I got my MBA in marketing, from Loyola University, Chicago, on a part time basis, in 1976. I thought about what I would like to do, or what could I do, since I had another degree. Dale Hoffman was no longer my boss, since he had been assigned to another Ward’s store. I had told Hoffman that I was not interested in human resources. I thought about what to do. One of my co-workers had a friend who worked at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He said that he could help us become traders on the CBOE. We were both interested until we found out that we would have to put up our houses as collateral for the purchase of a seat on the Exchange. We both backed out, but I heard that you could rent a seat for around $1500 a month. That seemed okay with me. Thus, I spent six months as an options trader in Chicago on the CBOE floor. I liked the new lifestyle, with a daily train ride to work and weekends off. However, I could not figure out how to make money. I would always break even, with somedays a little gain and some days a little loss. One day, there was a mistake of $100,000. Then I knew that I was in over my head. Iran captured Americans in their embassy in November of 1979 that threw all the markets off. I decided that I needed a more stable type of job. Luckily, Margaret was still working. She pushed me to get a job. I saw an ad in a local newspaper for an on the road salesman. I thought of the play, “The Death of a Salesman.” Anyway, I got the job where I reported to this guy who was a super enthusiastic salesman. I lasted a month, after a week in Memphis, Tennessee. I sold some signs, but not enough to sustain a good lifestyle since, it was a complete commission job, where your pay was the down payment on the sign that you sold. That Gulf Sign company is still going today. Margaret reminded me that I needed a job that actually paid money. I got a one-year contract from Prudential Insurance in Palos Heights, Il, another south suburban town close to my house in Matteson, so I had a twenty-minute drive to work. They paid me $12,000 a year to learn to be an insurance agent and sell life insurance. After that, I would be on my own. At least, it was something. I loved learning about the various kinds of insurance, but I did not like the cold calling to people about why they needed life insurance. Of course, I sold a life insurance policy to Margaret and myself. I got the commissions from them. However, I was not a great insurance salesman. As 1981 was ending, I knew that I needed a change of venue. I was not going to be a life insurance person for life. Thus, I spent the late 1970s and early 1980s learning about stocks, options, salesmanship, and selling insurance, but made very little money doing so. Have you ever been a salesperson?
Travels in the mid-1970s
Once we got settled in Matteson, we took some trips. I was surprised at all the hidden expenses of home ownership. Everybody wanted to sell us things for our new house and new baby. Besides, a couple of car trips to South Dakota and New Jersey, Margaret and I found time to go to Las Vegas. My mother baby-sat Joy and got to see our house. Later in the 1970s, she sold her house in Carteret for $15,000 and I was the mortgage holder. She moved to Illinois and finally settled at a Senior Home, Thornwood House in University Park, IL. We were part of a Woodgate Bowling team, since this Kaufman and Broad subdivision was called Woodgate. They even built a grade school that was called Woodgate school that still exists today. I decided to go to the 1976 Montreal Olympics, by car. I had become more aware of the pros and cons of car driving in our trips to Dell Rapids, South Dakota, and Carteret, New Jersey. This was one of my first planned car trips as we went to Michigan and Upper Michigan to visit with our Woodgate friends, the Fricke family. They had three girls who used to baby-sit Joy. Then it was on to Ottawa and Quebec, before we went to Montreal and the Olympics. We got to see several events a day as two-and half year Joy was a hit every place we went. Then Margaret’s sister, Rosie, was in the Air Force and got assigned to Bitburg AFB, Germany, where I had been ten years earlier. We flew over there to visit with her husband and two small kids in the summer of 1977. The three of us, Margaret, Joy, and myself took driving excursions into the Benelux countries, southern Germany, and Austria. We went on a Rhein River Cruise and spent a couple of days in Paris with just the adults. We also drove to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and then went to Branson, Missouri and their amusement parks in 1978 and 1979. Any time, we went some place, we always stopped along the way on what I thought were interesting places. Sometimes I was right, but other times Margaret thought I was wrong. Have you traveled much by car?
