SJ = 'Sewing Jo'... generations will benefit because of Jo

Note: This message was originally sent on October 28, 2019

Jo Merwin (seated in the front row, far left, red sweatshirt) wasn’t an alumna of Gonzaga. Back when this story began, she wasn’t even a Catholic and wasn’t likely to become one: a student in the 1930s at Kinman Business University, her classmates told her never to go out with Gonzaga boys: “They’re always broke and always hungry.”

But then she met Gordon Merwin who was part of Gonzaga’s Glee Club Quartet that was performing at a business breakfast. They were known as Gonzaga’s finest quartet and were a popular group at the time. They were even heard on national radio in 1939 when they performed on Bing Crosby’s Kraft Hall Radio Show. Jo recalled the four as excellent performers with an exceptional blend. Father Art Dussault, S.J., introduced the two, telling Jo that Gordon intended to become a Jesuit; in fact, he was all signed up to enter the Novitiate that fall in the same group with Wilfred Schoenberg. But when Gordon caught sight of Jo, he started having second thoughts. The next May, they were married, beginning a life together that lasted until Gordon died 52 years later.

Gordon attended Gonzaga on a music scholarship. After graduation, music remained an important part of his and Jo’s lives. They continued to stay in touch with members of the quartet and their families. In addition, they regularly participated in Glee Club gatherings and reunions.

The first year after they were married, they had Linda, the first of many children who would receive their love. Then they adopted Timmy, Bob, Martin, and Martha, and, as time went on, they took in foster children. “We usually had about seven kids in the house,” Jo recalled.

Some 60 years ago, a friend suggested that Jo might like to do some sewing for the Jesuits; she accepted the job, never imagining it would turn into a lifetime occupation. She started out doing relatively simple things like mending trousers and cassocks. Then one day, Father Lou Saint-Marie asked if she had ever made a clerical shirt. “I said ‘No,’ but I could try. Well, Father brought down one of his old shirts and I copied it; that was my first clerical shirt, and I’ve made thousands since.” Only God knows how many cassocks and shirts she made for the Jesuits, how many trousers and socks she mended, and how many stoles she made for the Chapel.

So, Jo became a fixture at Jesuit House (now the Humanities Building). In her sewing room in the basement, she had hundreds of pictures of Jesuits – their obituary photos. “My Rogues Gallery,” she called it – it was really her wall of friends. One day, she pulled Fr. O’Neill’s leg by saying: “Say, do you think it might be all right, now that I’m in Jesuit House, if I put S.J. after my name?” O’Neill was shocked. Jo’s sense of humor saved the day: “Oh, Father, it would just stand for Sewing Jo.”

During all those years, Jo and Gordon supported the University’s Annual Campaign. That first $1 gift in 1958 became $5, then $50, then $150, then $500, and then in 1994, shortly after Gordon passed away, Jo established, in memory of her husband, the Merwin Music Department Scholarship fund.

“I knew Gordon would be happy if I could do a scholarship,” said Jo. She continued to support the fund annually along with other alumni and friends until her passing in 2016. Big things come from little beginnings; the Merwin Music Department Scholarship has supported 39 students with 46 scholarships since 1997. Now, and in the endless years to come, Gonzaga students will know the boundless goodness of Jo and Gordon Merwin.