Father Jim Flanagan

I came to Kansas City in 1972 to work for the summer in a jail.
No, I was not incarcerated, or in a work release program!
I volunteered my time that summer for a unique religious organization, doing something that I thought I was being called to do: to help in the education of men who were imprisioned.
This summer program was sponsored by the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT). SOLT was founded in 1958 by Father James H. Flanagan, the man to the right in this picture with me. (This picture was taken this morning after church.)
Interestingly, the 1972 SOLT summer program was composed of two other projects besides tutoring inmates in the jail. One of those other projects was working in the summer school at the newly founded DeLaSalle Education Center.
Although it was 8 years before I went to work in 1980 for Godfrey S Kobets at DeLaSalle, I remember being very impressed in my first meeting with Kobe, as we called him. He was a man's man, tough and uncompromising when it came to educating youth from the inner city. Kobe had a deep passion and love for the young people at DeLaSalle.
I also vividly remember meeting Father Flanagan for the first time that same summer. He was another man's man, a tough but loving priest who had played football for Notre Dame and served as a Navy frogman in the Normandy invasion and other postings in World War II. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1952, and founded SOLT in New Mexico 6 years later.
Was it coincidence that I met these two men in 1972, and decided one year later to move permanently from Wilmington, Delaware to Kansas City?
There are no coincidences, only blessings, and these blessings in 1972 changed my life irrevocably!