My baby daughter Joy was born in 1973
Then on December 8, 1973, we had our first and only child, Joy Finnegan. 1973 was a big adjustment year. We moved from the city to the suburbs in July, as we bought a house. Margaret quit her teaching position. I had an appendectomy in September that took me a month to recover from. I went to classes to prepare me for Margaret’s childbirth. Joy was born at the University of Chicago Hospital, since the doctor she went to for her pregnancy was affiliated with the UC hospital. Unfortunately, I knew that Margaret and I had health insurance, but we did not have family insurance, so that he had to pay for over half the hospital stay, around $900.00. I soon fixed that. I remember driving down I-57 into the city. At first, they sent us home. Then, the second time, I insisted that we stay, since it would be within the next twelve hours. Thus, we had a beautiful baby girl, Joy. Once again, our life would change. She had her own room with all the baby furniture. Now we were one small family, as Joy was born on December 8, a Saturday, that was the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It was not snowy but cold. A few days later, we brought her home where she was going to grow up in Matteson, Il. We had her baptized at St. Lawrence O’Toole Church in Matteson, Il, with a nun from Peru as her godmother and Charlie Ruffner as her godfather. She would eventually go to the St. Lawrence O’Toole grade school, where Margaret would spend over 25 years teaching there. Sadly, both the school closed in 2015, and the parish closed in 2023, where the property was listed at 2.7 million dollars. Margaret, Joy, and I have lots of memories about this parish and school. Joy went to Marian High School, in Chicago Heights, as well the University of Illinois at Champaign, where she got a degree in accounting and a CPA. She married Larry Walton in 1999, and they have three college age children, living in Chicago, Il. Thus, my three grandchildren are Kiley, 22, Lauren, 20, and Will, 17. Were you excited about your first child?
We bought a house in Matteson, IL (1973-2006)
In the spring of 1973, we found out that Margaret was pregnant. Immediately, I thought that my new child should not be born in an apartment. We needed a house. My boss at Montgomery Ward, Dale Hoffman, wanted us to move into the north Chicago suburbs. He showed us around a couple of places, but they all seemed so expensive, nearly $100,000, the cheapest around $70,000. I figured out that we could not make that work. We would be down to one salary. A couple of weeks later, he told me that Montgomery Wards was building a new store in the south suburbs on Route 57 and Route 30, Lincoln Highway, called Lincoln Mall. Margaret and I decided to take a trip down I-57 to see this new Montgomery Ward store. Just as we got close, a big sign said new homes for sale. I decided to take a look at them. Kaufman and Broad were building acres of houses just outside Matteson on Vollmer Road. They had sample showcase houses. All the houses were in the $30,000 range. We looked at a couple of these model houses, all with furniture. I liked the fact that we would not have to do any remodeling, since all these homes were brand new homes with some kind of warranty. We talked to one of the salesmen. Before you know it, we had bought a new house on a cul-de-sac for $33,000 with 5% down, $1,500.00. Margaret and I were both pleased. We saw the house and the lot. We could move in July. It worked out perfect, a new neighborhood, with mostly young people there. We had our Hyde Park friends help us move in. I was able to get our furniture and appliances at a good price from Montgomery Ward. We would be all set to go. We had a huge lawn in the back yard that ran into a wetland area behind the house with a big tree, so that no one could build there. We only had a one car garage, but we could build another one later. Little did we know then that we would spend 33 years there and sell it in 2006 for $165,000, with a paid off mortgage. We learned to live in the south suburb town of Matteson, Illinois, for over thirty years, longer than I have lived at any other place. What is the longest that you have ever stated in one place?
My father Eugene Finnegan died in 1972 at the age of 74
Meanwhile, my father had developed thyroid throat cancer. He had worked as a welder at GATX for over twenty years. As a teenager, he had been an IRA volunteer for Ireland from County Monaghan. He never got over the five counties of Northern Ireland as a separate country. My dad was the youngest of nine children, as his father died when he was two. Thus, my grandfather was born in 1839 and died in 1900 at the age of 61. My father came to New York City in the early 1920s. He immediately became an American citizen and then married my mother who was from the same town in Ireland and was a Finnegan in 1931. They had a few children that died in childbirth, until I came along. My foster brother Jerry Mingin took my father for chemotherapy treatments, but then he would lit up his pipe afterwards. He was asked if he wanted medicine for the pain or alcohol, and he chose alcohol. He may have been an alcoholic, but he never missed a day of work, since he walked to work every day. On his way home, he would pick up a pitcher of beer. On weekends, he had a fifth of rye whiskey. My father never spoke much, but I always remember his admonition, “Do not get your mother angry.” We visited him once before his death and then later for his funeral in Carteret, NJ. One of my father’s friends said that I had caused his death. However, I did not let that bother me. I always remember my father, sitting in the living room on his chair, listening to the radio and smoking his pipe. He was a quiet man but enjoyed a drink and a chat with his old IRA friends when they would come by. Our vacations were to visit his brothers and sisters, as well as my mother’s brothers and sisters, who lived in the Bronx, New York. Thus, I got to know a little bit about the Bronx and New York City life from my cousins, aunts, and uncles there. Do you remember your father?
