A sketch received from Jim Hennegan around 1971 – with a laugh.

South Bend, IN has its good qualities but who’s ever heard South Bend’s weather included on that list?
The exceptions are our own John McCoy and Dennis Gallagher, who both found their climate situations improved when they matriculated at Notre Dame.
“We both came for the mild climate,” John McCoy said, “but the dispute was over who had bettered his lot the most.”
Dennis is from Oswego, NY, which is on the east end of Lake Ontario and directly in the path of the Lake Ontario lake effect.
John is from Bradford, PA (about 80 miles south of Buffalo and 2 miles south of the NY/PA line). Bradford is due east of about the first 200 miles of Lake Erie (the shore line eventually bears north east toward Buffalo). As a result, says John, Bradford gets the bulk of the Lake Erie lake effect and much worse winters than Buffalo sees.
John says he and Dennis have debated the issue for many years. Then a third party stepped into the argument.
“I claimed victory a few years ago,” John said, “when the Weather Channel set up an NCAA BB style bracket of 64 cities and had its viewers vote on which ones had the worst weather. Bradford won in the east region and in its semi-final match-up, but lost to Fargo, ND in the final. If I recall correctly, Bradford was the only one of the six cities that Fargo faced to hold it under 60 percent of the vote.”
And what about present locations? Neither classmate returned to old haunts. Instead, they both live in the DC area, where NBC news reporter Pat Collins keeps track of snowfall with a blue stick and lots of commentary.
In revisiting the argument, John sent two links:
Perhaps global warming is having an effect:
http://www.bradfordera.com/news/article_aeb1420c-9352-11e2-b44f-0019bb2963f4.html

This is the weather channel’s description of Bradford’s climate from the 2011 competition:
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/final-four-bradford-pa_2011-03-25

New York City resident Tom Fitzharris says graduating from the General Program of Liberal Studies turned out to be a big asset. Just take a look at the images of Tom’s work.

Bad Spring 2001 by Tom Fitzharris

Since leaving fulltime work as head of Court TV’s website, Tom has turned plenty of spare time to painting. He is also part of the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he draws on his General Studies knowledge while conducting tours for school groups.

Tom’s painting “Fall Interior” was among the works of Met employees included in a special exhibit during 2014. Another work was part of a similar exhibit in 2012.

“Fall Interior” by Tom Fitzharris

Tom had to miss the 45^th class reunion when it conflicted with a long-sought honor, selection as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, where he spent two weeks. In July, 2014, the art critic David Cohen (www.artcritical.com) made Tom’s work “Landscape” part of an exhibit in the Manhattan gallery Bowery, located in Chelsea. Tom also has a work included in the permanent collection of the US mission to the United Nations.

 Tom’s email address is: tom.fitzharris@gmail.com

“Landscape” by Tom Fitzharris