meeting over.

Foster agreed with me.  He is a dangerous guy.

While at Leo High School, I learned exactly who Michael Pfleger is and what he is all about - Michael Pfleger.  In my time at Leo High School, Pfleger

• Co-opted the Chicago Sun Times ( Kathleen Falsani and Editors) into creating a controversy where none existed - the Southwest Catholic Conference, while Cardinal George was in Poland. 
• Covertly worked with the Jesuits to establish an independent school on the site St. Killian's Parish to construct a Christo Rey knock-off unique to the African American community 
• Pfleger and ABC Channel Seven created a story that 'Cardinal George wanted to make Michael Pfleger' President of Leo High School and Pfleger told NPR's Tavis Smiley and Cornel West that 'Leo could not survive' without him  

In case Pfleger denied any ill-will toward Leo.  Leo President Bob Foster is the only man alive who could make Pfleger blush and run out of the room in shame.  Foster did just that by directly confronting Pfleger with proof of his back-handed schemes and attempts to take over the school.  

Foster did not threaten.  He confronted Pfleger with evidence - a business prospectus that included Pfleger's salary demands and personal governance rubrics.   The document was given to Leo High School by a Roman Catholic nun working on the project.  

The second time was in a governance meeting at the Office of Catholic Schools, which Pfleger had absolutely no stake in concerning the future of Leo High School and had no business being at the meeting.  Members of Leo 's Advisory Board were present and Dr. Nick Wolsonovich, former Supt. of Catholic Schools received a lesson in how to handle an arrogant and shameless opportunist. 

Bob Foster noted Pfleger's past attempts to harm Leo High School and the activist jumped up and stormed out of the meeting. 

Pfleger's march on the Dan Ryan is not about guns, deaths of innocent people, or bringing people together.  The march is intended to get one white (Caucasian) person to do or say anything that might provoke violence. A full-blown race riot would be just the thing for Michael Pfleger Industries. 

Pfleger wants hate mail

Pfleger needs anger.

Pfleger wants no peace.

With peace, justice and love, Pfleger gets no checks from banks. big business and do-gooder 501(c) 3 foundations.

Michael Pfleger has never drawn an un-calculated breath in his life.  He will not change - there is no percentage in it.

Pfleger is not aiming his march at Rahm Emanuel. Were that the case, Phleger would shut down Navy Pier, or the Skyway that Daley sold off.

Pfleger wants angry white people to overreact.  

Give him your love and your back. 

Ignore the phony Pfleger.

Boycott, the media that pumps him up.

Ridicule the politicians, priests, bishops and poltroons to dance to his tunes.

Maybe some Pfleger-sparkler blind people may recover their sight and start working against real racism, bigotry and injustice. 

Have a lovely weekend!

My Neighbor is Home with Christ- Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.
Saint Patrick

 No man lived for Christ like Francis Cardinal George, O.M. I., Archbishop of Chicago.  I witnessed this simple, but tough, priest.

Cardinal George had a powerful intellect, but never allowed his gifts to smother questions, doubts, or take advantage of the follies of other people.  He was not a big shot and therefore never became a media darling.

He was tasked by our Church to lead a huge and very combative Archdiocese that had lost a favorite shepherd in Cardinal Bernardin.  Upon assuming his duties, Cardinal George knew that he had a tough act to follow and did not presume Brotherhood with us.  Rather, he introduced himself as Our Neighbor.

My brother and sister know every grain of dirt beneath my fingernails, every weakness and every gap in my armor, because they have lived with me and not near me.  My neighbor knows of me and will only get close enough to me as I will allow.  My neighbor does not presume to cross the property line without an invite.

I invited the most powerful American Bishop to be my brother and he was not too busy, too big, too disinterested to take up my call.

In fact, Cardinal George called me.

Shortly after he, Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, was inducted into the College of Cardinals, a friend was unceremoniously and very publicly removed from her role as Principal of a Catholic Girls High School, where she has raised enrollment, student and faculty morale, spiked fund-raisisng and elevated the status of that school in the public eye.

The religious order operating that school decided to take another direction.   Bob Foster, then President of Leo High School, hates bullies and injustice and asked me to write a couple of letters to the editor for the Daily Southtown.  I did.

In the letters, I asked Cardinal George to look into the matter.  Cardinal George was in Washington D. C. leading the American Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The letters appeared through the week.  On Monday, I was told that I was to be fired.  Bob Foster lit into the powers-that-be in the bureaucratic branches of the Chicago Archdiocese - on the phone and with his characteristic force and rhetoric.

The Archdiocese is a Corporation - a Public Person - and that person's feelings were hurt by the Director of Development for Leo High School.  Leo High School is a school of Archdiocese of Chicago. Most people assume that Leo is independent of the Archdiocese, like St. Rita, Fenwick, Brother Rice, or St. Lawrence. The fact is Cardinal Mundelein ordered the building of Leo.  Irish Christian Brothers never sponsored Leo, only operated it and were long gone.

