Editor’s Note: This story is part of the Register’s special report on “Legendary Professors.” Read more stories here.
Professors do more than just impart knowledge. Through their witness, fidelity and encouragement, they can also transform their students’ lives.
We asked Register readers to tell us about the Catholic professors who had the greatest impact on their thought and faith. Below are some of the stories we received.
From Football to the Faith
Joe Cascarelli didn’t choose to attend the University of Dallas in the 1970s for the faith-based education. A fallen-away Catholic at the time, the East Coast native instead saw going to the Texas school as a prime opportunity to attend Dallas Cowboys games.
“I had no interest in anything but Cowboys stuff,” recalled Cascarelli, now 72.
But that all changed when he took a metaphysics course with “Fritz” — the nickname for Frederick Wilhelmsen, UD’s premier Thomistic philosopher at the time. Cascarelli recalls being “mesmerized” as Fritz puffed cigarettes and presented the old truths of the faith Cascarelli had learned about as a kid in a new and compelling way.
“I thought I was in an amphitheater in ancient Rome,” he recounted.
Fritz also gave Cascarelli a
