News Article

Gonzaga University President Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., will make good on a debt Gonzaga incurred from a student some 61 years ago this Friday when that alumnus, 83-year-old Robert Probach, returns to his alma mater to collect.

Probach entered and won a contest promoted by the student newspaper, the Gonzaga Bulletin, before Christmas, 1946. The contest invited students to write an article about “Your Most Memorable Christmas.” Probach wrote about his almost unspeakable experience as a World War II prisoner of war during Christmas 1945, and won the $20 grand prize. The problem? He never got the money.

Probach’s son Gregg, of Seattle, said his father pursued the money for a few years to no avail. The topic eventually became a family joke, especially at Christmas time. “As dad recalls, he wrote about how his strong faith got him through this most difficult time and uncertain future and how his faith was the best present he had,” said Gregg Probach.

Later, after Robert Probach and his wife retired and moved into a retirement community to be close to St. Philomena’s Parish in Des Moines, Wash., they by chance met Father Spitzer, who was St. Philomena’s pastor before being named GU president. The Probachs joked with Fr. Spitzer about the $20 whenever they returned to campus.

Now, as a birthday present to his father, Gregg Probach will drive his dad to Gonzaga this Friday, May 18, to collect on that $20, which the younger Probach said is worth more than $500 in purchasing power today. The elder Probach will receive a “jumbo” check from Father Spitzer at 2 p.m., in the President’s Office, Room 214 of the GU Administration Building. In turn, Probach will donate the money to Gonzaga and close the books on this debt — once and for all.

For more information, contact Dale Goodwin, GU director of public relations, at (509) 323-6133 or via e-mail.