From the moment, the Christian Brothers bailed out of any responsibility for Leo, Bob Foster and the Leo Alumni paid down the debts, raised tuition, secured the grants and initiated the on-going campus expansion and all without subsidy from the Archdiocese. Therefore, Bob Foster would not allow "policy," a changeling tool for the unimaginative, to dictate on a technicality.

Lawyers, crumbs and money, to paraphrase a rock and roll tune had other ideas.

My youngest was in third grade at St. Cajetan's and had come home with the flu. As a single Dad, I remained home with her keeping the possibility of losing my job to myself.

At around, six o'clock in evening I got a call on my cell phone.
 " Hello, is this Pat Hickey?"

" Yes, It is. . . ?"

" This is Cardinal George."

I though for a moment. It was Bill Gainer*, who had pulled that gag on me before, " Up Your's Eminence!"

There was genuine laughter on the other line, " No, really, Pat.  This Cardinal George.  I understand that I fired you."

" Gainer.. . ."

" Relax, it is the genuine article, Pat.  Now tell me why I fired you. This is the first I have heard of it. It's something about some letters you wrote to the papers?  I have this note, but I have not even heard about the firing of the Principal.  Fill me in, please."

I explained the chain of events and of my request that the Ordinary -Archbishop of Chicago - look into the capricious removal of a great Catholic woman as principal of girl's high school within the Archdiocese.

The Cardinal laughed and said, " Easy for you to say.  The religious order as a corporation can fire any employee.  It is not right, or just but certainly is legal. Look, I'll go over there and talk to the parents, staff and people representing that Order. Why are you home, by the way. Did Bob Foster suspend you? That does not sound like the man I know! Ha, ha, ha,. . ."

Again the genuine humor from a man who did not need to call an employee about a matter that put him in the middle of a controversy of another's doing.  Yet, here he was.

" No, Your Eminence, I am taking care of my little girl who is down with the Flu."

" Poor baby. Is she school age?"

" She goes to St. Cajetan's."

" Would like me to speak with her?"

I took the phone to Clare and she and the Archbishop of Chicago chatted about school her up-coming First Holy Communion and Hannah Montana from one end of phone anyway. The Cardinal gave Clare a blessing for good health and grace.

" Pat. You have your job.  I did not fire you.  In any bureaucracy people will say 'The Cardinal says, this and Cardinal says that and all without asking Francis George what he thinks.  They mean well."

We chatted some more and I learned that his father belonged to Local 399.  Like my father and his father before him, Francis Cardinal George's Dad was a stationary engineer.

We shared some more laughs about life in the Chicago Archdiocese.  I continue to work at Leo.

Cardinal George worked for Leo.  He counseled five students who had very tough lives.  He helped us raise money for new buses and blessed those buses.  Francis Cardinal George was made a Leo Man in 2011 and inducted into this school's Hall of Fame in 2014.

He was my neighbor - a great neighbor.

Cardinal George went home to Christ on Friday, April 17th.

* Bill Gainer is a guy from Roseland. Like Cardinal George, Bill does not know the first thing about being a "big shot."

Catholic Schools Could Become Ivory Towers of the Elite - Like Magnet, or Lab Schools

And now, therefore, I say to you, refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this council or this work be of men, it will come to nought; 39But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God. And they consented to him. Acts of the Apostles 5: 38-39

The longer I live the more I learn about how things should not be done.  At one time government was a help; now it is cross-dressing Spendaholic Nanny Uncle with truth issues. At one time Mainline Protestant Denominations were the home to Progressive Babbitry; now, they are segment of Bill Moyers-in-Drag on Sharia Law.

Catholic schools used be very economical, because Brothers, Priests and Nuns comprised a good percentage of the work-force; now, Catholic schools are either doomed to close, or be ivory bell-towers for elites.

It is the in-between  that tells the tales.  Government became a soup-kitchen, tent-city and Circus maximus from the late 1960's - 1990's.  Mainline Protestant Denominations squeezed out the bible-thumpers between Billy Graham and Rev. Barry Lynn while jumping ship from the tepidly pro-abortion Rockefeller GOP to the mad-dog infanticidal maniacs of the DNC.

Catholic schools are run and staffed by lay-persons with very few exceptions ever since Vatican II.

During the 1970's smart Catholic school leaders began to tap private foundations as sources of money that could help make up the gap between revenue and expense, due to declining vocations.  By the 1980's wormy creatures named Development Directors oozed from charity swamps - this slug is one.

 I first heard the term Director of Development in the mid 1980's and the school I worked for hired one.  He lasted about ten months, brought in no new revenue, but he had a stunning wardrobe and golfed like he jumped off the The Tour.

 He had come from the world of business, sales - radio sales to be exact.  He did not understand, or like high school kids very much as I recall, but he liked teachers even less. He drew a pretty handsome salary, but never wrote to Alumni, sent out grant proposals and seemed unable to adequately articulate the history, culture and mission of the school.

