Joan Luise Hill '71

While Bill Mosakowski is a first-generation North Shore resident and St. Mary's parishioner, Joan Luise Hill comes from one of the older St. Mary's Lynn families. Her dad was the president of the first graduating class in the boy's high school at St. Mary's. He had been a student in the Grammar School, after arriving in Lynn from Avellino, Italy. He spoke no English when he arrived, but the nuns taught him well and he went on to a successful law career.

If the family had a history of new adventures, Joan kept up the tradition. She was in the first "mixed" class at St. Mary's, a term used by then pastor, the Right Reverend Cornelius T. H. Sherlock. Monsignor Sherlock refused to allow the classes to be called "co-ed". There were 15 girls and 15 boys in that class, which was housed in the now-gone Girls' High School.

When she graduated from St. Mary's she went to Boston College on a Presidential Scholarship to the School of Arts and Sciences where she was a biology major. She worked for a while as a lab technician, but after graduate school found herself in hospital administration at the old Boston City Hospital. It was while she was there that she interviewed a young emergency room administrator from Colorado by the name of Eugene Hill.

She hired him. "I thought he had potential", she said, and she must have been right. She married him.

Though their professional commitments have taken them across the country, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Pebble Beach, CA, and Florida. Joan and Gene have been among the greatest of supporters of St. Mary's. Their generosity extends far beyond the treasure that they have donated. Joan was among the first trustees in the new governance organization of the school and was the Board's first vice-chair. She has served as chair of the Institutional Advancement Committee for many years and currently serves on the Capital Campaign's steering committee. She and Gene are also deeply involved in other charitable works near and dear to their hearts in education and health care.

Joan is also the co-author of "The Miracle Chase: Three Women, Three Miracles and a Ten Year Journey of Discovery and Friendship" with Katie Mahon and Mary Beth Phillips.

In our interview preparing for this piece, Joan talked about the lessons that she learned at St. Mary's and the lessons she still learns every day. Basketball taught her the value of teamwork, debate taught lessons of intellectual vigor and thorough preparation, the drama group taught lessons of self-sufficiency and being part of something bigger than yourself. All lessons, I would observe, that she learned well.

With a parent, aunt and siblings who all graduated from St. Mary's, she also wanted me to share her recognition of St. Mary's as a multi-generational gift. Continuing the tradition from those who benefited from the largess of those who came before to those wanting a great Catholic education in a supportive community. The family established the Ralph J. and Olympia Luise Scholarship Fund in 2003, which enables numerous students to obtain a St. Mary's education. Being our Joan, she wants to recruit you to the same commitment and she will be relentless in her pursuit.

In their bio of Joan, the Texas Conference on Women where she was a speaker noted, "Joan Luise Hill has been accused of doubling as the energizer bunny." I only note that the energizer bunny is long gone, and Joan is still running.

by Glenn Morris