Notre Dame Academy President's Dinner
May 2, 2012
Thank you and thank you Bob Pauley, John Revisa and Char Dunlap.
When Bob first called me about the award, I was hesitant and
I said “Bob, this is great, but I don’t think I’ve done anything special to
deserve it. He said “You People” You’re
all alike. You all start out by saying
that you are not deserving and after a few minutes you start sounding like
saints and by the end of the conversation you’re saying things that sound like “oh no Lord, I am not deserving for I am one
of God’s greatest sinners”. I said Bob, You went from, Ken, we’d like
to give you an award to, Ken, you’re one of God’s greatest sinners! And he did it in about 20 seconds. I don’t think he even took a breath. Now, in my family, you always start with
the insult first and then spend the next 3-4 minutes soft peddling it. It’s called Irish Diplomacy. For those of you who aren’t Irish, Irish
Diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to go to Hell and after 3 or 4
minutes, you’ve got that person actually
looking forward to the trip!
 |
| Fr. Tim Shillcox, Ken, Fr. Conrad Kratz |
When I graduated from Premontre in 1974, I had no idea that
so many Norbertines would still be a part of my life 38 year later. Fr. Dane was my pastor and was assissted by
Fr. Mark Falcone at St. Agnes. Others
have become close family friends including Fr. Abbot Gary Neville and Fr. Tim
shillcox. Fr. Conrad Kratz has become a
cherished friend of everyone in the Blaney family. It was 26 years ago, tomorrow that Fr. Kratz
officiated at our wedding. We are
honored that he made a special effort to be here tonight. It’s also nice that the sisters of St.
Joseph of Corondelette are represented by Sr. Pat Clement. Sr. Pat has also become a close friend as
she works as a pastoral associate in 4 of the west side parishes.
I want to thank my family, my wife, Cathy and my daughters,
Erin and Kathleen but also my extended family, all of my brothers and my sister
Mary Jo who nominated me for this award.
I think that most people think of my family as a very large group of the
same person. When I was a child it
always bothered me that people couldn’t seem to keep us separate. However, tonight I think it has worked to my
advantage. I don’t think that any one
of us would be worthy of this award, but perhaps collectively, we could come
close.
In 1963, my brother Bill enrolled at Premontre and through the six of us and through the 6 of
our children and through Tom teaching for over 30 years and through Patrick’s time on
the school board, someone in our family has been associated with the school for
48 out of the last 49 years. Which to
me, seems like a long time.
A couple of years ago I ran into Mrs. Schumacher at a
funeral. She had been standing in the
same spot for a long time so I went and asked her if she would like a
chair. Being the gracious woman that we
all know that she is, she thanked me but declined. Later, I saw her, in the same spot but now
she was sitting in a chair. My brother,
John, said he had brought it over to her, “and when he did, she looked at him,
thanked him and said, “Oh John, you’re such a Blaney”. Only the egotist in my family would assume
that she meant that as a compliment.
Every year Cathy and I and our daughters watch the Movie,
“It’s a Wonderful life”. You’ve all seen
it. It’s a great movie and Jimmy Stewart
plays George Bailey, a wonderful everyman-type of character. Everybody who watches it, loves it and it’s
because we can all identify with George Bailey.
He stays in the same town in which he was born, he works hard in the
family business, he volunteers in his community, watches out for his friends,
keeps his moral center, and does whatever he can for his family. But as we all know, as George got a little
older; he believed that his life’s accomplishments did not really make much of
a difference. But at the end of the
movie his community lifts him up, affirms him and thanks him. After receiving this award tonight, I think I
know how he felt.
Thank you, thank you for what you do for NDA and thank you
for what you do for our community.
Not wanting to waste our last day with Kathleen, we chose
to make another short road trip, this time to Newport. Newport is where the upper crust of society
summers. They still have polo matches on
the beaches and the homes overlooking the ocean are a sight to behold. The 7 of us in Kathleen’s 1997 van fit right
in. I gotta admit that when we all got
out of that van at a vineyard, it reminded me of a circus clown car! After a lunch at the beach club we headed
back to Providence and said farewell to Kathleen. 
