Fr. John Scott 75th Jubilee Guestbook

DEAR FR. SCOTT,

THANKS BE TO GOD AND TO YOU FOR YOUR 75 YEARS OF 
OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE AND DEDICATION.  IT WAS A DISTINCT
PRIVILEGE TO KNOW YOU DURING THE YEARS AT CAMPION.

             RESPECTFULLY & FRATERNALLY,
             FR. PAUL OTTING
             CAMPION CLASS OF '53
             ORDAINED PRIEST FOR ARCHIDIOCESE OF DUBUQUE '66

Dear Father Scott,
What a special milestone for a very special man.
I wish you a most delightful and special day as you celebrate 75 years of 
fulfilling God's purposes on earth.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
As I look back on my years at Campion and though I may have complained
some during that time, I have often looked back and marvel at the great
times and fantastic education I received.  So positive is my memory that
I had full intentions of sending our children to Campion, but fate chose
otherwise.

I often told stories to our children about my high school.  Among those
stories there were several about you:
 
There was the story of this priest with a "booming" sermon voice who
always marveled at his God as he saw Him in the heavens that he so much
admired.  These were the same heavens that made him an equal to such
famous men of science as Verner Von Braun.
 
There were stories about how we played tricks on you in class when you
turned out the lights to demonstrate the powers of magnetic fields to
light up a fluorescent tube.  During that momentary darkness, we would all
switch seats in an effort to throw off your memory of our names based on
the seating chart.
 
There were the stories of my bringing you copper, sulfur, and other
minerals from the mines in Chile where my father worked -- and how you
delighted in God's wonderful creation.
 
I remember you enjoying the wines from Chile I brought for you and others
to use during your daily masses in Lawler Hall.  I enjoyed being an alter
boy for you during those times.
 
All these are fond memories and stories I keep fresh in my heart.
 
Though we are now miles apart, we are joined in our love for a wonderful
and marvelous Creator.  It has taken me awhile, but I think I understand
now what you knew so well back then about the Awesomeness of God.  I have
learned to see Him in all things...be they the smallest grain of sand --
to the largest concept of infinite heavenly space.  I, in part from your
inspiration, have reserved the word "AWESOME" to be used only in
description of the Almighty.
 
Have a blessed day, a wonderful year, and my wish that you have many more!
 
In fond memory,

David Robbins
Class of 1965

Dear Father Scott,

You would not remember me, but I am one of several Campion students who has 
traveled with your positive influence. You were the perfect answer to the 
"Enlightenment", a man who could thrive with both science and theology. 
Thank you for your guidance.

And yes... any man should know that V=IR; easy as P=IE

Dear Fr. Scott,
Congratulations as you celebrate the diamond jubilee of your ordination!
There can't be too many others that have passed that milestone.

From time to time over the years, as I have gotten the sense of being
particularly blessed, I have concluded that it must be due in no small way
to the many prayers of Campion faculty for their former students.
Thank you for all you have done for the many men that have passed through
your classes, both at the time and in your continuing prayers!

I thought that you might like to know that the ONLY book I have kept from
my Campion years is your 1958 effort, "Wonderland." (I wanted to share it
with my children...turned out there were five.) I just noticed a couple of
days ago when I looked it over again that it was dedicated to your mother.
May she rest in peace where perpetual light shines upon her.

I'll close with a poem I thought you'd appreciate if you have not heard it
before.

A Child, My Choice

Let folly praise that fancy loves,
          I praise and love that child
Whose heart, no thought; whose tongue, no word;
          Whose hand no deed defiled.

I praise him most, I love him best,
          All praise and love is his:
While him I love, in him I live,
          And cannot live amiss.

Love's sweetest mark, laud's highest theme,
          Man's most desired light:
To love him, life; to leave him, death;
          To live in him, delight.

He mine, by gift, I his, by debt:
          Thus each, to other due:
First friend he was: best friend he is:
          All times will try him true.

Though young, yet wise; though small, yet strong;
          Though man, yet God he is:
As wise, he knows; as strong, he can;
          As God, he loves to bliss.

His knowledge rules, his strength defends;
          His love doth cherish all.
His birth, our joy; his life, our light;
          His death, our end of thrall.

Alas, he weeps, he sighs, he pants,
          Yet do the angels sing;
Out of his tears, his sighs and throbs,
          Doth bud a joyful spring.

Almighty Babe, whose tender arms
          Can force all foes to fly;
Correct my faults, protect my life,
          Direct me when I die.

Robert Southwell, S.J. 
(1561-1595)

Best regards,

Jon Anderson '61 

Dear Father John, 
 
No ¨Jubilee Celebration¨ of yours would be complete without making
reference to the wonderful gift with which God has blessed us – your
gift with words and the gift of your poetic imagination.

More than 50 years have past, and I still recall the opening words of a
sermon you gave in Our Lady of Angels Chapel at Campion. I don’t remember
all that you said, but your deep, booming voice etched these words in my
memory:

   ¨When the sun sets in the Golden Monstrance of the West…¨

You wanted us to see God not only in the ¨Benediction Monstrance, but in
all of life.
 
When I think of your 75th Jubilee celebration, I also recall the words of
a poem we learned at Campion:
 
   ¨Blow, bugle,  blow!  Set the wild echoes flying. . .

That, indeed, is what Jubilees are all about.


Two weeks ago I attended the ordination ceremony of a ¨young¨
(he’s in his forties! ) Jesuit priest of the Chicago Province. The
ordaining Bishop quoted the words of Jesus at the Last Supper:
 ¨You have not chosen me.  I have chosen you to bear fruit, fruit that
will last.¨
 
What a  fruitful life you have lived, and how blessed we have been in
God’s call to you and your generous response to that call.


Congratulations!, and may God continue to bless you with much joy in
this Jubilee Year.
 
Sincerely,
Gene Nevins, S.J. ´50

Fr. Scott,
                 I must confess that I'm not sure whether
this was you or Fr. Millman saying this, but it is so
like you -- given your exceedingly high interest in
space, the stars and the heavens...
                 Utilizing a part of the scheduled time
in one of your classes  (1952, I'd say), you expounded
on this fantastic new concept that scientists have of
putting one missile on top of another  -- they call them
"stages" --  such that when the first one is "used up"
the second one fires up. Just think of the possibilities!
Some day they could probably stack enough of them at
once to go to the moon.
                  I've never forgotten that; and I wonder if
it ever had some subconscious influence in my choice of
careers. I was privileged to have been on the launch
team for 15 lunar and interplanetary missions of the
Atlas Space Launch Vehicle from Cape Canaveral.
                  Sincerest congratulations -- and Thanks --
to you on this magnificent occasion of 75 years. (They say
the first 75 are the hardest!) God bless you for all the
good you have caused on His earth.
                                Tom Phillipp, Class of '53