Newest CFU endowment honors charter member of Cedar City Knights of Columbus council

Intermountain Catholic

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Kay Sheehan and Monsignor Robert Bussen, pastor of Christ the King Parish, are shown with the Knights of Columbus plaque honoring the late William A. Sheehan, Kay Sheehan's husband. The plaque is in the hallway of Christ the King Church; below it are the names of the Knights of the Year. IC photo/Marie Mischel

CEDAR CITY — A thought planted five years ago has resulted in an endowment that will benefit Christ the King Parish’s Knights of Columbus Council for years to come.

When the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, and officials of the Catholic Foundation of Utah visited the Cedar City parish in 2008, they spoke of the opportunity for parishioners to provide long-term financial support to the parish by creating endowments. The lump sum for the endowments is invested and the interest distributed annually to the beneficiary designated by the person who establishes the endowment. The minimum amount for a named endowment is $10,000.

The CFU was established in 1984 and now oversees 284 endowments, the most recent which came about as a result of that 2008 meeting, although it took time to develop.

Norita (Kay) Sheehan attended the meeting but didn’t immediately act on the information presented. Her husband, William A. Sheehan, had passed away the year before, and "I just thought in the back of my mind, ‘You, know, that is something I’d like to do in his memory.’"

The Sheehans moved to Cedar City in 1973 and both were active in the parish. At that time, "we were such a tiny parish that it took all of us working together to get things done down here," Kay Sheehan said.

For example, when the old church on 200 West was torn down and rebuilt, "that new church was constructed with a lot of parish volunteer labor," she said, adding that her husband was among the three men who were honored afterward for having contributed the most volunteer hours toward the rebuilding.

"Any time that the church needed a volunteer for a project, Bill was front and center," said Sam Kravetz, a past Grand Knight of the Cedar City Council and current District Marshal for the Fourth Degree of the Utah Knights of Columbus. "He just couldn’t do enough for other people in the church."

William Sheehan also taught religious education, helped with the parish’s Diocesan Development Drive, assisted in the Saint Bridget Parish in Milford (which was then a mission of the parish) and was a charter member of the Knights of Columbus Council, Kay Sheehan said. Therefore, when she considered establishing an endowment in his name, she thought first of having it benefit the parish’s building fund, then for the parish as a whole.

"But my thoughts kept coming back to the Knights of Columbus and I finally decided, ‘You know what? I think somebody’s trying to pound me on the head, and this is where this endowment needs to go, to the Knights of Columbus,’" she said. "I just felt it was something I wanted to do for this particular council in his memory."

While making her plans, Kay Sheehan also contemplated waiting to establish the endowment until her own will was executed. However, "I decided that I could do this now," she said, so she set aside a little bit of money each month until the William A. Sheehan Endowment for the Knights of Columbus Council 11246 Cedar City was established on Nov. 15.

"I’ve not deprived myself of anything that I’ve wanted to do or needed to do or taken anything away from my family," she said.

Msgr. Robert Bussen, the parish’s pastor, said he is happy that the endowment will benefit the Knights. "There’s a whole list of things that they help with in the parish," he said, including financial support of the youth group, working with the Boy Scouts, and aiding diocesan ministries such as sponsoring a seminarian.

Now that the endowment has been established, anyone can contribute any amount to it, said CFU Executive Director Jennifer Carroll, adding that she’s pleased the meeting in 2008 has born such fruits. "That’s what we do," she said. "We plant seeds, we cultivate the relationships, we cultivate the thought of an endowment or placing the Church in your will and estate planning. The other thing that Kay did that I love – and it’s what the foundation talks about so often – is matching your heart and your donation. The diocese has so many needs, but Kay really thought about what meant the most to her."