He was let go and went on to run a United Way Campaign in Central Illinois for three times what he made in a Catholic school.  This Fund-raising Professional was replaced by a sweet, funny and seventy year old Sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame.  Sr. Madeline Lamar, CND.  She went through the records of the schools and developed the first Alumni Directory, followed by a raffle-calendar, a Spring Event with Dinner and Auction, a wonderful Alumni News letter, and the first annual direct mail campaign.

Prior to that Sr. Lamar worked in the offices answering phones, taking attendance, teaching religion and making students feel good. That was where I learned fundraising.  Watching a sweet-natured little French woman 'Try" stuff.  When Sr. Lamar approached with a her eyes popped in excitement, you were in for some work, " Hey, Pat!  You're Irish . . .and you are so good with words . . .You know what would be fun?  Designing our Raffle Calendar and writing up an Irish Theme for it. . . .AND you get a band going!  Yeah, your Irish band from Chicago . . .and you and Kenny, Jack, Rick, and Joel could do a rock'n roll show for the kids and . . . ! "

Scads of fun.  Months of fun!  Who needs weekends sucking up Rhinelanders and tossing horseshoes?  She had me hooked through the gills and my big mouth!


School fundraising can be brutally disappointing, exhilarating, flattering, embarrassing, rewarding and confusing all on the same day. You can help raise more than million dollars to aid a budget of $ 1.2M and find that it is not enough.  That's the job. . .read the fine print.

Catholic schools and families who need Catholic schools need substantial support.  Public schools hijacked many of the larger private and corporate  foundations by dint of political favors and intimidations.   Catholic politicians have done more to help public education, than they have to help the schools that educated them.
In the 1990's, my neighbor and friend Paul Vallas was CEO of CPS.   Kidding on the square, I often refered to the big talented Greek as the Prince of Darkness - Paul took Peoples Gas, Quaker Oats, Polk Brothers and other charities out of the reach of Catholic, Dutch, Jewish and Lutheran schools and established a Chicago Public Education Reform Foundation headquartered in . . .Evanston.

Leo had big hearted and heroic Bob Foster's name as 501 (c) 3 cache, but Paul Vallas had the crabby little guy who tossed tantrums and people under the CTA wheels with the bat of an eye-brow. Any business in Chicago became enthralled to padding millions of more dollars on to the hundreds of millions of tax-dollars being incinerated hourly by Chicago Public Schools.

School Choice? Vouchers?  Nope! Choice boiled down to Charters (Catholic Schools without God) or CPS havens for teachers without skills, or Magnet Palaces for the skilled and enthusiastic teacher and children of privilege.  That's Reform, folks.

Catholic schools, elementary and secondary, shuttered with regularity under Joseph Cardinal Bernardin - Joseph the Closer and continued until Cardinal George stopped the bleeding and appointed Sister Mary Paul McCaughey. However, the damage had been done.  Elementary feeder schools that had at one time been the recruitment pools for Catholic high schools.  The closer a high school happened to be to the inner city ( read South and West sides) the tougher the draw for students. Not only the fact that black Catholic parishes had been closed, but also the African American middle class Diaspora to the 'Burbs. Black flight had replaced White flight.

On top of that, Chicago City Hall saw the potential for a real estate boom and quickly shut down Chicago Housing Authority and the Projects.   With no affordable housing available families with Section 8 vouchers   took residence in formerly Black middle class apartments and houses.  The crime that had once been isolated along the east side Dan Ryan between 54th Street and Archer Ave. was now knocking on the doors of Ernie Terrell in Roseland and retired physicians and CPD Commanders in Pill Hill.

Through all of this, the economy tanked and layoffs became the order of the day.

A few Catholic high schools closed or were converted to Charter schools and the once powerful support by private foundations began to dry up almost as fast as the tuition payments slowed down.

Foundations, with boards dominated by lawyers, businessmen and accountants, do not want to fund schools that are doomed to close. They want schools run like like businesses - cut here, profit there. At the same time,Catholic schools that put    $10,15, or 25 thousand a year from grants into the budget were now seeing letters that said, " While our decision to longer fund your school is final, we continue to honor and value the very good and important work you continue without our annual support." Concern over that state of schools that might be closed, leads bottom-line sensible boards to pull funding from schools that really need it.
Now, that is a paradox.

Some of these foundations decided money would be better spent funneled through a university "Mentoring Program for Inner City Students Attending Inner City High Schools."

Catholic schools that operate like businesses have no trouble maintaining vigorous business and private support.  Those schools tend to be schools with a very competitive enrollment and placement program, provide competitive teacher salaries, sport magnificent campus, library and athletic facilities and students willing to travel many miles to earn the cache of association with that school.  These schools can demand       $ 8,000, 9,000 and up 15,000 per year, as well as a fund-raising commitment based upon family income.

Now, more working class and middle class families are finding the pink slip in the pay envelope.  An accountant formerly making $ 85,000 in a smart-sized City, or County Department awakens in his heavily mortgaged and taxed Chicago bungalow and struggles the thought of selling his home and taking his two daughters out of Queen of Peace High School.  A highly skilled cement finisher is no longer in demand to fix sidewalks, stairs and porches must wonder if ' Tommy, Mary and Liam will be happy at Clissold CPS on Western Ave. after so many years at St. Cajetan?'

