Kathie Carroll ’64 Nash Joins SFHS Students in Service

She even wore her 1964 alumni sweatshirt to show her continued Spartan pride.

“I felt an incredible energy from the students,” Kathie said. “It was so much fun to be with them and see teenagers come together when something is needed. They just glowed.”

At the event, hosted in partnership with Saint Catherine of Siena-Saint Lucy Church and St. Giles Church in Oak Park, students decorated and enjoyed Christmas treats with residents of mental health rehabilitation facilities. John Schuller, SFHS Religion Teacher, said more than 50 students served through various events at the centers during the first semester, thanks to the help of Faith & Fellowship Coordinator, Connie Rakitan.

During this event, Kathie said they laughed and sang, and that the students truly understood the dynamics and meaning of the service activity.

“To hear student-led prayer was beautiful. It was heart-filled prayer,” she said.

In addition to her sweatshirt, she brought along her 1964 yearbook to show the students.

“The kids loved seeing the old hairstyles and uniforms, and we mapped out how different the building looked,” she said.

Kathie, now 76, said it was during her time at SFHS that she knew she wanted to give back to the world.

“There was an altruism that was seeded in my family, but it blossomed at St. Francis,” she said.

Kathie grew up in a family of nine siblings. Her mother passed away at age 35 from cancer when Kathie was a teenager. Tragically, her three youngest siblings were unable to say goodbye to their mother because, at that time, hospitals only allowed visitors over the age of 12.

“I remember thinking ‘this is so wrong,’” she said – and it stuck with her years later.

In the 1964 yearbook, she lists her “Ambition” as “Social Worker,” and she did go on to major in Sociology at Mundelein College in Chicago. But after a stint of teaching third grade and taking a career pause to raise her two sons, Kathie then decided to go back to school to become a nurse.

“I began reading books about the grieving process and doctors started putting dying patients on my floor because I was comfortable with them. I would take my charts to their bedside and sit with them,” she remembered.

When her brother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she and her sister (also a nurse) essentially provided hospice care for him, and it reminded her of the contrast with her mother’s experience. Inspired, she began working at Bellwood Community Nursing Service which was one of the earliest hospice programs in Illinois. It was the beginning of a 35-year career.

“I was drawn to it and had a vision of what it could be,” she said.

As the program grew, and developed a more formalized process, Kathie was selected to go to a major Chicago hospital to replicate the program there – the same hospital where her mother died.

“It felt like a circle,” she said. “It felt good to help families like we weren’t helped at that time.”

Kathie remembers her mother for her devout faith and said her family prioritized Catholic education – even as a large family without much discretionary money.

“I enjoyed the religion classes and prayer time, and I think if I had gone to public school, I wouldn’t have experienced the spiritual and social justice dimension that came to be a big part of my life.”