SSNDs and mentorship

Meet our donors Jerry and Betty Mutza

Jerry Mutza’s memories of the School Sisters of Notre Dame began 70 years ago when his parents enrolled him at St. Hyacinth grade school in Milwaukee. Sister Cherubim was principal at the time and Jerry remembers, “She maintained gracious control of the children.”

For secondary education, Jerry attended nearby Notre Dame High School (Class of ’59) where the sisters continued to teach and influence him. He is grateful to all his SSND teachers and gives them credit for his “good moral foundation, ability to be successful in life, in business, and as a husband and father.”

Jerry and Betty, his wife of 51 years, raised two boys and two girls. They feel blessed with 11 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

One of Jerry’s former high school English teachers, Sister Benilda Dix, resides at Notre Dame of Elm Grove, in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, and he and Betty visit her on a regular basis. Through their generous donation, the Sister Mary Benilda Dix Reading Room in the North American SSND Archives at Mount Mary University, Milwaukee, pays tribute to her role in the couple’s lives.

Betty has come to know SSND through Jerry and she appreciates “the hospitality and welcoming spirit” of the all the sisters she meets.

In gratitude for all the ways “God has blessed us” and recognizing the sisters who have “given their lives to teach others,” Jerry and Betty continue their financial support of the sisters. Why SSND when there are so many other groups who need monetary assistance? Jerry, always the wise businessman who values fiscal accountability, concluded, “because the sisters put it to good use!”

Story featured in donor newsletter Vol. 2 2018.

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