Bed-Sti Jack…..It’s All About Family, Faith and Country”: A Personal Memoir

By John “Jack” Reynolds

A FEW YEARS AGO, ONE OF my wife Terry’s long time dear friends from their high school days at Bishop McDonnell High School in Brooklyn, Mary (Fitzie) Hamilton, was writing her memoirs and at one get together she said to me “you have had an interesting life and have been all over the world and met so many important personalities, your memoirs would be a great story of success”. She encouraged me to take on the task. Well thank you Fitzie for implanting this idea in my head!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Apr 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483407913

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Bed-Sti Jack…

It’s All About Family, Faith and Country

JOHN JACK REYNOLDS

A Personal Memoir

Copyright © 2014 John Jack Reynolds.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-0792-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-0791-3 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 03/12/2014

Prayer of Saint Ignatius Loyola (founder of the Jesuits)

Lord, teach me to be generous;

teach me to serve you as you deserve:

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest,

to labor and not to ask for reward, except

that of knowing that I am doing your will.

Amen.

Dedication

•   To my wonderful wife, Theresa Ellen Donahue Reynolds

•   To my devoted children

Thomas James

Catherine Ellen

Maureen Ann

Patricia Maura

Kevin Bernard

•   To my precious grandchildren

Margaret Collen Reynolds

Timothy Reynolds DePhillips

Helen Reynolds Stevenson

Caroline Donahue DePhillips

Brian Burke Brener

Elizabeth Farr DePhillips

Michael Paul Stevenson

John Joseph Stevenson

Nicholas John Reynolds

Connor James Brener

Zachary Scott Brener

Madeleine Theresa Reynolds

Zoe McBride DePhillips

•   To Brian Patrick (my son) and Kathleen (my granddaughter) – both in Heaven as the Family Guardians

Contents

Dedication

List of Photos and Scrolls

Introduction

1.   Growing Up In Brooklyn, New York - Elementary School

2.   High School and College

3.   Military

4.   Start of Business Career, Marriage and Moving to Panama

5.   A Great Deal of Firsts

6.   Move to ITT

7.   The Brian Patrick Years

8.   Move to Puerto Rico

9.   Our Last Born Child

10.   Life in Puerto Rico

11.   Move Back to New York

12.   Ironwood

13.   Another Step Up the Ladder and the Start of the Decline of ITT

14.   Extra-Curricular Activities

15.   New Career in Management Consulting

16.   Private Papal Audiences

17.   Life in Retirement

18.   My Family, My Country, My Church and My Faith

Appendix 1-   People I Have Personally Met

Appendix 2-   Countries That I Have Been to (88 Countries)

Appendix 3-   80th Birthday Scroll

Appendix 4-   Some Thoughts from My Children

Acknowledgements

Jack Reynolds Memoirs

List of Photos and Scrolls

With My Cousins – Mary, Margaret and Anne Reynolds – circa 1936

My Old Tricycle and Me – circa 1938

Ellis Island Certificate – My Father’s Record of Arriving in the USA in 1917 at the Age of Sixteen

An Altar Boy at St. Teresa – In Our Backyard Tenement – Brooklyn, New York circa 1945

Grammar School Commencement Exercises St. Teresa’s School, From 1947; I Gave One of the Three Addresses

Senior Prom from Brooklyn Prep 1951, Astor Roof, New York City, Myself and Mary Kelly (my first romance); Catherine Scorcia with Classmate Louis Scotti (both lived near me on Bergen Street in Brooklyn)

College Graduation 1954 – With Mom, Patsy, Jeanette and Dad

Inauguration Day January 20, 1957, of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as President of the United States and Richard M. Nixon as Vice President. Terry and I Attended the Parade as I Was Working in Washington. Had Dinner at the Great Harvey’s Restaurant – a Little Higher Than Today’s Prices

Martin Reynolds, My Uncle, But More Than That – My Friend

Brian Patrick Reynolds at age four Born February 25, 1960 Went to Heaven, October 26, 1965.

