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Volume CXVII, No. V |
February 19, 2004 |
Meet the man behind the memory
His eyes are a foggy gray, the gleam from his head is slightly obstructed by his buzzed-cut white hair and his appetite for talking with students rivals an offensive lineman's appetite on Refectory wing night.
His name is Fr. Don Talafous, a 78-year-old priest. If you haven't met him during any of the 60 years he's been at SJU, you're in the minority.
"He knows everyone. He remembers everyone's name. Incredible memory," said Refectory dietitian and manager, Jennifer Anderson. "He makes his rounds."
His rounds consist of walking into the Refectory, meandering from table to table, and sharing his toothy grin and chuckle while chatting with students.
He accredits his memory to what rubbed off from his Czech-German father and Irish mother and also his mind for trivia. "I remember names, places. Other people remember important things like the difference between good and evil," Talafous said jokingly.
At age 18, he came from his native Duluth and enrolled at SJU in 1943. Talafous entered the monastery three years later following his junior year.
After graduating with a degree in Theology, he went on to the seminary to study theology for another four years and became a priest.
He taught Theology for more than 40 years along with being the college chaplain for 15. It was in these 15 years that the self-proclaimed "bookworm" metamorphasized into the social butterfly he is today.
"I consider students to be a non-caloric, low cholesterol hors d'oeuvre, or low fat dessert," he said. Talking to students "...is just as much fun as having desserts and it doesn't add the pounds."
Talafous is currently the Alumni Association chaplain, which entails going to alumni functions, keeping tabs to write a 10-page "who's doing what" letter to more than 13,000 former students, and writing and responding to thousands of e-mails from graduated Johnnies and Bennies.
Besides fulfilling his duties as alumni chaplain, Talafous finds time to attend many of the sporting events and to say Mass at the weddings of former and current students.
"He knows almost every single person in (the Refectory), and if he doesn't he'll go up to them," said senior Marcus Needham who was wed to Theresa Nykowm last August by Talafous. Needham added that Talafous is an open person who will talk to anyone no matter who they are just to get to know them.
If you're graduating this May and you haven't met this young-at-heart old man, you might catch him in the Refectory either before he eats at the Monastery, after, and also in his office, Luke 112.
