The Mystery Zag is Winifred Hayes-Adams

The Mystery Zag for Gonzaga Magazine's Fall 2021 edition is...

Winifred Hayes-Adams
Chaplain/Assistant Director, Campus Ministry
1987-2000

She’s been described as Earth mother, housemother, confidante, spiritual adviser and friend. Hayes-Adams worked in Campus Ministry as assistant director and for Student Life as a chaplain in Catherine-Monica. She passed away in 2016. Let’s let her daughter Lura tell “the rest of the story” (at right).

Readers Respond

It’s Fred! I am Fred’s oldest daughter. What a delightful surprise to see her picture in the publication. Here is a story I like to tell: My mother married right  after high school and gave up dreams of going to college. By the time she was 45, she thought she was too dumb to pass a college entrance exam, but she took that exam, and in the end had two master’s degrees from Gonzaga. She found the courage to take that first step: That inspires me; let it inspire you. After 34 years married to an active drinking alcoholic, Fred found herself deep in co-dependency, some addiction of her own and a longing for God. She found help, she faced her own life and she changed it. She became that person who loved the freshmen in her dorm, the students she knew in Campus Ministry, and the Zags. Thank you for this wonderful honoring of my mother.

Lura Southerland
Spokane

Thank you so much for profiling Winifred (Fred) Hayes-Adams. I first met Fredwhen, as a foreign student in the late ’80s, I was studying for a master’s in religious studies. Fred welcomed me when I ran into her at noon Mass one day in the Ad Building and thereafter had me attending daily to read or serve as acolyte. We became fast friends. She was a special person and was kind to all who crossed her path. My life on Earth is richer for our paths having crossed so long ago at GU.

Mark Swanson (’90 M.A.)
Edmonton, Alberta

I had the good fortune to work with Fred Hayes-Adams and be the other female chaplain-in-residence (I was in Madonna) 1990-92, when I was an intern in the Campus Ministry program while doing my master’s degree in pastoral ministry. Fred was a lifeline, a creative sparkplug, an amazing woman of heart and soul, wisdom, humor and spirit. We worked retreats together and commiserated on liturgies.

My favorite memory of Fred? I wish I could remember how it started, but when I would see her, I would sing out, “Fre-ed. You’re love-ly!” and she would reply, without fail, “I know it. I can’t help it.” So many memories of this amazing woman.

Valerie Morgan-Krick (’86, ’92 M.A.)
Tacoma, Wash.