Saint John’s Preparatory School announces the successful completion of its comprehensive capital campaign, exceeding its original $10 million goal by raising more than $15.1 million.

“Prep Forward: Our Time is Now is the largest, most successful campaign in our school’s nearly 170-year history,” said . “The funds raised will significantly increase the scope and impact of the campaign’s priorities, including supporting teachers and students while providing facilities upgrades and improvements.”

Launched in April 2024 to raise $10 million, the campaign quickly gained momentum, creating an opportunity to stretch the campaign goal and expand the timing. “While we anticipated widespread support from alumni, parents and grandparents, and friends, we were struck by how many people joined the campaign efforts so quickly and responded so generously,” said Ann Marie Stock ’78, a regent, alumna and leadership donor of the school. “The campaign created an energy in the school community that caused others to join in and celebrate with us. It’s been inspiring to be involved.”

The focused on investments in faculty, facilities, and financial aid, ensuring the Prep experience is available to students of all backgrounds for generations to come. “Leadership was able to identify core needs and articulate them in a compelling way, putting together a really sound campaign,” said campaign co-chair Bob Mahowald, Jr. ’95. “It was obvious that this was close to the heart for so many. The campaign sold itself.”

The final total reflects both major philanthropic investments and broad-based support from across the community, securing more than $6.8 million in cash gifts, and $8.3 million in planned giving commitments to establish or increase endowed scholarships and support teaching excellence.

Campaign highlights include:

• Total funds raised exceeding $15 million, far surpassing the initial $10 million goal
• The largest gift commitment in Prep’s 169-year history
• Expanded funding for facilities, faculty compensation, and financial aid
• More than 140 donors participated in the campaign

“The timing was right for the needs of the students and families,” said Lexy St. Hilaire, campaign co-chair. “The Prep community showed up with their support and wanted to ensure its continued success.”

With the campaign now complete, Prep will begin implementing all the initiatives made possible by this campaign. To date, the campaign has created the in Theatre to permanently support the school’s theatre director position, a complete renewal of our soccer field (Ford-McCormick Field), and the creation of the endowed Theo and James Baustert Teaching Excellence Fund to support faculty salaries.

“The campaign has provided us with the lessons to reshape our major giving program in support of our students and their future,” said McGee. “Looking ahead, we will build on the strong support from our community and steward these resources for long-term impact and sustainability.”

For more information on the Prep Forward – Our Time is Now campaign, visit

Saint John’s Prep is a premier arts and sciences world school where imagination, creativity and discovery are celebrated. Founded in 1857 by Saint John’s Abbey, Saint John’s Prep enrolls nearly 300 students from 15 nations, half a dozen states, and 29 different Minnesota communities.

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Listen carefully to the master’s instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart.

Rule of Benedict, Prologue

�ԴǾ�����.���ԴDZ�����.������������. The ceaseless clatter of our modern world often threatens to overwhelm us. The cacophony and rush of our daily lives, framed by shrieking news cycles and never-ending social media commentary and imagery, play around us like a strobe light, crowding out time for stillness, reflection, and understanding. It is easy to forget what silence and solitude look or feel like. It is easy to forget why we sometimes need to pause to look inside and listen inside.   

And then there is Lent.  

I fear that Lent has long suffered from bad branding, led by the question, “what are you giving up?” While fasting of some kind is certainly an important part of our Lenten journey, by itself it suggests little more than enduring or grinding out the 40-day period. It misses the larger point that, when combined with the other two themes of Lent – prayer and acts of charity and love – this time of year calls us to look inward to live more fully outward.    Lent challenges us not to step out but to step up. To listen carefully to the needs of those whose voices are too often lost in the din of the noise around us. To listen carefully for the presence of God. To hear God in the shadows and whispers of our lives. Lent does not call us to step away but to draw closer.   

As Lent guides us toward Easter, we can look to the Rule of Benedict for inspiration: It is high time for us to arise from sleep. Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven [to] run while you have the light of life (RB Prologue). We practice Lent inwardly through reflection, prayer, and personal conversion. But we live Lent outwardly in the ways we connect with each other and the world around us. Like a carefully tended flower, we bloom, and others with us. 

It is no small irony that this marvelous season of reflection and renewal – expressed through prayer, fasting, and charity – concludes with the joyous, and decidedly loud, celebration of Easter. Reflection and renewal seed new hope and great joy.

I wish our entire Prep community the blessings and hope of the Easter grace that awaits!  