Our Hyde Park married days 1971-1973
Margaret and I lived for two years at 5300 Hyde Park Boulevard across from Lake Michigan and Promontory Point. 53rd Street was Hyde Park’s oldest shopping district, lined with many small businesses and restaurants offering various dining options. Harper Court was the center of Hyde Park where you could buy Baskin-Robert’s ice cream. My favorite store to shop was Walgreens. I would read their Sunday sales and get everything on sale. We could walk along the Lake. It was lovely in the spring, summer, and fall, but really cold and icy in the winter. We were on the third floor. Margaret got a job teaching at Our Lady, Gate of Heaven grade school on 99thStreet, that is now closed. She also bought a new Fiat car on credit. We were becoming consumers with our own credit cards. There was good access to transportation with Lake Shore Drive to the east, and the 55th Street Metra line to take us downtown. The 57th Street shopping and Art Fair was a pleasure. We went to St. Thomas Catholic Church on Kimbark. The University of Chicago dominated the west side of Hype Park. Then in the 21st century, Hype Park became the home of President Barak Obama, where his presidential library is. We met some new friends in Hype Park, including a local newscaster, Jim Ruddle. I realized that the travel from Hyde Park to O’Hare and Franklin Park, was not as easy as it looked on paper. Traffic jams downtown and around O’Hare made it more difficult and time consuming at times. Otherwise, everything went well. Margaret’s parents came to visit us. We went out to South Dakota for the wedding of Margaret’s brother, where I got to meet a lot of her family. Over the years, we would go out to South Dakota a lot, because of Margaret’s family. We were becoming like any other young married couple in their thirties. Do you remember you first apartment as a young married couple?
Getting married in 1971
Wow! This was going pretty fast, once I made my decision. I had to get all my paperwork about my resignation from the Servites, CTU, and the Catholic priesthood. I had to write letters and be interviewed. However, I was able to rent an apartment in Hyde Park with another seminarian, just a few blocks from CTU. I also got a job as a salesman at the Montgomery Ward Outlet Center in Franklin Park, Il. My parents sent me a couple thousand dollars, so I bought a car. Margaret came to Chicago for the summer. She split a rental with some University of Chicago students, where she smelt the sweet smell of marijuana. She got a job as a teller at a local bank, as she began looking for a grade school teaching job for the fall. We had a fun time exploring the Lake Michigan Shore, the Museum of Science and Industry, plus all the local restaurants and pubs. Margaret had few friends, since most of her friends were friends of mine. We decided on an October 9, 1971, wedding, the weekend of Columbus Day. I did all the planning for the wedding, including writing the vows and the whole program, not Margaret, the bride. It would be in our apartment. Father Dave Gallegos, a classmate of mine, would preside, Jude, a friend of Margaret’s would provide the singing. They sang the popular songs, “Both Sides Now” and “We’ve only just Begun.” My roommate, Charlie Rufner would be the best man. Margaret’s new friend, Carole Thorne would be the Maid of Honor. We were not going to invite any relatives to our wedding. I think that this was harder on Margaret than me. We invited people from our new workplaces, and some male and female Servites. Charlie was in charge of cleaning up the apartment. Margaret and I went for our honeymoon to a Holiday Inn in downtown Chicago on Lake Shore Drive. Thus, we began our over 55 years of married life, Margaret and me. It is amazing where the various twists and turns of life take us. What kind of wedding did you have?
The big decision of 1971
Thus, the early part of 1971, I was haunted about the big decision of that year. Was Margaret Klein a reality or an illusion? Was I willing to give up everything that I had been working on for the last fifteen years for an adventure with someone I hardly knew. What if she never really cared about me? For the last months of 1970, my only communication with her was by letters. By chance, the Provincial asked me to go to Ladysmith for the Christmas break. I said yes to the disappointment of my mother, who wanted me back in Carteret, NJ, for Christmas. However, Margaret never went to Ladysmith that Christmas time. Everything was in flux. One of the first Servites that I mentioned about Margaret was John Dowd who came for my Doctorate presentation from Louvain to Trier. He got mad at me. We could never be the same kind of friends again. I was not getting much positive feedback. Was this just a fascination, so that I should let it wear off. The nun who had been Margaret’s novice master told me that Margaret was thinking of leaving the Servites, after her simple vows ran out in June 1971. I, on the hand, had made no decision. I put it off until I was asked to sign my CTU contract for the school year 1971-1972. It was time to make a decision. I could not live in ambiguity forever. I decided to put my faith in Margaret. I would terminate my life with the Servites in June of 1971. Then, I had to tell people. Most people seemed surprised but understood. My parents were upset. Other Servites said that they were sorry. The Provincial offered to send me to Europe every year if I stayed. Thus, in June, 1971, I presided over my last Mass as a Roman Catholic priest. At least, I had made a decision. Was it right or wrong? Only time would tell. I would have to leave my former life of fifteen years behind with all the consequences. I felt it was like retiring from the military. I would have no more military role, but I was not opposed to the military. Have you ever made a big decision about your life?
