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On Air and In Person, the Real Deal

Kathy Orr

Kathy Orr’s first notable on-air appearance had nothing to do with Arctic highs, offshore breezes or flash-flood warnings.

Nor did it require her to fly through a hurricane—as she would one day do.

And perhaps best of all … no risky predictions of winter snowfall totals.

CBS3’s chief meteorologist was still a student at Syracuse University when the producers of a new MTV game show, “Remote Control,” came to the campus, looking for contestants.
Kathy passed the audition.

As she recalled in an interview: “I had a final exam and I asked my professor if I could take it a later time. They picked a bunch of us. I had a blast… I lost.”

Well, she may well have lost on a game show. But from that point on, Kathy Orr’s broadcast career has followed a winning trajectory.

The broadcasting bug hit Kathy early. As a kid growing up in the Syracuse, New York, suburb of Westvale, she is said to have loved watching televised sports—and that heightened her interest in a career before the cameras.

Orr went on to receive her degree in meteorology from SUNY-Oswego. She also received a dual bachelor’s of science degree in broadcast journalism and marketing from Syracuse University.

After school, one of her first jobs in news was, happily, not too far from home. Kathy landed the job of chief meteorologist for CBS affiliate WTVH in Syracuse. There, she presided over the nightly “Fivecast”—predicting snow showers for Manlius, sunny skies for Old Forge, or unseasonably high temperatures for Norwich. (Also sitting at the anchor desk was her future Philadelphia colleague Tracy Davidson.)

Flash forward to 1998, when she arrived in the nation’s fourth largest media market and a weekend weather slot at WCAU. It didn’t long for people to sit up and take notice of the new kid in town. The Delco Daily Times named her “Rookie of the Year.” Not long afterward, she was picking up Mid-Atlantic Emmy awards.

In January 2003, she accepted the post of chief meteorologist at CBS3. And the honors and words of praise have just kept coming.

Of course, Philly’s Irish know Kathy as more than just their favorite source for weather. She also hosts the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade—an assignment she obviously loves. Even when she has to predict a hard rain for the day of the parade, nothing dampens Kathy’s enthusiasm.

Kathy devotes her off-the-air energies to local charities such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In 1998, she was awarded the New York Governor’s Award for community service.

There’s clearly much more to Kathy Orr than what you see on screen. (Ask her about scuba diving.)

A discerning fan once described Kathy Orr as “a smart, competent, schtick-free woman.”

Whether you’re looking for a weather forecast or service to the community … that’s just what you want.

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

Honoring a Son’s Memory

Liz and Pearse Kerr

There are so many facets to Liz Kerr’s personality; it’s hard to know where to start.

She’s a registered nurse on the heart transplant team at Temple University Hospital.

She is a political activist, devoted to the cause of a united Ireland.

She co-founded Ladies AOH Brigid McCrory Division 25. Liz is the division’s Freedom for All Ireland officer.

She holds dual U.S.-Irish citizenship.

She is married to Pearse Kerr, who was a political prisoner in Belfast’s Crumlish Road Jail for three months in the mid-1970s. He was her “history project” when she was a senior at Cardinal Dougherty. “If we could get a speaker to come in, it would count as a project,” she recalls. “Pearse came in and spoke after he got out of prison. That was 32 years ago.”

She is a budding author and playwright. Her story, “Summer of Dark Shadows,” was published in Philly Fiction 2. She developed the story as part of a class at Arcadia University, where she was pursuing a master’s degree in English. “Some women do ceramics,” she says of her literary pursuits. “I like to do this for my hobby. It’s just this need to tell stories that the Irish have.”

Liz Kerr could be regarded as inspirational in many respects—not just for deftly pursuing so many interests but for the skill with which she holds her busy life together.

But Liz has one other very particular interest—one that might surprise you if you didn’t know her. It’s skateboarding.

It isn’t that Liz herself has any unusual skill on the board. She doesn’t perform Ollies, double kickflips, switch backside crooks or any of the typical skateboarder moves. But you probably won’t find a more ardent supporter of the sport or the kids who pour their energies into it.

Liz draws her inspiration and sense of devotion from the life and passions of her skateboard-advocate son Patrick, who died in a skateboard accident in 2002 at the age of 15. Patrick was a student at Roman Catholic High School who tirelessly lobbied for skate parks in the city—including Philadelphia’s skateboard Mecca, LOVE Park. Like any parent faced with such a horrific loss, she grieved. But she also resolved to pay tribute to his memory by continuing to support the sport he loved.