JonMcGee
Head of School

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The Thanksgiving message below is from Saint John’s Prep Head of School, Jon McGee.

“Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of our unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.”
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, “I Asked for Wonder”

Dear Saint John’s Prep Families,

Time accelerates between Thanksgiving and Christmas as the semester rapidly winds to its end, as we race to holiday concerts and gatherings, as we search for “just the right gift,” and as we prepare for the joys of Christmas day. A year of activity in just one month.

More than any other time of year, Thanksgiving and the Advent season that will begin on Sunday ask us to reflect on both gift and gratitude. When we think of gifts, we most often think of presents wrapped and given. Objects. But the root of the word gift is give. A verb. Gift and giving derive their power as actions, given and received, most often expressed in the form of friendship, solidarity, solace, empathy, and, most importantly, love.

Giving is not a time, date, or event-bounded activity confined to one time of year, but rather a disposition toward life and community that involves the whole self. Even so, powerful as they are, gift and giving remain incomplete without gratitude. Gratitude and thankfulness complete gift and giving. We are grateful for the opportunity to give love and grateful for the opportunity to receive it. We are grateful for what we are able to give, grateful for what we have been given, and mindful of those for whom love and gift are all too scarce.

We have much to be thankful for at Saint John’s Prep. I am grateful for the gift of our students and the curiosity, joy, and energy they bring to school every day. I am grateful for the gift of our talented faculty and staff who teach and nurture our students in so many ways. And I am grateful for the gift of the parents, family and friends who support our students and our school throughout the year. Family, community, gratitude, and love are the gifts that bind us.

As we begin this season of gift and giving, thanks and thanksgiving, I offer this prayer to our community:

Creator God,
Thank you for the gifts of creation and community, friendship and fellowship
As we prepare for Thanksgiving and begin the Advent season, we pray
For faith in a world where too many walk in fear; may all find hope
For food in world where too many walk in hunger; may all be fed
For family in a world where too many walk alone; may all be loved
For light in world that knows too much darkness; may all find peace
Amen

Blessings for a wonderful Thanksgiving and Advent!
Jon McGee
Head of School

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Dear Prep Community,

One week of sauna-like heat notwithstanding, our nearly month-old school year is off to a wonderful start. All curricular and co-curricular activities have begun, and our students have settled into the routines and energy of a new school year. At our opening Convocation, we encouraged students to open their eyes, minds, and hearts to the power of wonder as a source of inspiration and creativity throughout the coming year. Wonder serves as rocket fuel for dreams and aspirations.

Fall Enrollment
We enrolled 271 degree-seeking students at Prep this fall in grades 6 to 12, similar to enrollment for the 2023-24 academic year. Together with our three Austrian students and three Japanese students, who are enrolled at Prep through exchange programs, we enrolled a total of 65 new students. New students represented nearly 24 percent of all Prep students this fall. Fully half of our new students were enrolled in the Middle School.Our student body is among the most geographically diverse in the state. Our students this year hail from 13 different nations, four states, and 28 different communities in Minnesota – bringing an extraordinary diversity of culture and experience to the school. International and domestic boarding students represent nearly 30% of Upper School enrollment this fall. We continue to plan for enrollment growth, ultimately seeking a target of 300+ students in grades 6 to 12, a total that will allow us to broaden curricular choices and expand co-curricular activities.

Fall 2024 represents second year of the new Aspire to Excellence (A2E) Curriculum. In total, 112 students in grades 9 to 12 enrolled in at least one Advanced Placement or Honors course this fall. Nearly all seniors enrolled in at least one AP or Honors course, with the largest percentage enrolling in at least three. Thirty-five 9^th grade and 10^th grade students also enrolled in at least one AP or Honors course, compared to none a year ago. In addition, 19 Prep students – representing 20% of all juniors and seniors – enrolled in collegiate courses at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict this fall. Our students’ commitment to their education and aspiration is extraordinary. 

Moving Prep Forward: Our Time is Now
Last April, we formally launched the first phase of the Prep Forward: Our Time is Now Campaign. Co-chaired by Prep parents Marissa and Bob Mahowald and Lexy and Tom St. Hilaire, the Our Time is Now campaign seeks to secure a minimum of $10 million in cash, pledges, and planned gifts to support three critical priorities for the school:

Endow tuition assistance to eliminate price as a barrier to enrollment.
Modernize and renew campus facilities to reflect the demands of a contemporary education and our commitment to learning excellence.
Fund teaching excellence to attract, retain, and reward extraordinary faculty. Faculty, facilities, and financial aid together form a foundation on which we can and will build continuously for years to come.

