Back to Reflections A Reflection on Rex Beach by staff member Joel Cormier presented at Assembly, 2000/5/26 One of the best things I have enjoyed about this year has been our theme "Journey to the Father". It's a special theme to me because I have found myself growing closer in forming a friendship with God and I have also have grown closer to my own father, who has been fascinated with Notre Dame since my arrival. It was this fascination that brought my parents and I to the town of Sebring, Florida during our Easter Break vacation. What's the significance of Sebring? Well, this small town of 10,000 on Lake Jackson in Central Florida happens to be the town where Rex Beach retired to before his passing in 1949. You have all have passed by the Rex Beach Repository during serving time and some of you may have gone inside this special Rex Beach Room, yet some of you may still be asking, "Who or what is Rex Beach?" In short, Rex Beach was a journalist and writer whose famous Reader's Digest article describing Notre Dame helped save our college during the great depression in the 1930's. He visited our school twice, leaving many gifts, and when he died, he left a hundred thousand dollars to our school's welfare. Inside the Repository there is bronze plaque in which George Matthew Adams writes about Rex Beach after his passing in 1949: Thousands upon thousands were shocked and grieved to read of the recent tragic end of the career of Rex Beach the writer. I knew him intimately for half of his lifetime and mine. We first met when I engaged him to cover the Jeffries-Johnson boxing championship bout at Reno, Nevada, in 1910. He wrote a wonderful story of it- a great piece of reporting. It was at Reno that I introduced him to Jack London, whom he never met, though both earned their early fame from stories about Alaska. He went up there to see if he could find some gold, but later found it within himself through his long series of novels, movie productions and stories. Beach was a big, athletic man and he wrote strong, virile stories, and always clean ones. But he was one of gentlest of men, and was greatly beloved by all who knew him. The newspapers reported that he had no religion, but that was an error. He had a religion, one of kindliness, of consideration for his fellowman, a love of beauty, and rare loyalty to his friends. And he was tolerant and generous. I know of many of his unselfish gifts that enriched others, though he never advertised them. It was good enough to know that they were appreciated and did good. While in Sebring, I visited the town's historical society in hope of finding some correspondence between Rex Beach and Pere. While I was unsuccessful in this venture, I was able to find Rex Beach's last Will and Testament in which he left 1/9th of his estate to Notre Dame and photocopied it for our Archives. I was also able to find directions to his old mansion in Sebring and take pictures for further documentation. This little adventure was truly one of the highlights of our trip, for both my parents and me, and it definitely deepened our fascination with Notre Dame's historic past. As George Mathew Adams wrote, Rex Beach went to Alaska to find gold but later found it within himself. The relationship we have with God, our family, and others is within all of us. That is why Pere always quoted St. Augustine reminding us, "He who does what in him lies, God will not deny his grace." Despite being unsuccessful in my Sebring adventure in finding correspondence between Pere and Rex Beach, sharing this special adventure with my parents to strengthen our bond was as good as gold. "What lies behind you and what lies ahead of you is of very little importance when it is compared to what lies within you." In closing, this special adventure helped me realize that Rex Beach's generosity, kindness for others, loyalty, tolerance, and generosity, his gold, lie within all of us. It is my hope that from now on whenever you pass by, or visit this room in the corner of Varsity that you are reminded, encouraged, and motivated to take Rex Beach's example, and find the gold within you.