Driving the Future | Joe Fadool ’84

In this episode of Slightly Less Scripted, we welcome Joe Fadool ’84, CEO of BorgWarner, for a conversation on leadership, innovation, and the future of mobility.

Joe shares his journey from Catholic Central to leading a global automotive technology company, offering insight into how he rose to the role of CEO and the lessons learned along the way. He also dives into his vision for the future of electric vehicles and key trends shaping the automotive industry.

Joining as a special co-host is Dan Collins ’84, Joe’s classmate, as the two reflect on their time at CC and the memories that helped shape their paths.

It’s a dynamic conversation bridging past experiences with forward-thinking leadership in a rapidly evolving industry.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Welcome back to Slightly Less Scripted. We're here with Joe Fadool and uh Mr. Collins, both class of 1984. What's up, guys?

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Great to be here. Welcome back. Honored to be here. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

So, Joe, when's the last time you were back on campus?

SPEAKER_04 0:38

You know, it was uh pre-COVID. I have to say, I came here for my daughter's graduation. Uh, she was at Mercy more recently, but uh they didn't let us in the building, so uh because of COVID. Okay, you know, so we waited in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

So that was the official last you did. Was that also the graduation that you got stuck in the storm? Yes, did it rain? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

Yes, we were we were we were made aware of that, and uh inside the building though, uh was pre-COVID, so it's incredible to be back.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

So first time seeing the addition.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

Yes, what'd you think of it all? Oh my gosh. I mean, just like when you and I came here, Dan, right? On Breakfast Drive. Exactly. Like you moved the building like no buy. No difference. No, it's really impressive. I mean, I have to say, you know, uh so much diversity in what you're offering the kids. And um, I love the what you're doing with the uh pilots and all the simulators, the different programs that we have, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Fantastic. Yeah, it's the there's a lot of after school uh activity. I guess I didn't give a proper introduction though. We're here with the CEO of uh Org Warner Automotive. Um, it's an American e-supplier, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:48

Yeah, we're American uh propulsion company, so we serve over a hundred customers globally, and everything from turbochargers to four-wheel drive and including motors and inverters and everything for electric cars. So right here out of Michigan, too, right? We do. We have uh some facilities in Michigan. Uh globally, we're about 40,000 people strong. Strong. And um, yeah, no, it's just a great company to be a part of a great American company. And yeah, but it's really great to be back here with you guys.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

We're honored to have you.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yeah, thank you so much. Um, so obviously you're helping lead kind of the next generation of of automotive industry and cars. But before we get into all that, why don't let's go back to uh class of 84 and and some memories. Do you have any good memories from Catholic Central?

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Yeah, probably I can't share them all. Uh it's a family-friendly event. No, but uh, few great ones, you know. I was just telling you as we were walking the halls, I always look back fondly on CC because there was always something for uh the students here. You know, it wasn't just strictly an academic school or Christian school or an athletic school. Um, so I remember getting involved uh first with the bowling club. So I had Mr. Talbot as a math teacher. And first week he's like, How many bowlers we got in here? And you know, I eagerly raised my hand. I think I was the only one because I think others may have didn't want to admit they were bowlers. Right, but right, exactly. There were a few of us, but uh yeah, so that was my first club I joined was the bowling club.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

I'm guessing not MHSAA yet, right? Uh I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Not back then, just club, just club level. Okay, yes, yeah. Now it is a sanctioned high school sport.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Of which your friend from Lawrence Tech University is a state champion CC Athletic Hall of Famer. Is it because of his bowling progress? I don't know. Scott Kajawa.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

What was that, 2010? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

2010? Yes, 2010.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

I think was the last time we won it.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Yes, we've come a long way, like so many things here. It starts simple. You raising a hand in 19 probably eighty as a freshman saying, hey, you know, who's who's a bowler? And now we've won state championships as an official sport.

SPEAKER_05 3:57

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

It's impressive. Yeah. I mean, you guys have won so many state championships across all your athletics the last 10-15 years.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

It's across a lot of different programs. Yeah, it uh really great. I think uh success breeds success a little bit here. Uh even you know, when we started with esports, the kids as soon as we started, they wanted to win and be successful because I think the other teams were. So that's kind of what we do here.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

Yeah, well, some of my fondest memories were the football games, right? Whether it was Boys Bowl or the Championship. Um, I think those are probably uh in our day uh some of the great uh events that happened and just brought all the boys together. Started on Friday with uh the cheering and the gymnasium. Do you guys still do that, by the way?

