News

First diocesan CFO turns to new 'evangelization'

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Looking back on 25 years as the first Chief Financial Officer for the diocese, it isn't the employee benefits programs, retirement plans, accounting and budgeting systems, the investment plans or the computer software he and his staff have developed that Tom Kurkowski remembers most. It's something less tangible, but more real.

"I came to the diocese to serve, "said Kurkowski, who left the diocese on June 30. "I didn't know (then) what the real word was, but I do now. That word is stewardship. Everything is gift from God and we are stewards of how we use those gifts."

In the past 25 years, he's seen that awareness of stewardship - that, as he says, we are called "to a lifelong commitment to be a Christian and to use our gifts to serve God" - grow across the diocese. He's proud to have been part of that.

Even before graduating from the University of Dayton with a degree in accounting in 1970, Kurkowski knew he would work for the church. He remembers telling his girlfriend - now wife, Nancy - on graduation day that, "in 10 years, I'll be working for him." Nancy knew that he meant God.

One day in 1980, working for a CPA firm in Detroit, Kurkowski opened up his copy of The Wall Street Journal and saw an ad from the Diocese of Green Bay for a chief financial officer. "My hands just shook," he said.

There was no question that he would apply. He came to Green Bay to interview with Bp. Aloysius Wycislo and a panel of others.

"I told them, 'I was called here to take this job.' I figured they'd either think I was nuts, or they'd know I was sincere. I let God do the talking."

Seven of the eight people on the interview panel, including Bp. Wycislo, later told him that they had all believed his sincerity.

When Kurkowski arrived, the diocese had only a minimal bookkeeping system. He presented Bp. Wycislo with a list of 13 ideas to upgrade practices.

"I expected him to pick one or two to start with," Kurkowski said. "He looked over the list and told me to do all of them."

Those 13 items became 39; the five years Kurkowski had planned to give to the church also increased. There was a lot to do.

He remembers that, when he first arrived, he came into the chancery on the same day they were delivering the first computers. "The Monsignor came downstairs and told the delivery man to 'take that washing machine next door to the bishop's house.' That was our level of expertise at the time."

Since then, things have changed. The diocese now has accounting practices that have been a model for dioceses. Kurkowski has served on the U.S. Bishops' accounting practices and assessment committees and been president of a national financial management committee for diocesan CFOs.

Looking back on 25 years, he is most proud of helping develop benefits programs for the lay employees at the diocesan, parish and school levels, including retirement plans and insurance benefits. There's also the investment program that includes not only diocesan assets, but 450 voluntary accounts from parishes around the diocese. There's now a standardized accounting program for all the parishes, and the finance department is developing a computer software program for accounting that all the parishes and schools can use. Paula Nault is continuing that software work. Jason Haen has succeeded Kurkowski as director of Finance and Accounting.

"It was pioneering work," said Kurkowski, a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Green Bay. "And a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff."

As he moves back into the corporate world, where he started, Kurkowski said he will miss the lunchtime conversations he's shared with diocesan employees and visitors, "from multiple disciplines" and world problems "and how we solve them through the church. Now I'll be talking with mostly financial people."

But he still looks at his new position with a Menasha investment firm as stewardship, just a different type, since some of North Star Asset Management's clients include church organizations.

His wife, Nancy, recently told him that he's "been evangelizing 24/7 for the past 25 years." Kurkowski just shakes his head and says, "If so, now I'm going to be doing part-time evangelization."