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Crusader Chronicles
Bob Credle ’65
By Mary Ellen Eagan ‘75
In 1960, Joe Reilly ’55 encouraged Bob Credle, ’65, to attend Holy Cross. Thirty-five years later, Joe called upon Bob to return to Holy Cross and work with on behalf of today’s students.
Why did you attend Holy Cross?
I ran track in high school, and my first encounter with Holy Cross was watching a track meet at White Stadium in Boston’s Franklin Park where five members of the Holy Cross track team were competing. Senior year in high school, I had been accepted to Boston College with a scholarship, but as a day student. I knew Joe Reilly ’55 because he was active in organizing Boston’s CYO program and I played CYO basketball, and Joe encouraged me to apply to Holy Cross. I did apply and was accepted with a full scholarship for tuition, room board and books. I really wanted to live on campus so I accepted Holy Cross.
What did you find when you arrived at Holy Cross in September 1961?
There were no women at Holy Cross then. But there were a few African students on campus, and four other African-American students-one senior from Brooklyn, who was on the football team, a junior and two other freshmen, one from Detroit and one from Kansas City. Back then, Worcester itself didn’t have a large African-American population so there was no one around who could even tell us where to go to get our hair cut. Little things like that can make life pretty lonely. The isolation was tough on my classmates; one left after three months, the other after a year and a half.
You seemed to thrive at Holy Cross -- you were an RA, co-captain of the track team and the New England champion for the 880. What was life like for you?
My family had moved into an all-white neighborhood, Roxbury, when it was an Irish neighborhood with some Italians, so I was prepared for life at Holy Cross. I had great roommates, Bob Albert from Long Island during freshman year and then Jack Owens in sophomore year. In my junior year, I lived with an African student. That experience taught me people of the same race can be different and people of different races can be very similar. Though even your friends can see you through the lens of race; for example, once my friends convinced me to join them at a dance at Ana Maria College because they knew the right girl for me. The girl was an African princess, and we couldn’t have been more different.
And after Holy Cross?
I worked at Verizon and retired a few years ago as director of their Corporate Data Services. I think my skills at listening and learning allowed me to work with both union members and Verizon customers while managing a team that integrated new technologies into Verizon’s existing systems. But in retirement I’m busier than ever. Now, I’m working with Urban Edge, a non-profit in affordable housing that helps first-time home buyers in the immigrant community enter the housing market. We develop foreclosure prevention programs and teach people how to manage their credit. I’m also back at Holy Cross helping with the Bishop Healy Committee’s activities.
What is the Bishop Healy Committee?
The Healy Committee is an arm of the General Alumni Association. It was founded in 1979 by Dr. John McDonald ’42 and is named for James Healy, the valedictorian for Holy Cross’s first graduating class, the first Bishop of Maine, and an African-American. The Healy Committee’s early goals were to help foster interracial understanding, interaction and friendship within the Holy Cross community. Joe Reilly, ‘55, my friend from my CYO days, began working with the Healy Committee on a part-time basis in the mid-1990s. He was committed to the goals of the Healy Committee. When Joe called me, I responded like a soldier reporting to a centurion: “Just tell me what you want me to do.”
What were your goals when you joined the committee?
We found we needed to invigorate the organization’s mission. We visited with African-American alumni around the country and asked them to get involved with current students as mentors and with the school as resources. We encouraged current students to promote the Holy Cross experience back at their high schools to help the recruiting effort. While we worked the institutional side of things at the college, we also helped students find summer jobs, stay on track academically, and encouraged them to be involved in campus activities, something we thought would help keep them at Holy Cross. I think students who have been involved with the Healy Committee have developed really impressive resumes after their four years at Holy Cross.
Has the committee changed since you’ve been involved?
Along the way, the Bishop Healy Committee broadened its reach to all ALANA (African-American, Latin American, Asian-American, and Native American heritage) students. The Healy Committee and ALANA students are now just a natural part of Holy Cross life, and ALANA students are active participants in it. ALANA students will make up 18 percent of the first-year class arriving in September. That’s compared to 11 percent when I started working with the committee. Joe Reilly has retired from the Healy Committee, which means he’s only spending something like two days a week in Worcester. Lus Colon-Rodriguez ’05 is now heading the Bishop Healy Committee, and I’m really optimistic about its future because Lus brings a young, fresh view, yet she also mirrors the supportive, caring and Christian values that Joe Reilly brought the Healy Committee.
Mary Ellen Eagan ‘75 is a member of the GAA’s Communications Committee.