SPEAKER_03 4:43

We do? We do.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

One thing we don't still do, though, is I heard you guys used to have a bonfire for was it boys bowl?

SPEAKER_03 4:50

That was actually shown after us. Oh, after you guys. So it was between, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

But it was at Breakfast Drive.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

It was at Breakfast Drive. When we moved here, we were told the bonfire had to go away because the city of Novi wouldn't let us have a fire. Too many trees on the property, I guess. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 5:08

Well, that's probably a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Yeah. That fire and my body wasn't sanctioned officially either. The side probably not. Well, Joe, I don't know if you remember. I like to tell the story to the boys these days in the year 2026. So our junior year, we're with a great group of seniors. We win the Catholic League Championship at the Silverdome on a Sunday in the Prep Bowl. And uh, we were the first team to beat Brother Ice twice in a season, which was a big, big deal, obviously. But the funniest part of the story, or the best part of the story, was Father Cuero, who was our principal, right, was so happy that we won because the Brazilians like to win, let's be honest. And he's running up and down the steps at the Silverdome telling everybody that there's no school tomorrow. So he called off school without the use of the internet, a cell phone, an email, and it was just it, you know. I don't know how many guys showed up at school on Monday. If you weren't at the game, you maybe didn't know unless your friend called you. But it's a great story because we had it might have been the first championship holiday in the school's history, but that's how it went out.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Oh, so that might have been how that's how it started?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah. So I'm on the field, was lucky to be on the fortunate to be on the team, and I remember standing on the field at the Silverdome looking up because the walls were very high at the Silverdome, and all the guys were screaming at us. They were happy we won, but more importantly, they were screaming at us to start. Exactly right. We don't have school tomorrow. And you know, we as the team were kind of like, what? And yeah, it's uh might have been, like I said, the start of the championship holiday tradition, which still continues. So that's awesome. Like we didn't have school Joe on Monday because it was the hockey state championship holiday.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

Oh, is that right? Yeah, okay. See, I'm glad to hear those great traditions continue. They continue, yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

They still keep them.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Yes. I remember we had so many Fridays off uh back in the day due to the drive. Yes. I think uh some parents were wondering, you know, are we sure we're we're in in school enough to meet the minimum hurdle? Holiday high. Holiday high. Well, that tradition continues.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Oh, it does. Oh, yes. So now and now it's a combination of Fridays, Mondays, Thursdays. Oh, because we yeah, because we sell Fridays wasn't enough. Yeah, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

Well, you know how that started. It it wasn't just to you know give back to the kids, it was also because of the oil crisis, remember the energy crisis. Yes, so it gave the chance for the school to shut down for the weekend. I've never heard that. I've never heard about this before. That's right. So, you know, it benefited the school as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

And you know, so yeah. Yeah, we would shut down so they could. At least that's the story they told us that we meant.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

Yes, they could conserve some energy by being closed by it. Maybe that's how they sold it to the parents.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

That's a really good summer point. Yes, if you recall, when we were in school, they started as they literally used the term energy conservation days. So we would come back after the first of the year and have Fridays off totally unrelated to the drive because of energy conservation. So we'd have these Fridays where, you know, and I remember neighbors, friends saying, Why aren't you in school? Yeah, well, it's an energy conservation day. And I remember people saying, What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 8:21

You know, couldn't afford to keep the lights on. I've been here 12 years and I've never heard that. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yeah. So that's how it started. So we would have energy conservation January through about mid-February, and then drive would start.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Wow. Well, yeah, thanks for teaching us something new. That's the first time I ever heard that. Wow. So uh when we talk about your time at CC, was there one lesson or one teaching that you took with you into your you know, professional career, into your life that that stuck with you throughout your time?