Terry and I and Some Very Dear Friends, Cecile and Bob Wilson and Helen and Frank Carlson – Puerto Rico 1970

Terry, Myself, Father Joe Novak, S.J., Provincial of the New York Province and Very Rev. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Father General of all Jesuits Worldwide – at Saint Peter’s College in New Jersey, late 1990s

Our Wonderful Home for Thirty-Five Years at 24 Cambridge Drive, Allendale, New Jersey

Terry and Myself – Private Audience with Pope John Paul II, Vatican City

50th Wedding Anniversary Mass Booklet – July 7, 2007

Our Golden Wedding Anniversary Press Announcement

American Airlines Golf Tournament (left to right) Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees, Hall of Fame; Otto Graham, Cleveland Browns, Hall of Fame; Curt Buford, President TMX Corp. (my partner); Myself; Dave Stockton, Professional Golfer PGA, Scottsdale, Arizona 1973

Club Championship Flight Winner Ridgewood Country Club 2005 With Dave Reasoner, Head Professional

At the New Giants Stadium, Inaugural Season 2010

My Surprise 7⁰th Birthday Party in Orlando, Florida, Prior to a Disney Cruise With All the Family 2003

Tom’s Surprise 5⁰th Birthday Party in Dallas, Texas (left to right) My Sister Patsy, Scott, Cathy, Maureen, Tom, Kevin, Myself, Terry, Mark Tobin (My Nephew from Nashville)

Myself with Tom and Kevin at John and Eileen Donahue’s Wedding – Breezy Point, Queens, New York 2009

Kevin’s 1985 Soccer Team – Allendale Americans

Family Reunion 2006 – Topsail, North Carolina

Family Reunion 2013 – Isle of Palm, South Carolina

Terry and Myself in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada

Terry and Myself at Mardi Gras Ball, Honored Guests of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana

Introduction

A FEW YEARS AGO, ONE OF my wife Terry’s long time dear friends from their high school days at Bishop McDonnell High School in Brooklyn, Mary (Fitzie) Hamilton, was writing her memoirs and at one get together she said to me you have had an interesting life and have been all over the world and met so many important personalities, your memoirs would be a great story of success. She encouraged me to take on the task. Well thank you Fitzie for implanting this idea in my head!

The more I thought about it, and the more I discussed the idea with Terry, the more convinced I was that I HAD to do it. Why did I have to do it? Theresa and I are the proud parents of very well-educated, successful children who married similar individuals who also met with the same success. The grandchildren they have given us know very little about my background except for some generalizations like coming from New York and being in the service.

They know even less about my parents, my sisters and the great working class neighborhood I was raised in. I also want them to know of the contrasts that we endured and experienced in the tenement environment versus the kind of living they are privileged to have in the McMansion’s that they live in with the lovely green grassy lawns that surround their beautiful homes. In addition, I want to explain to them a little about the sacrifices my parents, Mary and Paddy Reynolds, made when they left the comforts of their homes and family in the old country at a very young age to come to America because of the opportunities America had for them and because it was a free country. Perhaps my grandchildren will understand better what America was then and hopefully they will strive to keep it that way for the future… not a country that is moving more toward socialism, income distribution and entitlements each day. Opportunities are a plenty – study, work hard, set goals and you will be successful.

I recall most vividly when I set my goals of what I wanted to achieve in my life. Around the corner from our third-floor apartment on Bergen Street in Brooklyn was a large bronze statue of Civil War General Grant on his horse. It was in the center of Bedford Avenue, a very wide and well-traveled street. When I was about seven or eight, my dad would take me and my two younger sisters for a walk on a Sunday afternoon. Across from the statue was a beautiful four-story stone and brick building, the Union Club, where fancy cars and chauffer driven limousines would come up to the entrance and very well-dressed people would emerge and proceed into this beautiful structure.

I asked my dad on many a visit why can’t we go in there? His reply was always the same you have to have money, be important and have a good job. After getting the same reply from my dad every time I asked that question, I vividly remember telling him, someday I will belong to a Club like that and will also enjoy riding in a chauffeured limousine.

Many years later, on several occasions, I would roll up to my parents’ home in Brooklyn in a limousine. My dad would be there to greet me and he would always have a tear in his eye because they were happy tears. He also remembered that same question I asked him so many times years before and my achieving that goal.

My parents gave us goals at school – rewards for ALL A’s on report cards – lesser rewards for some B’s but NOTHING if you received one C. The reward for all A’s – a trip to the world famous Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan for the Movie and Stage Show (fifty cents admission for noon show) and then you would get 25 cents to go into the Horn and Hardant Automat and I would get a roast beef sandwich, a piece of coconut custard pie and a glass of iced chocolate milk – yes all for 25 cents. No iced milk at home – ice used for chilling ice box – not for eating or cooling drinks.

When Terry and I were married in 1957, we set two goals:

•   Have eight children – Terry had eight pregnancies with six living children so I guess that is a large family

•   Pray that we had intelligent children who would go to good colleges/universities and we would pay all the expenses of a four-year college.

Suffice it to say – both goals successfully accomplished.

I am so proud of my children – every single one of them. I want to thank them for studying so hard and achieving such wonderful accomplishments in their business and professional careers. I think it is so vitally important for many reasons to compliment Kevin in overcoming his dyslexia problems after many, many years of struggle and sacrifice – and Terry for all her work with Kevin; taking him to tutors and specialists and working with him for long, long hours. Great, super job by both of them.

