Brother George Pahl shares credit for building SMU science department

It was a surprise to me that Brother George Pahl, FSC, had not been mentioned until this last edition of Saint Mary’s Magazine when Tim O’Farrell wrote about Brother George in “Letters.” The great “build-up” of the science department began with two very important N.S.F. grants: one for “Freshwater Ecology” etc. and one for “Radiation Biology.”

I was happy to have been awarded the grant for the classes in “Ecology” (1965) and my thought was “if I do well in these classes, I may be able to apply for the classes in radiation biology next year!” Toward the end of the eight-week session (climbing up Stockton hill, checking on “critters” in the woods at 4 a.m., wading in streams and the Mississippi with Brother Charles Severin!), Brother George came to me and asked, “If we were to get N.S.F. grants to cover the cost, would you be willing to study for an M.A. in biology?” WOW! I was already excited about returning to my high school classes (to teach the “green version”) in the inner city of Los Angeles and so I was delighted about this new opportunity to increase my teaching skills.

I continued to teach biology (in L.A. after the Watts riots) until I was appointed as a supervisor of high schools in the Department of Education, Archdiocese of Los Angeles. At that time there were 72 high schools. My goal was to improve the teaching of science by all means possible. The teachers were encouraged to apply for N.S.F. grants (several went to Saint Mary’s). After five years, I was appointed associate superintendent of schools.
All of these events in my life would never have taken place without my OUTSTANDING EDUCATION at Saint Mary’s.

– Sister Mary Christopher Miller, O.P. M’69

P.S. After graduating from Saint Mary’s, I worked in the office of the Biology Department when Brother George Pahl was appointed president. I also tutored six of the students who had failed one or more sections of our comp exams. They “passed” the second time around.

I was a physics major from 1966 to 1970 when Brother Jerome was on the faculty. We all had keys to the physics building and we rarely saw the light of day. Long hours were spent in the labs and in the physics library working with other students. The standards were very rigorous. Brother Jerome was one who was there every day and kept us more than busy with classroom lectures, labs and tests. He was an essential person in providing us with a solid background in physics and engineering math. Thanks Brother Jerome for all your hard work! – James McCanney ’70

Now, you have to understand one of Jerome’s fun qualities is his ability to kid and joke around with students in a fun, bantering kind of way. Behind that sweet smile of his lies a mischievous kind of guy. However, with the dishing out there comes a time when the old payback is inevitable. I’ll say right now that another of Jerome’s great qualities is that he takes the paybacks well and is able to laugh along with the rest of us on the jokes played back on him.

This said, we regress back to the mid ’70s when Jerome had two student workers, Chuck and John, that I’m sure received their fair share of this sparring. Come April 1976, (Jerome’s birthday is early April), I can just imagine the scheming that was going on in the minds of these two guys, for I knew them both and knew their potential for fun. Chuck and John were in the upper-level physics classes and helped Jerome with the intro to physics lab, which was the class I was in at the time. Needing to come in and set up the labs and experiments, they had access to the building keys, which I’m sure, gave them an even more expanded element to their scheming.

Class started as normal, a brief warm-up introduction by Jerome, students opening their notebooks, lots of your basic classroom noises, pages flipping, pens dropping, desks screeching, and I’m sure many eyes, like mine on the beautiful spring day outside. You know the kind where everyone was out in front of Heffron and Mary’s Hall, either sun bathing or throwing a Frisbee. Jerome’s birthday, being on April 3, typically lands on one of those first real days of spring.

Okay, back to physics class: Blah, Blah, Blah electrical resistance, Blah, Blah important, Blah Ohms, volts. In true Jerome style, I think his autonomic nervous system kicks in at this point since he’s done this same routine millions of times, he continues with his introduction and skillfully backs up towards the pull down screen (his notes were always on overheads). Reaching up to the excessively long string (Jerome’s kind of a short guy) and pulling it down, there was an immediate halt to the classroom clatter.

The flipping pages and screeching desks suddenly stopped producing this moment of dead silence. All eyes focused, in amazement, on the unrolled screen. Jerome, still talking about some electrical thing and unaccustomed to such a display of attention from the class, turns around to see that he had just unveiled a poster of Farrah Fawcett super model (you recall, one of the original Charlie’s Angels), taped to the screen. Yes, in bathing suit/bikini (a very small one at that), standing knee deep in water, waves splashing behind her and with a very seductive smile on her face.

Without missing a beat and before Jerome could react in any comprehensible way, in walks Chuck and John singing happy birthday. Chuck carries in a cupcake with a lit candle and John, close behind, holding a closed shoebox. Jerome, searching for his composure, face and baldhead far redder than his red-blond beard, exhales and joins the fun and the sparring. Of course we were all curious about the contents of the box — the curiosity of the class obviously different than Jerome’s. As the commotion in the room and bantering between the three of them settled, John hands Jerome the box. Jerome reluctantly accepts the gift and peeks into it first. Then opens it while gazing towards the two with a “you got me” kind of look. Out of the box Jerome pulls out a cheap, Groucho Marx-style, bushy, black wiry toupee. – Bruna Bucciarelli ’76

When I read the piece on Brother Jerome’s retirement from the previous issue of the Saint Mary’s magazine I could just imagine Brother fussing about all the attention.  His disdain for the limelight is perhaps one of his most endearing qualities.  It was also the last bit of motivation I needed to publicly say something about his witness as a Christian Brother.

