1. I am a 1975 graduate of Siena College. I came here as a transfer student in 1973 and graduated with a degree in French with a minor in philosophy. (My two nephews and one of my nieces are also alumni of Siena.) While here, I was a DJ for WVCR, hosting a progressive rock show on the weekends. I was also the valedictorian of my class. One of my classmates, Kevin Mullen, would go on to be the 10th President of Siena College (from 2007-2014).
2. Many Siena alums remember me as a guitar player, but I played drums long before I played guitar. I started on the drums when I was about 15, but didn't start playing guitar until I was 22. I learned guitar from one of my classmates during my novitiate (first year as a friar).
3. I've been in several rock bands, including Siena ones. (No wonder I need hearing aids!) Two of my favorite Siena bands were Petting Zoo in the mid-1990s (a huge band made up of students and faculty!) and 24Seven in the early 2000s, which consisted of three Siena grads: Mike Murphy, Steve Wilson, and me. We wrote a bunch of original songs and recorded two CDs. More recently, I played drums for This Is Us at Sienafest 2019.
4. I met the friars formally at a retreat I made in senior year of high school, and was very impressed by the way they lived the gospel and related to people. As I got to know them, I started thinking about joining the order. At the end of my sophomore year (when I was still at Fordham University) I decided to take a closer look, which led to my transfer to Siena. I entered the order a month after I graduated, and I've now been a professed friar for over 43 years.
5. I've worked for over 20 years as a prison chaplain. I started as a volunteer on a retreat in 1998, and in 2001 I was asked to take on a part-time job as a chaplain for New York State. I've worked at both maximum and medium security prisons. I've never been a particularly courageous person, but for some reason I can go into these places and not freak out. I think it's because God's people are there!
6. Although I majored in French, I am now fairly fluent in German and have also learned some Spanish. I learned German initially for my doctoral work on the Reformation, but grew to love the language and the people. For the past several years, I've been moonlighting as a German teacher at Siena. Spanish has been helpful in my work at the prisons.
7. I can quote movie and TV lines like there's no tomorrow, especially from classic Mel Brooks comedies (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) and from older episodes of Saturday Night Live. I am a huge movie buff and particularly like science fiction films.
8. I've published three books and have contributed to several others. My writing has mostly been on the Protestant theologian John Calvin and the Catholic monk and mystic, Bernard of Clairvaux. While on sabbatical next semester, I'll be working on co-authoring a book with one of my Reformed friends, who I met when I became a member of the Reformed-Catholic dialogue in 2003.
9. I was born in Brooklyn, NY and lived there until I was six, when my parents moved to New Jersey. In Brooklyn, we belonged to a classic Italian parish, Regina Pacis, where I went to kindergarten. I moved back to New York for college, and eventually settled here at Siena. I am now the only New Yorker left in my immediate family (I’m blessed to have a big family, an older brother and three younger sisters).
10. All my life, I have loved trains. My mother used to take me to the train station in Brooklyn when I was a little kid, to watch the trains come and go. In my adult life, I have enjoyed riding on trains especially in Europe, which has a phenomenal rail system.
