My two cents: Parseghian welcomes new child as family's charity work continues

Happiest news of the week: Former Salpointe Catholic distance running standout Ara Parseghian, grandson of the former Notre Dame football coach of the same name, became a father for the second time last week.

Now an anesthesiologist in residency in Portland, Maine, Parseghian is married to an attorney, Cicely, who gave berth to a boy, named Kevah, on Thursday. The couple also has a 3-year-old daughter, Lila.

All three of the younger Ara’s siblings — Christa, then 9; Michael, 10; and Marcia, 16 — died of Niemann-Pick Type C disease in Tucson. It is a rare, fatal, genetic disorder that essentially degenerates motor skills in young people. Ara was the only child of Tucson surgeon Michael Parseghian and his wife, Cindy, not to carry the Niemann-Pick Type C gene.

Ara, a torchbearer when the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics torch passed through Tucson, graduated from Princeton and from Tufts University School of Medicine.

The Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation continues its work on Sunrise Drive.