Alumni Awards Banquet - Alumnus of the Year
Holy Cross Alumni Award Recipients
Alumnus of the Year - Thomas Kennedy, M.D. '69
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Firmin Simms - Fr. Doug Busch '75
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Young Alumnus of the Year - Edwin "Matt" Mathews Jr. '06
Alumni Awards Banquet
January 25, 2025
6p.m. - 9p.m.
Details
Sit-Down Dinner served buffet-style
Beer & Wine included
Tables of 10 can include children
Social 6-6:30p.m., then Dinner & Awards Presentation
Holy Cross is proud to introduce our
Alumni Award Recipients
Alumnus of the Year - Thomas Kennedy, M.D. '69
__________
Firmin Simms - Fr. Doug Busch '75
__________
Young Alumnus of the Year - Edwin "Matt" Mathews, Jr. '06
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Alumnus of the Year
Thomas J. Kennedy, M.D. ‘69
Married to Mary Driscoll Kennedy since August 3, 1974
Three Children: Erin “Pumpkin” Kennedy Graugnard (husband Jack Graugnard)
Michael David Kennedy (wife Rebecca)
David Patrick Kennedy, M.D.(wife Tiffany Jan, M.D.)
Education
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La. Graduated with honors 1973
LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans. Graduated December 1976
Internship: Charity Hospital of Louisiana, LSU Division January through December 1977
Residency: Charity Hospital of Louisiana, New Orleans
LSU division, Obstetrics and Gynecology, January 1978-December 1980
Served as Chief Resident 1980
Selected as Outstanding Senior Resident 1980
Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology December 1982
Career
Private practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1/1981-12/2010
Member of the active staff:
Lakeside Hospital for 30 years
East Jefferson General Hospital for 30 years
St. Jude Hospital for approximately 7 years
Doctor’s Hospital of Jefferson for many years, until its closure.
Served as Chairman and member of many hospital committees including:
Infection control
Credentials
Pharmacy and therapeutics
Utilization review
Medical staff appropriateness of care and quality review.
Served as department chairman:
East Jefferson General Hospital for 2 terms
St. Jude Hospital
Served as vice chairman:
Lakeside Hospital
Community Service
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina organized a group of 11 OB/Gyn physicians from East Jefferson General Hospital to form a call group to help at Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge to manage the large number of female obstetric and gynecological patients who were being diverted to that facility. The group handled all non-referred patients who presented to Women’s Hospital to take the load off of their staff. The East Jefferson physicians were also allowed to see their patients who were in the Baton Rouge area so there would be continuity of care.
Accolades
Physician of the Year for 2009 at East Jefferson General Hospital
Physician of the quarter for second quarter 2009, East Jefferson General Hospital
Served two terms as president of the Greater New Orleans Ob/Gyn Society
Louisiana State Medical Society Humanitarian Award 2012 for service to community.
This was in response to the actions taken during Hurricane Katrina.
Founding member of New Orleans Medical Mission Services, Inc. in 2001.
Currently Vice president of the Board and Medical Director.
Gala and Golf Tournament fundraising committees as well as anything else that needs
attention at our warehouse operations
Medical Director for Access Pregnancy from 2009-2021
Board member of The Foundation at East Jefferson General Hospital from 1/2013-12/2021
Member Rotary Club of Metairie since 2012
Board member 2013 - 2018
Serve as President July 2016-June 2017
Paul Harris Fellow—Rotary Club, also member of Paul Harris Society
City Business Healthcare Hero 2016
Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation Excellence Award 2019
Service to the community
New Orleans Medical Mission Services, Inc.
Edwin “Matt” Mathews, Jr. ‘06
Education
University of Notre Dame
2017 ▪ Ph.D. Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
2016 ▪ M.S. Aerospace Engineering
Dissertation: Numerical and Theoretical Analysis of Aero-Optics
with Application to an Optical Turret
Notable Awards:
National Science Foundation Blue Waters Supercomputing Graduate Fellowship, ND
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Donald K. Dorini Fellowship
Louisiana State University
2011 ▪ B.S. Mechanical Engineering 2009
Minor in mathematics
Career
Mezzo Technologies – Engineering Technical Leader (2023-Present)
Provide engineering oversight on roughly half of Mezzo’s projects to ensure compliance with customer technical requirements.
