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Development dinner honors three couples

Archbishop George J. Lucas honored three couples June 3 for their service to the Archbishop’s Committee for Development, which provides advice on finances and education, and to the broader community.

Many of the committee’s 185 members attended the recognition dinner at Omaha Country Club and paid tribute to Peg and Gene Steffensmeier for 25 years of service to the committee and special honorees Mary Jo and Dick Coffey and Anne and Tom Pogge.

The Steffensmeiers, members of St. Patrick Parish in Fremont, served on committees to build the parish’s new church and school buildings and helped establish a Friends of St. Patrick Committee. Gene served six years on the Omaha Archdiocesan Board of Education, and Peg served on boards for the New Cassel Foundation in Omaha and Care Corps, a homeless shelter in Fremont.

Mary Jo and Dick Coffey, members of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish in Omaha, have led fundraising dinners and other events for CUES (Christian Urban Education Services), Creighton Preparatory School, New Cassel Retirement Center and the archdiocese’s Catholic Schools Office, all in Omaha.

Mary Jo served on St. Robert’s parish council and home and school board and as president of the Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart Alumni Sodality in Omaha.

Dick has been president of the West Omaha Serra Club and chairman of New Cassel Retirement Center and served on boards for CUES and Ronald McDonald House of Omaha. He currently volunteers as a CUES trustee, a mentor and tutor at Boys Town and a member of the Creighton University Heider School of Business Advisory Board in Omaha. New Cassel has awarded him its Spirit of St. Francis Award.

Anne and Tom Pogge, founding members of St. Leo the Great Parish in Omaha, both have been parish council presidents and have had leadership roles at St. Pius X/St. Leo School in Omaha, Creighton Prep, Duchesne Academy and Creighton University.

They taught natural family planning with the Couple to Couple League, served at an international level with the organization, and were leaders in the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.

Tom, who has been recognized as a distinguished graduate of Holy Name School in Omaha, served on Holy Name’s capital campaign development committee, volunteered with Holy Name Housing Corp. and is a member of the Omaha chapter of Legatus, an organization for Catholic business leaders and their spouses.

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