Catholic schools should be only for those who can afford nose-bleed tuitions.  Catholic schools were established for poor and working class families.  The Office of Catholic Schools and the heroic Big Shoulders Fund are working 24-7 to maintain this historical mission.

Leo High School is and has always been a working man's school.  With Tuition set at $ 7,500 for next year, we know that very few of families can meet that cost.  Likewise, Leo High School wants families to know that a Catholic education is available for young men.  President Dan McGrath invites families to qualify for the Leo Advantage.

We'll see, as Gamaliel told the lads of the Temple who wanted to close down the first Christians,  " if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it."

Thank God and John Kass - G-Men Meet Leo Men

John Kass again reports on the great young men of Leo High School.  Today, John presents the story of the visit of Jeremy Clark, Darryl Johnson and Mike Braxton to FBI Headquarters in Chicago.


At the start of the CPS Teacher Strike, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune paid a visit to Leo High School and talked to the great young men who work to become contributing people who will make a difference in Chicago's inner city.

Leo High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school, founded in 1926 at the orders of Cardinal George Mundelein to serve poor kids from neighborhoods south of the stockyards.  Leo has never been what some might call an elite secondary school and God willing never will be.  Some people term a school, that in reality is an exclusive school - where tuition and tests make it impossible for blue collar sons to find a seat in the classroom.  Leo is elite - it is blessed by God.

In the late 1960's, I heard street talk that Leo High School was on its last legs.  In the 1970's, when I began teaching high school, folks in the know  placed no chips on the Black and Orange ( Leo's Colors).  In the late 1980's, when I was teaching at La Lumiere School, alma mater of Justice of the United States John Roberts, word was out that Irish Christian Brothers were planning to leave Leo. In the 1990's Cardinal Bernardine ended all Archdiocesan financial support to Leo and the Irish Christian Brothers ended their sixty year presence at Leo, with exception of the heroic Brothers Rupert Finch and Steve O'Keefe.  Bob Foster became the first lay Principal in the school's history and the smart set gave fierce Foster  six months to one year until the Lion's roar would end.  The Lion roared louder behind the leadership and stewardship of the Leo Alumni. The Old Lion leaped into the New Millenium clawing and biting.  When President and CEO Bob Foster retired, everyone with half a brain sang the same old song.  Only a Father Pfleger could save Leo.  Wrong again.

Irish Christian Brothers, Cardinals, Educators, Business Wheels, and mythological heroes like Bob Foster and Mike Holmes,or quietly fierce leaders like Pete Doyle and Dan McGrath are merely human beings. Catholic schools are God centered.  God Provides.

Leo High School faces tough times financially and it always has. Enrollment goes up and down, because inner city families are challenged to pay what they honestly are able to do.  Support from Alumni and friends is always limited - there is only so much money. We would love to have piles of gold and swag to provide more for our wonderful, funny, challenging and sweet young gents, but we thank God for reach day, each gift and each opportunity to do more.

Life is prose and not poetry.  It is quotidian, messy, unsettling, costly and challenging - it is supposed to be. God provides the gestures from good souls like John Kass.

There is always God.  I do not believe that John Kass came to Leo merely to do a solid for old an pal, or get a great story. I believe that God's hand gave Kass's shoulder a shove. The same hand that wakes me up and sends me Leo High School, guides my hands on the wheel of the Canaryville van, keeps my tired old lamps focused on the proper Dan Ryan lanes and back to 79th & Sangamon with the Young Lions.

Thankl God it is not just up to me.

Dillon Hoey- A Catholic Education is a Lifestyle

It has been my honor to meet and get to know hundreds of Leo Men. At the top left of this page from the Leo Alumni Website is one of the greatest - J. Dillon Hoey.   Mr. Hoey went home to Christ in April of 2003.  I accompanied Leo ,teacher,  coach, President-CEO and Father Figure Bob Foster to St. Michael's Catholic Church in Old Town for the funeral Mass.  Bob Foster was a year older than Dillon Hoey and had been a team mate on 1956 City Championship Team coached by the legendary Jimmy Arneberg.

Dillon Hoey was a very close friend of my cousin Eddie Burke.  Eddie played for the Mendel Monarchs against his buddy and some of scariest human beings in Catholic League football:  Leo Men Tom Winecki, Don Flynn, Eddie Ryan, Pony Cavanaugh, Rich Boyle, Bob Swast and of course Bob Foster.  Eddie went to Notre Dame and Dillon went to Yale but they kept in touch all through college.

My cousin went on to play with the Houston Oilers and became an attorney in Houston after his pro career. Dillon Hoey became a famous labor lawyer and workers compensation advocate.  At Yale he roomed with future Vice President Dick Cheney and like his long friendship with Ed Burke kept in close touch throughout his life.  Ed Burke continues to  send in money to help Leo kids and their families in memory of J. Dillon Hoey, Leo 1959.