We are very excited to report that, to date, Prep has received campaign commitments totaling more than $6.4 million. We are grateful to have experienced so much success so quickly and optimistic that we will reach or surpass our $10 million goal.

This is an exciting moment for Saint John’s Prep, one that reflects our resolute commitment to providing our students with exceptional and distinctive learning experiences. We will share more about the continuing progress of the campaign over the coming months.

Campus Changes Afoot
Exciting changes are underway (some already completed) on the Prep campus! Under the tutelage of the Avon Hills Folk School, we completed the outdoor classroom (located near the garden above our playing fields) in August. It is a beautiful pine-timber structure and is already in use by several classes. We encourage you to see it when you visit campus this fall.

We have begun to put campaign-raised dollars immediately to work, funding a lively refresh of our Main Office, new carpet and furniture in classrooms on the third floor, and (later this winter and spring) a new floor in the Weber Center and badly needed circulation fans in both the band room and the choir room. In addition, this fall we will construct a new state-of-the art weight room in our gym and open a small mini-mart across from the snack bar. Each of these projects was made possible by the extraordinary generosity of donors. We thank them for their support and confidence. Many more projects await as we seek to improve both classrooms and common spaces on campus.

Promise. Possibility. Potential. Those words describe not just the optimism of a new year but also Prep students and the Prep experience. We are deeply grateful for your continued support of Saint John’s Prep and we look forward to a year filled with wonder!

With Gratitude,

Jon McGee
Head of School

Christine Glomski
Principal & Assistant Head of School

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The seasons of the church’s liturgical year very often play out as a rhythmic from-to transition. The shift from Lent to Easter is no exception. For 40 days, we experience the quietude of reflection, repentance, and renewal that define the Lenten season, and then via the Triduum abruptly shift to the thunderous celebratory crescendo of Easter and the hope and joy it signals. From ashes to fire. Darkness to light. Winter to spring. Deep sleep to a feeling of tingling aliveness.

We are physically reminded of Easter each year in the form of the longer daylight hours and warming temperatures (much earlier this year!) that mark the transition of seasons – our exodus from darkness to light. As we celebrate the newness of spring and its palpable sense of new life, Easter reminds us of our need for renewal, in our lives, in our relationships, and in our world. Pope Francis offers us a particularly powerful message:

The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith. Let us not quench the wavering flame that never falters and let us allow hope to be rekindled. [We must] find the courage to create spaces where everyone can recognize that they are called, and to allow new forms of hospitality, fraternity, and solidarity.

In this season of renewal and new life, grace and astonishing love, I extend the blessings and hope of Easter to our entire Prep community!

Jon McGee

Head of School

Saint John’s Preparatory School

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So, be slow if you must, but let
the heart still play its true part.
Love still as once you loved, deeply
and without patience. Let God and the world
now you are grateful. That the gift has been given.

Mary Oliver, “The Gift”

Dear Saint John’s Prep Community,

As we prepare for Thanksgiving and the rush to Christmas that will commence immediately after, we have a brief moment of quiet to reflect on the deeper meaning of the day and the Advent season that will follow.

More than any other time of year, this season draws us to consider both gift and gratitude – each inextricably intertwined with the other. When we think of gifts, we often think of objects wrapped and given. Things. But the root of the word gift is give. A verb. Gift and giving derive their power as actions, most often expressed in the form of friendship, solidarity, solace, empathy, and, most importantly, love. Giving is not a time or date or event-bounded activity, but rather a disposition toward life and community that involves the whole self. Still, powerful as they are, gift and giving remain incomplete without gratitude. Gratitude and thankfulness complete gift and giving. We are grateful for the opportunity to give love and grateful for the opportunity to receive it. Mary Oliver’s poem beautifully expresses that relationship and captures the essential truth not only of this glorious season but of all seasons.

On this Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the gift of our students and the curiosity, joy, and energy they bring to school each day. I am grateful for the gift of our marvelous faculty and staff who create remarkable educational experiences for our students. And I am grateful for the gift of the parents, family and friends who support our students and the school every day throughout the year. Family, community, gratitude, and love are the gifts that bind us. And for that, we give thanks.

Blessings for a wonderful Thanksgiving and Advent!

