Mount Marty Alums Honored For Distinguished Service

Three Alums Honored For Distinguished Service During Alumni Days 2008 Graduates and former students of Mount Marty were welcomed home for a weekend of reminiscing and socializing during the Alumni Days 2008 held Sept. 5-7 on the Yankton campus.

Events included tours of the campus and Avera Sacred Heart Hospital, special luncheons and teas and a banquet and a Eucharistic Celebration. The weekend was well attended with (number of visitors) participating.

Alumni Days is a time to reconnect with former classmates and instructors, it is also a time to honor the accomplishments of Mount Marty’s most distinguished alums.

Three award recipients were recognized during the Alumni Days Banquet. Francis G. Tramp of Blencoe, Iowa, received an award for Distinguished Professional Achievement; Marvin Veasy of Arlington, Tennessee, was honored with the Distinguished Service to Community Award; and Sister Patricia Heirigs of Yankton received the Distinguished Service to Mount Marty Award.

Francis G. Tramp — MMC 1983 — Distinguished Professional Achievement
Francis G. Tramp graduated from Mount Marty in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree. He majored in accounting and business administration. He earned a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Minnesota.

Tramp began his career in the area of finance, working at St. Luke’s Hospital, Sioux City, Iowa, as a financial analyst. Later, he was promoted to financial analyst manager. In 1993, he began working at the administrative level as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Iowa. Three years later, he was named the chief executive officer of the health center. Burgess Health Center is a critical access 25-bed rural hospital and is on the few independent hospitals in the area.

Tramp is active in the Iowa Hospital Association and in October was placed on its board of directors. Presently, he is a member and treasurer of the Iowa Hospital Association Service Share, which is the for-profit arm of the Iowa Hospital Association.

In addition to his leadership in healthcare, he has taken an active role in the civic community of Onawa, where he serves on the Economic and Development and Housing Committees and the board of the Chamber of Commerce.

Tramp is very involved in his parish and is the director of the St. Bernard, a mission parish of St. John’s in Onawa. He serves on the St. John’s Finance Council and is Eucharistic Minister in his parish of St. Bernard. He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus. His pastor calls him “Mr. Fix It” and feels free to call on him at any time for assistance with whatever needs to be done.

Francis and his wife, Mary Newman Tramp, a 1984 nursing graduate of Mount Marty, live in Blencoe, with their three children. Mary works in various departments at the health center when needed. Their daughter, Brittany, is a freshman at Mount Marty. Francis’s brother and two sisters also graduated from Mount Marty College.

Sister Patricia Heirigs — MMHS 1952 / MMC 1965 — Distinguished Service to Mount Marty
Sister Patricia Heirigs began her education in a rural one-room school, graduated from both Mount Marty High School and Mount Marty College, and obtained a master’s degree in pastoral ministry from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and a second master’s degree in elementary administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Heirigs was a pioneer in the education field from the start, helping to open new schools in the Dioceses of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Grand Island, Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. She soon took on the role of principal introducing innovations into the classrooms of the students to whom she was so deeply dedicated.

Heirigs put her master’s degree in pastoral ministry to work by becoming a pastoral associate in an Omaha parish where she visited sick parishioners, welcomed new parish members and consoled grieving families. But she was soon drawn back into school administration by becoming the school principal in this parish.

When she was not pursuing further education herself during summer breaks, she was teaching in a Title I Program, taking a census in a parish, or working on an Indian mission.

Heirigs eagerly volunteered in other professional activities. Soon after Vatican II, she became secretary of the newly-formed Sisters’ Council in the Grand Island Diocese; was active in the Elementary Principals’ Association in Nebraska as treasurer and urban deanery representative; was on the Omaha Archdiocesan Pastoral Council and Vocation Committee; and just completed two terms on the Mount Marty College Board of Trustees. Through the years, she has served on many of her religious community’s various committees as member or chair.

Her tireless efforts and abundant energy are what motivated her nomination.

“Whether she is touring Israel and seven European countries, attending a Benedictine Renewal Program in Rome, serving on a Mount Marty Board of Trustee Committee, celebrating her Golden Jubilee as a member of Sacred Heart Monastery, hiring teachers for the next school year, or helping one of her many students, she sees them all as an adventure, a challenge, and an opportunity,” reads her nomination letter. “At an age when most people would think it was time for her to retire, a number of diocesan superintendents are hoping to snag her as a principal in one of their schools.”

Marvin Veasy — MMC 1986 — Distinguished Service to Community
Marvin Veasy currently resides in Arlington, Tenn., (located approximately 20 minutes outside of Memphis) with his family. He is employed with Shelby County Government as an operations manager at the Division of Corrections. The facility has more than 750 staff members and currently houses more than 3,200 inmates. Since 1987 he has also been employed as manager of Youth Villages, Inc. Youth Villages is a treatment facility that offers help to troubled youth as well as their families.

The uniqueness of the dual employment gives Veasy a sense of balance and harmony.
“If I can prevent one young person from transitioning from juvenile corrections to adult corrections then I have made a difference in someone’s life,” he said.

Veasy has had more than 30 years of cumulative managerial experience with a comprehensive experience and knowledge of budget, fiscal management and purchasing procedures. He has also had vast experience in a clinical, residential treatment, criminal justice, forensics and public health environments.

Veasy said he lives by the adage, “You cannot achieve anything without overcoming great barriers.”

In January 2007, Veasy, along with several professional acquaintances, realized a need and recognized a void in numerous areas so they created an approach to address this need, and a dream came to fruition. He co-founded a 501 C 3 organization that travels throughout the tri-state area called Project P.L.E.A. or Positive Lives in Everyday Action.

Veasy serves as on the motivational speakers and the group collectively delivers an anti-gang, pro-abstinence and anti-violence message. Project P.L.E.A. promotes an agenda that attempts to educate parents as well as youth to the danger of street and gang life. The group teaches and offers solace to gang members who want to leave the lifestyle, as well as empowers parents to approach and confront their teens by recognizing gang activity and presence in their homes. Donations, grants and foundation members fund Project P.L.E.A.

Veasy is a member of Greater Imani Church and Christian Center. He is married to Brenda Diane Veasy, and the couple is raising six children: Daryl Dewayne, 19, Marvin Joshua, 18, Corbin Denzel, 16, Brandon Durrell, 14, Bianca Nicole, 14, and Marvin Gabriel, 7.

Veasy said he lives his life according to one of Leo Buscaglia’s themes, “God’s gift to you is life itself. What you do with your life is your gift to God.”

Mount Marty College
College Relations Office
1105 West 8th Street
Yankton, SD 57078
(605) 668-1517
mmc.college.relations@mtmc.edu