I mention all of this because last night Leo President Dan McGrath, football coach and Dean Mike Holmes and me attended a high school recruitment night at J. Dillon Hoey's parish and alma mater St. Barnabas School in Beverly. We were joining the many Catholic high schools in presenting our case to 7th and grade students looking to their futures.  

One young man who stopped by our table  and filled out a card was the grandson of Dillon Hoey.  His grandfather forged the competitive nature that made him a highly successful and very giving man.  My cousin Eddie Burke and his pal Dillon Hoey faced one another over the scrimmage line and represented what is best in Catholic schools on the broken beer bottles, ciders and rocks of the old Shewbridge Field which was the home of the Leo Lions as well as the wonderfully maintained Eckersoll Stadium and the icon St. Rita Stadium, notable for the sewer manhole handicap in its south end-zone.

Catholic schools are God centered places of learning. Fierce competition for places on teams, as well as a desk in a classroom are part and parcel of this cradle of virtue.  Catholic high schools are all fundamentally the same,but distinct in spirit and traditions.  The is cost in time talent and treasure.  Leo welcomes anyone who wants to succeed, base his life on the gospel, dedicate himself to others and give back more than he receives.  It ain't pretty, neat, or easy; neither is life.

J. Dillon Hoey was the son of a Chicago cop.  He put his heart and hands into the work all through his high school experience, knowing full well that goals are not the end of the story. Once goal is met, a Catholic educated young man should ask, " Okay, what do you want me to do now?"

It would be great to see Dillon Hoey's grandson choose Leo.  This school would serve him as much as it did his grandfather.  However, whatever Catholic school the young man decides up will be an equally great choice. A Chicago public school is out of the question, because there is only a "there" there. A Catholic education is lifestyle.

God Bless the young man and his wonderful grandfather.  Read the tribute from Dillon Hoey's law firm, especially the wonderful quote fro St. Francis of Assisi.

Dillon Hoey - Leo 1958 wearing # 98

J. Dillon Hoey at Yale

Remembering a Life of Giving

J. Dillon Hoey
1941-2003

---

Our firm is deeply saddened by the loss of our wonderful friend, J. Dillon Hoey. Dillon passed away on Sunday, April 27, 2003, from pancreatic cancer.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Dillon’s wife Mary Ann, and other family members. The funeral mass was held at St. Michael’s Church, 1633 North Cleveland Street, Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday, May 1. In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be sent to The Alzheimer's Association.

Dillon will be greatly missed by the 35 families of Hoey & Farina, and by so many more in the railroad and legal communities. We want to thank everyone who has sent their sympathies. We have passed these condolences along to Dillon’s wife and family.

Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Dillon was the son of a Chicago policeman and the grandson of a railroad worker who was fatally injured on the job. With an entire career representing injured workers, Dillon’s professional life manifested the personal values that grew from his strong south side roots.

Dillon grew up in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood. He attended Leo High School, where he was part of the legendary football squad that won the city championship. Later, at Yale University, Dillon was on the undefeated 1959 freshman football team with Dick Cheney, the current vice president of the United States. After Yale, Dillon returned to Chicago where he attended DePaul University’s College of Law.

Twenty five years ago, Dillon started his own firm. He was appointed Designated Legal Counsel for the United Transportation Union in 1991, and appointed Designated Legal Counsel for the Transportation Communications Union in 1998. Never one to rest on his accomplishments, Dillon continued to build the firm, which now holds seven union designations. During these years, Dillon’s leadership was instrumental in Hoey & Farina, obtaining many of the largest verdicts and settlements for railroaders and their families in the United States.

In the process of building the law firm, Dillon also expanded the definition of Designated Legal Counsel. Dillon offered more than the best legal representation to railroaders and their families. His mission -- the firm’s mission -- was simple -- inform railroaders of their unique rights under the law. The fruit of his efforts is an array of resources; a collection of books, videos, email and print newsletters, websites and seminars that are available for free to railroaders and their families. Dillon raised the bar for what it means to serve as Designated Legal Counsel, and the union membership is the better for it. We know that this is exactly what Dillon envisioned and what he delivered.

Dillon's long list of professional associations include the Academy of Railroad Labor Attorneys, American Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Bar Association. Dillon’s involvement in the community was equally impressive. Dillon served on the executive board of Leo High School, where he was an active contributor to the school and a sponsor of Leo students. Dillon also served as chairman of the Art Committee of the Union League Club of Chicago, a leading civic and community organization. We have highlighted only a few of Dillon’s many community and educational involvements over the years.

St. Francis of Assisi reminds us, “When you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received, only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage." Dillon left us on Sunday, April 27, 2003, and it is certain that he left with a wonderful heart filled by a lifetime of giving to others.

