Adventures in Philosophy at Notre Dame

Epilogue

309 epilogue ernan’s Memorial Mass Synne is behovely but alle shalle be wele [All thynge] and alle maner of thynge shalle be wele. —Julian of Norwich, A Book of Shewings Ernan officially retired from the university in 1994 at the age of sixtynine , but retained his previous office in Decio Faculty Hall. His home then was at the end of Oak Park Drive in South Bend, where he had lived for over twenty years. In 2001 he moved with the department to another office in newly constructed Malloy Hall, occupying a space on the first floor to avoid walking up stairs. As part of the ceremony marking the opening of Malloy Hall, the university had granted Ernan an honorary degree. Other dignitaries receiving honorary degrees on this occasion were his friend Bas van Fraassen of Princeton, well-known Cardinal Avery Dulles of Fordham, and liberation theologian Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, also of ND. At the time, Fr. Gutiérrez and Ernan were the only faculty granted ND honorary degrees while still in residence. Although retired, Ernan remained active in departmental affairs as long as he occupied the office in Malloy. He attended faculty meetings, spent time in the Reilly Center, and entertained graduate students in epilogue 310 his home and elsewhere. Then within months after Fr. Malloy resigned as president in 2005, Ernan’s ties with the university were mysteriously severed. Colleagues in Malloy were puzzled to find his office vacated overnight. He put his house up for sale within weeks thereafter, moving it quickly in mid-2006 before the market collapsed. Furniture had to be disposed of, books had to be packed, and letters of fond memory had to be shredded. The more laborious of these tasks were completed with the help of former colleagues from various departments in the university. Ernan then set off for an apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, which had been rented with the help of longtime friends Dick and Annette Conklin. Dick had been ND’s associate vice-president of university relations until he retired in 2001. Annette is the sister of Anita Pampusch , who had received a PhD under Ernan’s direction in 1972 and who served as president of nearby St. Catherine’s College from 1984 to 1997. Dick Conklin is one of my two primary sources of information about Ernan’s time in the Twin Cities. Ernan’s apartment was a ten-minute drive from the MinneapolisSt . Paul International Airport. Proximity to the airport was important, inasmuch as he continued to give talks around the country and still enjoyed going to professional meetings. Before long, Ernan had established a travel routine to which he adhered for the rest of his life. Home base during fall and spring was his St. Paul apartment. Most of his academic travel took place during these two seasons. Between trips there was time for frequent social interchanges with the Conklins and other close friends in the Twin Cities area. On Sunday Ernan would go to Mass in the largely African American parish of St. Peter Claver, where Fr. Kevin McDonough was pastor. The two priests first met when Fr. McDonough was vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Ernan had approached Fr. McDonough to “give notice of his residence” in the diocese, but did not request “ecclesiastical authorization for ministerial work” such as saying Mass in public.1 The two subsequently became firm friends and met periodically for dinner and conversation. Fr. McDonough is my other main source of information about Ernan’s life in the Twin Cities. ernan’s Memorial Mass 311 Ernan spent winters and summers during this time in the more temperate climate of Northern Ireland. Ernan’s sister Maire and her husband (a veterinarian) had built a house on a hill overlooking Donegal Bay, and later added an apartment for Ernan’s use. Maire once had been women’s golf champion of Ireland, but recently had begun showing signs of dementia and did not leave the house frequently. It so happened that her husband died about the time Ernan sold his house in South Bend. So during the time Ernan was in Donegal, brother and sister set up housekeeping together. Ernan would go shopping and do routine maintenance, while Maire did the cooking and provided loving companionship. According to David Burrell, my informant on this phase of Ernan’s life, daily practice of the household included...