Alexander Landowski ’19

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“Many things have changed since I was a student at Jesuit, but Brother Casey has remained a constant. He has been an inspiration to me for decades. I’ll miss our hallway conversations and listening to his many, many stories. Brother is  truly one of a kind. I will miss him dearly.”

–Ken Lojo ‘91

 

“I’ll never forget thinking that he had an underground tunnel system or that he could walk through walls – anytime I ever even thought about misbehaving as a student, he would appear out of nowhere! It was always clear, though, that he cared deeply about every boy at Strake Jesuit. He wanted to get to know you, he wanted to know your story, and he was invested in helping you succeed. We’ll never have another Br. Casey at Strake Jesuit. He will be greatly missed.”

–Thomas Beverick ‘07

 

“Each day he prays for each Alumnus as they celebrate their birthday. They probably have no idea that Br. Casey is praying for them, but he does so faithfully, each and every day and has done so for years.”

“He was raised and taught by his father that you should always pray for the deceased and pay your respects. Br. Casey is faithful in attending funerals for deceased members of the Jesuit community – especially Alumni. He has probably attended hundreds of funerals and visitations during his time here at Jesuit to pay his respects and offer condolences to the grieving families.”

“To this day, I cannot walk on grass because of Br. Casey. There is always a perfectly good pathway to be utilized.”

–Kelly Halaszyn ‘06

 

“Brother Casey Ferlita is a permanent fixture in my memory. Salt of the earth, selfless, sincere, he has been involved in the life of students for decades. He knew when you were wrong, doing something wrong, and he also knew when something was wrong!”

“Senior year when I slacked off, he knew and he asked me what was up.  Why? Because he cared!  When my father passed away nearly 8 years after I graduated, he called and personally gave me his condolences, Why? Because he cared!  Both monumental and branded in my memory forever.”

–Shawn Vacek ‘91

 

“He’d begin his morning prayers by looking at the list to see who had birthdays that day, and keeping those specific alumni in his prayers that day.”

“First, he would frequently come by my office and ask about a specific person with a birthday that day and he wasn’t looking at his list when he did that.  A lot of times that was mainly about people who hadn’t been back to campus in a long time and that he hadn’t seen.  Second, and probably my most favorite, was seeing him walking around campus and calling over a student (the son of an Alumnus who happened to have a birthday that day) with his famous ‘Hey Boy, come over here!’  The student would go to Casey expecting of course to be in trouble, but Br. would put his hand on their shoulder and then give them the familiar finger in the air while talking and tell them ‘Tell your dad to have a Happy Birthday for me!’  The look on the face of the student was always priceless.”

“He’d come sit in my office and he’d have the page from the obituary among the papers on his clipboard he’d always carry around.  Sometimes, we’d already received notification from the family or a classmate, but many times, we had not heard anything about it yet – and he’d be the first to let me know.  Some names were pretty obvious – Alumni and their families that were really connected to Strake Jesuit – and other times he’d recognize names in the obituaries of people who hadn’t been around in a very long time.  I’d look them up in our database to verify the information was correct – and most times it was.  I asked him how he could remember all these names when he read the obituaries – especially with those who he hadn’t seen in years.  He told me that if he wasn’t sure, he’d take out a piece of paper and begin writing their name down on it. Most times he’d then remember some PH he’d given them as he was writing their name – because he’d written it down in the past for the PH.”

–Tim Scalzitti ‘90