Mark Longe retires after 35 years as Catholic educator

Friday, Aug. 29, 2025

Mark Longe, who served as the superintendent of Utah Catholic Schools for 10 years, retired on Aug. 1, capping off a 35-year career in Catholic education.

Longe, his wife and infant son moved to Utah from California in 1993. They decided to relocate after visiting friends and discovering that they liked Utah’s Catholic community.

“Housing was more affordable for teachers, and we decided that we would see if we could relocate,” Longe recalled. “I noticed right away that it’s a very small, close-knit Catholic community... Because of its size, a lot of people really knew each other not just in one parish, but the Catholic community was very close here.”

After three years as an eighth-grade teacher at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School in Sandy, Longe was offered a vice principal position by Tony Houston, who was principal at St. Vincent de Paul School in Holladay. During those years, Longe obtained his master’s degree in private school administration from the University of San Francisco. He served as vice principal and taught classes for three years until Houston stepped down and Longe took over as principal.

Longe was principal at St. Vincent’s for 16 years. During that time, his three children – Ryan, now 33, and Jeremy and Sarah, now 30 –  were students at the school. All three went on to graduate from Judge Memorial Catholic High School.

“When new parents would come into St. Vincent’s, I would say, ‘This will become your neighborhood, your friends will be here; this will become your community,’ because it is one of the charisms of the Presentation Sisters that founded that school. So, hospitality was a hallmark of that school,” Longe said. “At St. Vincent’s, I really worked at trying to maintain that sense of community the Sisters had.”

During Longe’s tenure, the school celebrated its 40th and 50th anniversaries. For the 50th-anniversary celebration, the school brought back the Sisters from Ireland and California who had founded St. Vincent’s.

“That was a real kind of standout moment for me... to celebrate that community, and all of the things that the Sisters had done,” he said.

Longe also established a preschool in the former convent on the school grounds. “It’s really benefited the community,” he said. “People were dropping their kids off down the street at another childcare center, and I said, ‘Why can’t we create something for parents here?’”

In August 2015, Longe took over leadership of the school system from Sister Cathy Kamphaus, CSC, who later became his associate superintendent. For the last decade, he worked to strengthen the system and to hire the best people.

“A school is only as strong as its teachers,” he said. “If you hire good teachers, then the kids do well and the parents are happy. You’ve got to have a leader that tries to hire the very best people. When you have strong leadership at the schools, then the schools only get better.”

On Aug. 18 the Catholic schools community threw a celebration for Longe at Juan Diego Catholic High School, where many colleagues showed up to wish him well.

Among them was Terry Stack, who taught at St. Vincent’s for 30 years and who served alongside him when Longe was principal there. 

“He was an excellent hands-on principal,” she said of Longe. “Being a leader and being a scholar and being a great educator and he was fun to be with.” 

Stack recalled that Longe was always solicitous of the Presentation sisters who founded this school.

“He never forgot where our school came from and he honored the nuns,” she said.

Bryan Penn, principal of Blessed Sacrament School in Sandy, also attended the open house for Longe. The two served as principals at the same time, he said.

Longe “was great, especially when I was a new first-year principal,” he said. “I knew he was one person I could go to and then when he became superintendent, the same thing; he was always there to support [me].” 

In retirement Longe plans to continue serving as an online adjunct professor for Notre Dame University, something he has done for three years, and to do some consulting. 

He also hopes to be able to help with Utah Catholic schools on a limited basis — “just being able to give back a little bit more,” as he terms it.