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The National Catholic Education Association provides criteria and a framework enabling individual Catholic elementary schools to nominate for national recognition, graduates who have made a  significant contribution to the Catholic Church and to the United States.  Here are some of Cabrini School's recipients for this national award.

Dr. Douglas Hanel was the honored recipient of the 1992 National Catholic Educational Association Catholic Elementary School Distinguished Graduate Award. The award presented to acknowledge the achievements of those persons who reflect the quality of learning they received in a Catholic elementary school. Dr. Hanel is an alumni of St. Frances Cabrini School and Bellarmine Preparatory of Tacoma.

He attended the University of Washington for undergraduate studies and graduated as the outstanding surgeon of his class from St. Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Missouri. After completion of residency at the University of St. Louis, he was granted a fellowship to study at the Louisville Institute for Hand and Microsurgery in Louisville, Kentucky.

He has authored and co-authored multiple medical papers as a result of his study and research. In 1991 he was chosen Outstanding Teacher of the Year by his students as well as being chosen Outstanding Department head of Orthopedics at the Milwaukee Medical School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Dr. Hanel readily acknowledges the influence of Catholic Education in his life stating that Catholic education nurtures natural Christian values in that it awakens and maintains early in life a conscious awareness of God's gifts of free will, unique individuality, and the power of prayer. In a letter thanking Ms. Van Leuven, principal, for the honor of receiving this award, Dr. Hanel emphasized that throughout his life he has been influenced by the commitment and dedication of his parents and teachers in helping him reach his goals.

Dr. Hanel is the son of Mrs. Hazel Hanel and deceased Ed Hanel.  Dr. Hanel is currently an associate professor with the University of Washington in the Department of Hand and Microvascular Surgery at Harbor View Medical Center.

2001 Update- Dr Hanel is now a full Professor at the UW!

Dr. Brian Swimme, a 1968 graduate of Bellarmine Preparatory School and now a well-known specialist  in mathematical cosmology (study of the universe), joined former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Costa Rica President Oscar Arias as one of the speakers in October of 1996 in a State of the World Forum in San Francisco. Swimme is co-author with historian Father Thomas Berry of The Universe Story.

He also produced the 12-part video lecture series,  Canticle to the Cosmos. His interest in the universe is said to have been born at St. Frances Cabrini School in Tacoma when his second grade teacher assigned a report on the stars.

Carol Roth
It was with gratitude and admiration that we recognized 1971 alum, Carol Roth, as our Distinguished Graduate from St. Frances Cabrini School for 1999. Carol truly epitomizes the quote from NCEA that says: "It is the hope of all Catholic elementary schools in this nation to help prepare it's students in a very unique way, to meet the responsibilities of adult life."

Carol gives witness to a deep commitment to ministry and care for others. Her current call to ministry is as full time care-giver to her elderly parents and aunt. Previously she served as Pastoral Assistant for faith Formation at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Parish in Spanaway. Carol has a wide variety of experiences which included volunteering for a year in a Hispanic community in Texas. Through Maryknoll, Carol spent a month in a barrio in Mexico teaching women how to read. She also, with another youth minister, organized and led a trip down the Baja Peninsula in Mexico where she and the group built a school for a "cardboard community." Carol also taught school at All Saints in Puyallup and at Bellarmine Prep.

Carol's personal belief about Catholic Education is what we always pray for our students today: "Embrace God's gift of life to each human by echoing the voice of Jesus, who taught us that love is sharing out intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical selves with God's world." Carol truly exemplifies this and we were very pleased to honor her and present her this National Recognition to her during National Catholic Schools Week 1999.    

Kathy (Williams) Spencer -- class of '64

Cabrini's 2002 Distinguished Graduate Award Recipient - Award presented by then-pastor Fr. Jim Coyne

Kathy's dedication to St. Frances Cabrini School is evident to anyone who spends any time on campus.  Like many Cabrini grads, she has always had a warm spot in her heart for her grade school alma mater.  That affection led her to accept the position of Co-director of Development and de facto Alumni Director back in the early 1990s.  She has played a major role in the school's fundraising and friend-making activities ever since. 

The successful Cabrini 50th Anniversary Celebration  was a beneficiary of Kathy's organizing energy and passion for the School.  She was also partially responsible for the (1993) 40th Anniversary party that lured founding pastor Andrew Squier back to Cabrini after a dozen year absence.

Kathy lives in Steilacoom with husband, Jim. They have two grown daughters, both Cabrini grads, and two granddaughters.  Their son-in-law is a St. Charles Borromeo graduate, but they love him, regardless.

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