“Patrick was an activist in his own right, and very involved in the LOVE Park issue,” she says. “After we lost him we kept working on that. This past summer, we did the ribbon cutting for the Patrick Kerr Skate Park.”

Liz and her husband also instituted the Patrick Kerr Skateboard Scholarship Fund— the first college scholarship fund in the country for skateboarders. Liz is also a co-founder of Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund, a non-profit focused on building public skateboard parks in the city.

Nothing can bring Patrick back, but much of him continues to live on in the work performed in his memory.

“At a young age he knew that if you don’t give kids some place to skate, then they’ll be on the street … and that’s how he died. If you look at it, they have no safe place to go, that was something I really wanted to get for these kids.”

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

A Lifetime of Facing and Overcoming Challenges

Rosabelle Gifford

Rosabelle Gifford left England in 1958 as an impoverished single mother to bring five children to the Philadelphia area. She now presides over an extended family of 13 grandchildren, all college graduates, and 21 great-grandchildren.

“We were all poor during my childhood,” recalls Gifford, born Rosabelle Blaney in Doorin, Donegal. “There were no cars. We thought it a great adventure to get a ride home on the bar of some boy’s bicycle.”

One of those boys, Edward Harvey of Castleogary, married the young Rose Blaney and they had five children, raised in London following World War II. Living conditions in England following the war were terrible—not just because of widespread food rationing and shortages, but because Rosabelle’s marriage was disintegrating.

But adversity to Rosabelle simply meant another challenge to overcome. At a time when society frowned of divorce and single parenthood, she headed for the United States with her children, where she ultimately married again, this time to Charles Gifford, a World War II veteran.

Life has given Rosabelle some heartbreaking challenges that would test even the strongest person’s courage. Her beloved husband, Charlie Gifford, passed away more than 20 years ago, shortly after the death of her son-in-law Joseph McCullough. Her oldest son, Ted Harvey, died four years later, followed within five years by his wife Mae. Rosabelle cherishes spending time with her four surviving children: Rosemary McCullough, Kathleen Harshberger, Frank Harvey and James Harvey.

Five decades after arriving in Philadelphia, she is an inspiration to the Irish community, a longtime member of the Donegal Society of Philadelphia, staunch supporter of Irish affairs, and an avid advocate of educational opportunity for all and of programs to combat domestic violence. She is a friend to the downtrodden who combines remarkable energy with a powerful will.

In 2009, she was honored with the first-ever Mary O’Connor Spirit Award by the Philadelphia Rse of Tralee Centre, which is now presented annually to one Irish-American woman who is considered to be a role model for the younger generation of women in the community. The truth is, Rosabelle has surely inspired mostly everyone who has ever been lucky enough to meet her.

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

“You Just Do the Best You Can”

Sister Mary Scullion

For some, the road to a religious life is paved with uncertainty. They wonder: Do I really have a vocation? Do I have what it takes?

Young Mary Scullion harbored no such misgivings. God spoke to the very heart of this girl from an Oxford Circle row home, and she knew it early on.

“There really wasn’t any doubt,” she says. “It was the one thing I wanted to do when I was young. That’s what I felt most drawn to.”

Today, Mary Scullion is as resolved in her commitment to the religious life and the Catholic church’s mission of social justice as she was when she entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1972 at the age of 19. Now extraordinarily well known as the co-founder with Joan Dawson McConnon of Philadelphia’s Project H.O.M.E., one can only describe her life and career as remarkable.

Project H.O.M.E. is devoted to ending homelessness in Philadelphia. Since its founding in 1989, the project has reduced homelessness by half. An estimated 95 percent of the homeless people who enter the program don’t go back to the streets.

That’s impressive. But it is still far short of the goal set by Sister Mary Scullion and her colleagues and supporters. (Among the latter is rocker Jon Bon Jovi.) They live by these words: None of us are at home until all of are at home.

In 2009, Time Magazine recognized Mary Scullion’s good works by naming her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. (She was Number 17 on the list of Heroes & Icons, just before Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Palin.)

Probably no one whose life is described as inspirational gets to that point without being inspired by others. For Mary Scullion, there were many, including activist Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa and Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe, all of whom attended the 41st Eucharistic Congress in 1976, held in Philadelphia.

Sister Mary, who was also there, was especially moved by Father Arrupe. “He talked about how, if anyone is hungry anywhere in the world, the Eucharist is incomplete everywhere in the world,” she recalls. “That has still resonated with me over the past 40 years.”