With gratitude,

Head of School

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ben ’19, Nick ’18, Kate ’23, Andrew ’15, Ann, and Jon McGee

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New Schedule, New Curriculum, New School Year

Two bouts of sauna-like heat notwithstanding, the nearly three-week-old school year is off to a marvelous start. Our students have settled into the routines of a new schedule and a new curriculum and the school is buzzing with activity. At our opening Convocation, we encouraged students to take the gift of this year to expand their minds, expand their experience, and expand their hearts – leaning-in to the promise of dreams and aspirations. Each year we begin anew. Every year, every day, everything is possible.

Fall Enrollment is Up (again)!

Our enrollment continues to grow. We enrolled 296 students at Prep this fall in grades 6 to 12, our highest total since 2012. Total school enrollment has grown by 16% in the last five years. We enrolled 66 new diploma-seeking students in fall 2023. Together with our 9 Austrian students and 6 Japanese students, we enrolled a total of 81 new students. New Prep students represented more than one-quarter of all Middle School and Upper School students this fall.

Our students this year hail from 14 different nations, four states, and 29 different communities in Minnesota – bringing an extraordinary diversity of culture and experience to the school. With 72 residents, Saint Michael Hall will house the largest number of students since fall 2015, bringing tremendous life and energy to campus. Boarding students – international and domestic – represent fully one-third of Upper School enrollment this fall. Looking forward, we plan to continue to grow over the coming years, with a goal of reaching 310 students, a target that will allow us to broaden curricular choices and expand co-curricular activities.

Advanced Placement (AP) courses, introduced this fall for the first time in more than a decade, have proven popular with Upper School students. Three-quarters of all 11^th graders, and more than 90% of all seniors, are enrolled in at least one AP course this semester, with most enrolled in at least two. In addition, 20 Prep students – representing nearly 20% of all juniors and seniors – enrolled in collegiate courses at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict this fall. Our students’ commitment to their education and aspiration is a daily source of wonder and joy.

Outdoor Classroom Construction to Begin this Fall

In October, construction will begin on an outdoor classroom to be located near the garden above our playing fields. Phase I (scheduled for completion in October) includes pouring the concrete slab on which the classroom will sit. Next summer, we will work with the to complete construction of the pine-timber structure (which will look like the bridge just south of the school along the path to the Stella Maris Chapel). Prep students and families will have an opportunity to participate in the assembly and construction of the classroom next June. We will provide more information later this year about how to get involved with building construction.

Funded by a generous donor and a grant, when completed next summer, the open-design classroom will be used for outdoor learning courses, including Environmental Studies, Nature and Naturalist, Outdoor Skills, Biology, and AP Biology. These classes provide an impressive outdoor curriculum and will expand opportunities for our students to study the local ecosystem. We are very excited to add the new outdoor classroom!

Moving Prep Forward

Last spring, we completed a feasibility study designed to evaluate support for a campaign to raise resources for a host of school needs and priorities. The results of the feasibility study were overwhelmingly strong and positive. Later this month, we will ask the Board of Regents to authorize planning for a comprehensive capital campaign, the school’s first comprehensive campaign in more than a generation. The planning phase, which we expect will play out from October 2023 through February 2024, will include focus group meetings of alumni, parents, friends, faculty and staff, and students, as well as a school-wide web survey, to shape and determine campaign priorities. Thus far, we have organized prospective campaign priorities around three broad themes: supporting affordability, improving the learning experience, and creating community. This is an exciting moment for Saint John’s Prep, one that reflects our deep commitment to providing our students an exceptional and distinctive learning experience. You can expect to hear much more campaign planning unfolds in the coming months!

Promise. Possibility. Potential. Those words describe not just the optimism of a new year but also Prep students and the Prep experience. We are deeply grateful for your continued support of Saint John’s Prep and we look forward to an amazing year!

Jon McGee                                     Christine Glomski

Head of School                                  Principal/Assistant Head of School

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The National Business Officers Association has recognized Saint John’s Prep Executive Director of Finance and Facilities as a Will J. Hancock “Unsung Hero.” This award is given to business officers who have made extraordinary contributions to their schools and exemplify exceptional integrity, knowledge and motivation. 

During her 11 years at Saint John’s Preparatory School, Ms. Krebsbach has provided operational and emotional stability during transitions in the head of school and principal’s offices. Br. Richard Crawford, OSB nominated Ms. Krebsbach for the recognition. “In a time when people change careers frequently, the stability that Sherry has demonstrated is not only admirable for others in our school community but a hallmark of Benedictine education as passed on by our religious founders. She is the glue that holds us all together.”