Hoey & Farina pledges to continue the firm and the mission that Dillon built as a tribute to his life. We will continue to honor and celebrate his life in our work, in our hearts and in our prayers.

http://www.leohsalumniassoc.com/images1959/seniors_1959/pages/seniors%20HJ_jpg.htm

http://www.hoeyfarina.com/railroadhfdillonhoey

Watch CBS Channel 2 - 6 Time IHSA Track Champs Leo High School Practicing on Leo's All Weather Track on the 2nd & 3rd Floors of Leo High School

After a spirited Leo Advisory Board meeting, a trip to Greek Town's Pegasus Restaurant for octopus salad with an absolutely splendid woman, a sinkful of my son's post-shift skillets and sauce pans detritus awaiting Old Dad's pot-walloping, a sound sleep and an earlier than usual rising to the day, I am about to head over to the hallowed halls of Leo High School welcome the crew of Channel 2 CBS.

This morning at 4:00 AM, or there abouts, Chicago's CBS will arrive to film and interview Coach Ed Adams and the sprinters, hurdlers, harriers and weight men of six time IHSA Track Champions Leo High School. President Dan McGrath and I will be around to sic and fetch.

The first teasre shot goes off on Channel 2 News at 5:15 AM and the feature will broadcast all morning.

This legendary school is the Alma Mater to many of the Midwest's most successful and giving leaders in every vocation: Bishop John Gorman, philanthropist Tom Owens, Chrystler Magnate Bill Koloseike, retired Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court Tom Fitzgerald, one of the men who turned Egypt's economy around in the 1970's Frank Considine, ubiquitous civic, sport, religious, business and educational leader Andy McKenna, Boeing leader General George Muellner, U of I Educator Dr. Stafford Hood, Middleweight boxing pro Irish John Collins, Heavyweight boxing pro Thomas Hayes, Leo Coach Mike Holmes, Chicago Bulls execitive Curtis Cooper, Elevator Magnate Ken Mason, Comics, John Caponera, Bill Campbell, Kenny Howell and the great Paul Kelly, NFL stand-out Jason Jefferson, Leo Lion Bob Foster, attorneys of the damned Tom Durkin and Joe Power and Fathers Tom Mescall, John Sullivan and Bubbles McFarland.

Leo is not only the only Catholic school to win any track title in Illinois history, but also the only private school to so -and six times at that. Leo has no track.
Since 1926, Leo Track men have run, hurdled and vaulted on the marble floors of Leo High School's 2nd and third floors - not to mention the very vertical four floors of stairs recalled by every disciple of Brother O'Keefe, Brother Coogan, Brother Finch, Jimmy Arneberg, Bob Foster,Tom 'Malley, Jack Fitzgerald, Mike Holmes and Ed Adams. Walking them is a bitch and half, for this old fat boy. Sprinting them is the gradus to greatness.

Turn on tube this morning and watch some splendid young men work to beat the world.

I'll post the video, meself, ASAP.

Now, to 7/11 and on to Leo!

There had better not be a thing in the sink when I return, or I'll do them again. I mean it!

Leo High School: The Walgreen's Building at 79th & Halsted - No Story Here, It's Under the Rubble Getting Hauled Away

Since Tuesday afternoon, the heavy traffic on 79th Street between Morgan and Halsted is . . .absent.

Yesterday, Leo President Dan McGrath and I walked over to CVS on the south side of 79th at Halsted. Dan and I frequent buyers at CVS. The Ladies told us that once the building collpased and the demoltion began that the Occupy Walgreens were looking for new habitats. These are famous Chicago Rattus Norvegicus* Occupiers. Business was way off all around the commercial hub.


The Liberty Tax dancers were now taking up positions in front of Leo High School, as well.

This morning, when I pulled into the faculty lot on the south side of 79th Street just west of Leo High School, I was asked by a young guy where he might pick up a bus. He needed to go west. I tyold him that his best bet was to hike over to the Halsted Terminal at about 80th Street.

I could have stretched out in the middle of 79th Street and taken a nap, it is that free of traffic.

Our west parking lot is part of a complex that includs an artifically turfed practice field enclosed by Rickie Daley wrought iron. There was once a monastery whioh housed the Irish Christian Brothers until 1991. In 1995, Leo President Bob Foster demolished the monastery at a huge cost to Leo High School, in order to keep the neighborhood safe. Foster then ordered his staff to find a means of acquiring the entire block of empty, or struggling buisiness buildings between the site of the monastery and Morgan Street.

That was accomplished by 1998.

All the while the building that collapsed on Tuesday was owned by the Nation of Islam,whicj also had buildings and a huge restaurant on the north side of 79th Street including the still unoccupied and operated Salaam restaurant, as I recall. On the south side in the Walgreen's Buildings there were a few offices with Final Call signs above 79th Street that were occupied . In 2004, the City of Chicago aquired the buildings, built the same year that Leo High School opened -1926. Leo is no where near collapsing.

These buildings were built! However, they do come with aresponsibility to maintain what was built. They are quality constructions and bitch and half to demolish.

In fact, Heneghan Demolition which Leo High School contracted to demolish the delapidated monastery and business block to its west, is doing the demolition at Halsted. They do painstakingly great work.

It took Heneghan an entire summer to take down the Irish Christian Brother Monastery - that place had more reinforced concrete than Hitler's Bunker.

That beautiful old building was neglected for as long as I have worked here at Leo -1995 - at the moment. There was a tree growing out of the roof of it.

