Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Rev. James Van Dyke will give the homily at Friday's funeral for fallen Buffalo firefighter Jason Arno. Van Dyke remembers Arno as a well-liked student at Canisius High School who was tenacious and always looking to improve his skills.
Van Dyke says he first met Arno when Arno was assigned to his freshman English class, around 1999. Van Dyke says Arno served as a minor official in his class. "He's the guy who would collect the papers, he was the guy who would take the attendance, he's the guy who would make sure the windows were open or closed as the case may be. He's the guy who always made sure that I had chalk. And he was great about that. And always with a goofy grin," recalls Van Dyke.
Van Dyke also coached the crew team, and got Van Dyke to be part of that team, where that tenacity showed. "One of the things that we do to have the guys train is we put them in under basically a torture instrument, just really a training exercise, and he worked so hard on that," says Van Dyke. "When he did well on something, he absolutely glowed. And when he didn't even throw the ball well, when you could tell that he was making the decision that it wouldn't happen again." Arno went on to play football at Canisius High.
Van Dyke says he was heartened to hear Arno was among students who followed the Canisius motto which is to be 'men for others'. He says Van Dyke followed the Buffalo Fire motto of 'so others may live'. But there's one question on many people's minds. "Where do we find God? In these tragedies, and that's one of the things I'm (going to be) speaking about in the homily," says Van Dyke.
Van Dyke says Arno was among the most likeable, cheerful and funniest guys at Canisius High. "He was I think he had a very strong crew of friends from from North Buffalo, but the friendship was not exclusive that if you had to know Jay at all," notes Van Dyke. He says whether it was sitting next to him at lunch or on a ski bus or new part of the crew team, and later on the football team, he was your friend and he was very, very loyal to his friends.
Van Dyke says he was impressed Arno learned how to cook. "He became the chef at that firehouse and he loved doing that. And, he loves serving up a great meal for the guys, those guys didn't go out with Campbell's tomato soup and a toasted cheese sandwich, they went out with a great meal," notes Van Dyke.
Van Dyke is now president of Georgetown Prep near Washington, DC.
