ONE ICON LEFT OUT

Many thanks to Bruce Fisher for the marvelous article “Choosing Icons” (Artvoice, July 5).However the missing “icon” in the story, right up there with Wright and Slawinski, is Father Gerenscer, undoubtedly the heart and soul of Calasanctius, the school he founded and led for gifted children on Windsor Ave.

As a parent of one of the students, I recall the excellent teaching led by Fr. Gerencser and conducted by Eugene Hegedus and the Piarist Fathers. Students came from all over the country—many of them the children of well known leaders. The Calasanctius education, including the crazy field trips in the school’s broken down bus, turned many of these kids into national leaders as well.

Later I had the pleasure of working at the school as Development Director. One of our parents, owner of the Four Seasons Restaurant in NYC, came to cook for one of the many fund raising dinners. Afraid he might not find doves in the Buffalo food markets, he brought them with him on the airplane. He and Fr. Gerencser stood side by side in the kitchen cooking that night.

Yes, I can picture the good father telling Frank Lyoyd Wright why it was necessary to make a change in his design at Graycliff to allow for a chapel!

Doris Jones

Buffalo