Bob Foster kept Leo High School vital and its campus healthy. When the monastery built in 1950, by Father Pat Molloy of St. Leo Parish for use of the Christian Brothers, was abandoned, Bob Foster did not want its shell to become a hazzard in waiting. Bob Foster acted and Leo High School added to the health of the Gresham neighborhood.

The opposite is true of the terra cota facade of ownership and responsibilty for the Walgreen's Building that collapsed and injured four people.

As the saying goes, "$hit happens." It happens all of the time and the truth about the blocked streets, re-routed buses, interruption of commerce and the rat-catching due to the habitat relocation will be hauled away in the trucks of the Heneghan Demolition Company.

*Norway Rat -These “super rats” can reach 16″ in length. Each female rat can give birth to 20 pups in her lifetime. Some factors affecting rat populations in cities include continuously mild winters, weather-related disasters, and encroachment of their habitats by new urban development. They have been living rent free in the Walgreen's Building for decades now.

Michael Pfleger Biographer Tells Everyone to "Shut Up"

I have not had anything to say about Rev. Michael Pfleger - not my rice bowl. That is until today, when Michael Pfleger's biographer, one of hundreds of talented journalists in Pfleger's PR quiver, told America to shut up. I have much to say about Leo High School, which was impugned by and concerning Rev. Pfleger's most recent and public Via Dolorosa ( March 15- May 11 2011).

Leo High School was founded by Msgr. Peter Shewbridge in 1921 at the direct order of George Cardinal Mundelein - build a central Catholic high school for boys. St. Leo the Great Parish leading the newer surrounding parishes of St. Sabina, St. Kilian and Little Flower raised the funds for the school designed by Daniel Burnham's right-hand man, architect Joseph McCarthy. Cardinal Mundelein staffed the school with Irish Christian Brothers and laymen. The school opened in 1926 and Francis O'Neill was the first student to register. Mr. O'Neill turned 100 in February and more than seventy young men including a couple of white kids from Canaryville enrolled as freshman 2012.

Leo High School immediately developed a reputation for tough discipline, exacting scholarship and an athletic reputation that continues into this new century.

Thousands of Leo graduates came from St. Sabina Parish. Hundreds of St. Sabina bred Leo Men pour precious dollars in support of the school. They do that because of Robert W. Foster who single-handedly kept the doors of Leo High School open from 1991 until his retirement in 2009. Principal/President CEO Bob Foster had taught history, government, served as guidance counsellor, athletic director, football coach and school leader beginning in 1962, with brief absence from 1965-1970, returning in that year and continually serving the Leo students and our neighbors along 79th Street. Bob Foster was one heroic man serving a much larger mission. Leo High School continues thanks to Bob Foster, but without his physical presence. Bob Foster always taught, 'the individual is nothing; the mission is everything.'

The mission continues as it had after Leo High School was no longer directed by the pastor of St. Leo Parish, the racial demographics changed from white Catholic to African American, received no further subsidy from the Archdiocese per Cardinal Bernardin's directive, the departure of the Irish Christian Brothers in 1991 and the retirement of the legendary Bob Foster. There has been a huge bump in the mission's road, through no fault or participation of the school whatsoever. In fact Leo High School was never privy to any conversation about Leo High School's serving as a component in a hot-button personnel matter.

Leo High School has suffered the collateral damage from the Father Phleger flap. Leo High School was tagged with a narrative spun by ABC 7's Jay Levine and picked up by too many news persons who never bothered to contact Leo Leadership, let alone pay this great school a visit.

This morning I read a guest article for US Catholic by Robert McClory. I have never seen Mr. McClory here at Leo, let alone around 79th Street from Peoria west to Father Phleger's Throop Street. McClory is Pfleger's biographer and has a book out on sale - this current personal journey for Michael Pfleger can not hurt sales.

That same personal journey has caused an unnecessary bump for Leo High School. In fact the very words of Father Pfleger on the NPR chat-fest with Tavis Smiley and Cornell West, Leo High School was impugned as "literally failing."

The fact of the matter Father Pfleger has not been to Leo High School - like his biographer. He would have known that even in a lousy economy an inner city Catholic High School for young men with a student population of African Americans and a trio of Mexican Americans, raised many, many, many dollars, partnered with an NFL legend, raised ACT scores by 2 percentage points across the board, tested and enrolled the largest in-coming freshman class in 12 years, expanded its advisory board, netted new Non-Alumni support, place graduating seniors in the best colleges around the country, and announce Eder Cruz as a Gates Millennium Scholar for 2011.

Why Father Pfleger would say that Leo High School was literally failing? He has his reasons I suppose.

Back to Mr. McClory. Mr. McClory has a dog in this fight and it certainly is not the young men of Leo High School. Mr. McClory has a book out and a subject-client in Father Pfleger; yet, Mr. McClory demands everyone else to "shut up."