SPEAKER_04 8:52

You know, I don't know if there was one, but uh I would say the the school hammered home a couple of things that you know both my parents felt were important when they raised us. You know, I I grew up in a big family, had a family of nine. And, you know, both my parents pushed uh hard work, they pushed discipline, self-discipline, uh humility, respect for other people. And and I think looking back at CC, that's a lot of what you know the environment at CC was about. You know, work hard, uh, of course, goodness, discipline, knowledge um being the motto. But um, you know, the you never could get too high on your um britches here. You know, people kept you humbled and grounded, even though we had a lot of great things going on at school, including state championships.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Um and you needed to, you know, manage yourself and take care of yourself and be accountable. Yeah, you know, so it it reaffirmed to me uh those are the key values in life. And of course I learned a lot of that from my parents to begin with. But I thought CC did a great job to get you ready for the next step. You know, in my case it was college. So you learned a lot about study skills, you know, it was the process of studying, uh working together as a team on projects. Uh, of course, great math, great science at the time. But um, you know, for me it was just a great overall experience, and it helped me get ready for my next uh phase, which was uh going to engineering school. Did you always know you wanted to work in uh automotive? You know, I did since I was, I don't know, nine or ten. I grew up in East Dearborn, not far from Ford, and uh I tinkered with small engines and my brother built go-karts, and I like to tinker with those and drive those. And I always wanted to be an engineer at Ford. So I I knew fairly at a fairly young age, I you know, wanted to go that route. And yeah, I was fortunate. I graduated from Lawrence Tech and I got a job offer from Ford. So I was 22 and living my dream. So life was good. So when did you move from um did you go from Ford to Ford? No, so I spent seven years at Ford, and it was really a great uh period for me. We met a lot of friends, and uh I realized I wanted to do something more. I ended up leaving and going to Siemens, a supplier. Uh, they were an electronics company, and I was there for 14 years. And I was I was fortunate again to go there. I was a sales engineer to begin with, but it was at the beginning of growth in electronics and cars, and they were growing double digit every year. So, you know, uh I always tell my kids if you're gonna do something in life or join a company, uh join a company that's growing because you're gonna get a lot more opportunities, and that's exactly what happened. So I spent about 14 years there before I came to Borg Warner, and I've been there a little over 15 years.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Wow. So how do you go from starting at Borg to becoming the CEO? What's that trajectory like, you know, for you for you personally?

SPEAKER_04 11:57

You know, I was um, if I go before I joined Borg Warner back to Siemens, um, we were growing so much I had the chance to, you know, move around a little bit into different functions. I went from engineering to sales to program management to leading a plant, so operations. So I got to do a lot of different things. And those experiences really shape you at the end of the day. You know, uh the people in your life who help you, I had a lot of great mentors, but those experiences also shape you uh because it fine-tunes your decision making and your ability to uh lead others. Um so by the time I came to Board Warner in a general manager role, I had a lot of different experiences, different functions that you know, quite frankly, in engineering school they don't train you for, uh, but it's all on the job. So, you know, over time I realized, okay, I'm I'm closer to that CEO job than I thought. And um it's not something when I was 10 I want to be a CEO, but you know, the closer you get, the more you realize, hey, maybe I can do that job. Yeah. You know, I I've got some ideas and uh I was just fortunate to get a shot at it. Well and are you surprised at all?

SPEAKER_03 13:09

No, not at all. No, I mean just obviously your your you uh um your experience has laid the foundation. And maybe you didn't know it. I don't know if other people knew it that hey, listen, this guy's got a a future to to lead this company, so let's make sure he gets exposure to all these different things. But uh no, very proud of you, and uh, you know, very impressive uh how you've gotten to where you are and where you are now. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

We got a lot of knowledge and wisdom on that side of the of the cow, which I'm still learning. So he just called us old. Yeah, did you see how that worked? It was a nice way.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

It was a nice way of doing that.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah. Uh so what advice do you have for um some of the the guys here in high school, or maybe uh young professionals, young alumni that just graduated? Do you have any advice for them in their careers? Sure.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

I mean, I I think it starts out with, you know, there's things you like to do and don't like to do, and uh you gotta find that intersection of stuff you like to do and that you're good at over time. Um I I just tried to focus on that. You know, never take a job for the money, never take the job for the next promotion. Do it because you like it and you're gonna do a good job. And um, you know, I think working hard over long periods of time help you get to wherever you want to go, um, especially in your career. So, you know, you I've also kind of learned though, you you can't have everything. You know, I think um you gotta decide at any one moment what's the most important thing for me and my wife or my kids. Uh so there's times to accelerate in your career, and there's times where you gotta take more close care of your family or something at home if it's a sick parent.

SPEAKER_05 14:52

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

Um so I think just being true to yourself at the end is super important.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Do you have any hobbies or anything that keeps you grounded when you're starting to get stressed out or anything? Sure.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

I mean, I picked up guitar uh actually in high school. Yeah. Oh, that long ago. Uh actually another CC grad, Dave Belinda. Do you remember?

