Sisters Catherine Kamphaus and Genevra Rolf honored at educators' convention

Friday, Apr. 24, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Congregation of the Holy Cross Sisters Catherine Kamphaus and Genevra Rolf, Utah Catholic Schools superintendent and associate superintendent, respectively, received the 2015 O’Neil D’Amour Award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) at the Catholic Educators Convention held in Orlando, Fla., April 7-9. 

The O’Neil D’Amour Award recognizes outstanding contributions of statewide, regional, national or international significance in establishing and supporting collaborative leadership through boards of Catholic education. 

“Effective Catholic school boards take time, effort and patience to be developed,” said Regina Haney, director of the NCEA Boards and Councils Department. “Sisters Catherine and Genevra are aware of that; in their roles as diocesan administrators, they have provided the attention, support and training so that each board in the Diocese of Salt Lake City makes a significant contribution to the particular school the board serves. We are appreciative of their many accomplishments for board development; they are shared nationally.” 

For the past 48 years Sr. Genevra has either started or developed a school board to support the institutions where she was the principal, or on the diocesan board of Catholic schools in Salt Lake City, while Sr. Catherine has been committed to working with boards during her 35 years as either a Catholic school principal or as the Utah Catholic Schools superintendent, said Haney.

“This is an honor for both Sr. Genevra and me, but also for our diocese,” Sr. Catherine said. “Our schools have very active boards and our diocesan school board is a great support to us and our Catholic school system; this is an award for all of us.

“Lay boards initiated by the second Vatican Council are more important than ever, and board members will need to continue to give of their talents and skills to keep Catholic schools vital and viable for the future,” Sr. Catherine added.

Sr. Genevra observed that school boards, especially for elementaries, have been strengthened by the work of the NCEA Department of Boards and Councils under the direction of Regina Haney. “Both Sr. Catherine and I took advantage of numerous workshop opportunities to help develop the skills and leadership qualities of diocesan board members,” she said.

According to the sisters’ biography in the convention program, “In publications, through presentations at professional association meetings, by service on committees and boards of education from elementary schools to institutions of higher education and within their own community and in their administrative positions, these two sisters have been champions of schools boards and councils … One could say the O’Neil D’Amour Award was established with Sisters Catherine and Genevra in mind, although it was first presented 28 years ago.”

The award was named in honor of Monsignor O’Neil Charles D’Amour, who was appointed superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Marquette in 1954 and began the first parish board of education in the United States in Norway, Mich. Msgr. D’Amour was special assistant on boards of education for NCEA and chair of the key superintendent’s committee that proposed formation of the NCEA commission that became the National Association of Boards, Commissions, and Councils of Catholic Education. He is considered the “Father of Catholic Board Movement in the United States.” 

NCEA, founded in 1904, is a professional membership organization that provides leadership, direction and service to fulfill the evangelizing, catechizing and teaching mission of the Church.