LETTERS: THANKS FOR SAVING FORMER SEMINARY

To the editor:

I want to take this moment to pause, reflect and thank B.W. Harrison for the most generous gift he has bestowed to this community and Southeast Missouri State University. I have admired him greatly since my arrival in Cape Girardeau in 1991. We shared a common passion with several other prominent individuals to see St. Vincent's College and Seminary saved for future generations.

In a time in which our evening news coverage is devoted to gun violence at schools, I think the university and the Southeast Missourian for the coverage of this fine event Wednesday night.

Mr. Harrison is one of those quiet individuals in the community who should receive much gratitude, although he shuns it. I want to thank him for myself, who would have done nothing short of strapping myself to the cross atop the bell tower to prevent the seminary's destruction. I want to thank him from my two sons, Brian and Adam Steele, as they love to play soccer on the ground and play basketball in the gymnasium. I want to thank him from the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation for allowing us to see our dream through.

Thank you, Mr. Harrison, from me, my sons, the neighbors around the old seminary, the Old St. Vincent's parishioners and Southeast Missourian readers. And may God bless you for allowing our future generations the use of the facilities and grounds. You are most certainly a random act of kindness to the university. It has been and will be a delight to call you friend.

DIANA (STEELE) BRYANT

Cape Girardeau