September 3, 2010
Judy Lopez is ‘cornerstone’
Long-time Newburgh school secretary is retiring
Judy Lopez, above left, long time secretary at St. John the Baptist School, shares information with new school secretary Julie Young. Judy is retiring from her duties at the Newburgh school in mid-September. (Message photo by Mary Ann Hughes) Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Judy Lopez still shakes her head at the memory of her first year as the secretary at St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh. She was from Madisonville, Ky., and new to southern Indiana. She was also a recent convert to the Catholic faith.
And she was very unsure of herself in her role as a brand new school secretary. She can laugh now, but it wasn’t so funny then. That first year, when she made a typo on a page, she would quietly remove the piece of paper from her typewriter, fold it neatly, and place it in her purse — so the principal wouldn’t know she had made a mistake.
That was a long time ago — over 30 years ago, in fact — and now her principal calls her the “cornerstone” of the school office.
She’s been the school secretary, the parish secretary, the cafeteria manager, even the summer social co-chair, and this September, her long career in Newburgh is coming to an end. As she prepares to retire she says she will miss all the students, parents and teachers who filled her days all these years.
Judy moved to Newburgh 36 years ago. She was raising her two daughters there when she heard about a part-time secretarial position at the school. She thought, “How cool is that!” realizing she could work during the school day and be home with her children during the summers.
The next morning, she applied for the job. Father Francis Schroering was the pastor at the time, and she remembers, “I bugged him all summer” about the job.
She was hired, and told that “yes,” the job at the school was part-time, but that it also entailed part-time work for the parish. She spent her mornings at the school, and her afternoons in the parish office. Soon, she was the cafeteria manager too.
Then she became a member of the Parish Council. At those meetings, “all I heard was ‘debt reduction.’ I had never been to a summer social in my life, but [fellow parishioner] Chad Bennett said, ‘We can do this.’”
Twenty years ago, the two of them established the summer social at the parish, and then served as co-chairs for several years. To find out what summer socials were, she “called around to parishes that had them.”
Today, her principal Char Bennett describes her as the “cornerstone” of the school office noting, “She has been at the front desk through all of our building projects and renovations over her 34 years. Her knowledge of the community has been a constant source of amazement to me — from streets and subdivisions to the history of school and parish families — I don’t think there are many people that she doesn’t know in Newburgh.”
The students “know her as the secretary, nurse, dentist, teacher, mom, friend — and any other attribute you could name. They all know Judy and she knows them. She could probably name all the graduates of the school too!”
Judy said she loved working with the students, parents and teachers every day. Part of her success at the school probably comes from her attitude. She has the ability to see the best side of any situation.
Like when she lost her home in the 2005 tornado that roared through Vanderburgh and Warrick counties. “It was one of the best things that happened to me,” she said. “I was a workaholic. I lived three minutes from St. John’s, and I was working at nights until 10 o’clock. My house was totally destroyed by the tornado.”
She moved to a home in Evansville that was closer to family, and soon her work habits changed. “I was not working day and night.”
She remembers the days immediately after the tornado as a time when “so many people helped each other. Seeing the community come together — it wasn’t a bad thing. I feel bad for people who lost people, but for me it was a good thing. I always say, ‘It could have been worse.’ You can’t let stuff like that get you down.”
Her 11-year-old granddaughter was with her during the tornado, and when it was over, Judy looked around at her destroyed home, and then at her granddaughter and said, “It’s all right. We are alive.”
She added, “It was a good thing. I don’t know that I’ve ever been this happy.”
She is currently training her replacement, Julie Young, and says she’s excited about her new life. She will be working part-time, and enjoying “not having a schedule.”
She says she loves puttering around her house, and hopes to spend more time with the grandchildren and her 98-year-old father.
“I’m excited about it,” she said of her retirement, adding, “I feel like I did a good job. I don’t have any regrets.”
Her principal adds, “Judy will be missed by all, and it will take time to fill the void that she will leave at St. John School and Parish. We do wish her well in her retirement.”