marianist.com/donate • 19 You might call it a chance encounter. A bit of chit-chat, really, with a dash of the Holy Spirit mixed in. That’s how Joan Means remembers the initial conversation she had with Maureen O’Rourke about a relatively new Marianist min- istry that Maureen coordinates in Dayton, Ohio. It happened when Joan and Maureen were serving meals at a neighborhood nonprofit, just as they’d done every week for the past couple of years. Maureen mentioned some of the hurdles she’d encountered trying to find rental housing for volunteers of PULSE (Partners in Urban Leadership, Service and Education), a post-college Marianist service program through which participants work at local nonprofits while deepening their involve- ment in the Marianist charism. It was the first Joan had heard of PULSE, but something definitely clicked: a connection with her husband, Michael, who’d passed away in 2015, and his life’s work. “Some- times I feel like the hand of God just takes over,” she says. “I have no other explanation except that it happened.” The seed for Joan’s idea was planted in 1963 when Michael accepted a teaching position at University of Dayton. The couple, with their five young children in tow, arrived in the city knowing no one and almost nothing about the Marianists. That soon changed. “When we got to UD, it was just like family,” Joan recalls. The connections deepened in the ensuing years. Michael thrived as a faculty member in the English department, and he and Joan often welcomed his Marianist colleagues into their home. When it came time to purchase their home near downtown Dayton, Joan vividly remembers UD providing a loan for the down payment. The university and the Marianists grew to be “important in our lives,” she says, including a shared passion for community activism. Both Michael and Joan served on neigh- borhood boards, councils and committees — often alongside Marianist priests and brothers. So as Joan learned more about PULSE, an idea stirred in her heart. “To memorialize Michael, I could help them get a house in our neighborhood,” she says. “It would be a nice melding of all his work.” That thought turned into an offer in 2017 — to purchase a home in the neigh- borhood and pay for renovations. The house would be known as the Michael H. Means Marianist PULSE Community. At first, the whole notion stunned Maureen. “I couldn’t believe it — the concept of giving that much, so freely,” Maureen says. But as their conversations deepened, she began to see the same synergies Joan envisioned. Setting down roots, rather than renting, made a lot of sense for PULSE. “It gives us stability,” Maureen says, “and the families who live in this neighborhood are going to know its spirit and mission. The more I learn about Michael from Joan and her chil- dren — and how happy it would have made him because of his commitment to the neighborhood — the more it seems like the perfect gift.” ■ John Schroeder is a freelance writer from St. Louis. HOUSE MEANS Making a Difference The perfect gift: If you are interested in learning more about the Marianists and donating to their ministries, go to marianist.com/donate or call 1.800.348.4732. of A family’s gift to a Marianist ministry in Ohio ensures a professor’s spirit will live on. By John Schroeder Joan Means in front of the house in Dayton, Ohio, that she donated to the PULSE ministry in honor of her late husband, Michael. “Sometimes I feel like the hand of God just takes over. I have no other explanation except that it happened.” – Joan Means PHOTO: SKIP PETERSON