SPEAKER_00 15:13

I do, yes, I do.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

Yeah, I credit Dave for I was 14 or 15. He was playing guitar, and uh, I went over to his house one day and he started to teach me how to play. And I think uh Taken It Easy by the Eagles, that was my first song. Is that right? Okay, yeah. So I still try to pick up the guitar every now and then. And uh, of course, my family we love water sports, so any type of skiing or surfing or swimming, uh, that's always a relaxing. You swam here. You know, I I dove here. I was a diver. That's right, you were a diver. I knew you were part of the swim team. Yeah, part of the swim team. Um, but I was a diver. Uh I wasn't a very good swimmer, so that's why I became a diver. Yeah. No, but I I really enjoyed that part at CC as well. So that was a winter sport back then. Um and that took us over to Mercy High School. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_03 16:03

I was just gonna tell you, Joe, believe it or not, we still do that. Do you really? Yeah, okay. So I could tell you on the wish list, the long wish list of things to have here someday in the future is a nadatorium. Oh but until then, yes, our guys are still grinding at 5 30 a.m., walking into the Mercy pool because they have to get out before the Mercy girls show up. Right. And uh yes, we're still uh we're still there. Now we compete in a different place. In fact, your nephew dove for us. He did. Yes, he did. And we competition days is yes, Jack. And the uh he uh so he continued your uh your your family tradition and did a nice job, uh Jack did. But yeah, we compete at the rec center in Livonia. Okay so that's our our competition pool, but the practice pool is still the probably hasn't changed much since uh you and I were here, but it's still Mercy High School.

SPEAKER_04 16:57

Yeah, well what a great long-term partnership with Mercy High School. That's very much so. I remember Dolores Yeager, she was uh legendary. Swim coach at the time, super legendary.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Yeah, led the Marlins to a couple of state championships. She did, yeah. Yeah, she did. So yeah, we never got we still we're still looking for that first swim team, swim state championship. We've been very close in recent years and hoping to get there, but uh but yeah, she's she's the one that started it. She's she's uh she was the uh founding lady of Catholic Central swimming and diving.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

This year was a what another top eight finish, I think.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Yeah, we finished four. Four in the state. Last year, last year was three. Third third. We had two runners up. Yeah. In fact, our maybe our best chance to win the state championship was when the season was canceled literally the week before the finals in March of 2020.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

Oh, that's disappointing.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

Yeah, we had come within a whisker of winning in 19. I mean uh a hundred, you know, just uh seconds off, and um and uh of winning a last race uh to finish second and then had the number one team in the state in 2020, and then the season got canceled. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Well, you're getting closer and closer, so we are yeah, they'll get there.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

You helped lay the foundation.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah, I don't know about that, but uh certainly great memories from that time for sure. That's awesome. I'll I'll switch it up and we'll kind of head over to the the last section of the podcast, but I just wanted to talk a little bit about what what Borg is doing. For those who don't know, maybe like a quick, I don't know, 30-second elevator uh pitch of what exactly is Borg, what you guys are working on, and kind of what the industry looks like.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Sure. So Borg Warner, world leader in uh mobility propulsion systems. So uh, you know, everything from turbos to timing systems uh to inverters, motors. So, you know, if you want a combustion engine, we're number one or number two in everything we do. And uh we've got products for hybrids, for pure electrics, uh commercial vehicles, even e-buses carry Borg Warner batteries.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Yeah, so it's an exciting time in the industry. You know, we're in this transition toward electrification. Of course, in this country, it's slowed down quite a bit. Um, there's no incentives anymore. And uh and and quite frankly, the the EVs were quite expensive that were out there. So long term, we're we're still big believers in electrification. You know, if you see it uh play out like it does in China, you know, nearly 50% of the cars are EVs or advanced hybrids. Uh it's really about affordability. So we're working hard to get the cost down. Of course, there needs to be better infrastructure for charging. Sure. But um, no, it's a lot of fun. Uh Borg Warner's been in business for over a hundred years, and you know, we're just setting up the next chapter to be uh leaders on the e-side.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I I've just recently got electric, fully electric, but uh, what are you driving? Uh Model Three. Oh, fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Okay. Yeah. I mean, Tesla started uh all the rage back in uh 2008 and nine.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