The world is so different today than when I was growing up and even very different than my working days. There is tremendous pressure on youngsters growing up today, costs of education are out of sight, the competition on all fronts is fierce, the obstacles to success, although they can be overcome, are formidable and negativity is often times overwhelming. In addition, children’s direct communication skills could be in trouble because of constantly utilizing electronics and social media.

Recently, I came across a quote that I suggest my grandchildren read and remember – You can succeed if you work hard – you can make it happen –

LISTEN TO THE MUSN’TS – LISTEN TO THE DON’TS

LISTEN TO THE SHOULDN’TS –

THE IMPOSSIBLES – THE CAN’TS

LISTEN TO THE NEVER HAPPENS

THEN LISTEN CLOSELY TO ME

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN CHILD

ANYTHING CAN BE –

YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Love to all and thank you very much.

Grandpa - 2014

CHAPTER ONE

Growing Up In Brooklyn, New York - Elementary School

W ELL, WHERE DO WE START this story of a young first born son of immigrant parents, a father from Ireland via England and a mother from bonnie Scotland? I guess a good place to start is to thank my Mom and Dad for coming to this great country, the United States of America. I was fortunate to get a good education and to see much of the world at a very young age. There is no doubt in my mind that even with all the nonsense going on today and all the uncertainties that surround us, we will survive and continue to be the greatest land in the universe - why else do we have long lists of applicants to enter this country legally from every other country in the world and so many people willing to shed their life savings and face real danger to enter our country illegally? One simple reason - no better place in this world to live and be free!

My father Patrick J. Reynolds was born of Irish parents in the Northern Ireland town of Newry. His family immigrated to Liverpool in England so my Dad’s father could find some work. My Dad had four brothers and one sister. Three of his brothers also came to the United States and I had the pleasure of knowing all of them very well. My uncle John lived in California after an illustrious career in the United States Navy as a four striper and he was married to my Aunt Betty. She did very well, owning a number of beauty shops in Hemet and Bakersfield, California. My Uncle Jimmy had numerous jobs but the breadwinner in the family was his wife, Aunt Helen. She was a manager in the telephone department of the Western Union Company back in the 1930s and 1940s. Unfortunately they had no children and spent a lot of time in our home or, I should say, my parent’s home.

My father’s third brother who came to the States was my Uncle Martin. He and I had a very special bond together. He was my Godfather but also a very good friend. We had the right chemistry between us and we enjoyed being together. I was so happy in my later life that I was able to meet with him often and spend some quality time with him. His family and ours visited each other often and I have fond memories of my cousins.

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With My Cousins – Mary, Margaret and Anne Reynolds – circa 1936

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My Old Tricycle and Me – circa 1938

My father was a very hard-working gentleman. When he finished elementary school in England there was no work to be found, so he secured a job in the Merchant Marine and went to sea when he was thirteen. He was torpedoed during World War I, and then he made up his mind that he was coming to America to find the Promised Land to start a new life – and that he did.

My Dad arrived in the United States on August 4, 1917 at the young age of sixteen. He had signed on as a crew member on the ship JUSTICIA and had all his papers in order. We also have a plaque in his honor at Ellis Island in New York Harbor through which he entered the United States. Can you imagine a young boy of sixteen leaving his home, his parents, his sister and younger brothers to come to this land of opportunity with only the knowledge that one could succeed if one was willing to work hard? What a price to pay, but freedom is something that most people will pay any price to secure. He was met at the dock in New York by some cousins and went immediately to Waterbury, Connecticut, to live with them. They found him a job the day after his arrival with the New Haven Railroad Company as a laborer.

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Ellis Island Certificate – My Father’s Record of Arriving in the USA in 1917 at the Age of Sixteen

My Mom, Mary Keicher, came to this country via Canada in 1925 with a girlfriend from her hometown, Glencraig Fife, just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland. She secured a job, two days after arrival, as a nurse/nanny for a very wealthy family in Riverdale, New York, just outside of New York City. She was the oldest of ten children and she had eight brothers and the youngest child was a girl, Jean. During World War I Mom’s father, who was a barber, was interned by the British government because they accused him of not having the correct immigration papers. He had been born and raised in Stuttgart Germany and in 1916 Germany was at war with England. My grandma on my mother’s side was born in Scotland and raised in a rural town. It was unfortunate that I never met either of my grandparents on both my Mom’s and my Dad’s side. I have read many stories about them and I know I was cheated since I see how well my children took to my parents and Terry’s parents and my grandchildren’s excellent relationship with myself and Terry.

