3/18/2010
Faith-filled upbringing shapes brothers’ vision for Portland
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| Faith-filled upbringing shapes brothers’ vision for Portland |
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Clarice Keating
He was a father who was a natural teacher, who followed his heart, even if there was an easier path, who was curious about people and driven by his faith.
She was a mother who occupied a deep place in the world and trusted in it, the light who shone at the center of her family and whose confidence in God was unwavering.
They were Richard and Doris Ganz, who moved their family to the Pacific Northwest in 1955, and in their children fostered a love of learning, a strong faith in God and a sense of service to the community.
And it was these two powerful forces that shaped Portland brothers Jesuit Rick Ganz, special counsel to the president of Marylhurst University, and Mark Ganz, president and CEO of Regence BlueCross/BlueShield, both advocates working individually and together to transform their community.
“Jesus chose two sets of brothers, called them away from their families,” Father Rick said, referring to Peter and Andrew, and James and John, all called to be Christ’s disciples. “That was some insight Jesus had, to trust brothers.”
Every day these two men remember their parents, Doris who died late last year, and Richard, who died in 2004, thankful for their blessed upbringing.
The lives of Father Rick and Mark run divergently, but come together at certain points, and they both are mission-driven in the same ways and carry with them the strong Catholic upbringing.
They both showed up on the same April 2, 2009, page one of the Sentinel — Father Rick for coming on board at Marylhurst and Mark as a representative from Catholic Charities, as the organization culminated its capital campaign.
Their mother said it was one of her proudest moments to see her two sons looking back at her from page 1.
A member of the Oregon Province of Jesuits for 37 years, Father Rick has served in education administration at the high school and university level. Before coming to Marylhurst, where he is helping with long-term strategic planning, teaching classes and supporting the office of university ministry, he was director of university ministry at Gonzaga University in Spokane.
From a family of six children, three boys and three girls, the Ganz brothers were raised in Spokane. The parents moved there from Kansas City. Maybe it was their father’s interest in adventure and the wilderness. To this day, they’re not sure what prompted the move.
“For no apparent reason they chose to leave what was comfortable to see what they could accomplish,” Father Rick said.
The family had two houses, a place in Spokane, and a rustic cabin at Priest Lake in Northern Idaho, named after the Jesuits, of which Father Rick eventually became an ordained member.
Those deep starry skies at night over the open lake, they are part of the Ganz psyche, Mark said.
“I live in Portland, but my soul resides at Priest Lake,” he said.
Their dad was a family physician, and Mark remembers spending summers working in the front office of his dad’s clinic.
The brothers remember their father being an amazing diagnostician, with strong lifetime attachments to his patients, who was as curious about their spirits as he was about their bodies.
“He wasn’t just a physician; he was a healer,” Father Rick said. “He had a sense of deep attentiveness to the person in them. It was a spiritual basis to the way people lose their health.”
When the brothers’ mom died, the siblings cleaned out the house in Spokane, sorting through artifacts of the past and present.
Mark wanted to take home with him his mom’s favorite lamp, one she kept next to the chair where she read and prayed.
“It wasn’t my favorite lamp,” he said. “But when I put it in my office, it looks like it was made for that corner [where it now sits].”
It’s the symbolism of the piece that he cherished.
“There was a lightness about her,” he said. “Particularly as she approached death, she filled up with light.”
That light now guides all the Ganz children and is being carried through the generations, through sisters Carol, Katie and Betsy and brother Bill.
“Our parents were intent on building family,” Father Rick said. “It’s the family that is the first church.”
The effects of these lessons have rippled through the community, as Father Rick and Mark have served on volunteer boards, and made their own impact through their professional calling.
They both have served on the board of directors for ChristieCare, a Marylhurst-based nonprofit that provides mental health services to children and families in community and residential settings.
Director Lynn Saxton said Mark was instrumental in driving the mission of the organization and also helping bring the organization’s fundraising to a new level. Father Rick is the person who is always willing to represent the board for the 10 different entities and authorities that review quality of the work provided by the nonprofit.
“The combination of the two has been invaluable,” she said. “They have brought so much to us in terms of their hearts and minds, and willingness to ask the tough questions, both in their insightful ways…I don’t think we could have made the gains we have made over the last seven or eight years without their leadership and inspiration.”
Holy Cross Father William Beauchamp served on the Catholic Charities Board of Directors with Mark. He knows Father Rick, too, but not as well as Mark, who also has been on the University of Portland board of directors since 2003.
“[Mark] takes his faith very seriously,” the priest said. “It’s very much a part of who he is as a leader, very much a part of how he operates with his family and business, and just in general.”
It’s this sense of vision that is deeply rooted in the Catholic faith that has served both men so well, said Dennis Keenan, executive director of Catholic Charities.
Both men served on the Catholic Charities board. Mark volunteered as chairman of the successful capital campaign that raised $12.5 million for construction of a new Clark Family Center. Father Rick helped provide input on how to best make the new worship area in the center contemplative and prayerful.
“It was fun meeting with them and hearing them play off each other in terms of ideas,” Keenan said. “It was inspiring to see two brothers working together in such a collegial and Christian way.”
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