Another source of inspiration to Mary Scullion is someone who believed in her vocation when others—including her father Joseph, born in Derry, and her mother Sheila from Mayo—weren’t so sure.

“Sister Ellen Cavanaugh was the director of formation (of the Sisters of Mercy). “I do think she had her reservations, but she nonetheless encouraged me and others to participate in workshops for women thinking about the religious life,” says Sister Mary. “She was a wonderful example of what a Sister of Mercy is. She strengthened me by inspiration and by motivation. She was and still is a great woman.”

Although she has been singled out for honor as a “great woman” herself often in her life, Sister Mary Scullion seems dubious about that characterization. “I am a person who struggles, just like everyone else, to be open to God’s grace,” she says. “You just do the best you can.”

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

Always Looking for the Joy in Things

Siobhan Reardon

Siobhan Reardon (nee O’Loughlin) became the seventh president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia in September 2008—the first woman ever to serve in this capacity in 114 years.

Previously, Siobhan was executive director of the Westchester (NY) Library System, a 38-member cooperative library system. While there, she launched a public relations and branding program, increased county support by 45 percent, and implemented technological enhancements. Prior to that, she was deputy executive director of the Brooklyn Public Library, serving as chief operating officer of the nation’s fifth largest library system.

Her accomplishments include tripling the size of the Library’s Foundation, spearheading a $15 million capital campaign for an auditorium and plaza for the Central Library, and strengthening the government relations function. She also served as acting executive director and director of finance.

Siobhan began her library career at New York Public Library in several finance roles. She holds a B.A. from SUNY Purchase, an M.A. from Fordham University, and an M.L.S. from the Palmer School of Library Science at Long Island University.

One of nine children in a fourth generation Irish-American family, Siobhan says her parents made sure the family remained closely tied to their heritage. “Growing up with a name like Siobhan O’Loughlin, it was pretty clear that I was Irish,” she jokes.

Her name aside, Siobhan describes her connection to her heritage as something deeper. “I think being Irish comes from within,” she says. “There is a deep sense of pride in culture and a very strong connection to family.”

A strong connection to family has been a constant theme in Siobhan’s life. She credits her parents, especially her mother, as her greatest inspirations in life.

“They believed that a good education is the best investment parents can make in their children,” she explains. Siobhan’s love of learning and stories, which have served her well in her professional career, are traits that she describes as part of “the essence” of the Irish people.

“Being Irish is a beautiful thing,” she says thoughtfully. “The Irish are always looking for the joy in things.”

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

Living Out Her Vows

Sister Kathleen Keenan

This year’s devastating earthquake in Haiti meant a personal loss for Sister Kathleen Marie Keenan, RSM, senior vice president of mission and sponsorship for Mercy Health System, the largest Catholic health care provider in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

As a decade-long member of the Global Health Ministry Board of Catholic Health East, Mercy’s parent organization, she has visited Haiti, Peru, and other developing countries where the Sisters of Mercy have a presence to set up health care teams in remote communities that have never seen a doctor or nurse.

“On my last trip to Haiti, I had a great visit with Archbishop (Joseph Serge) Miot. Less than a year later, he died in the Cathedral with 100 seminarians who were having a retreat experience. For me, these were not just faces on the media, they were people I knew,” she says.

But because of her work, many earthquake survivors received medical care from Mercy teams, some on the ground, some flown in from Mercy hospitals in the Philadelphia region.

Along with her RSM, Sister Kathleen has another set of letters at the end of her name: MBA. This native of Springfield, Delaware County, the descendant of Irish immigrants from Tyrone, has had a 40-year career of leadership in a variety of fields: As a teacher and principal of parish schools; as director of Catholic education for the Sisters of Mercy supervising 45 schools along the east coast; and finally in health care ministry for which she got an MBA in health care administration and another masters in long-term care administration to add to her masters in education administration.

Today, her job is to insure that everyone who works in a Mercy hospital understands Mercy’s mission: “to provide compassionate care and access to people living in the communities where our hospitals are located.

“We don’t turn anyone away from our hospitals, no matter their ability to pay,” she says. “We try to serve the whole person. There’s a pastoral aspect to our care. We treat the person, not just the injury—mind, body, and spirit, and their families are included in that equation. The Sisters of Mercy are unique among religious. All religious take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. We take a fourth vow—to serve the poor, sick, and uneducated. In some ways you can see I’ve lived out those vows.”

Not just in some ways.

