The Villa St. Jean blog project

Di Palma in the Middle Kingdom...

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:49:06 +0100

Yes, it's true that Kevin Di Palma (vsj '67) remains teaching English in rural China.
To that end we offer this recent photograph, mailed to the Villa Alumni offices world headquarters.

Kevin also provided this links to better understand his world:

Background information: Jay Walker on the world's English mania (and most of all in China).

In China, you could schedule your own "Pledge to Learn English" rally. (English returns at 6:20 and again at 8:10).

What the Heck! You could lead classroom chants: Or hold school-yard classes -- for Tomorrow is Another Day.
Perhaps make your own motivational video.

-- the editors..

DiPalma

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The MacIntyre-Dorrance legacy...

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:38:32 +0100

What are the odds that an Indie band would have two connections to the long-closed Villa?
From a note from '68 graduate Steve MacIntyre to his colleagues...

... today, Cole, my stepson, called to tell me that he had news he guaranteed would be even more astonishing than the discovery of Fritz: Cole plays in a band named Darwin Deez which is currently touring the U.S. and Canada. There are four band members and Cole is the guitarist. And who's the bass player in the band? Michelle Dorrance, Anson's daughter.

Darwindeez

These kids have been living out of a cramped bus for the last couple of weeks, and though I haven't been tracking all their venues, they've performed in Boston, Providence, Toronto and Omaha, among other cities. Tonight they play Seattle, tomorrow night San Francisco, Monday night Santa Fe and Tuesday Austin.

You can sample their music on the band's myspace site.

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Jean Remy speaks!

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:06:29 +0100

From an interview published in the autumn issue of the University of Dayton's magazine. (it's here)

Jean Remy interview

The headline:
Jean Remy first met Americans, U.S. soldiers pushing through eastern France, during World War II.
--
“My first words in English were ‘chewing gum, please,’” says Remy, a Châlons-en-Champagne native who attended UD’s business school on a Fulbright in 1958-59.
Remy attended Villa St. Jean, a Marianist school in Switzerland, but his grandparents already had another Dayton connection: They had housed a Dayton-based officer during World War I. When Remy reached Dayton after a grueling trip from Paris, that officer, Harold Robinson, “bought me a banana split I’ll never forget.”
In Dayton, Remy discovered multiple-choice tests, drive-in cinemas and Protestant churches. Catholic students had to attend Mass on Wednesdays, he says. “I sinned. The Dayton newspaper had a two-page listing of church services, and I was curious.”
The Founders Hall resident saw more than just Dayton. He traveled by Greyhound to Mexico and throughout the U.S., including the segregated South.
At UD, he participated in vision tests for NASA. America had a technological edge on France, he says. But “what amazed me was that a 50-year-old building was already ‘too old.’”
Remy left Dayton when he was drafted for the war in Algeria. He served there 28 months.
He worked 27 years at Citibank in private banking and as a manager in international corporate banking and human resources.
He traveled to Africa and the Middle East as a vice president in institutional banking. He later consulted for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Africa.
Remy met Bernadette Antoine at a young professionals’ prayer group in Montmartre. They married in 1971 and honeymooned in Israel. They have a son, two daughters and two grandchildren.
Today, Remy produces jam and cider at his 16th-century home in Villeray, a two-hour drive west of his Parisian
winter home, and rents his country bed-and-breakfast (remyfami@gmail.com, if you’re in the neighborhood.
looking for a place to stay).
He reveals his age, 72, but adds, “My Wii age is 51.”
— Mary Harvan Gorgette

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Notre ancien "super-star" ....