Margaret Klein, the woman who changed my life
One young nun was among those in my class, Sister Margaret Klein. She was from South Dakota. I never knew anyone from there, but she was very talkative. Everyplace I went, she was there, as I noticed her more often. Suddenly, I would miss her when she was not there. There were plenty of young nuns. However, she was special in a way that I had never known anyone. She was delightful and friendly. I guess that I hardly noticed her until near the end of my six weeks at Ladysmith. Suddenly, she was everywhere I went. I seemed to intimidate her, but I was fascinated by her. I had never met anyone like her. She offered to show me around St. Paul and Minneapolis. I did not know what to make of her. The beauty of Margaret and upper Wisconsin blended into one. I was heading back to Chicago and then Germany. She was going to teach grade school in St. Paul. We exchanged phone numbers and addresses. In Chicago, she sounded wonderful on the phone. I wrote to her. What was happening to me? Why was this young lady so attractive to me? Or was she? Was it allusion that I had? Why did I feel this way? Who could I talk to about this sudden new obsession of mine? I tried to keep focused on my work. Every free moment I thought about her. This is not what I expected. I planned for my trip home to New Jersey and my trip to Germany. After the summer was over, it was back to CTU and then to Austria, and Germany. I wanted to visit with my parents in New Jersey, but I barely stayed a couple of days. I was to get my doctorate and then speak at an Austrian theological conference on Confirmation because Professor Fischer had invited me to talk about the close relationship between Baptism and Confirmation. Then I had my classes to prepare for in the second and third trimesters at CTU. I had a full life, but there in the background was that Margaret Klein. What to do about her? Have you ever met someone that you were madly in love with?
The summer of 1970 teaching at Mount Senario College, Ladysmith, Wisconsin
The big decision of 1970 was where to go for the summer. My mother wanted me to come back to Carteret, NJ, and be a priest at our home parish. I was looking for some place to spend my summer teaching. It was already Easter time, and I was trying to adjust to life at CTU. I was not going to stay there that summer. I finally got in contact with Mike Doyle, who had been a year ahead of me at Granville and Benburb. The only other Servite that I knew pretty well was John Pawlikoski, who was a year younger than me, but he had gone to the University of Chicago Divinity Theology school to get his doctorate in ethics. Mike Doyle was the acting President of Mount Senario College at Ladysmith, Wisconsin, where the Servite nuns, who had taught me in grade school, had their headquarters. He wanted me to come to Ladysmith to teach a daily weekday course in the summer of 1970, so that a lot of the Servite nuns could take this course. He also lined up a conference with the priests of Superior, Wisconsin, to give a talk on Confirmation. I liked both ideas. On top of that, Father Conrad Borntrager, who had been with me in Louvain, was going to be the spiritual director for the Servite nuns that summer. It all sounded like a great idea. When I got there, I was surprised to find a couple of the nuns who had taught me in Carteret, NJ. However, there were a lot of other younger nuns who were going to be taking my class every morning. The rest of my day was free, so I got invited to any number of activities. Some were discussions about the changes in the Church. Others were about the role of women and their role in the Church. I also got to see a lot of the Wisconsin scenery in northern Wisconsin. There were always a number of these young sisters, who never wore their habits. I guess I had in mind the Servite nuns who had taught me back in the early 1950s, almost twenty years earlier. I had not considered the feminine side of things, since I had no sisters, and had been studying with all male-religious people for the past twelve years. It was a new experience for me, all this femininity. Mike and Conrad were nice, but I seemed to be spending more time with these enthusiastic young sisters. The whole experience was for only six weeks. Thus, I enjoyed the change of pace. They were very interested in the role of worship and liturgy in this class. They seemed interested in finding out what was behind these changes. It all went very fast. Then it was back to Chicago, as I had to get ready to go back to Germany and Austria in the fall. Do you know much about upper Wisconsin?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 