Frank Caucci

I attended a memorial service for IUN professor Frank Caucci, who died unexpectedly at the age of 58. He taught French and Canadian Studies for many years in the Modern Languages Department before making a career change into Social Work. He was a beautiful man both physically and spiritually whose most recent research project had to do with Argentineans who were murdered, tortured or disappeared during a rightwing dictatorship. An overflow audience of over a hundred heard words of remembrance from faculty bigwigs as well as colleagues who knew him well. I sat between Chris Young and Laura Kittle and spotted Fred and Diane Chary a few rows up. His children Matthew and Emmanuelle were in attendance as was his longtime life partner Brian Bates. English department members admitted that Frank was probably more widely read than they were, and Frank developed a Literature course on gay novels. His social work included involvement with homeless men as well as transgendered folks. He evidently was a rigorous teacher but much beloved with students. On the program was this Carl Jung quote: “An understanding heart is everything in a teacher and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling.”

Engineers won 5 of 7 points for the second week in a row, but I left hobbling after falling and twisting my ankle trying to apply body English on a shot for the 4-7 pins to pick up a spare. I converted it but caught my right foot under the ball return. It’s swollen and my left elbow also hurts.

Got an email from nephew Joe recommending a Finnish metal band called Amorphis. Replied that I listened to "Black Winter Day,""Battle for Light," and "The Beginning of Times" on YouTube and will see if
the Best Buy in my neighborhood carries any of their CDs.

Suzanna sent me a photo on some of the tomatoes and corn from her ample garden along with some of her favorite parts of volume 41, including a Gilbert Laue poem, Raoul’s moment of truth in Vietnam upon making eye contract with an elderly Vietnamese woman who reminded him of his grandmother, and the anecdote about niece Lisa’s daughter Grace putting toothpaste in an Oreo cookie. She was worried about two of her kids affected by the flood and a son in Texas driving around in a truck without air conditioning in 100+ weather. I replied: Thanks for such a flattering and informative letter. We are having beautiful weather here – I feel so sorry for those in the Eastern flood zones and those sweltering in the Southwest. I’m going to a wedding in Philly on Saturday (my niece and god-daughter Cristin) at the same church – St. Adelbert’s – where Toni and I tied the knot in 1965. I wish we lived near you – we’d be hinting around for green tomatoes to fry up. Your photo, “A little bit corny,” looks delicious. My niece Grace in South Bend – the “mint” cookie trickster – is quite a character. Later I write about how she enjoyed hugging her dad and getting the front of his clothes wet after just coming out of a swimming pool and how she figured out how to open our cookie jar without it making a sound. The Gilbert Laue poems remind me of our days living within the National Lakeshore. Even more poignant to me are the Gary poems of John Sheehan on page 18. He was a former priest and gentle soul who married a Black woman and after she died a white woman (I think the same was true for Frederick Douglass). I’m reading Kurt Vonnegut’s “A Man without a Country.” He writes: “I know what women want: a whole lot of people to talk to. What do men want? They want a lot of pals, and they wish people wouldn’t get so mad at them.”

The Archives was busy this morning with Ray Boomhower back working with the Jim Jontz papers and volunteers working next store. Roy Dominguez dropped in with a few changes to his autobiography. He has decided to run for county commissioner, which pleases me. He is a dedicated public servant who loves the political arena.