Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. Caracas, 8 of November 2003. No. 105
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Dear Friends,
This Circular has the first full account of what occurred at the REUNION, thanks to our “Doctor is in”, in Trinidad.
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From: "David E. Bratt MD"
Date: 10 Oct 11:19 (PDT)
First Abbey School REUNION 2003/08/30
At the end, the Master of Ceremonies, Martin Laurence, (class of 1981), who did a magnificent job of presenting speakers and smoothing out the gaps, said it best, "The building may have closed, but we live on."
So we finally met up, on a Saturday night, the 15th of August 2004, at the Centre of Excellence in Tunapuna, a place where so many of us used to hungrily look down upon, on similar Saturday nights, before cinema with Fr. Augustine. And I don't even know if those shows were continuing in 1985, but there we were in Tunapuna liming and old-talking as usual.
Next year I'll find out.
Fr. Augustine was not present, his hearing and eyesight not being of the best at present, but Abbott Francis Alleyne, Brother Camillus Culley, the honey man; Br. Gerard Alexis, once known as Br.Rupert, as urbane and smooth as ever; Fr. Cuthbert van de Sende; Fr. Benedict Simons, of Sputnik fame, Fr. Odo van der Heijdt; Fr. Christopher Theunissen and Br. Marius Williams, well represented the monks. In addition, Miss Kitty Marcus, the school secretary whose chemistry classes we all remember with delight if not success (I failed chemistry miserably) graced us with her presence. As a matter of fact there were a number of ladies present, most of whom I did not remember from Mount, but obviously some of us have improved ourselves. Perhaps the happiest couple there was the hardworking treasurer of the Organising Committee, Aaron Chin Albert (1984) and his wife who were celebrating their 11th anniversary.
Other members of the Organising Committee were Miguel Gonzalez (1985), who came all the way from California where he now lives, through Arima (mom) and Maracaibo (Dad) and who was described as the “chief organizer by everyone; Robert O’Connell (1982), President of the committee and who promised to take off his tie but never did; Avalon Kallo (1985), a key man, responsible for coordinating the bar; Gavin Gonsales (1983), another key man, the executive chef; Kerry Costello, (1983), instrumental in contacting many of the old boys who came; Leonard Abbot (1985), part time committee secretary and who I mixed up all night with Fr. Abbott (and I got more mixed up as the night wore on); Paul Guillen (1985); and Reza Haditsingh, who like a good Trini confused everyone thoroughly at the end by trying to give directions to his ranch for the family get-together the next day. He should have asked his wife.
By the way, the Sunday function at Reza was so good it ended at 2 AM on Monday. Now we know why so many banks opened late that Monday.
The room was tastefully decorated; wives again! The food was tasty and filling; wives again! The drinks were plenty and varied; Mount boys again!
A couple of people spoke. Christopher de Marothy (1958?) did so on behalf of the 50’s. He had to, he was the only one from that decade, and he led off magnificently, setting the tone for the rest of the speakers. Next year we hope to see more of you “real old boys” and hear some good old talk about how Mount was better back then.
David Bratt (1962) was allowed to speak for the sixties after fighting off Don and Gordon Mitchell (?1963 & ?1964), Dion Fakoory (?1965)and Salvador Coscaret (1969?), who all probably could have done a better job. Salvador incidentally was only the second “panol” representative at the reunion, Miguel Gonzalez being the other, and he came from Louisiana for the meeting. Thanks, fellows!
“Drax” or Joe Berment spoke movingly about life at the Mount in the 70’s and Clinton Ross, who now runs the lab at the General Hospital in Scarborough, (somebody knows chemistry!) spoke up for the scouts. He was well prepared.
Then, the last principal, Fr. Cuthbert made us all laugh with some unassuming but pointed jokes about life at Mount. “Cuttie” as we all fondly know him, was leaving for Holland the next day. He better come back. For someone who claims to have never been too interested in the Abbey School, he certainly has spent a lot of time with us. And the man makes a mean yogurt!
Abbott Francis, who I was told, was the best scout Mount ever had, closed off the formal part of the evening and it was interesting to hear him say that the main reason why the Abbey School had to shut down was because there was no longer any need for a quality academic school like Mount in T & T, and the decision was taken to put scarce resources into St. Bede’s Vocational School. For our own personal reasons, some of us would want to disagree with the idea that another quality school is not needed, but there is no denying that St. Bede’s School is needed in the country.
The St. Benedict community of monks has contracted over the years. There are now nly 10 monks up there and half are over 70 years of age. Abbot Francis also pointed out that 2003 was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Abbey School in 1943. Is anyone from that era around? (Richard O´Connor living in ustralia, entered the school in 1945)
The evening ended with a slide show of pictures of Mount old boys. It was not complete by any means but should form the basis of a really good album by next year.
