Patricia Detzel
2004 Recipient of the Lackner Award
Acceptance Speech
I am especially honored to share this award tonight with my colleague, Dr. Paul Mormon. I have worked with Paul over the years and have a great respect for him. But it is so awesome to share the dais with an academic dean, one of the movers and shakers on campus! Paul, you are an exceptional person and I offer my sincere congratulations.
When Fr.Gene came to my office to tell me I would receive this award this evening, I felt a mixture of surprise, delight and then some serious dread. I had to think a minute until I realized that this is the one where you have to make a speech! Of course, Fr. Gene suggested that making a speech is a piece of cake. I want to tell you that this piece of cake has taken lots more than a half hour in the oven!
Before I get to the speech part of my remarks, let me introduce the three families that are here with me tonight. My first family includes:
My best friend, Frank, and husband of 13 years and my greatest supporter. We share a love of family and travel but I found out after marrying him, he has a certain passion for museums. Those who know Frank know that a definite amount of stamina is required to keep up with this passion. He can smell a museum when you think there’s none there and finds them even when he’s not ALLOWED to. Once, on a trip to Maine that I had declared I wanted to be truly lazy – absolutely NO museums – we took a drive along the coast. Don’t you know Frank just happened to spot a quaint little maritime museum – just one, honey, that we really couldn’t pass up? It was top notch, but I’ve given up on ever declaring a vacation trip to be museum-less again.
Frank and I love to talk over dinner each evening and we usually end up going over what our workday has been about. He actually listens and one would even think he finds it interesting to hear about how I’ve spent my day trying to reconcile numbers and get an exact match of the data that I send to the NCES and to the AAUP. This usually involves explaining a bunch of acronyms as well, of course. Thank you, Frank, for being patient and having forbearance with me. I realize, though, that I really do need to get a life!
My parents – Mary and Fred Wootan are here. My mother is here in person this evening and I firmly believe that my Dad is too in spirit. He was always interested in what I was doing and so I don’t think he’d miss a big thing like this. I still run to Mom with all that is happening in my life. I should have remembered, though, when I asked her to help me find a dress for this evening what a great saleslady she always was. Even though she didn’t get any commission, (or maybe she worked something out with the clerk while I was in the dressing room), she talked me into buying the only dress that I looked at that WASN’T on sale! I consider myself lucky to continue to share our great friendship and I am especially pleased to have her here tonight.
My children – I’ll introduce them in birth order since you know how children can be if they think their mother isn’t treating them fairly. Brian is the oldest and is here with his wife, Dianne. Brian is a U.D. grad who, in his own words, is a mild mannered insurance agent by day, but beats a mean set of drums during his off hours. Dianne is happiest when she is driving their boat on a sunny day – preferably in the state of Michigan. They have blessed me with two terrific grandchildren – Joe and Kristi.
My son, Jeff, is next in line and he and his wife, Minnette, are citizens of the San Diego area. Because of the distance and their work commitments, they are unable to be present in person, but are here, too, in spirit. Jeff is the guitarist in the family and shares this talent with the church where he and Minny attend. I hope they continue to thrive where the weather is lots nicer year round than in Ohio. Since Minnette is from Arizona she has a particular distaste for Ohio winters.
My youngest – I’d say my baby, but she hates it when I call her that so I won’t – is Colleen. She is here with her husband Dallas. Colleen is also a U.D. grad (she says it was either U.D. or U Pay when it was time to go to college so she made the best choice). Colleen even worked for U.D. in the Advancement Division for several years, and is currently employed by that other university up north in Fairborn.
Dallas and Colleen share a love for running and each has completed a marathon. I think that is a pretty special accomplishment. I find doing a three mile power walk to be strenuous enough!
My daughter is also our piano player and mentioning my children’s musical interests reminds me of when they were teens – they had three bedrooms, three instruments and a variety of stereos and boomboxes. We called them stereo wars! We were fortunate, however, that most of our neighbors were tolerant of the musical sounds (notice I don’t say noise?). One time a police officer was called by one of the less tolerant neighbors. When he showed up in front of the house, another neighbor said not to worry that it was just Brian Lampton beating his drums. The officer drove off and never even gave us a warning!