Ms. Krebsbach is a creative and resourceful finance director who seeks grants and funding to support necessary safety projects for the school. Prep recently received two state and federal grants totaling $300,000 that will be used to bolster the safety and security of the school’s facilities. “She approached the entire grant application process with the heart of a learner, documenting each step and figuring out ways to share her hard-won knowledge with others in the independent school world, as well as other religious non-profit groups,” said Crawford.

Krebsbach collaborated with staff, donors and contractors to successfully complete a $5.5 million renovation of a campus dormitory. The renovation project was completed in February of 2020. It now provides students a secure and modern home. The project also addressed millions of dollars in deferred maintenance.

Ms. Krebsbach has been a part of the Saint John’s Prep community for more than 11 years. She is the parent of Prep Johnnies Tate ’15 and Natalie ’25.

You can learn more about Ms. Krebsbach and the award by following this link.

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Head of School Jon McGee shared the following Thanksgiving message with our families this week. We hope you and your family have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.
We are grateful for your support!

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. 
Henry David Thoreau

Be present in all things and thankful for all things. 
Maya Angelou

Dear Prep Community,

References to food or gatherings at table abound in the Bible, particularly in the Gospels. Meal gatherings – some convivial (the wedding in Cana), some including large numbers of people (the feeding of the multitude), some related to redemptive moments (the story of the prodigal son), and one essential to the message of death and resurrection (the Last Supper) – were central to Jesus’ message and ministry. Outside of the story of the loaves and fishes, though, little attention is paid to the kind of food served or how it was prepared. Instead, the meal-time gatherings dotted throughout the Gospels serve to frame a lesson, a metaphor, or a larger purpose. Food is context for community, for learning, and, ultimately, for love.

Thanksgiving is popularly characterized by the food that traditionally fills our tables on this day. Over the years, I have marveled that the Thanksgiving meal seems to take eight hours to prepare and eight hours to clean up, but only eight minutes or so to ravenously consume (at least in my large-family experience!). However, on reflection, that sells vastly short the point of Thanksgiving. As in so many biblical accounts expressed through the meal ministry of Jesus, food simply provides context for community: a time to express gratitude for the many gifts we can count in our lives, to celebrate joyfully with family and friends, and to create and experience traditions that shape who we are as individuals and as family. Food brings us together. But family, community, gratitude, and love bind us. And for that, we give thanks.

As we prepare to express the gratitude of this Thanksgiving, I again offer this prayer to our community:

Creator God,
Thank you for the gifts of creation and community, woods and water, friendship, and fellowship
As we prepare for Thanksgiving and begin the Advent season, we pray
For faith in a world where many walk in fear; may all be healed
For food in world where many walk in hunger; may all be fed
For light in world that knows too much darkness; may all find peace
For family in a world where many walk alone; may all be loved
Amen

Blessings for a joyous Thanksgiving!

Jon McGee
Head of School
Saint John’s Preparatory School

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Thankfully, DeLaSalle High School and Nazareth Hall, the Archdiocese of St. Paul’s minor seminary until 1968, were not good fits for Loren Gross, or we’d unlikely be here today to acknowledge more than four decades of support Loren and his wife Mary Ann have committed to Saint John’s Prep.

As an intelligent, hard-working kid living in Richfield, Loren caught the eyes of his elementary and middle school teachers, particularly the nuns, who encouraged him to consider the priesthood.  Loren respected the nuns and priests who educated him, so he took their nudging seriously.  Loren decided to enroll as a freshman at DeLaSalle High School, which while having a south campus at the time, still required Loren to hitchhike to school every day.  Loren was not only one of the smallest kids, he was also the youngest.  High school was intimidating.  Loren was not a rough and tumble kind of kid and didn’t feel he fit the mold at DeLaSalle as he did a lot of things other kids didn’t.  He worked in his father’s filling station doing things you would expect of an adult – renting trailers, putting on hitches, and drawing up the leases for rentals, all at the tender age of 12.  Heck, he was pumping gas when he was six!  

Recognizing DeLaSalle wasn’t right for him, Loren enrolled at Nazareth Hall, joining a childhood friend, to begin his seminary studies.  He was happy and liked it there, made a lot of friends, played sports, did well in school, but by his account, “At Nazareth Hall, it was study, study, study…..study some more, go to class, and maybe play a few sports.  They also had a lot of rules that did not make a lot of sense. I kind of became anti-authoritarian. I got kicked out.”  Mary Ann quickly chimed in and said, “You didn’t officially get kicked out,” to which Loren quickly responded, “I was told I couldn’t come back! I think that counts as getting kicked out!”  It seems somewhat ironic that someone who didn’t like rules went it law! Or perhaps that’s why he pursued law to ensure that laws are fair, and people are treated fairly.

