Merrill Foto News Fotos from the Past
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Merrill and the rest of Lincoln County are digging out after two waves of snow pounded the area into the New Year. Snow moved into the area early Monday morning and piled up to nearly a foot by the time the storm had ended. Fierce winds then caused blowing and drifting leaving many roads impassable. Schools were called off, and many businesses closed or worked with skeleton crews. Local factories all went back to work after the holiday weekend only to close up and send their workers home by 8:00 AM. Merrill firemen reported they put chains on all the city trucks but could not promise making a run into the rural area with impassable roads. Crews started early Monday morning and then went back out late Monday night after a quick rest. Merchants reported selling out quickly on toboggans, shovels, and tire chains.
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U.S. Ambassador to UAE John Rakolta Jr. (Left) and U.S. Ambassador
to Morocco
David Fischer (right). (Photos courtesy State Dept.)
In the spring of 2018, David Fischer and John Rakolta Jr. were presidential nominees, awaiting Congressional approval before assuming their posts as U.S. ambassadors, respectively, to Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
Neither of the two financial backers of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, both of whom are Oakland County businessmen and longtime GOP partisans, could foresee how relatively short their diplomatic postings would be due to the many months of partisan bickering that delayed their confirmation by the Senate, capped by Trump’s electoral defeat.
Death of a Priest-Educator
Father Gerard Sloyan poses for a photo with Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton, N.J., in this 2019 file photo. Father Sloyan, who was the Diocese of Trenton’s oldest priest and longest ordained, died Feb. 23, 2020, at age 100. (Photo: CNS/courtesy The Monitor)
During this pandemic I have had an interesting but strange experience of walking down memory lane. Some of the strolls have been completely voluntary, some have intruded time and time again uninvited and I have not been able to figure out why.
What I mean is events that happened when I was in high school or when I was a young parish priest or when I was a student in graduate school as a young priest keep recurring. Most are pleasant memories but not all. Some wonderful memories are related to my friendship with Father Gerard Sloyan whose death at the age of 100 on Feb. 23, 2020, I learned of recently.