Hominis Dignitati
I am now 66 years old. I attended Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa from 1975 to 1979. I graduated with my BA in Philosophy. From 1980 to 1987, I taught in Nanzan Boy’s Junior High School in Nagoya, Japan and in Nagasaki Nanzan Gakuen in Nagasaki, Japan. In 2016, I returned to DWC as the Library Director and remained until 2023. Roughly 17 years of involvement with the Society of the Divine Word.
Growing up, both my mother and father instilled in my siblings and I, as I am sure is the case in many families, the need to be kind and helpful to others. As for myself, I was encouraged, and supported in my activities as a volunteer with the American Red Cross, as an altar server, and as a lector.
While at DWC, I was exposed to an entirely new concept and level of service. “Hominis Dignitati” (for human dignity) became my personal motto in life. After graduating from DWC in 1979, I instructed deaf students in a high school in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia.
Following that, I went to Japan as a lay missionary for the Society. After returning to the States, I became a librarian, working in libraries in Georgia, South Carolina, and Iowa. I also enlisted in the Georgia State Defense Force, training and studying disaster planning, emergency response, and becoming an Emergency Medical Responder. Taking a “time-out” from libraries, for one year, I also worked as a jail deputy for the Sheriff of Jenkins County, Georgia, partly to experience some of what my father had experienced working in law enforcement. Finishing that year, I returned to DWC as the library director.
I could say that my adult professional life began and ended with Divine Word College and the Society of the Divine Word. All of these were jobs of service, strengthened and enhanced by the phrase “hominis dignitati,” a phrase I would never have learned but for the Society of the Divine Word.
And now? Now I am retired and living in Bogotá, Colombia. The SVD and my memories of them are never far from me as I learn daily how to live among a new people, in a new country and a new culture. I look forward to finding a way to serve here, as well.
Hominis Dignitati.
