Spring 2005 - La Salle University

SPOTLIGHT ON ALUMNI
A FEW QUESTIONS WITH ... CHRIS ADAMS, ’88
Degree: B.A. in English
Currently: Married (wife, Rebecca) with two children (William, 4,
and Caroline, 2); Executive Vice President, Sherry-Lehmann, Inc.,
in New York (Zagat’s No. 1 wine merchant). Resides in Briarcliff
Manor, N.Y.
Family Connection: brother, Greg, ’86; father, Tom, ’58.
WHO OR WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST
INFLUENCE AT LA SALLE?
Without a doubt it was the Christian Brothers “Dream Team” at
Roncalli on North 12th Street: Jack Dondero, Mike McGinniss, Joe
Burke, and Gerry Molyneaux. Spending time with those four guys
shaped my La Salle experience and my whole life.
MEMORABLE LA SALLE MOMENT:
My first meeting with my advisor,
Vince Kling. He was assigned to me as
a freshman, and like a perfect freshman,
I never went to see him. My first
semester sophomore year, I had him
for “Intro to American Literature,” and
he pulled me aside after the first class
and asked me if I knew what the hell I
was doing. It got easier from there.
WHAT’S YOUR
FAVORITE PHILLY SPOT?
20th and Olney.
IF YOU WEREN’T IN YOUR CURRENT
PROFESSION, YOU WOULD BE...
Teaching, which I did and loved for six years.
WHAT ARE YOU READING, WATCHING,
OR LISTENING TO?
Reading Wine and War by Donald and Petie Kladstrup and
Moneyball by Michael Lewis; for music, I’m currently revisiting
Chris Isaak’s Baja Sessions.
WHAT IS SOMETHING PEOPLE WOULD BE
SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
I’m an avid gardener.
WHO DO YOU ADMIRE
MOST? WHY?
My wife, Rebecca. When we met, she
was a successful magazine editor in
Manhattan, and today, she still manages
to occasionally write and edit,
while focusing on raising our two children.
She’s amazing.
Chris Adams with wife, Rebecca, and children,
William and Caroline.
Book Notes
Classic Irish Stories: Timeless Tales from
Ireland and Other Green Shores
Edited by Michael P. Quinlin, ’74
The Lyons Press, 2005; 279 pp., $9.95
This uncommon collection offers hidden
gems from Ireland’s past, shedding new
light on the illustrious literary history of the
Irish at home and abroad. In Classic Irish
Stories, readers can explore what it means to
be Irish through the words of both famous authors and lesserknown
ones, who are often difficult to find in anthologies and
deserve wider publication. Writers include short story masters Liam
O’Flaherty and Sarah Orne Jewett, poets William B. Yeats and
Samuel Lover, and novelists Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker.
The book also includes some of Ireland’s famous legends and stories
translated from ancient Irish texts by Lady Gregory, T. Crofton
Croker, and William Larminie. (from the publisher)
Michael P. Quinlin earned his bachelor’s degree in English from
La Salle University in 1974. In his acknowledgments in the beginning
of Classic Irish Stories, he thanks his former teachers who
taught him to love Irish literature. The first of those mentioned is
the late Brother Patrick Sheekey, F.S.C., ’29, a former Chair of
La Salle’s English Department and the namesake of the University’s
Sheekey Writing Center.
Quinlin is the founder and president of the Boston Irish Tourism
Association and creator of the Boston Irish Heritage Trail. He is the
author of Irish Boston: A Lively Look at Boston’s Colorful Irish Past
and Guide to the New England Irish. He has written hundreds of
articles on Irish culture,
politics, and history for
the Boston Globe,
Boston Herald, Irish
Echo, and Irish America
magazine. He lives in
Milton, Mass., with his
wife, Colette, and son,
Devin.
“Book Notes” is featured periodically
in this newsletter and its companion
piece, La Salle Magazine. It focuses on
alumni who have published books in
the last year. We invite you to e-mail
tercha@lasalle.edu to let us know if
there’s a book written by a La Salle
alum that should be highlighted.
04 ALUMNI NEWSLETTER