BEVERLY — It was definitely more exciting than a City Council meeting.
Ward 3 City Councilor Jim Latter recently spent a weekend sky-diving and skeet-shooting and generally having a great time at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio.
Latter, an Air Force veteran, made the trip in his role with the New England Community Advisory Board, a group of citizens that promotes stronger ties between the public and the Army.
The Army invites hundreds of civilians to the football game every year “to get the message of what today’s Army is out into the civilian community,” Latter said.
“Honestly it was very busy. The Army brings you down there and you do fun stuff, but they get their pound of flesh out of you.”
One of the highlights, of course, was Latter’s leap from a plane, his first attempt at sky-diving. Fortunately he did it in tandem with Sgt. 1st Class Noah Watts, a member of the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team.
“These people are the absolute best at what they do,” Latter said.
Remembering Father D’Arcy
The recent death of Bishop John D’Arcy in Indiana struck a chord for longtime parishioners at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church in Beverly.
D’Arcy, who was head of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese that includes the University of Notre Dame, served as pastor at St. Mary’s when he was fresh out of seminary in the 1950s and ’60s.
He was heavily involved in the church’s two drum corps, the Cardinals and the Crusaders, that were a big part of the city’s culture for young people in those days.
D’Arcy returned to St. Mary’s in 2007 for a Mass celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination.
Obituaries about D’Arcy highlighted the fact that he was one of the few priests who warned his superiors about priests who were abusing children, to no avail. D’Arcy also led a boycott to protest Notre Dame’s invitation to President Obama to speak at its commencement ceremony in 2009, because of Obama’s views on abortion.
Serving in Florida
Beverly native Joseph Musumeci got a nice write-up in The Catholic Compass, the magazine of the Catholic diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in Florida.
At age 95, Musumeci recently became an altar server at Good Shepherd Parish in Tallahassee. He also visits housebound parishioners and brings them Communion.
Musumeci was a partner in his father’s bakery, the Sunray Bakery on Rantoul Street in Beverly. He moved to Florida 33 years ago and lives in Tallahassee with his daughter and son-in-law, Judy and Michael Renwick.
Taking care
Beverly resident Randall Gregory recently received an award for his role as caregiver for his wife, Nicole. Nicole suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed from the neck down a year after she and Gregory married.
The Shire BRAVE Award is given out by the Shire pharmaceutical company to honor non-professional caregivers.
According to the company, Randall Gregory has provided “constant emotional, physical and financial support for the woman he calls his wife and best friend, striving daily to give Nicole as normal a life as possible.” The award came with a $10,000 prize.
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or pleighton@salemnews.com.
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