Deceased October 18, 2011
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In Memory
George P. Carlin, born March 17, 1925, passed away October 18, 2011. “Monk” his nickname all his life, came into this world on St. Patrick’s Day and was given the middle name of Patrick. He was ordained as a Catholic Priest in 1987, at the age of 62. He served the church for 15 years in the Philippines and later in New York City, Texas and Georgia. Monk attended Canterbury Prep School.
At Amherst he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, and as Bob Sucsy recalled, “He was a rip.” But here are Monk’s own words: “One of the big pluses for me was the fraternity system. In origin, they were probably a secularization of Bendictinism (the chapter meetings, hooded robes, calling each other brother etc.) which is probably not the worst model for community life. But what was most important to me was that through fraternities we were integrated with the upper classmen. They were our mentors. What guys! They valued accomplishment, were merciless with falsity or sham. How enriched our lives were by their encouragement and example.” Of interest is that Monk’s father was in the class of ’12 and also a DKE. His father became president of King Features which syndicated all cartoons then. During the war Monk joined the Amherst contingent at Williams in the V-12 unit. At Williams V-12 he lived in a 3 room bedroom suite – Room #1 was Carlin and Seaver, Room #2 was Neuhoff and Steketee and Room #3 was Newman, Ney, Ehrgood and Diefendorf. What a contingent. He was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy in 1944. He volunteered for Scouts and Raiders, a Naval Command Group and sister outfit of underwater demolition, both of which trained in the Atlantic off Florida. He was assigned skipper on an LCT. After the war Monk returned to Amherst and graduated in ’47. He was writing for newspapers, but was called back for the Korean War. He was a Lt. J.G. and sent to Japan where he had a window seat on the occupation of Japan.
Returning again to civilian life, he continued as a newspaper writer, which he had perfected while being managing editor of The Student (Amherst) and The Blinker, the Billyville V-12 paper (Ed Ney, Bill Webster and Sumner Powell were also editors.) He was a long time secretary of our class. It took 5 men to replace him.
Monk was going to write a great American novel, but decided he had to understand the “working man” better, so he got a job using a pick and shovel on a road gang. This would certainly give him a feel for the common man and what he talked about and what he thought about. Monk worked at this job for quite a few months. After he left the job he said his greatest disappointment, during his entire time working as a laborer was that no one ever asked or knew he was a college graduate, particularly a school of Amherst’s reputation. That his education or particularly his command of the English Language made no impression on his fellow laborers was terribly disheartening to him and made him wonder about the value of his superior education. He never wrote the great American novel.
He leaves two sisters, Joan & Judy and one brother, Bill. His other brother, Michael ‘52, predeceased Monk.
We have lost one of our outstanding classmates. As he said in our 45th Reunion Book, “Ordained as a priest at age 62 - while classmates are retiring, and I’m just beginning. But God has been good to me.” And we are sure He will continue being good to you. We miss you Monk.
Moose Newman '46
Dick Banfield '46