Colleen has two children, Holly and Sam who, together with their cousins Joe and Kristi, are sharing a sister act baby sitter this evening. Since all four are under the age of 12, we didn’t think that having them get all dressed up in Sunday clothes, eat food that doesn’t consist of either pizza or hot dogs, and listen to speeches – even if one of them is their grandma – was a particularly fun way for them to spend a Friday evening. They always have a great time together anyway, but I’m sure their sitters will be as happy as any of us when this event is over tonight!
I have two brothers who are here. I usually get a kick out of saying that my brother Fred is my older brother, but I think I’d better be honest in front of all these Marianists and tell you that I am actually the oldest. Fred and his wife, Barbara, have recently moved back to the area from North Carolina and we are delighted to have them closer as I’m sure their grandchildren are. They love all that spoiling – the grandparents, of course. Fred just started a new career teaching high school at Bishop Fenwick in Middletown.
David, my younger brother, is the baby of our family. At his age I don’t think he minds being called that, but I’m sure I’ll find out from him later. David has the distinction of being the first of us siblings to retire from full-time work. There’s an irony, don’t you think, that the “baby” is the first to retire. I was supposed to do that. I think both David and his wife Cathy are pretty happy about this event, at least so far. It’s been less than a year so I don’t know where he is on his TO DO list. When you’re retired, though, I think the list has things on it like “go fishing in Florida in January.” He got that one crossed off last month.
I am privileged to have six additional children who were part of my marriage package to Frank. Tonight the two Detzels who represent the Dayton contingent are here. First, Mary Ann Vargo and her husband Bob. Bob is a UD grad who works at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Mary Ann works in a physician’s office and she and I love singing in the alto section in the Holy Angels church choir.
Michael is the youngest Detzel – I’ve probably used up all my “baby” references for one evening. He is a third year student here at U.D. in the School of Business and is looking forward to traveling to Asia this summer. We are really proud that he was selected to be part of this special group. We expect lots of pictures, Mike!
I’d also like to say that I am blessed to have another family present tonight. Since 1988 I have had the privilege of belonging to a lay Marianist family, the Magnificat Community. This was not always our name. For many years we were the Intergenerational Group, and for quite a while the name fit as we had members of all ages, including some students. However, as we lost more and more of our young members and as the rest of us aged, we became more of the Older Generational Group. We didn’t think that was such a good idea for a name – and so we recently became the Magnificat Community. We meet monthly from September to June and share our lives with one another in matters temporal, moral and spiritual. Of course, being good Marianists, we always eat when we gather. I’ve heard it said that that’s a distinctly Marianist characteristic. In that regard, then, we are especially good Marianists!
Finally, by way of introductions, members of my third family in the office of Administrative Services are here. Some of you may wonder what we do in Administrative Services and the answer is that we provide support of all kinds – financial, informational and legal. We keep the campus looking great and our buildings warm and in good working order. But behind the serious demeanor of accountants and other business types who all work very hard we have a good time being together. Practical jokes are always in good fun whether its finding bats, spiders, carefully aimed rubber bands or raw potatoes in most unlikely places. Every Christmas while he was here, we tried to find a game to play where we could beat Bro. Bernie Ploeger – our office’s fiercest competitor. Believe it or not, we succeeded a few times, too.
We’ve shared a lot personally and professionally over the years. We grieved over the death of a co-worker, rejoiced at the birth of new babies and poured over wedding and holiday pictures. We know each other and each other’s families as if they were our own. One of our best Christmases ever happened some years ago when we adopted a family from Mercy Manor and showered them with gifts and a Christmas party. It was all the Christmas this family had, but we got much more from it than we gave.
So – thank you to all for being here to share this night with me.
Though I’ve attended many of these dinners I found that I didn’t remember a lot of specifics about what others had said except that the speeches have always been entertaining. I take this to mean that tonight its the Pat and Paul show. I know that I can’t possibly match Joe Belle or Mike O’Hare or Karen Pettus for funny remarks. So I decided it would be a good time to reminisce with you about my experiences of the Marianist charism.
