Tower Topics ~ Fall 2000

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Modest Mattson celebrates 25 years
at CSC

For the record, there’s someone who thinks an article on Conception Seminary College Registrar Velda Mattson is a waste of time and ink.

Velda Mattson.

But there are hundreds of alumni, students, and members of CSC’s faculty and staff who would disagree. For them, Mattson – who is marking her 25th year at Conception – is an institution . . . and a dear friend.

“Rectors come and go, deans come and go and professors come and go,” says Father Benedict Neenan, CSC’s president-rector. “But Velda stays and keeps us all going.”

Even though the self-deprecating Mattson says she’s “basically just a bookkeeper,” her influence on life at Conception reaches beyond statistics and record-keeping.

“Velda is not just pushing papers or tabulating numbers,” says Father Marion Makarewicz, rector of St. Thomas Seminary in Hannibal and a 1983 graduate of Conception. “She gets to know the people those numbers represent.”

As Father Benedict noted at the May graduation banquet: “In her 25 years here, Velda has been simultaneously chaplain, spiritual director, academic advisor, computer expert, world traveler and registrar.”

Add woman to that list, says Father Carl Gallinger, a 1985 graduate who is now vocations director for the Diocese of Cheyenne in Wyoming.

“In what is primarily an all-male institution, it is good to have female role models, and Velda certainly fits the bill,” Father Gallinger notes. “I don’t know whether she’s aware that her presence in the administration of that school is so important. Her kindness and generosity are a great gift.”

A native of nearby Conception Jct., Mattson and her husband Charles – who attended high school and college at Conception Seminary in the 1950s – raised two daughters on a farm three miles west of the abbey. The Velda era at Conception began after she and the 4-H Club she led volunteered to stuff envelopes for then-president-rector Father Isaac True. Later, when Father Isaac asked Mattson if she knew of anyone who would like a part-time job in the registrar’s office, she hung up the phone and instantly thought, “Why not me?”

“That’ll teach him to ask me for a name,” she jokes in her comfortable Midwest drawl. In 1984, Mattson became registrar when Brother Bernard Montgomery was assigned to other duties. “I guess they thought I was capable,” she quips. “They probably didn’t know what else to do with me.”

Although she’s kept the same job since, Mattson refuses to sit still. Perpetually hungry for a challenge, she has consistently attended workshops and conferences to remain at the cutting edge of her field and on top of rapidly changing technology.

“She is always at least a couple of steps ahead of where she needs to be,” says Father Tom Greisen, a 1978 graduate who for six years worked across the hall from Mattson as the seminary’s spiritual director. “She has imagination and the vision to dream about possibilities.”

When the seminary was seeking a new computer program for the registrar’s office, Mattson took matters in her own hands. Unsatisfied with the choice of programs on the market – many of which cost more than $70,000 – she oversaw the writing of a new one just for Conception.

Father Makarewicz points out that registering for classes, paying tuition and worrying about grades are usually stressful and unpleasant concerns for many college students, and a visit to the registrar at most schools often has the appeal of a dentist appointment.

Not so at Conception.

“You always know Velda is going to be the one compassionately explaining things,” he says. “And the students know they can trust her so much.”

Far from a place to avoid, Mattson’s office seems to draw students looking for a friendly ear.

Most chaplains and spiritual directors readily admit that Mattson often knows if a student is having a hard time well before they do.

“She is a real person,” Father Greisen says. “And that is the highest compliment I can give. There are no airs there; what you see is what you get. She knows when to push and when to pull back. She’s a woman who respects boundaries. Seminarians feel comfortable talking to her.”

And Mattson will interrupt downplaying herself long enough to grudgingly admit, yes, Father Greisen might be right.

“I think the students need that,” she says. “They see me as someone they can talk to and it won’t go any further. I’m not a chaplain. I’m not a professor. As a mother, you learn to listen and hope they can work out their problems on their own.”

While she is a big part of seminary life, it is the small favors that distinguish her.

“I had five nieces and nephews at my graduation,” Father Makarewicz remembers, “and I mentioned I needed a babysitter. Velda was able to get her daughter to watch them.”

It isn’t uncommon for a lonely or homesick seminarian to go hunting and fishing on the Mattson farm or sit down to a home-cooked meal with Velda and Charlie. Father Gallinger often found himself in the Mattson kitchen, where he recalls being so comfortable he occasionally cooked the meals himself.

“I don’t think my cooking could compare with Velda’s,” he recalls. “But it was just such a joy to be with her family.”

Mattson first came to the CSC registrar’s office 25 years ago out of curiosity. “I just wanted to see how it’d go,” she says. When she leaves, which Father Benedict hopes will be only after another 25 years, Velda’s hope is a simple one: “I hope I’ll be remembered as a good registrar.”

But as for Father Makarewicz, he’ll always remember her as much more.

“To me,” he says, “Velda is alma mater, dear mother.”

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