The 2014 Salute to Catholic School Alumni will be held March 18 at the Galt House Hotel in downtown Louisville, and the Catholic Education Foundation (CEF), which organizes and helps sponsor the event, has announced this year’s honorees.
The Community Service Award will be presented to Mary Moseley, president of the Al J. Schneider Co. The Father Joseph McGee Award for outstanding teaching in Catholic schools will be presented to Martha Lies of St. Agnes School.
Each year the annual awards banquet raises money for the Catholic Education Foundation’s tuition assistance program, and for the last several years, the event has had an ever-increasing bottom-line. For instance, last year’s banquet raised more than a half-million-dollars for the CEF — $560,000 to be exact.
Though all of those associated with both the banquet and the CEF’s tuition assistance program are thrilled with the success of the annual event, Rosemary Bisig Smith has noted that the foundation is meeting less than half of the requests for assistance from parents who want their children to attend Catholic schools.
At this year’s event, those honored as outstanding Catholic school alumni will be:
- T. Kevin Flanery, president of Churchill Downs Racetrack; Senior Vice Presidentof Churchill Downs, Inc., and a graduate of DeSales High School.
- Mary Jo Gleason, a law professor at the University of Louisville and a Sacred Heart Academy graduate.
- Richard A. Lechleiter, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Kindred Healthcare. He is a St. Xavier High School graduate.
- William D. Newcomb vice president of Newcob Oil Co., and a graduate of Bethlehem High School in Bardstown, Ky.
- Rear Admiral M. Stewart O’Bryan, U.S. Navy retired, a Trinity High School graduate.
- Mary C. Pendleton, a retired U.S. ambassador and a Presentation Academy graduate.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. on March 18 and the dinner and program will begin at 7 p.m.