She gives all

By Fr. Bernard J. Coughlin, S.J./Chancellor

She appeared in the Gospel story for only a second or so and then was gone. Bur Our Lord paid her a great tribute. She dropped only a few pennies in the box for the poor, but Our Lord said, "she has given more than all the others; she has given all she had."

Perhaps one reason St. Luke chose to include this story in his Gospel narrative is that he recognized that most philanthropists would not be the Rockefellers, Fords and Morgans, but ordinary people who have but a little, but who nevertheless want to give all, inspired by Christ Our Lord who gave all that He had.

Every year some 7,800 philanthropists, alumni and friends give to Gonzaga University mindful that most of our 5,000-plus students would not be able to attend Gonzaga unless someone gives them a hand. Some of those philanthropists remind me of the widow of the Gospel. I would like to tell you of one.

Jo Merwin isn't an alumna of Gonzaga. Back when this story began she wasn't even a Catholic, and wasn't likely to become one: a student in the 1930s at Kinman Business University, her classmates told her never to go out with Gonzaga boys: "They're always broke and always hungry."

But then at some social function or other she met Gordon. Father Art Dussault, S.J., introduced them, telling Jo that Gordon intended to become a Jesuit; in fact he was all signed up to enter the Novitiate that fall in the same group with Wilfred Schoenberg. But when Gordon caught sight of Jo, he started having second thoughts. The next May they were married, beginning a life together that lasted until Gordon died 52 years later.

That first year they had Linda, the first of many children who would receive their love. Then they adopted Timmy, Bob, Martin and Martha and, as time went on, they took in foster children.

"We usually had about seven kids in the house," she recalled. One summer Bishop Bernard J. Topel brought up a group of Cubans from Colfax, Wash., and put them in school. "But, of course, he wanted them to be in homes," said Jo, "and we had 10 kids at home that summer. I got to be the fastest peanut-butter sandwich maker in town. It was always fun."

Jo recalls a story about Martin as a child. He was a quick little guy, and Jo tells this tale on him. She and Gordon used to take the kids out to dinner on their saint's day. One day Marty came home from school all fired up saying, "Mom, tomorrow is St. Martin's Day;" so they took him out to dinner. "He did that three times one year before we caught on."

And it was genuine love, giving all they had. As their 50^th anniversary came around Jo told Gordon that she did not want to spend a lot of money celebrating. "No cruises or trips to the beaches. We'll give it to St. Anne's Children's Home, because that's where we got Martin and Martha. So we went out to dinner and had a Mass said."

Some 45 years ago, her friend Rachel Walsh suggested that Jo might like to do some sewing for the Jesuits; she accepted the job never imagining it would turn into a lifetime occupation. She started out doing relatively simple things like mending trousers and cassocks. Then one day Father Lou Saint-Marie asked if she had ever made a clerical shirt.

"I said 'No,' but I could try. Well, Father brought down one of his old shirts and I copied it; that was my first clerical shirt, and I've made thousands since." Only God knows how many cassocks and shirts she has made for the Jesuits, how many trousers and socks she has mended, and how many stoles she has made for the Chapel.

So Jo became a fixture at Jesuit House. In her sewing room in the basement she has hundreds of pictures of Jesuits – their obituary photos. "My Rogues gallery" she calls it – it's really her wall of friends. On day she pulled Fr. O'Neill's leg by saying: "Say, do you think it might be all right, now that I'm in Jesuit House, if I put S.J. after my name?" O'Neill was shocked, Jo's sense of humor saved the day: "Oh, Father, it would just stand for Sewing Jo."

During all those years, Jo and Gordon supported the University's Annual Campaign. That first $1 gift in 1958 became $5, then $50, then $150, then $500, and then in 1994 shortly after Gordon passed away, Jo established, in memory of her husband, the Gonzaga University Music Department Scholarship fund with a gift of $10,000. That fund has been awarding scholarships to Gonzaga students since Erin Christensen, a music major form Reno, Nev., received the first Gordon Merwin Music Department Scholarship.

Said Jo: "I knew he would be happy if we could do a scholarship." Jo continues to support the fund annually along with other alumni and friends. Currently, the scholarship stands at just over $37,000. In addition, Jo's will provides that some portion of her estate will be added to the scholarship endowment.

Jo and Gordon Merwin are like a lot of folks from what is sometimes called "the old school." "I was raised in the Depression days," she said, "my folks were from the old country; they were both Swiss. My mother used to say, 'I'd be happy if I could put my hand in my pocket and pull out a dime.' That was during the heart of the Depression."

But big things come from little beginnings. If the will and the heart are there, God only knows what can happen. Many children – their own and others – have long known how they have given all they have. Now, and for endless years to come, Gonzaga students will know the boundless goodness of Jo and Gordon Merwin. Most fittingly theirs will be among the Names That Live.