Alfred J. Freddoso
Professor of Philosophy
John and Jean Oesterle Professor of Thomistic Studies
University of Notre Dame
* David Freddoso, Journalist (Notre Dame, 1999)
My son David wrote for local Notre Dame publications before his graduation in May 1999. He then graduated from Columbia's Pulitzer School of Journalism, worked a year for a Brooklyn paper, three years as a Capitol Hill reporter for Human Events, and then three years as the senior political reporter for Robert Novak's Evans-Novak Political Report. (Growing up with me as a father helped prepare him for the grumpy demeanor of the Prince of Darkness.) After that, he spent almost two years working for National Review Online, where he was a frequent contributor to The Corner. He is now working as an investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner, where he joins such stalwarts as Michael Barone, Byron York, his good buddy Tim Carney, and a whole host of other interesting conservative journalists. Look for David's contributions to Beltway Confidential.
In 2008 David wrote a New York Times (seven weeks on the hardcover non-fiction list) and Amazon.com bestseller, The Case Against Barack Obama. For my running commentary on the book's reception, click here.In February of 2009 David and Nagore Goitiandia were married in Boise. We are now Basque as well as Italian and (grrr!) Irish! The Basques, of course, are feisty. We like that sort of thing in our family. :-) I will be filling you in on Basque language, culture, and history at some future time.
* Katrina (Katie) Freddoso, Utterly Dependable Organizer and Audio Specialist and Teacher-Naturalist (!?) (Notre Dame, 2002)
Oh, have I told you about my daughter Katie? A 2002 Notre Dame graduate, she had a couple of publishing jobs in Boston and then served for two years as assistant to the director (David Solomon) of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture before doing a six-month course in radio/audio documentary journalism at the Salt Institute in Portland, Me. Check out one of her pieces of audio journalism here. In her youth Katie also did some good investigative reporting for the Scholastic, a Notre Dame student publication, including a couple of award-winning pieces.
After a brief stint working for Audiofile Magazine, the leading source of reviews of audio books in the nation, she completed (as a private contractor) Phase 1 of an oral history project for the Notre Dame Alumni Association. Phase 1 consisted of a five-month drive around the contintental USA doing over 100 interviews with interesting Notre Dame alumni and alumnae. She was at a secret location at the beginning of Phase 2 (transcribing, editing, producing 3-5 minute audio snippets of the interviews, etc.). There is now a webpage devoted to her project, with audio links and interview transcriptions, and an article on her trip in the Summer 2008 issue of Notre Dame Magazine. If you check out the website, I think you will be more than impressed with the quality of Katie's work. Also, Katie has created her own website with links to a wide sample of her work.
Katie moved temporarily
to Washington, DC,
where, among other things, she did an internship with National
Geographic Radio. However, she didn't get to
complete work on the oral history project,
since the Notre
Dame Alumni Association stopped funding the project.
Luckily, Katie has been able to
cobble together enough work to keep body and soul together
for the time being. But now a regular job is in the offing.
After a three-month stint as a
teacher-naturalist at a camp run by the Archdiocese of Seattle, Katie
is now back in Portland, ME -- yes, a lot of miles on that little car -- working once again for Audiofile Magazine
(see above). It looks like she will get to do some pretty
creative things this time around, in addition to some free lance work
that has come her way because of her past work in audio-related
enterprises.
* Michael Freddoso, Law Student (Notre Dame, 2006)
And then there's
Michael, the sort of kid who reads analytic
philosophy on the side and buys National Geographic Magazine at
airports. (We found out about the latter when his credit card company
called, wondering whether he was the one spending the money at
Nashville airport.) After a brief stint in Washington with his older
brother, he lived in Austin for two years, not too far from
Jacqueline, where he participated in the Texas Teaching Fellows
program. After two years of teaching in the Austin school system, he
decided that law school looked pretty good after all. He will
begin as a first-year law student in the fall of 2009 at the University
of Notre Dame.
* Stephen Freddoso (Notre Dame, 2009)
Stephen just graduated as (what else?) a philosophy major at Notre Dame, managing to garner one of the coveted Oesterle Awards for excellence in philosophical studies. Stephen managed to put together as interesting a curriculum as any of the kids ever. He had a fabled Notre Dame teacher, Fr. Bill Miscamble, for the mandatory university seminar in his very first semester as a freshman, and it was clear sailing from then on ....... Ralph McInerny, Alasdair MacIntyre, Mike Loux, David Solomon, Kevin Hart, Tom Werge, Brad Gregory, Gary Anderson, Christian Moevs, Jeff Speaks, even me (before the new, completely unmotivated, rule about not teaching your relatives came down from on high).
Stephen will be in
Dallas next year, because that's where Claire
Shearer will be, pursuing her master's degree in theology at the University
of Dallas, from which she just graduated with the "Kindest Graduate"
award. Stephen and Claire are officially engaged now and plan a
summer 2010 wedding. In the meantime, Stephen will be teaching at
a private Catholic school in Irving, TX.
* Peter Freddoso (Notre Dame, 2013)
Peter, having successfully gotten into Notre Dame, will be starting as a freshman in the Fall of 2009. I'll have more to report as the summer goes on.