The context is this- Mr. McClory wants a total victory for Father Pfleger - that means making Cardinal George look weak by rescinding his suspension for Father Pfleger. McClory tells his national readers what he believes to be his straight dope on the conflict and also demands that Cardinal George mistrust his lying ears.

Hopefully, reason and hope will prevail when George, now back from John Paul II's beatification, and Pfleger meet again. George's suspension of Pfleger was based on what the cardinal thought Pfleger had said on a radio show. In fact, Pfleger said something quite different. Regardless, Pfleger's crime was that he did say that under certain circumstances, he might leave the priesthood and seek ministry in another (non-Catholic) church. And that is what really rankled George.

Like Cardinal George, thosands of Leo Alumni, all of Leo's staff, many of our parents, our students and evn the Associated Press, I heard exactly what Father Pfleger said to Tavis, Cornell and all of us out in radioland. Robert McClory is pretty bold there, but he is out of line in this summation:

Meanwhile, it would be especially helpful if the hordes of Catholics and bloggers who have never visited St. Sabina or driven around the neighborhood, never talked to Pfleger or listened to one of his sermons, never met or conversed with Sabina parishioners would just shut up and stop bloviating on a subject they know nothing about.

That did not stop Robert McClory. Speak up, folks! This is still America.

Robert McClory is author of Radical Disciple: Father Michael Pfleger, St. Sabina Church and the Fight for Social Justice (Lawrence Hill, 2010). He is also professor emeritus at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a regular contributor to U.S. Catholic.

Leo High School and God's Works - How He Goes About It? Get A Load of a Platypus

The bizarre appearance of this egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, with some considering it an elaborate fraud. It is one of the few venomous mammals; the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom capable of causing severe pain to humans. The unique features of the platypus make it an important subject in the study of evolutionary biology and a recognisable and iconic symbol of Australia; it has appeared as a mascot at national events and is featured on the reverse of the Australian 20 cent coin. The platypus is the animal emblem of the state of New South Wales.

Until the early 20th century it was hunted for its fur, but it is now protected throughout its range. Although captive breeding programmes have had only limited success and the platypus is vulnerable to the effects of pollution, it is not under any immediate threat

Platypus -Wikipedia

Lord Have Mercy! There be some strange things.

We had an Advisory Board sub-Committee meeting here at Leo High School last night. The seven Leo Alumni and Principal Phil Mesina and I, talked for hours about recent college admissions of Leo seniors to Marquette, University of Illinois,Valparaiso, Ripon, Iowa, De Paul and twenty other great schools, the testing of the largest incoming freshmen class including white and Hispanic students, new patrons, and engaging the great Leo Latz - the absolute best friend maker and institutional advancement wizard in America.

As Al Swearingen, CEO and President of Gem Saloon and Cat House in Deadwood remarked, "announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh." We are not tipping our hands at all. God has plans for Leo High School that reach back to Chicago's greatest Archbishop - Cardinal Mundelein. That far-sighted German-American ordered that a Catholic high school for boys be established at 79th & Sangamon. It is and it is here to stay.

God works 24/7. I work because I enjoy it. What I accomplish often looks like the dog's dinner, or has an emetic effect on many people. Trying does not get it done and you do not get atta-boys for doing your job.

Thanks to the great Bob Foster and the wildly great hearted Leo Alumni, Leo survived the wrecking ball of Hennighan Demolition that took down the Irish Christian Brother Monastery on the west side of Sangamon Street. Leo became the fortress for success to African American young men like Lt. Mario Bullock, USA ( West Point Grad), Lonnie Newman, head pipe-fitter at O'Hare Airport, Jelani Clay, rocket scientist, and hundreds of others. Leo High School held its ground.

Now, Leo High School is bolting out of the blocks and down a bright path behind President Dan McGrath. I love the work!

God's plans are worked out somehow by the fat fingers of mopes like me following the vision, authority and concern of many people aiming at the same goal. We will see this work through according to God's Will.

God's Will includes many strange sights along the bright path to His Kingdom. Get a load of the platypus - it is there for a reason, beyond eating crayfish, worms and other Australian goodies.

New York Times Features Leo High School, The Great Bob Foster and the Leo Alumni!

Sports Prose Master Dan McGrath reports on the continued support of all black Leo Catholic School by white Catholic Alumni, because Bob Foster articulated the mission of the Lions.

Bob Foster, 69, made it his life’s mission to keep the school open. A former Leo football star whose bent-nose bluntness reflects a lifetime of line play, Foster was Leo’s football coach, principal and president for more than 40 years before stepping down for health reasons earlier this month. Leo was built in 1926 to serve boys from Chicago’s working-class South Side, Foster said, and that mission shouldn’t change just because the makeup of the neighborhood changed from Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants to blacks.

Foster had a small group of deep-pocketed alumni he could call on for help with big-ticket expenses like a new furnace, but the smaller donations he coaxed from the middle-class graduates were the school’s real economic engine. The policemen, firefighters, teachers and tradesmen supported Leo even after they stopped sending their sons. Leo endures as an inner-city symbol of educational opportunity, a haven in a troubled area plagued by gang violence.

Leo Roars!