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Dacia Van Antwerp
Dr. Dacia Van Antwerp, the tenth of eleven children born to Eugene Ignatius and Mary Frances (nee McDevitt) Van Antwerp was born 08/22/1930 in Detroit, MI. Having left religious li...view moreDr. Dacia Van Antwerp, the tenth of eleven children born to Eugene Ignatius and Mary Frances (nee McDevitt) Van Antwerp was born 08/22/1930 in Detroit, MI. Having left religious life in 1969 she has since been married and widowed twice (her husbands were Reginald J. McLaren and Robert W. Denton) she presently is the Step Mother of 7 living children and two who have gone to God, Grandmother of 18, and Great Grandmother of 24. Kevin McLaren died in 2000 in a house fire and Bob Denton, Jr. died in 2010 under the care of Hospice.
Educated by the Religious of the Sacred Heart in Elementary and Secondary School, she then went to Manhattanville College where she majored in both Social Studies and Education. Then she became a Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ). As a religious she taught in the schools and worked in the Business Offices, of the various convents where she was stationed: Albany, NY; Rochester, NY; New York City; and Greenwich, CT; except for the six months she was in Rome, Italy studying. She left after 17 years, went back to school and received an MS from SUNYA at Albany in Educational Communications and her permanent teaching certification from the State of New York. Then from Michigan State University she received a PhD in Instructional Development & Technology.
In conjunction with GE at the State University of NY at Albany she ran a computer classroom and as an Assistant at MSU she helped the Faculty improve their instruction. Upon completing her PhD she applied to the Detroit Public Schools but they would not even let her fill out an application. Needing to support herself, she then wrote to the heads of GM, Ford and Chrysler telling them her philosophy of education and pointing out what she could do for them. Chrysler called and asked to interview her. She was then hired by the Chrysler Institute to design a school for them. (MoTech) After that she became responsible for the Upward Mobility of Women at Chrysler Corporation. Thus began 13 years with Chrysler Corporation from which she retired in 1985.
Then Brother Francis Boylan, csc, of Boysville - Holy Cross Services on whose Board she sat, asked her to leave the Board and work for Boysville. This she did and ended up as Director of Human Resources at Holy Cross Children’s Services. Her second husband then decided that he wanted to return to his childhood home in Alpena, MI and so they did. In Alpena Dacia was first appointed and then elected to the Alpena County School Board. With Bob Munroe she began the SBDC in Alpena, MI and helped people begin businesses. She restarted the RCIA Program at St. Bernard Parish, Alpena, MI under Fr. Joe Graff and was the Business Manager of the Parishes of St. Bernard and St. Anne & their schools.
An Evaluator for the US Department of State, USAID she worked at the International Institute in Hawaii, and the Schools of the Country of Benin, West Africa. She also served as a proposal evaluator for the National Science Foundation. One of the things for which she is most proud is that she was an Initiator and Facilitator of Intergovernmental meetings between the City, County and Township of Alpena. She has been an Adjunct Professor at U of D-Mercy, McNichols campus and Spring Arbor College’s Alpena, MI branch.
Upon the death of her second husband in 2002 her children thought it best that she return to the Detroit area which she did. Doing so allowed her to continue her training to be a Spiritual Director with the Jesuits for 2 ½ years (She’d begun in Gaylord with the Grand Rapids Dominicans). Then she became the Executive Director of the Holy Spirit Center in Anchorage, AK. (Owned by the Archdiocese and at that time managed by the Jesuits.) She reported to both the Board, the Archbishop and the Jesuit Provincial.
Upon her return from Alaska she began studies for her MDiv which was granted in 2008 from the Catholic Theological Union. Then the Bishop of Saginaw, Robert Carlson, (now Archbishop of St. Louis), asked her to take over a priestless parish in Merrill, MI, until a priest could be found. A priest was found and took over the parish on July 1st, 2009. Later that year she began training as a Hospital Chaplain at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI. She left in March 2010, having earned one unit of CPE. April and May of that year she made her retreat in Joigny, France and walked the Camino, a pilgrimage to Santiago Compostela in Spain.
Once home, she was in charge of the Justice Initiative of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for a short time. Then she was the Chaplain for St. Vincent’s Home, an institution of Holy Cross Children’s Services in Saginaw, MI.view less