In addition to providing subject matter expertise and analysis support across projects, train other engineers in the use of software and methodologies critical to the design of Mezzo heat exchangers.
Review RFP/RFQ specifications and heat exchanger sizing for the business development team and provide feedback on costing and utilization estimates.
Lead Thermal-Fluids Engineer (2017-2023)
Provided support to the engineering team in the areas of heat exchanger thermal design, fluid flow, and structural design. Often brought into projects to provide expertise in the areas of fluid/gas dynamics, turbulence, and aerodynamics.
Developed and maintained software and methods used in the analysis of heat exchanger performance modeling. Principal engineer on Mezzo’s core thermal modeling and heat exchanger sizing software, developed Mezzo’s transient phase-change material heat exchanger numerical model, transient conjugate heat transfer heat exchanger numerical model, and Mezzo’s 3-D conjugate heat transfer FLUENT heat exchanger model.
Led projects through the full development process (bid and proposal, design, testing, and manufacturing) and managed supporting engineers for applications in aerospace/defense, commercial, and autosport.
Notre Dame Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Graduate Research Assistant (2011-2017)
Used high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and theoretical methods to investigate the aero-optical environmental around airborne turret systems and the spectral behavior of aero-optical distortions in compressible turbulence. Developed modules in the compressible large-eddy simulation (LES) code, CharLES, to compute aero-optical distortions in fluid flows for use on massively parallel computational systems. Recipient of the competitive NSF Blue Waters Supercomputing Fellowship to investigate the aero-optics of turrets and to develop data-mining applications to explore CFD simulation results on the Blue Waters supercomputer.
Accolades
10+ years’ experience developing and using CFD codes (RANS, LES, DNS) and writing numerical fluid dynamics software
7 years of experience in the design and analysis of microtube heat exchangers for applications at the forefront of technology (spaceflight, Formula 1, aerospace/defense, modular nuclear, several other areas)
5+ years of experience with structural FEA (static thermal and structural analysis, structural dynamics, transient thermal and structural analysis, nonlinear structural analysis)
5+ years of experience in the testing and qualification of aerospace/defense hardware
Function as the subject matter expert at Mezzo in the areas of aerodynamics, turbulence, fluid/gas dynamics, flow- induced vibration, aeroacoustics, and weld qualification per AWS D17.1 and related NDI/NDE requirements.
Practical experience in the areas of MIL-STD-810 and DO-160 qualification testing, testing and design of cryogenic fluid systems, development of scalable machine learning and statistical analysis tools, pressure vessel design per ASME Sec. VIII Div. 1 and 2, design of fracture critical hardware for spaceflight, and design for manufacturing.
Father Douglas M. Busch '75
Roman Catholic Priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
Pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish and School in Mandeville
Ordained in 2019 from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.
Education
United States Military Academy, West Point, and retired from the U.S. Army in 2002
Community Service
Fr. Doug brings a unique perspective to Catholic religious life. He was married for 31 years, had 3 sons, all Army veterans, and has 6 grandchildren, three of whom attend his school.
Fr. Doug was also an administrator in Chicago Public Schools, a Defense Contractor, and long-haul truck driver. He heard the call of God to the priesthood after suffering the loss of both his wife and oldest son and traveling over 5 year and a million miles across the U.S. and Canada in his Freightliner, his mobile monastic cell.
Fr. Doug shepherds 4,000 families and 825 students with the 2nd largest workforce in the City of Mandeville. Established in 1850, Our Lady of the Lake is a vibrant and thriving 2021 Emmy award-winning entity with 42 ministries. Three-time National Blue Ribbon award-winning, Cognia STEM-certified, and Project Led The Way (PLTW) curriculum Distinguished School, OLL is without question, one of the best schools in the nation.
Fr. Doug attributes his life’s journey to a service-oriented Catholic upbringing. Adhering to the virtues, values, and attitudes of the Holy Cross Man, he consistently attempted to give his time, talents, and resources to the Church.