Personally I want to thank the 1985 class, the last Abbey School class, for organizing this much needed reunion. As the last class, it was really their duty to do and they did it with much brio. Strange how things work out, Ladislao with his weekly Mount letters and now the Mount reunions. Maybe we are growing up at last.
David Bratt (Class of 1962)
---------------------------------------------------------
And here is the final unofficial list of participants to the EVENT. Remember the Yellow Pages slogan, if you are not listed, you do not exist. (corrections are accepted)
* Have e-mail address, This list is from Salvador and has been updated with Fr.
Christopher's data:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,
This Circular has the first full account of what occurred at the REUNION, thanks to our “Doctor is in”, in Trinidad.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "David E. Bratt MD"
Date: 10 Oct 11:19 (PDT)
First Abbey School REUNION 2003/08/30
At the end, the Master of Ceremonies, Martin Laurence, (class of 1981), who did a magnificent job of presenting speakers and smoothing out the gaps, said it best, "The building may have closed, but we live on."
So we finally met up, on a Saturday night, the 15th of August 2004, at the Centre of Excellence in Tunapuna, a place where so many of us used to hungrily look down upon, on similar Saturday nights, before cinema with Fr. Augustine. And I don't even know if those shows were continuing in 1985, but there we were in Tunapuna liming and old-talking as usual.
Next year I'll find out.
Fr. Augustine was not present, his hearing and eyesight not being of the best at present, but Abbott Francis Alleyne, Brother Camillus Culley, the honey man; Br. Gerard Alexis, once known as Br.Rupert, as urbane and smooth as ever; Fr. Cuthbert van de Sende; Fr. Benedict Simons, of Sputnik fame, Fr. Odo van der Heijdt; Fr. Christopher Theunissen and Br. Marius Williams, well represented the monks. In addition, Miss Kitty Marcus, the school secretary whose chemistry classes we all remember with delight if not success (I failed chemistry miserably) graced us with her presence. As a matter of fact there were a number of ladies present, most of whom I did not remember from Mount, but obviously some of us have improved ourselves. Perhaps the happiest couple there was the hardworking treasurer of the Organising Committee, Aaron Chin Albert (1984) and his wife who were celebrating their 11th anniversary.
Other members of the Organising Committee were Miguel Gonzalez (1985), who came all the way from California where he now lives, through Arima (mom) and Maracaibo (Dad) and who was described as the “chief organizer by everyone; Robert O’Connell (1982), President of the committee and who promised to take off his tie but never did; Avalon Kallo (1985), a key man, responsible for coordinating the bar; Gavin Gonsales (1983), another key man, the executive chef; Kerry Costello, (1983), instrumental in contacting many of the old boys who came; Leonard Abbot (1985), part time committee secretary and who I mixed up all night with Fr. Abbott (and I got more mixed up as the night wore on); Paul Guillen (1985); and Reza Haditsingh, who like a good Trini confused everyone thoroughly at the end by trying to give directions to his ranch for the family get-together the next day. He should have asked his wife.
By the way, the Sunday function at Reza was so good it ended at 2 AM on Monday. Now we know why so many banks opened late that Monday.
The room was tastefully decorated; wives again! The food was tasty and filling; wives again! The drinks were plenty and varied; Mount boys again!
A couple of people spoke. Christopher de Marothy (1958?) did so on behalf of the 50’s. He had to, he was the only one from that decade, and he led off magnificently, setting the tone for the rest of the speakers. Next year we hope to see more of you “real old boys” and hear some good old talk about how Mount was better back then.
David Bratt (1962) was allowed to speak for the sixties after fighting off Don and Gordon Mitchell (?1963 & ?1964), Dion Fakoory (?1965)and Salvador Coscaret (1969?), who all probably could have done a better job. Salvador incidentally was only the second “panol” representative at the reunion, Miguel Gonzalez being the other, and he came from Louisiana for the meeting. Thanks, fellows!
“Drax” or Joe Berment spoke movingly about life at the Mount in the 70’s and Clinton Ross, who now runs the lab at the General Hospital in Scarborough, (somebody knows chemistry!) spoke up for the scouts. He was well prepared.
Then, the last principal, Fr. Cuthbert made us all laugh with some unassuming but pointed jokes about life at Mount. “Cuttie” as we all fondly know him, was leaving for Holland the next day. He better come back. For someone who claims to have never been too interested in the Abbey School, he certainly has spent a lot of time with us. And the man makes a mean yogurt!
Abbott Francis, who I was told, was the best scout Mount ever had, closed off the formal part of the evening and it was interesting to hear him say that the main reason why the Abbey School had to shut down was because there was no longer any need for a quality academic school like Mount in T & T, and the decision was taken to put scarce resources into St. Bede’s Vocational School. For our own personal reasons, some of us would want to disagree with the idea that another quality school is not needed, but there is no denying that St. Bede’s School is needed in the country.
