SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Ara Parseghian was remembered as a championship football coach, mentor, tireless fund-raiser for medical research and gentleman of the first order during his funeral Mass and a memorial celebration that followed on Sunday.
Parseghian, who brought Notre Dame’s proud program out of the doldrums of the early 1960s to win two national titles, died Wednesday at 94 .
Former Notre Dame football Lou Holtz and former basketball coach Digger Phelps were among the speakers at the memorial. Country music artist Vince Gill, who with his wife Amy Grant are friends of the Parseghian family, performed two songs.
Holtz told attendees that the late school President Rev. Theodore Hesburgh once said hiring Parseghian was one of the smartest things he had ever done and that Parseghian once said his years in South Bend were the greatest of his and his family’s lives.
“Had Ara Parseghian not shown up, so many people would have missed him because of his insight, his love of his family and his caring for people,” Holtz said. “A lot of people can be successful. But Ara was significant. Significant is when you help other people be successful and, of course, that lasts many a lifetime.”