Reunions Highlight Bonds For Newtown Resident

By Nancy K. Crevier

A history of bonding is coming together this fall for Newtown resident Michael Hurley. From September 15 to 17, Mr Hurley will attend the 50th Reunion of the United States Marine Corps Basic School Class 4-60, Company F, a place where he made lifelong friendships and learned skills that have carried him successfully through life.

 On November 4, he will return to his high school, St Peter’s Preparatory School in Jersey City, N.J., another place where he forged forever friendships, for induction into the school’s Football Hall of Fame. “In a roundabout way, bonding with the high school team was like bonding with the Marines,” said Mr Hurley. “Football is a demanding contact sport and you can identify with what everyone is going through, and the Marine Corps is the same way,” he said, reflecting on the similarities.

Mr Hurley was in his freshman year at Boston College, playing football, when Coach Mike Holovak suggested it would be better for the players to enlist in a ROTC-type of program. “That way, we wouldn’t get drafted out of college and lose our scholarships. So I enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves. I spent the summers between freshman and sophomore years at a very strenuous vetting program in Quantico, Va. Then two days after graduation from BC, I was commissioned into the Marines Corps as a second lieutenant. That was 1960,” said Mr Hurley.

Being a second lieutenant did not mean that the training was any easier, he said. “We went through a physical and mental crucible. We were pushed as far as we could go. People bonded together to help each other get through. It was really tough,” Mr Hurley said. It was then that friendships formed. “We shared experiences that have lasted forever,” he said.

Mr Hurley spent from 1960 to 1963 as the battalion supply officer for the newly formed Second Light Anti-Aircraft Missal Battalion in the Mojave Desert of California. Building on his degree in business from Boston College and further education in Supply School with the Marines, the corps selected Mr Hurley for his fiscal strengths that were needed for the job.

“It was unbelievable for a 22-year-old to take over an outfit just forming and apply the skills I had just learned. I was making multimillion-dollar budgets, dealing with prime contractors, and dealing with top ranking officers. There I was, with millions of dollars worth of equipment coming in the doors and putting this together. They put me to good use,” Mr Hurley recalled.

Upon discharge from the Marines, the lessons he learned in the corps stuck with him, factoring into his success, he believes. From 1963 to 1990, he worked for the American Can Company, ending as director of international sales and marketing. “I could think on my feet, and they liked that,” he said. He headed his own company, MCM Consulting Co., after that, a worldwide export shipment consultation business, worked as a HVAC salesman, and is currently with a corporate security company in Danbury.

“I’ve always been able to land on my feet. The Marines teach you that you always have to have a plan; then you have to have a back-up plan; and then you need plans A, B, and C after that,” Mr Hurley said.

While the Marines Corps Class of 1960 has made a point for meeting on the East and West Coasts every three years, he is looking forward to reuniting once again with his classmates of 1960 at the September reunion, and to mingling with the Class of 2010. “Marines hang together,” said Mr Hurley.

But before he was a Marine and before he played for the Boston College Eagles, Mr Hurley was at home on the St Peter’s Preparatory School football field. Less than two months after the landmark Marine Corps reunion, Mr Hurley and his wife, Lorraine, will travel to his hometown high school for a special ceremony honoring his remarkable career at St Peter’s Preparatory, when as a tackle for the St Peter’s Marauders, half a century ago, he was named an All-State player by numerous New Jersey and New York City newspapers.

Mr Hurley was nominated in January of this year by several people, and after a vote by alumni and trustees of the school, was notified in March of the honor.

“This is only the fourth time that the school has made these Hall of Fame awards,” said Mr Hurley. “It’s a real honor because of the history of football at the school, and the prestige that goes with it.”

Football and the Marine Corps were tough, said Mr Hurley, but both had a sweet side — the bonds of friendship.