My Dad eventually moved to New York City and lived with one of his brothers in Brooklyn, Uncle Martin. Mom and Dad met at one of the many social gatherings held in those days by the different ethnic groups for all the immigrants who were arriving in New York, fleeing their countries after the devastation of World War I. Mom and Dad were married in the early 1930s during the great depression. Dad worked for what is today the New York City Transit System, operating all the subway trains and trolleys (today buses) that make New York possible to navigate.

He rose from a train conductor to the supervisor of structures of one of the system’s main lines. He set a great example for many years for my sisters and myself and all in our extended family by continually going to school after school - all at night and weekends - to better himself and to prepare for the competitive examinations so he could improve the standard of living for himself and all of us in the family. He was a real work horse for such a small (5’ 5", 135 pound) man.

He steadily moved up the ladder getting promotions to assistant foreman, then foreman, assistant supervisor and finally supervisor. Dad was always looking out for the family and always trying to move ahead; he worked many hours of overtime to make extra money. I remember very vividly his working during the winter months to shovel snow on the open platforms of the subway system to earn overtime money. He had ulcers that would cause him to become sick to his stomach. Mom would help him get back to good health and one of the remedies was to make his favorite - bread and milk with a little heavy cream.

Dad was the man that pushed me real hard from the beginning to study and to study some more. One of his famous sayings was Someone can come along and steal your money, your property, your wife BUT one thing they can’t steal is your education and your memories. Thanks Dad for being a great teacher and a splendid role model.

My Dad was a great example for me and one of the reasons for my success was following his great advice and example. I loved him very much and followed all of his examples but, unfortunately, I followed one too many and that was smoking. My Dad came down with respiratory problems and I should have learned from that but, unfortunately, I did not.

Mom did a great job in keeping the house. She was an excellent cook and made do with whatever money my Dad brought home. In those days my father was paid weekly in cash and he would come home with the envelope with the money and give it to my mother. She would take that money and put a certain amount in the many different kinds of envelopes that she maintained. There were individual envelopes to pay for insurance, butcher, groceries, milkman, rent, utilities and a few more. Although Dad was paid weekly, many of the expenses were incurred monthly. Insurance was one of the exceptions. I can never forget the insurance man from the Prudential Insurance Company, Mr. Jacoby. He would come around every other Saturday morning to collect the twenty-five cents for the policy that my Mom had on my Dad’s life. How times have changed. If by chance there was any money left over after each month, it went into a savings envelope that was immediately deposited in the Bank.

As I stated earlier, Mom did well in the kitchen and some of the dishes that she made for myself and the rest of the family we still have in our household. Terry has done super with these dishes. These include delicious steak pie with a thick hefty crust, rich brown gravy and naturally some hearty pieces of steak that would melt in your mouth. In addition, the stuffing Terry and our daughters use in our roast chickens and roast turkeys is my Mom’s recipe.

Mom always put plenty of food on the table. One of our staples was a twice weekly serving of VERY HOT homemade soup. This was necessary to meet our budget needs and Mom made some great homemade soups – maybe six to eight varieties. We were served plenty of crusty bread for dinner and a gigantic bowl of piping hot soup. Later on in life, my Mom let us in on her secret. She served it so hot that you had to take a very long time to finish it - this way you were exhausted and full. That is why today, I have to have my soup boiling hot! She tried never to sacrifice any money when it came to eating.

She believed that it was important that you have three meals a day and you ate good food. We especially were brought up with a hearty breakfast that normally included bacon, sausage or ham along with some eggs. Naturally we were brought up on tea and milk and we never had coffee in her home. I also vividly remember my mother taking the breakfast bread and dipping it in the fat of the bacon and sausage. Maybe that was why my Mom was known as the chief of the belcher’s – she was always burping and I’m sure I did inherit that from her. But she was a great woman, she had a long life to age ninety-two, and I loved her very much.

Both my parents were very religious people who attended Mass faithfully on weekends and, when they could, during the week. My father had a great devotion to Saint Francis of Assisi. When he reached the management level in the Transit Authority, he did not have to work weekends except in emergencies. Every Saturday morning he would go over to St. Francis Church on 31st Street in Manhattan near Pennsylvania Station to Mass and Confession. He did this rain or shine, hot or cold. St. Francis is where they have, even today, the daily bread line for the poor and the unfortunate. From these two simple people, Mom and Dad, I was indoctrinated in the Church and I got from them my faith that I cherish to this day. Likewise, Terry will tell you that she also received wonderful example from her parents and she received the faith from them that she has today. To this day both of us are ever grateful to our parents for this gift.

I was born in