Brother Jerome has embodied the Christian and Lasallian mission as well as anyone I have met.   He has done so in many ways, but two especially have stood out to me.  Inspired by Christ and De La Salle, no doubt, Brother Jerome has always had his eye turned in a special way toward individuals and communities in need.  A few examples: Brother has consistently taught with everyone’s success in mind.  For students who need extra assistance (I write from experience here), he has always been helpful, while maintaining that success would only come through our own hard work.   Beyond the classroom, Brother Jerome has consistently made contributions of time, money, and talent to under-resourced communities: San Miguel schools, Nazareth Farm, Catholic Worker communities. Likewise, within his immediate Brothers’ community, even as some Brothers’ needs have required them to live apart from the others, Brother Jerome has ensured that they continue to be an important part of the community. These are but a few examples of Brother Jerome’s commitment to those in need. What strikes me also as characteristically Christian and Lasallian is Brother Jerome’s approach to the needs he recognizes.

I have to think that part of what attracted Brother Jerome to the Christian Brothers was De La Salle’s reputation for being both a visionary and a pragmatist.  In my experience Brother Jerome has also approached his work with a delightful blend of wonder and common sense.  I have witnessed on more than one occasion, Brother saying with wide eyes: “Oh, yeah, I think that just might work!”  Like the time Brother assembled a generator, likely out of spare parts, for the Nazareth Farm community in West Virginia, or the summer he replaced nearly all the windows in the San Miguel Minneapolis house, or as I imagine it happening, the day he decided along with others to begin construction of a trail system on the Saint Mary’s campus.  These are but a few examples of Brother Jerome’s wide-eyed, but grounded, approach to service.

Brother Jerome embodies the Christian, and more specifically, Lasallian mission in many ways, but these two have stood out to me.  No doubt, he will always be driven by his commitment to those in need, and he will continually come up with innovative and yet practical ways to address these needs.  Hence, why retirement for Brother Jerome will likely be more of a formality than anything else, in other words, nothing to make a fuss over. – Matt Palkert ’00

Brother Jerome was one of the most inspirational teachers that I have known over the years. My relationship with Brother Jerome probably goes back earlier than for many others. I first met Brother Jerome when I was a junior at Cretin High School in St. Paul, in the fall of 1959.  Brother Jerome was teaching high school chemistry – his first year of teaching, I believe. I was fortunate in that Brother Jerome chose me as his lab assistant, and so I got to know him perhaps better than most in my class. I remember helping him get various pieces of equipment ready for experiments. I also remember a few experiments gone awry – fuming or exploding mixtures of whatever put together by “inquisitive” students.  His interest in chemistry inspired a love of chemistry in me – outdone only when I took physics the following year.

My years at Saint Mary’s were before Brother Jerome was on the faculty. My next encounter with Brother Jerome was in the late 1960s when I was in graduate school in California. I remember Brother Jerome calling me one day and saying that he was with some other Christian Brothers at a retreat in Berkeley. They had some free time and wondered if I could give them a tour of some of the better-known sites in the San Francisco area.  We had a very interesting day, which I am sure Brother Jerome recalls. It was great to renew his friendship.

A few years went by and I began work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. After being there several years, I got a call from Brother Jerome saying that he would like to bring a group of science students to Los Alamos on a spring field trip. He asked me if I could help set up and coordinate the visit. As I would quickly learn he would take such a group of students each spring to various scientific establishments around the country. So I helped coordinate what was to be the first of many of his trips to Los Alamos with students over the years. I really enjoyed his visits. The students he brought were exceptional – always very sharp but also very respectful and it made me proud to know that Saint Mary’s was producing such fine young people. His visits also gave me an opportunity to visit many areas of the laboratory that I otherwise probably would not have seen, and they gave the students a glimpse into the world of “large scale” physics. I enjoyed the discussions with Brother Jerome and the students around the campfire as they camped in Bandelier National Monument not far from where I lived. I felt proud to be able to offer the campers my showers once or twice when they needed such facilities. And usually I enjoyed a meal or two with them when there were in Los Alamos.

I stopped to see Brother Jerome and the Saint Mary’s campus in the spring of 1999. My wife and I had the pleasure of a campus tour by Brother Jerome on his golf cart. I could tell he was very proud of the school and also of the work that he put in on the many trails through the beautiful bluffs along the river.

After retiring from Los Alamos in 2004, I moved to Portland, Ore., in the fall of 2006. That, however, did not stop Brother Jerome from tracking me down. He stopped by for a visit last summer when he was in Oregon for a visit to his brother in Eugene. It was great to see him again.

I have always treasured my visits with Brother Jerome. He has always showed an intense interest in his students, trying to help them see the beauty of physics in their surroundings. Brother Jerome has been inspiration to me, with his love of physics and deep commitment to his students. Thanks, Brother Jerome. – Don Wolkerstorfer ’65