As a military veteran and faithful citizen, Fr. Doug considers it a great honor to receive the Firmin Simms Award.
| Holy Cross Men of the Year | ||
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1966 The Late Dewey E. Cognevich ’17 The Late Mark J. Falgoust ’23 The Late Dr. Salvatore R. DiGrado ’41 Joseph D. Beach, Sr. ’31 ♰ Joseph L. Heap ’50 ♰ |
1975 William S. Smith, Jr. ’42 ♰
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1983 J. Patrick Lynch ’60 ♰ |
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1967 The Late Albert C. Schott ’05 The Late John J. Lynch ’26 Daniel J. Lyons ’35 ♰ Jerry Romig ’46 ♰ Al Hanzo ’47 ♰ J.P. Delaney III ’53 ♰ Gawain DiBetta ’63 |
1976 Clement J. Dufau ’28 ♰
|
1984 Terry McCarthy ’65 |
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1968 The Late John F. Monie ’28 The Late Chester A. Wooten ’32 Grover Rees ’08 ♰ James R. McCarthy ’41 Thomas Toranto, Jr. ’52 ♰ |
1977 John S. Sciambra ’39 ♰
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1985 Stanley Brandon ’42 ♰
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1969 A.J.M. Oustalet ’40 ♰ |
1978 Dr. Frank Minyard ’47 |
1988 Francis Gomila ’54 ♰
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1970 The Late Leonard C. Wise ’24 |
1979 Monsignor John L. Fos ’40
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1989 Richard Watson ’66
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1971 Louis A. Frey ’40 ♰ |
1980 Warren Deckert ’41 ♰ |
1990 Frank France ’44
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1972 Octave J. Tournillon, M.D. ’44 ♰
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1981 The Late A. Ray Treuting ’41 |
|
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1973 Vincent J. Caruso ’42 ♰ |
1982 Larry Landry ’54
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| Alumnus of the Year | ||
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2011-2012 Monseigneur Robert Massett ’55 |
2015-2016 Ron Blitch ’71 |
2019-2020 Ronald Toomer ‘51 |
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2012-2013 Clarence DuBos ’72 |
2016-2017 Roy Mouledous ’70 |
2020-2021 Charles DiGange ‘64 |
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2013-2014 William Chauvin ’70 |
2017 - 2018 Steve Donnes ’76 |
2023-2024
Jack Jensen '74
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2014-2015 Glenn C. Dubroc, Jr., D.D.S. ’82 |
2018-2019 Alvin Albe ’71 |
Alumnus of the Year
Award
I. Mandatory Requirements
A. The candidate for the award shall be an alumnus of Holy Cross School in New Orleans, LA.
B. He must have rendered noteworthy service of exceptional character to the school, community, church, or in their chosen profession.
It is recognized that the nature and value of noteworthy service might take the form of a single plan or actions which contributed to the lives of large numbers of individuals or that the service might be given to a small group over an extended period of time.
II. Desirable Requirements
A. Service to Holy Cross School.
1. That the candidate has some experience in service to multiple areas of Holy Cross School.
2. His service should be regarded as outstanding or distinctive beyond the expectation of normal duty.
B. A record of exemplary service and standing in the community.
1. That the candidate has some experience in service to the community.
2. His service should be regarded as outstanding or distinctive beyond the expectation of normal duty.
C. Service to his church.
1. That the candidate has some experience in service to his church.
2. His service should be regarded as outstanding or distinctive beyond the expectation of normal duty.
D. Noteworthy accomplishments and achievements in their chosen profession.
1. That the candidate has been awarded or recognized for noteworthy accomplishments or achievements in their chosen profession.
2. His service should be regarded as outstanding or distinctive beyond the expectation of normal duty.
Young Alumnus of the Year
Award
To be bestowed to an Holy Cross Alumnus in less than 20 years of graduation and who has rendered noteworthy service to the school, community, church, or within his chosen profession. He cannot be a current employee of the school.
Firmin Simms
Award
It was also noted that there are many alumni who have done extraordinary work in their respective communities or area of expertise deserving of recognition, but who would not be eligible for Alumnus of the Year, by virtue of the criteria for the latter. Thus, we created the Holy Cross Service Award. This award shall, at the committee's discretion (so not necessarily an annual award), be bestowed periodically to a Holy Cross alumnus that has demonstrated a lifetime of service to his community and/or outstanding accomplishments within his profession, thus representative of the ideals embodies within the words of the Holy Cross Man. This award is distinguished from the Alumnus of the Year award because the latter recognizes an individual for his body of service and/or support specifically to Holy Cross.