So, after two years at Nazareth Hall, it was off to Saint John’s Prep.  According to Loren, attending Prep was like getting out of prison.  Saint John’s was a good fit for him.  He was welcomed by classmates and the monks of Saint John’s Abbey while continuing his pursuit of the priesthood as a student in the pre-seminary program.  One of the biggest differences Loren noted was how the monks of St. John’s Abbey were welcoming and of the people, not over the people. 

Upon graduating from Prep in 1956, Loren transitioned to Anselm Hall, which was the residence for pre-seminary students while they attended Saint John’s University.  After one year, Loren decided he was not called to pursue the priesthood.  Instead, Loren graduated from Saint John’s University in 1960 with degrees in English and Philosophy. 

Loren always felt he had a responsibility to provide for himself, so while he had taken the law school entrance exam and scored higher than anyone at Saint John’s had previously scored, Loren decided he needed to make some money to pay his way through law school.  He took a job at Dayton’s working in what he referred to as the basement and the precursor to Target stating, “We were the high-volume discount part of the operation.”  After just three months, Loren became the assistant manager of the department and ran the department for the next six months.  However, with the draft nipping at his tail, Loren decided it was time to enroll in law school, so he accepted his admission to the University of Minnesota Law School, graduating in 1964. 

It was during law school that Loren and Mary Ann were married.  Mary Ann, like Loren was a hard-working kid from Minneapolis where her father owned a bakery.  Working in the bakery, Mary Ann was able to pay for her education at St. Katherine’s, where she earned a degree in history and education with a minor in library science.  While Loren studied, Mary Ann worked as a teacher and librarian in Hastings for several years before moving to Richfield High School.  Loren proudly offered, “She was the breadwinner!  We were not encouraged to work during law school, so Mary Ann supported the family with her work.”  Upon the birth of their first child, two years into her career at Richfield High School, Mary Ann chose to stay home and raise the five children Loren and Mary Ann would bring into the world. 

Upon graduation, Loren accepted a clerkship with Chief Justice Robert Sheran of the Minnesota Supreme court.  Loren stated, “I felt I should be paying them for this job as I was going to get great experience and training, yet they were going to pay me $560 a month!  That was real money back then.”  His work at the Minnesota Supreme Court caught the attention of Minnesota State Senator Jerome Blatz, a fellow Richfield native and attorney, who offered Loren a job in his law office.  That job ultimately launched Loren’s professional law career as he has practiced law in the Richfield area for more than 55 years!  That’s right, Loren, who celebrated his 84^th birthday this past week, still works!  However, he often jokes, “I don’t work that much anymore, I usually only go in 5 days a week.” 

Loren and Mary Ann are humble and will be the first to tell you that they have been blessed.  They consider themselves fortunate to be able to give back to places that shaped their lives and to organizations that help others who find themselves facing difficult times.  Loren and Mary Ann deeply care about others and giving to make others’ lives even a little bit more manageable brings them joy.  Loren described his dad as being “tight” with money while being generous with charities.  Similarly, his mother was frugal but was generous with her time and talents, belonging to what seemed like every social organization where she would lead the charge on their fundraising and community building efforts. Taking the lead from his parents, Loren has always been one to look out for others, whether that was standing up to some kids in school who were picking on a classmate or serving as the Executive Director of Legal Aid at the University of Minnesota during his senior year of law school.  Mary Ann was quick to point out, “Loren has always routed for the underdog or those less fortunate. He’s always operated from the position that if you have an opportunity to share your good fortune with others you should.” 

Loren and Mary Ann have made giving back a priority and it is something they enjoy doing together.  For more than 40 years, Loren and Mary Ann have supported Prep in a very quiet and private manner. However, it should be known that their generosity has been transformative.  Loren and Mary Ann live by a simple motto — Those to whom much has been given, from them much is expected.  With his quick wit and wonderful sense of humor, Loren joked, “I truly live by it and as it turns out there is still plenty for me.” 

It is truly and honor and a privilege to present this year’s Benedictine Spirit Award to Loren and Mary Ann Gross.  This award is given in recognition of those who have demonstrated long-term dedication to the mission of Saint John’s Prep. Loren and Mary Ann’s exceptional commitment continues to further our tradition of providing an exceptional Benedictine education as we prepare students for success in higher education and for a lifetime of learning, service, and leadership in a global society.

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