The Journal

Issue date: 10/12/06 Section: LifeStyle

RAWE

CARGAS

Sister Lucy Ruth Rawe

Sister Lucy Ruth Rawe was a Webster alumna and longtime employee. She graduated from Webster in 1960 and became a Sister of Loretto in 1969.

In 1966, she became the university registrar and director of institutional research for Webster until 1995 when the school gave her the position of coordinator of computer projects for enrollment management.

She supervised the registrar's original conversion from paper to computer records and later updated Webster's computer system. She also taught English from 1964 to 1974, and marketing from 1984 to 1986.

Sister Barbara Ann Barbato, professor emeritus of history, politics and law, and a close friend of Rawe, said Rawe's best quality was her ability to truly care about other people. Despite her physical illness, she took time to listen to others.

"She really wanted people to know they were special," Barbato said. "She was about peace; she had compassion and took seriously the issues surrounding AIDS. She was just special."

Rawe had multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease that attacks the central nervous system, particularly the matter that surrounds the spinal cord and transmits signals throughout the body. A person with MS has limited physical mobility. Barbato said she worked until the October before her death months later in 2003.

She was defined by her work and family, not by the disease. Barbato said she had the rare ability to be both logical and creative.

"She was both right and left brained," Barbato said. "She was someone else when she left the office."

Rawe was a poet and wrote numerous poems throughout her life, including "Gethsemani" about her disease.

"Her poetry related to nature and space, spirituality," Barbato said. "Transcendent things, like season."

Carol Colligan, development coordinator for the Alumni Office, met Rawe in the late '60s when she was a student. Colligan said she was a vibrant part of the school, involved with everything. Even when she became sick, she never let it stop her from living, Colligan said.

"People would ask her, 'why you?' And she would say, 'why not me'?" Colligan said. "She fought it; she didn't just lie down."

Rawe died March 26, 2003 from complications of MS. She was 64 years old.

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Harry Cargas

Harry Cargas was a leading expert on the Holocaust and professor of English at Webster. He began teaching at Webster in 1970 until he retired in 1996. He wrote 32 books and more than 2,500 articles on religion and the Holocaust.

Sarita Cargas, his daughter and professor of human rights and history at Webster, said her father wasn't just a professor and scholar on campus; he was friendly and made a point to know everyone.

"I've heard story after story from maintenance to bookstore people to professors say that he talked to everyone," Cargas said.

Colligan said Harry Cargas always stopped by to chat, and was a regular "inter-office male."

"He was the most brilliant person I've met," Colligan said. "A real renaissance man, there wasn't a subject he couldn't talk about."

Harry Cargas was both intelligent and creative - "hysterically funny" Colligan said.

"He had a combination of brilliance and humor," Colligan said. "He was unique."

A noted Catholic scholar on the Holocaust, Harry Cargas was friends with Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel and Whitney Harris, a lawyer for the Nuremberg Trials.

Not just a scholar, he worked to keep the memory of Holocaust survivors alive. President Jimmy Carter appointed him as an original member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. The council created the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The National Jewish Fund awarded him the Tree of Life and the Harry James Cargas Parkland near Jerusalem, where the Israeli government has planted 5,000 trees in his honor. He also has received the Human Rights Award from the United Nations Association and the Eternal Flame Award from the Anne Frank Institute.

Sarita Cargas said her father became interested in the Holocaust in the late '50s.

"After my oldest brother was born, he was overwhelmed about being a father and read "Night" (by Elie Wiesel), which is about a father-and-son relationship," Sarita Cargas said. "It resonated with him."

Harry Cargas met Wiesel when he was supposed to interview him on a KETC-TV Channel 9 show, but the camera didn't work so they ended up just talking, Sarita Cargas said.

The religious aspect of the Holocaust fascinated Harry Cargas.

"The Catholic church historically has a long strain of anti-Semitism," Sarita Cargas said. "He wanted to create a dialogue."

Harry Cargas died Aug. 18, 1998 of a brain hemorrhage. He was 66 years old.

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