When the reporter from Campus Report asked me what was meant by the Marianist spirit, I had to pause and think. Since we are talking about a spirit, we know it is not something we can actually see, but nonetheless, it is something we can truly sense – sometimes even so strongly that it is almost physical in nature. I think I can better answer her question now by telling some stories about Marianists. Though previous Lackner winners have worried about being inclusive of everyone as they named names, I’m not going to let that bother me. Please consider my stories just a sampling.
My special memories include:
Bro. Joe Mervar – Bro. Joe, as many of you may remember, had a special love for the flora of the campus. He and I had conversations and treks across the campus during which I learned more and more about the trees and shrubs that grow here. My own passion for gardening was just emerging in those days and he helped me to learn to recognize plants that I would later incorporate into my own garden. I think of him often when I look at the red twig dogwoods in my backyard. He didn’t warn me, though, that they are exceptionally vigorous growers and that I would need to trim them about once a month during the summer. Here was a special friendship that developed over a shared passion.
Bro. Vinnie Wottle also loved to talk about plants, in his case, roses. I was happy to join the group of people who saved paper for him to sell. He used the proceeds to finance purchases of food and fertilizer for his plants and they were beautiful – an early example of recycling that worked exceptionally well. Bro. Vinnie reminds me of how so many of the brothers endear themselves to staff at the University. I recall a co-worker in St. Mary’s scolding him for wearing those sandals – he always wore Birkenstocks – all winter long. In typically motherly fashion she warned that he was sure to get sick. I don’t think he ever got sick from cold feet, though.
There’s a special fondness in my heart for Bro. George Deinlein who was part of our Magnificat Community. He was a man of great faith and had some of the best and most practical ideas for praying. He was really good at it. I counted on him to have recommendations for reading that I should do. I still keep a book he suggested close at hand. Bro. George taught me how to be a better pray-er and to have a glad heart.
As you may have heard it said, a particularly Marianist characteristic is that of inclusivity – priests, brother, sisters and laity all the same around a Marianist table. I learned this first hand from Fr. Roesch. When I first started working here, Institutional Studies was closely allied with the President’s Office. I was pretty awed by those who worked there, especially Fr. Roesch.
Not long after I started, I began a master’s program in English that opened with a course on metaphysical poets. I had been out of school for about 15 years and this class was pretty scary. One of our first assignments was to scan a poem by John Donne. I remember Dr. Cochran telling me when I got my paper back that my scansion instrument needed tuning. So I was not only impressed, but also very relieved when Fr. Roesch offered to help me dust off my high school Latin and translate lines in another of the poems. I figured my Latin probably needed tuning as well.
One other time, I brought in a family tree that some of my cousins had researched and drawn. It was a great sketch, a tree shape with names of relatives going back about a hundred years or so. I wanted to add our family name to the bottom – actually there were several copies of it since I planned to give them as Christmas gifts. I had no particular talent for lettering and those were the days before one could get anything fancy out of a typewriter. Fr. Roesch offered to finish up the trees and he took them home one night. The very next morning he presented them to me with the family name on the bottom in a beautiful script. I didn’t know about his skill with calligraphy. Fr. Roesch showed me what a servant leader does.
At U.D., though, one seldom becomes a Marianist at heart by learning from the brothers alone. The University has attracted staff who believe in the ideals and practice them. When I looked at the list of previous recipients of the Lackner Award I found many who had helped me to refine my definition of the Marianist spirit. I’d like to mention some of them and my recollections about them, and I hope that those I name who are present will not be offended by my remarks. If so, you can line up with my family after we are finished tonight and let the lashings begin!
I remember working with Mary Shay many years ago and getting to know her on a personal level. She had this contagious laugh and always seemed so upbeat and she really loved this place. It was pretty much her whole life and she loved the students especially. Someone once said that Mary could go anywhere in the world and a former student would give her a place to stay. This is a story about caring.
Nora Duffy, one of my dear friends in the Magnificat Community, is to me a model of a similar cheerfulness. If you want an idea of how this is manifested, just give Nora a call sometime. No matter what the day may look like outside, she will have a creative and cheery greeting as she answers the phone. No simple hellos for her. Nora, I hope you don’t get inundated with phone calls because of this remark. If you think you might, please feel free to line up with my family afterwards.