The St. Benedict community of monks has contracted over the years. There are now nly 10 monks up there and half are over 70 years of age. Abbot Francis also pointed out that 2003 was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Abbey School in 1943. Is anyone from that era around? (Richard O´Connor living in ustralia, entered the school in 1945)
The evening ended with a slide show of pictures of Mount old boys. It was not complete by any means but should form the basis of a really good album by next year.
Personally I want to thank the 1985 class, the last Abbey School class, for organizing this much needed reunion. As the last class, it was really their duty to do and they did it with much brio. Strange how things work out, Ladislao with his weekly Mount letters and now the Mount reunions. Maybe we are growing up at last.
David Bratt (Class of 1962)
---------------------------------------------------------
And here is the final unofficial list of participants to the EVENT. Remember the Yellow Pages slogan, if you are not listed, you do not exist. (corrections are accepted)
* Have e-mail address, This list is from Salvador and has been updated with Fr.
Christopher's data:
* Abbott, Leonard
* Berment, Joseph (cobo) and his wife Zuong,
* Bratt, David Dr.
* Chin Albert, Albert
* Coscarart, Salvador
* Costello, Kerry
* de Marothy, Christopher and his wife Christina from the USA, and his cousin
Rosa de Marothy from Venezuela,
* D'Ornellas, Michael (specs) and his wife Virginia, *
* Gioannetti, John
* Golding, Jon
*Gonsales, Garvin
*Gonzales, Miguel *from USA
* Mitchell, Don, * from Anguilla
* Mitchell, Gordon, *
*Ramsahai, Winston
*Ross, Clinton
* O´Connell, Robert
*Villafana, Renwick
>de Comarmond, Maxime-----------I have no email address, help
>de Comarmond, Raymond---------I have no email address, help
>Fakoory, Dion-----------------------I have no email address, help
>Gioanetti, John----------------------Which of the brothers, went??? help
>Harditsingh, Reza-------------------I have no email address, help
>Kalloo, Avalon----------------------I have no email address, help
>Keithallen (poggy),-----------------I have no email address, help
>Mayuen, Joseph---------------------I have no email address, help
>Pereira, Francis (kahki), -----------I have no email address, help
>Pierre, Jean---------------------------I have no email address, help
>Ramsahai, Toddy-------------------I have no email address, help
>Sanoir, Edmond---------------------I have no email address, help
Brother Camillus Culley (zuah)
Brother Gerald (Rupert) Alexis
Brother Joseph,
Brother Marius Williams
Father Abbot Francis Alleyne
Father Benedict Simons
Father Christopher Theunissen (bro. boo)
Father Cuthbert van der Sande
Father Marius
Father Odo van der Heijdt
Miss Kitty Marcus,
Mr. Seals, Lennox (Biology teacher 69-73), I have no email address, help
I cannot believe that there is an oldboy without an email address!!!!!!
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So now we need to wait for the second EVENT, proposed for next year to round up further oldboys.
In my next Circular I am sending out a list of names and telephone numbers just in case a kind soul would help in rounding up, correction the address list, etc. These names and their respective names have been around for about two years with no input from those receiving the Circular. Help!! Attach the email addresses.
Can you place names on the faces on photo Scan 187???, Since the photo is not a graduating Form V class, please identify!!.
God Bless
Ladislao
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Listado: C105.xls
Photos: Scan 187 class photo SC no (by Salvador Coscarart)
Column: David Bratt – Smile Baby
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ATTACHMENTS
Listado C105.xls
| Names | Form V | Contact | Nickname | business address | Phone, | |
| Larkin, Barry | cosca | TT | ||||
| Larsen, Andres | glen | YV | ||||
| Laughlin, Harry | roger | TT | (868) 627 5896 | linus@carib-link.net | ||
| Laughlin, Ivan | 1958 | maurice | dayboy | (868) 625 3159 | ia2@wow.net, | |
| Laughlin, Micheal | mlaughlin@tsystems.com.au | |||||
| Laughlin, Peter | jon | Florida | peter@laughlinluxurylifestyles.com, | |||
| Laughlin, Ph | ||||||
| Launay, Jean Claude | glen | Papalu | YV | |||
| Lawrence Scott | (868) 662 8850 | |||||
| Lee Fung, L | ||||||
| Lee Kam, Roger | roge | |||||
| Lee Kit, Vernon | roge | |||||
| Lee Tung, Leonard | 1967 | |||||
| Lee, Robert J. | 1971 | Rlee@accordcredit.com, robert.j.lee@sympatico.ca | ||||
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