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

“Nothing Stops Me”

Kathy McGee Burns

Kathy McGee Burns grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia where, except for her sister, she was the only Irish girl in the neighborhood.

“I didn’t have much of an ethnic identity,” she says. “My family was well-to-do: We belonged to three country clubs. We were bused to Catholic school because there were no Catholic schools in our neighborhood. I never knew Irish people did step-dancing. The only Irish record we ever had was Bing Crosby and we only played it on St. Patrick’s Day.”

Yet this “clueless” Irish girl went on to become the first woman president of the Donegal Association of Philadelphia, the first president of the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, and next year will be only the second woman to serve as president of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Committee, which oversees the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, a Philly tradition since 1771.

That McGee Burns had time to discover her Irish roots is miraculous. By the time she was 21, she was the mother of six children under the age of 4. After the seventh, she became a single mother and enrolled in Montgomery County Community College to get her associate’s degree. It took her eight years. Then another eight years to get her bachelor’s in medieval history at Chestnut Hill College.

In the midst of all that, she met and married Mike Burns, the love of her life, and had two more children. At 50, she entered Temple University Law School where she joined the Brehon Law Society and it was there she had her Irish epiphany.

“In Ireland, Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers were starving themselves to death, and Bobby was the same age as my son Tony. I thought, here I am, with a son that age, and I thought of Mrs. Sands, waiting for her son to starve to death. What would I give my life for? Of course, my children. And I started getting interested in my roots—but I had no idea where we were from.”

Her father could give her only one clue. “We’re related to every McGee in Bridgeport, PA, Kathy,” he told her. So she contacted every McGee in Bridgeport until she found one who offered one slim lead: the lines to an old song they’d heard their parents sing, “We come from Donegal where they eat potatoes, skins and all.”

Of course, she did find her family in Donegal. “Nothing stops me,” she says. In fact, there’s very little Kathy McGee Burns sets out to do that she doesn’t accomplish. Today, she is a successful realtor, a cancer survivor, and grandmother of 13 who knew what she was really looking for when she began that search for her roots. “I grew up in Flourtown,” she says, “but the Irish community is my real hometown.”

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk

Denise Sullivan Morrison

You can thank her for less sodium in Campbell’s Soups. For the big push by one of the nation’s largest food manufacturers to earn the right to be called “healthy.”

But in a business world rocked by negative headlines and scandal, you may want to thank Denise Sullivan Morrison for believing that integrity is the keystone of successful leadership. And for walking the talk.

“I have a firm set of values and I will not compromise them,” says Morrison, who is president of Campbell’s top profit center, Campbell USA. “If you have a reputation for high integrity, people trust you and I fundamentally believe that you can’t lead unless you have people’s trust.”

Her drive to the top (and yes, her mission is to someday become CEO of a major company) was fueled by her father, Dennis Sullivan, an AT&T executive, who took his four daughters to work long before there was a “Take Your Daughter To Work” day. “He saw the world opening for women long before it happened and spent a lot of time challenging us on things to get us ready,” she says.

The other Sullivan sisters have also made their mark: Maggie is chairman and CEO of a communications firm; Colleen is regional vice president of sales at Expedia, and Andrea is a champion show jumper who was senior VP of sales at AT&T Wireless.

For Morrison, who rose through the ranks of Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, Nestle, Nabisco, and Kraft Foods where she was often the only woman in sales meetings (“Sometimes it’s still that way,” she says), success isn’t entirely measured by profits and titles.

For example, Campbell’s is going healthy not just because it’s a good marketing strategy, but because Morrison thinks it’s the right thing to do. She’s a founding member of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, an initiative composed of manufacturers and retailers designed to combat obesity in the marketplace, workplace and in schools through communication and education.

The mentoring she’s received—from her father, from her current boss, Douglas Conant—she’s giving back through her work with Students in Free Enterprise, an organization of college students, academic professionals and industry leaders whose slogan is “a head for business, a heart for the world.”

“They take on projects that teach the principles of free enterprise and good business ethics and that do something for the community, a powerful message that I totally believe in,” she says. “One of my favorites was a group of students in Ghana who taught a village to make soap which they sell and it sustains the village.”

Underpinning Morrison’s achievements, as she’s quick to point out, is her family—her husband, Tom, an entrepreneur, and their two daughters. “I’m blessed with a wonderful home life,” she says. “I have a good balance which is important to me because if I were successful in business and had an unhappy home life, I would not consider myself successful.”

May 13, 2010 by Jeff Meade

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