The current and past military service of Notre Dame alumni will be honored on June 1 (Friday) at 3 p.m. as part of the Alumni Association’s Reunion 2012 events. The ceremony will take place at the Pasquerilla Center’s flagpole area; the rain location will be the Carey Auditorium in the Hesburgh Library.
This year’s guest speaker will be Col. Brian Regan, a 1961 Notre Dame graduate who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1992 after 30 years of service. Following graduation from the University, Regan was commissioned in 1962 and served as a platoon commander, executive officer, commanding officer, and participated in combat operations in the Dominican Republic before leaving active duty in 1965.
A South Bend resident, Regan subsequently commanded a unit in Fort Wayne, Ind., was officer in charge of the mobilization station in Indianapolis, commanded a special staff in Norfolk, Va., and led all Marine Corps individual ready reserves as commanding officer of a mobilization unit in Overland Park, Kan.
His decorations include the Legion of Merit for work during Desert Shield/Desert Storm and the Joint Commendation Medal for leadership as commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Exercise Control Program for reserves of all military branches at the U.S. Atlantic Command in Norfolk, Va.
In the private sector, Regan was director of development at Notre Dame, vice president of college relations at Saint Mary’s College, president of Brian Regan & Associates, executive vice present of Goodwill Industries of Michiana, and vice president of WNIT Public Television. He also taught in the Mendoza College of Business for more than two decades.
Regan is president of the Indiana War Memorial Commission and Trustee Emeritus of Holy Cross College. He was designated a “Sagamore of the Wabash” by former Indiana governor Joe Kernan in 2005 and is the benefactor of the sword presented annually to Notre Dame’s NROTC Marine Honor Graduate.
Widowed in 1996, Regan married Kathleen Malone Beeler in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in February 2005, in a ceremony officiated by University President Emeritus Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. The couple has seven children and five grandchildren.