There was that uh tax incentive a few or last year. So I said, okay, let me uh let me let me try it out. Um yeah, there's I mean, there's I think there's a lot of uh pros to it, but obviously so you guys still see a future in uh electrification of cars and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 20:14

Oh, we definitely do. I mean, I think in this um country, you know, the next four or five years, we don't expect a lot of growth in EVs. People want to drive more combustion and hybrid vehicles. Um, but longer term, you know, that'll change as they become more affordable. They're so fun to drive. I mean, you believe you love driving your Tesla.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Yeah, it's it's completely different than uh I never thought I would drive an electric car uh until I test drove one. That was my whole thing. I was like kind of almost against it a little bit. Uh and then uh Mr. Akoy, Chris Akoy, graduate of 14 here, uh he let me drive his cyber truck that uh that he recently got. Wow. And uh the technology in these things is crazy. The the autonomy, uh especially that Tesla has, um, the self-driving of it, it's unbelievable. I mean, it is fully like from A to B. You just press a button and it'll take you. It recognizes pedestrians and stop signs and weird things on the road if there's a tire or something. Uh I was like blown away. I was shocked.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

Yeah. No, and they're they're a little bit generational too. You know, uh my son just went shopping for a car. Okay, and he he wanted to buy one of these advanced hybrids. He didn't want a pure combustion vehicle, he likes the fuel economy and of course the the friendliness to the earth that these things offer. And yeah, so you know, it is the future. I think it's partly a generational issue. I unfortunately it's become a political issue in this country, which hopefully um goes away over time. But no, for sure, we we see more electrification uh in the future.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

That's good.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Yeah, I've been a witness to him doing whatever he does to call his car to the door. And next thing you know, his car shows up and he jumps in and just whiffs away. Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Summons mode. That's the code. Summons mode. That's what it's called.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Summons mode. Press and hold. He was standing by the door one day and I said, What are you doing? He said, Waiting for my car. And I said, Oh, well, who's driving? And he said, Me. And all of a sudden, here comes the it was the first time I saw his car. And he pulls up and I said, What is going on here? So I have yet to sit, I have yet to get into an electric car and see what that's all about.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

So in your future, now we're going to see. Now we're going for a ride right after this.

SPEAKER_03 22:26

Yes, exactly. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

But I I love uh yeah, I love it. It just you can turn it on beforehand. You had the app that it works with. Uh, and then I think the uh the charging is way more affordable than I would have ever imagined. I guess right now is a good time to own a EV with all the things going on in it.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

Actually, we see a little spike in EV sales uh in Europe and here, uh just doing it. Guessing because of the oil, right? Oh yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

So you know I paid four dollars a gallon this morning. Wow. For in my old-fashioned combustible engine.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

So yeah, imagine in Europe they pay eight or nine uh dollars per gallon.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

So when we go to Albania, yeah, dee diesel's expensive too. A lot of the cars over there still run on diesel.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

Yeah, so no, we'll see more electric cars running around. Good. Just take a little bit longer in this country.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

What do you think's the one um thing that like the normal person maybe doesn't understand about the electric industry, the EV industry?

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Well, I think the one thing that probably doesn't get written enough is exactly um how fun they are to drive. You know, some people remember the Bolt from General Motors or the Nissan Leaf, you know, which was one of the best-selling cars early on, very, you know, budget style of vehicle, but it didn't have performance. You know, it was a small car, both of those were small cars. Um what you realize about some of these modern EVs is how fun they are to drive, how much torque they have, you know, at a stoplight, sure. You want to accelerate. Uh, I think Tesla even has this ludicrous mode. Um they're so cool to drive. So and they come with a lot of um neat features, you know. Uh the interiors are simplified. You got a lot more room because you don't have to worry about a uh transmission in there. So, you know, once people drive the vehicles, they tend to get really turned on to them.

SPEAKER_05 24:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

But if they've never stepped in an EV, they don't really get the experience of it. So I always encourage my friends, hey, at least go drive one. Or everyone has a friend who has an EV, so spend some time in it. Yeah. You'll be impressed. So we go to Prius. Was that electric? So the Prius uh was a hybrid. It was a hybrid, okay. But um, one of the early ones, I mean, they they really created a brand out of that. Originally it was just a nameplate, and now Prius is a brand.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah, I just I bring it up because we talked about Father Paramo, the Renaissance man that he was. Yeah. That's what he did. His last car was a Prius. Ah, okay. And he had and he absolutely loved it.

