Friday, July 24, 2009

ARCHDIOCESE — The Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council (GCPGC) recently honored Wilma K. McGrath posthumously and Father Thomas Bokenkotter for their selfless generosity that will benefit generations to come.

The Catholic Inner-City Schools Education Fund  (CISE) nominated McGrath for the Voices of Giving Award. She worked for nearly 20 years as the school nurse at Xavier University’s Student Health Services, which was later named McGrath Health and Counseling Center in her honor. When she passed away in 2008, CISE learned that she had left a $100,000 bequest.

Ordained in 1951, Father Bokenkotter is an alumnus of the Athenaeum of Ohio/Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary, which nominated him for the Voices of Giving Award. He served as a pastor until 1959 when he joined the faculty of the Athenaeum’s high school seminary, St. Gregory’s. Father Bokenkotter taught history to hundreds of students for nearly 20 years and has been involved with Athenaeum for more than 60 years as a student, faculty member, lecturer and donor.

In 2004 he decided to leave 50 percent of his estate, as an unrestricted gift, to the Athenaeum to support the future of the school and to ensure quality Catholic training will be available for future priests, deacons and lay ministers.