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:27:04 +0100

The tireless Jean Remy passes along the latest information from the Continent regarding Antoine Saint-Exupéry.
First, he notes that a French TV magazine show, earlier this month, devoted a story to the disappearance off the coast of Marseilles and the discovery of the wreck of his plane.
Secondly, he points out this site -- http://www.lepetitprince.com/ -- which he notes is controlled by St.-Ex's estate and, no doubt, is financially beneficial to them.
(From the website: our website is an initiative of the Succession Antoine de Saint-Exupéry estate represented by Olivier d’Agay, great-nephew of Saint-Exupéry, and of the Le Petit Prince Multimédia company.
Informations : info@lepetitprince.com)

Littleprince

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Keeping watch on Saint-Exupéry

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:32:25 +0200

Our colleagues send along news of two reports published by the St-Irenaeus Centre in Lyon on Saint-Exupéry.

One story, we're told, describes the creation of a Saint-Exupéry Foundation for youth. Another describes the decision to create, after long negotiations, a museum at the commune of Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens near Ambérieu Castle where Saint-Ex vacationed during his youth.

StExupery

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Brian Lawler: half-man, half-beast!

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:53:33 +0200

Mr. Lawler, class of 1968 at the Villa, returned yet again to the Alps this year to race the Gore-Tex Transalpine Run, for reasons not entirely clear to us.

Lawler & son...

He was accompanied this time by son Patrick, 23; his support crew was wife Anne and brother Kevin.

A description of the event: The GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run is an 8 day/ 8 stage race across the Alps, from the Northern Alps of Germany, via the Central Alps of Austria and Switzerland, to the Southern Alps of Italy. For 2009, the course length is approximately 147 miles with 48,000 feet of elevation gain over 8 days. Each day, the participants ascend and descend one range of the Alps.

More information on Brian's run is available here.

In his Clark Kent mode, Lawler works as an attorney in Seattle. He's completed the race several times and our office has awarded him the VSJ Alumni Distance-Runner Lifetime Achievement Award.
--

I'm talking to you!

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Reunion Fougerolles!

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:50:37 +0200

All:

Our esteemed French breathren met earlier this month in Fougerolles. Via post and routed through China, we have come across some pictures showing both our brothers and -- apparently -- many wine bottles.
(The photographer, we believe, are supplied by our field journalists, Jean Remy and François Buzon)
An addition: Our correspondent on the continent, Jean Remy, pointed us toward a treasure-trove of additional photos here: http://www.neufgiga.com/n/50-17/share/LNK20874a77d1b657b32/.
Merci, Jean!

-- the editors

Reunion3

Reunion2

Reunion1

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Gallia stands alone ...

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:48:21 +0200

All:
Our photography team is still catching up the treasure of pictures and old yearbooks sent to our offices by our esteemed alumni.
Here is a recent photo of Gallia, the only surviving structure of our old school. Our correspondents -- among them are Jean Remy, Michel Inoue and Franois Ronsin -- report that this is from September 2007.
Mr. Ronsin maintains a place on Vox, by the way, here.

-- the editors.

Gallia

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50 years ago at the Villa...

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:32:39 +0200

Our photo desk is still going over the vast library of material released by François Marchal (see this post).

We thought we'd pass along a couple more excerpts, these from the 1959-60 yearbook, a half-century ago, and the twilight period of the Villa as a French-language school. (By the by, clicking through on the images will get you to an original-size picture with better detail.)

One is struck by the humor suggested in the skiing shots and the fact that VSJ basketball pre-dated the Americanization of the school. The long-held belief that Villa basketball reached its apex a decade later, with the likes of Stephen McClintic, Tom Booth, Mike Litton (all '68) and Anson Dorrance ('69) must now be revisited.

-- the editors

Vsj-1959-60

Vsj-1959-60-2

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Old VSJ yearbooks preserved

nobody@vox.com(Villa St. Jean) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:58:43 +0200

François Marchal, one of our esteemed senior alumni from the Villa's French days, has taken the trouble to scan and preserve some VSJ yearbooks from the late 1940s to 1960-61.
It's a stagering amount of work that adds, significantly, to the school's history.
The collection can be found, in PDF format, here.

Two very modest sample are reproduced here.

Yearbook for 1954-55

The villa in color, circa 1960

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