Jerry VonderBrink has taught me life and work lessons. A very long time ago, he introduced me to some business terms that I would need in my work. With great patience he explained to me what a CPI was and why there was more than one and how one should calculate the percentage change from year to year. For some reason this lesson stands out from many others that I had with Jerry. In our office he is especially remembered as a designated driver on a scavenger hunt we had one summer. He is also demonstrates how to find joy in retirement years. It comes out in his conversations about his travels, his love of dancing, his volunteer work at St. Vincent’s.
Someone who knows how to care for others is my friend, Elaine Carey. When I suffered one of my few illnesses, she was one of the first people there with food for our family. I especially remember the time that she and Mary Ann Krapf met me at my home on return from running errands to tell me that they had witnessed an accident that my middle son had had on his bike outside Neil’s Restaurant. They came to tell me about it and to say that even though they had taken Jeff to the hospital, he did not appear to be seriously injured. The injuries were, in fact, minor, but they had really saved me some grief by taking time to do this good deed. In retirement, Elaine continues to go many extra miles to care for her U.D. friends.
Ken Kuntz came to work in our office while he chaired the Sesquicentennial Celebration at U.D. We got to know a lot about Ken’s many talents at that time and also to realize his generosity in sharing them. As an example, we in the office knew that Ken had first class culinary skills. He brought home made cookies to our office Christmas party that were works of art. This past summer Frank and I toured Hawthorne Hill, the Wright Brothers Home in Oakwood, and found a pleasant surprise in the dining room. There were lovely dishes at the table on loan from the Kuntzes who were sharing some of their treasured pieces for the tour. But the best gift of all was the aroma of freshly baked cakes and pastries made from period recipes – all of them beautiful – and all a Kuntz gift as well. We are lucky that Ken and Mimi are generous to so many causes in the Dayton area
One reason for my long tenure at U.D. is that is has been a place where I have been intellectually challenged as well as impressed by Marianist ideals. My job has often stretched me to the fullest extent of my talents. Over the years working for Bro.Bernie Ploeger, I often found myself at the limits of what I thought I could do, but he helped me to go beyond that. I never turned out to be the mathematician he would have liked, (I know he was disappointed he couldn’t teach me calculus), but I did get to be pretty good at making calculations and finding my way around a spreadsheet. This turned out to be a good combination for both of us.
Most recently, I find my challenges working on the Committee on Diversity in Community, the CDC. Although we have much to accomplish, the work is exciting and I have every reason to believe we can achieve really good results. We are seeking to make the climate for everyone here regardless of their position, comfortable enough that they can do their very best and feel valued for their unique contributions.
Though these stories and Marianist moments mark seemingly trivial experiences, taken together they form a wonderful mosaic of what being Marianist means. It is sharing – sharing friendship and talents and work, food and fellowship, care and advice, taking time to teach and to enjoy common interests. It is spirit so real that you can actually feel it. Being a Lackner Award winner is perhaps my best experience of this Marianist charism. A benefit that I would never have thought about has been the outpouring of caring that I have experienced since the January 7 announcement. I have received emails, cards, flowers, hugs and in-person congratulations by the score. It has been great good fun and my heart is full of all these good wishes. I thank every one who has offered them.
Finally, I am grateful that the University of Dayton has allowed me to always put my family first while continuing to do my best possible work for its community. The Marianists truly foster that kind of commitment and are happy to welcome those who work here as members of many families. I heard it said once that “home is the place you go to and they have to take you in.” I came home to UD 28 years ago and the Marianists took me in.
One of the delightful responsibilities that goes with receiving this award is deciding where to spend the $5,000 gift. I would like to allocate part of it to the Women’s Center – perhaps to fund a speaker or purchase some reference materials- and another part to the care and feeding of Serenity Pines, the contemplative garden on the hill. As an avid gardener, that would be a special way for me to be a part of another garden besides my own. Who knows, since my hands were blessed this evening, maybe, if I’m lucky, they’ll even let me dig in the dirt sometime?
Thanks again for sharing the evening with me and thanks for the memories.