John Fossa ’72 grew up in Springfield, Mass. “I started as a physics major but became enthralled with philosophy,” he says. “I also took a lot of literature courses and continued to take some advanced physics courses after changing majors. I always felt equally at home in the sciences and the humanities.”
While pursuing graduate studies in philosophy at Fordham University in New York City, he met the woman who was to be his first wife—a Brazilian named Graça. After receiving his master’s degree, he settled with his wife in Natal, Brazil.
Fossa’s teaching career began at Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. After a few years, he moved to the Federal University of Paraiba in João Pessoa, where he began research on the mathematics in Plato with a fellow American and philosophy professor, Glenn W. Erickson. Eventually returning to Natal to serve as a professor of mathematics, Fossa came to the United States in 1994 to pursue his Ph.D. in mathematics education. A prolific author and editor—with 23 books and 88 book chapters, as well as articles in periodicals and proceedings to his credit—he has made more than 200 presentations at scientific events.
Fossa’s oldest son, Rudolfo, is currently pursuing a master’s degree in music in the United States; his oldest daughter, Camilla, is in Brazil—studying for a master’s degree in physics. With his second wife, Glória, he has two daughters, Leilani and Ursula, both in grammar school.
For some, the urge to travel begins with a moment of pure romance. Jim Dubksy ’69 grew up in Worcester when faces other than white were few—and his uncle’s Japanese wife was the first Asian he had seen “close up and personal.” He was “totally mesmerized.”
Joining the Peace Corps in 1969, Dubsky was assigned to Thailand, where he taught English.
“There was a USAF base on the other side of town, so at night I would sit on my veranda and watch the fighter jets take off for their sorties over Vietnam,” he says. “It was a rather weird dichotomy. There I was, a supposed messenger of peace in this foreign land, watching my fellow countrymen waging war in another.”
Dubsky returned to the United States to teach, but the East retained its allure for him. In 1977, he took a teaching job in Bangkok and, in 1979, he became a caseworker processing refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, for admission into the United States.
“I know that I have helped thousands of people find a better life,” Dubsky says, “and that gives me a great feeling of accomplishment.”
He now teaches English at Pranakorn Rajabhat University in Bangkok.
“When you are a foreigner living in Asia, you always stand out,” Dubsky says. “Your long nose and fair skin give you away. You learn very quickly that you are in the minority. You sometimes get discriminated against. You sometimes feel ignored. As a result, I think I now have much more empathy with minorities throughout the world.”
Rev. John Donohue, S.J., ’48 was a commuter student from Worcester’s South Main Street. Having joined the Navy V-12 officer recruitment program at Holy Cross during World War II, he was assigned to a destroyer as a gunnery officer. After the war, he returned to finish his degree with other veterans—and remembers that the College authorities found it somewhat difficult to deal with these world-wise young men.
“Fr. Deevy could not understand why anyone would want to stay out after midnight on Saturday,” Fr. Donohue says, “and he was scandalized to hear that people were drinking beer in Breen’s Café.”
After taking his vows as a Jesuit, Fr. Donohue volunteered for the Baghdad mission. He came back to the United States to study for his Ph.D. in Arabic medieval history at Harvard and then returned to Baghdad, where he assumed the position of superior of the mission. But he—and all the other Jesuits in the country—were expelled in 1968 after the Baathist coup. Relocating to Lebanon, Fr. Donohue then directed the Middle East Research Center at St. Joseph University in Beirut. He remained at that post until 2004, when he began writing and publishing; Fr. Donohue is currently editing and translating letters dating from the 10th century.
“We were ‘missioned’ to Baghdad,” he says, “and it was there that my notion of mission was forged. In Baghdad, the only convert we had was a Chinese student. We were not trying to convert; we were educating Iraqi youth—and being immersed in another culture.”
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The travels of Victor Luis ’88 began after graduation when he went to the University of Durham in the United Kingdom to study for a master’s degree. His dissertation was on trade and relations between the European Union and Japan.
“This was during the booming days in the Japanese economy—and I decided with a friend to go to the Land of the Rising Sun and start a company,” Luis says. “We had a small trading and consulting company, which, given our lack of experience and naiveté, did not last long.”
However, the experience he gained in fine wines won him a job as director of marketing for Hennessy Cognac, Moet & Chandon Champagne and Dom Perignon Champagne. In 2002, he moved to New York as chief operating officer for Baccarat North America. Last year, Luis accepted a similar position with Coach Japan, which took him back to the East.
“Having been overseas so long, I have lost contact with many of my Holy Cross connections,” he says. But, on his single visit back to the College since graduation, he took his family.
“The campus looked as wonderful as ever and did put a bit of a spark in my 7-year-old son to learn more about life at Holy Cross,” Luis says.
“The universal principles of a Jesuit education hold true whether you’re in the United States, Africa or Japan,” he continues. “My international lifestyle is to me something very natural, and the world does feel very small indeed with my regular 12-hour flights to New York becoming somewhat of a shuttle!”
Far-Flung Friends continued>>>
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