SPEAKER_04 24:57

He was always ahead.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Yes, he he was very much ahead.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Father Paramo.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

So and I I could not remember if that was fully electric or it was hybrid, but yeah, he was he was he was the first one I think on campus with a Prius. Uh God bless him. May he rest in peace. But Father Father Paramo was very proud of his his Prius and that he was saving the environment. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Father Paramo would definitely be driving an EV right now if you were still with us.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Oh, he would. Yes, he would.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

That Prius, uh, I may have this a little bit off, but I think it is the number one selling hybrid in the world.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

I think you're I think you're right about that. Yeah, we had to double check. Is that right, yeah? I think so. I think I've seen that somewhere before. Well, it's like uh Mr. Collins must what watch the show because now we're nearing the end, and what we like to do is when we have a graduate on, the last question we asked them is for a bazillion story. So if you have a uh a memory about a father, you know, a priest, um, that you just wanted to share uh, you know, one one final bazillion story.

SPEAKER_04 25:55

Sure. Well, let me think back. So, you know, I always appreciated um the priests that were involved in our education, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:04

And we were fortunate because we were there were still quite a few of them here. There were when when we were really good ones. Yes, legendary.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

You know, I have to go back to Father Donaher, though. So he was teaching freshman class religion, among other things. Yes, and I don't know if you still have the Bible beat running around Catholic Central Halls, but he came up with uh the tune, the Bible beat, right? And you learn the Bible. There were 20 verses, uh, starting with Abraham.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

And uh it was so cool. I mean, so every freshman had to learn it. Uh he wrote it, and um man, it was legendary. So yeah, Father Donaher, he's one of the most memorable guys. I remember even for the drive. Uh he would organize those buses.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

Organize the buses. We still sing songs at the drive that he wrote. Oh, is that the right thing? So yeah, so our our the the pillar of one of the pillars of the drive is the drive song that that that he wrote uh decades ago. And they the guys still sing it with as much ferocity as they ever have. It's amazing. They put their arms around and try to get it. We try to do the best job we can to make sure every young man in this building knows who Father Donaher was, how important he was, uh, because it was he was the drive for for so many years, so many decades, and uh it meant so much to him, which meant it meant so much to the boys, and and uh yeah, so we still I guess it's sort of a living tribute to him that we sing that every single drive day, the opening of the uh drive assembly uh is uh we sing the drive song, is what it's simply called. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Open open and closing.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Yes, yeah, open up and closing.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

Dan, you gotta sing a few verses for us. I don't remember the drive song. I father Donaher, he was behind so many of those cheers. It was also um Father Clement. Remember? Yes, I think the two of them were most of the cheers back in the day.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

Yep, yes. Um he's a good one. I never had Father Donaher for class. Oh he came and guest lectured for a week or two when he taught us morality. Wow. And uh, which was an interesting experience in ninth grade. Uh, you know, I knew Father Donaher, my he knew my dad when my dad had gone to school here, and my uncle sang for him in the Glee Club, but the only uh experience I had with him in class was him as the guest lecturer to teach us morality. Okay. Yes, and there's lots of legendary stories that behind that experience. I can imagine what he was teaching back in the day. Because you know, it was a sensitive subject, and you weren't and you weren't allowed you weren't allowed to snicker or laugh. Right. I mean, or you didn't call that.

SPEAKER_04 28:47

Yes, he did.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Yes, yes, he did. So it was uh it was not good to laugh at anything that young boys laugh at. So it was the biggest ch maybe the biggest challenge you faced in four years here in our era was trying to keep a straight face during morality. Yeah, that's so true.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

That's probably still a challenge to some students.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Oh, absolutely. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Awesome. Well, Joe, welcome back. Thank you so much for uh coming on the podcast and for sticking around, hanging around with us. Mr. Collins, thank you for your time too.

SPEAKER_04 29:15

You're very welcome. Yeah, very welcome.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Appreciate you for having me.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

It's really an honor to be a gift of your time. Thank you. So impressive to see what you guys are doing. You got the much more important jobs uh in the world here, teaching these young kids the importance to uh be successful.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

Well, our mantra is the world's a better place with more shamrocks in it. So I like that. That's what it's it's what keeps us going every day.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Sounds like a great LinkedIn post.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

No, yes, it does. No better way to close it.

SPEAKER_03 29:40

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Awesome. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Thank you. Thank you.