Note: This message was originally sent on January 1, 2023
Thank you for reading my emails. Thank you for responding and for indulging in the stories of your fellow Zags. What was clearest about 2022 is how truly deep, broad, and complex the stories of Zag Nation are. I feel beyond blessed to be the one with the megaphone shouting from the rooftops about how wonderful each and every one of you are. It’s like I once heard from an author and radio show host, “That’s why God put us here—to lead rich, full lives and then to tell about it; or, better yet, to know others who live rich, full lives and then to tell stories about them.”
So, on this first day of the new year take a quick ride on the 2022 time-machine with me and recall some of the rich, full lives we’ve come to know.
All the way back to January when we were still masking and navigating the end of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and winter weather hit campus hard, Gonzaga shared the story of U.S. Naval Reserve Cmdr. Paul Charvet, who went missing in action 50 years ago and came home to rest in 2022. It warmed our hearts to know his 101-year-old mother could finally find peace.
February brought Gonzaga Day and the story of Jim and Linda Hunt’s commitment to those who serve others in memory of their daughter, Krista. You showed love for Fr. Steve Kuder, S.J., by supporting the scholarship his family established in his memory and sharing stories of his impact. As Fr. Kuder’s sister said, “he embodied the concepts of joy, family, friendship and compassion,” just as I believe all of you do for Gonzaga, too.
Marching forth to a favorite month for Zag Nation, Gonzaga hosted its renowned Women Lead conference and you helped welcome hundreds of alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and family members to the Zag community of donors on Zags Give Day. This was one of my favorite days of the year—when you showed up with your stories of inspiration, success, overcoming and care. One of my favorite reflections comes from Mike Roth, who said, “Every day we have key folks continually shaping Gonzaga and having an impact on us all…In my view, Gonzaga has never been better.”
Oh, and we had some fun watching a few basketball games in there, too… (*wink*)
From the opening of the Gonzaga Family Haven and the John and Joan Bollier Family Center for Integrated Science and Engineering in April, we learned more about the people who care so deeply for the future of Northeast Spokane and its residents and people around the world who benefit from STEM professionals educated here. These buildings and what happens in them is about ensuring people hear (as Joan Bollier so eloquently put it), ‘you are capable of anything you want to.’
Before graduating hundreds of newly minted, Jesuit-educated leaders and people for others in May, we celebrated the stories of the past century of business education and nearly eight combined centuries of service at Gonzaga for faculty and staff like Blaine Garvin, Nancy Masingale, Dale Goodwin, and 22 other impactful people. Throughout the summer, we began collecting and sharing the stories of my Advancement colleagues, in the hopes that their stories would help you better connect with the people helping to make Gonzaga all that it is.
We mourned the loss of baseball Coach Danny Evans and pledged together to live with the same authenticity he did every day. You heard his story and that of Sid Hayes, whose journey as a Gonzaga student in the 80s involved the personal touch of Sue Weitz helping her find her path despite chronic health issues, and how that experience inspired her to leave a legacy of support.
We found inspiration from Zags like Glorilyn Maw, who told the young women at the School of Engineering and Applied Science Summer Immersion program, "We just get inspired by problems. And then when we find solutions to problems, that's helping people. And helping people makes the world better." She really hit it on the head there with respect to what it means to be an engineer (and a Zag!).
“Double-Zag” Tom Larkin immortalized his father (also an undergraduate and Zag Law grad) through an endowed scholarship to support mock trial and shared their shared story of care for the future. Tom shared, “He loved telling stories and didn’t want people to forget what he’d done, so I felt like I was giving him a gift in telling him his stories will be told forever.”
And in a blink, we found ourselves in fall, with hundreds of new Zags joining the family. Class after class of what they’d become came back to reunite on campus at Zagapalooza. Another academic year hit full-speed and your support is propelling it into the University’s 136th year.
Despite all the phenomenal stories of 2022, the true measure of the year is in the relationships we’ve built and strengthened—especially Gonzaga’s relationship with you. You are heroes—medical and military. You are inventors and innovators. You are world-changers and community leaders. You are the people who make things happen—the thinkers, the starters, the doers, the leaders, and the finishers. You are loving, you are giving, you are what All that you’ve endured, overcome, and made possible for others…seriously, like everybody’s GU uncle Bing Crosby said, “sometimes I count my blessings instead of sheep,” and I end up nodding off before I can get an accurate count of you all.
Thank you for taking this journey with me today and over the past year. I look forward to every tomorrow we have and am grateful to you for making them possible. All the best to you in 2023!