Father Ted Honored with a Grove of Trees

Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, was honored by alumni and friends of Holy Cross College with the naming of a landscaped garden and grove of trees—the new Hesburgh Grove.

The Grove was designed by Purdue University landscape architecture student Kimberly Leja, daughter of alumnus Philip Leja and the goddaughter of Br. Lawrence Unfried, CSC, Associate Professor of Biology.

On hand for the dedication ceremony were donor, Jerry Hammes –who along with his wife Dorene funded the grove project, his daughter, Sue Kruggel, and son-in-law, Kevin Kruggel; Holy Cross Trustee Paul Laughlin, Rev. Hugh Cleary, the eleventh Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross; and many other friends and donors.   

In speaking of the beauty and importance of the trees, Father Ted drew a hearty laugh from the audience by reminding them that there were some living things in Notre Dame, Indiana that had been around even longer than he. He concluded by reciting the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer.

 

Trees

By Joyce Kilmer. 1886–1918

I THINK that I shall never see     

A poem lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest     

Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day,        

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear     

A nest of robins in her hair;  

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;     

Who intimately lives with rain.  

Poems are made by fools like me,     

But only God can make a tree.