Fordham University - Maroon Yearbook (New York, NY)

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DENIS QUINN BI.AKE A. B. I'oidli.im Prep. Class Medal (2b); Essay. Meda (2. 3) : I he Kam. Correspondence Editor (3); I he Monthly. Asso ciate Editor (3. 4); Debating So r.iety (I. 2. 3, 4); Treasurer (3) President (4); Team (4); Prize De bate (2. 3. 4) ‘Varsity Play (3) I. C. Sodality. ' «- u'its hi Logic great critic I’rofoiiNill7 skilled in aiialutic. But hr—Huilitimx. LIKE his illustrious namesake. St. Dionysius of Athens (or as the French called him. Denis), who disputed on philosophy before the F.mperor Augustus, our Denis is a philosopher with few equals. 1 o hear him in circle hacking the argument of the objector into little bits, is an intellectual treat. This logical power stands him in good stead in debating, where he has achieved remarkable success, winning a place in the prize debate for three successive years, and a position on the team. His work as a writer has also been notable. I lis essays have won prizes. His critical judgments have been listened to with respect. His opposition to sentimentality has made him a dreaded Exchange Editor. With just wrath he tears into the slushy stories and maudlin love poems of his contemporaries, transfixing the quivering authors with his facile pen. It is a strange quality in one who has such a devotion to Terpsichore. But if you don’t offend this aversion of his. or comment unfavorably upon the Irish question (if you do you will have an opponent who is terrible in his knowledge of the facts of that question) and if you have a liking for puns (in the making of which he is so nearly a rival of Thomas Hood that among his intimates they have become known as Blakeisms)—or even if you differ with him on these matters—you will find in him a friend who is to be cherished.

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JOHN JAMES BASSO Special Pliilips-Andovcr Academy Gymnasium Director (3. 4). “Ht'» tough, ma’am: tough is J. H.‘ IHckt ns—Dotnbey and Son. am Ihi tiachtr of at hit Its.” Whitman—Leaves of Grass. IN a hot gymnasium on the lower East side crowded galleries have been watching lithe youths go through such swift, precise, and bewildering feats of agility and strength that they could now look unastonished upon a man walking upon the ceiling. There is a sudden voice commanding silence, then launching upon an unexpected eulogy of the man who had taken untrained boys and in a year transformed them into finished athletes. And a mighty volume of cheers. That is an attempt to summarize the achievements of John Basso, but it is hopelessly inadequate. For his work in the settlements is more than mere physical training. It is the work of an ardent and fearless missionary, who pounds ethics, and a respect for the Church into many a hard thug and many a harder bigot, a natural leader who holds his position by a fiery enthusiasm and a ready sympathy for the affairs of others. He is interested in men, not to get something out of them, but to give them something. His work outside has given him little opportunity to do things at Fordham. But this, strangely, is not a loss. We have no wrestling team on which the former lightweight champion of New England could compete, no boxing, fencing, basketball or gym teams upon which he could represent the college. And outside he does such remarkable work spreading good Christian ethics that we can hardly regret his absence. 7

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ROCCO MICHAEL CHIASCONE Special Yonkers I ligh School Class football (3): Class Baseball (3, 4). am not Inin rnough to hr thought n good tftudrnt. Shakespeare- Ticeljth Night. HOW he retains the curves of his swelling figure is something of a mystery. To see him reciting in class with the sweat coursing down his brow like a miniature waterfall, you would imagine that a series of examinations would leave him only the limp ghost of himself. Rut each time he comes up the path smiling, ready to tackle the psychology with the persistence if not the zest of an Aquinas. Not even an enlistment in the Navy could make him anything but himself. And of this we are glad. We like him as he is. And a lean, gaunt Rocco would be almost as inconceivable as a nasty, sour, crabbed Rocco. Me is not built for a vast amount of speed. It is. however, his mania. We have it on reliable authority that he has designs on the laurels of his illustrious fellow countrymen. Ralph De Palma and Dario Resta. He will have much use for all this accumulated knowledge a few years from now. We can picture the frantic voice of a woman in the night, the hurried dressing, the mad ride through the sleet and the arrival to find it was only wind colic the baby had. For he is one of the many in the class who intend to make medicine their profession. This great profusion of doctors among our friends will be an embarrassment in the future; we will hardly know which to call upon when the need arises. But (we put it this way so that no one will be offended) Rocco will not be the last.