Cathy Howard - One of the Best There'll Ever Be

There are many guaranteed happenings in a school year at Grand Island Central Catholic. A few of those involve a living legend. At least once per year, Cathy Howard is going to say horrible, despicable things about our senior class...and they'll love it. Several times per year, Cathy will say the right thing about the right person at the right time (more often than not in this very format) and it will bring a happy tear to the eyes of many. Toward the end of every school year, Cathy is going to come to my office and ask for less responsibility the following year...and I'll love that, too. You see, even though Cathy has 'dialed back' in her teaching load the past few years, she's still ours...and my hope is she will make that same trip to my office at the end of every school year for the foreseeable future. 

Cathy has built a career as an educator. Unfortunately, career educators are a dying breed. Teacher shortages, burnout, and many other factors play into the decrease in educators plaguing our K-12 system. Despite this, Cathy has been a part of Central Catholic as a student or a teacher for 5 decades. A young Denverite family moved with their herd of children to Grand Island moons ago, and young Cathy Brown enrolled at Central Catholic with her band of younger siblings. It was the love of a teacher that showed her the path into education. 

"I remember Peg Ley. She was the business teacher and she grabbed me by the shoulders and made me feel so welcome and safe. I learned that from her and I've just tried to do that as a teacher." Cathy reminisces about the role Peg, her husband John, and countless others have played in her Crusader story. She even remarks that she still visits with the now nonagenarian Peg. 

This inspiration was needed as Cathy leaned heavily on her Crusader family to help her into education during a time of great tragedy. "I look back now and wonder why I didn't think to ask for time off when my mother was sick and dying during my first years." But with the same feeling of love and affection she has for the school 40 years later she remarks, "I think I just needed this school at that time. I needed this family. I needed to have my little brothers and sisters realize this family was here for them and important." This feeling of love and family is something Cathy has shared with generations of Crusaders. 

Mrs. Cathy Howard

I was shaking in my boots when I started as principal of a school 3 years ago. I had no idea what I was doing and was ready to fake it until I make it. One of the most calming influences was the presence of a teacher who has earned the right to speak on behalf of the entirety of the Crusader family coming to me to hear my story. In the midst of pure chaos, I told this lady things about myself in an interview I don't know that I've shared fully with my own wife, and in return she wrote a story about me that reminded me who I am and why I'm here. There's great beauty in being able to speak so eloquently on the merits of others, and someday I hope to have a fraction of Cathy's talents in doing just that.

Without a doubt, I am not the only person inspired by Cathy's ability to teach love and care. Mike Rohweder (GICC '84) has worked across the hall from Cathy Howard (Ms. Brown as he calls her) for several years. Their relationship really started, though, in 1979 when Ms. Brown taught a Junior High English course to a crew of rowdies in a dingy upstairs teacher work area. Mike fondly remembers the sincere and genuine care Cathy had for himself and his classmates. 

Cathy Howard reading her annual Senior Roast 
to the GICC Class of 2020

"It was the most fun class I'd had as a student...she was so sincere and caring for all of us at such a young age." As Mike recalls the fond memories he has of his old friend and teacher's classroom, he sums things up perfectly, "We were in most gross room in the whole school, but we never noticed and we didn't care. She made us welcome there and she meant it...what we didn't realize is that the sincere care she gave us as students didn't end with her class, but continues until today." That care reaching beyond the end of a student's career has been the foundation of a teaching career that has spanned generations and decades yet held on to the constant feel of family and care that hallmarks Cathy's career. Countless families have had Cathy teach parents and children...an experience which Rohweder says was a highlight of his kids' education at GICC; as so many other Crusaders do, "they really love her." 

If and when you read this, be sure to reach out to her and let her know how much she has meant to you or your family or the Crusader family over the past several decades. Chances are, she's going to be pretty miffed with me when she reads this, so put in a good word for me while you're at it. I didn't necessarily lie about the 'qualitative writing' I was working on as this is both qualitative and writing, but I didn't tell her how celebratory this would be. Usually people who are good at speaking out about others' accomplishments and achievements don't like hearing too much about their own, but she deserves this. Cathy, you've inspired me in many ways including your incredible ability to write on the lives and experiences of those around you. You deserve this same recognition and so much more. "Central Catholic has been the longest relationship I've had in my life...longer than being a parent, longer than being married...this is my family, and I can't imagine life without it." Rest assured, the feeling is mutual, and we love our living legend of a family member.