Madeleine Van Haute
Layout Editor
A speaker said pursuing a vocation can be more important than pursuing a career in a talk addressed to students of the business department Monday at 7 p.m. in the St. Joseph Seminar Room.
Doug Perry, executive director of the Leadership Institute at Franciscan University of Steubenville, said, “Pursuing our vocations is lifelong. It’s not our career, it’s identified by what our gifts are and pursuing our talents, and if we do that we are actually following God’s will and he is going to open a lot of doors.”
Perry shared his life story with the audience, starting with his college days at Cornell Law School, where he met his first wife, Bonnie. He said their relationship had many struggles that they experienced together after graduation.
Perry said that he experienced a reversion to his Catholic faith in 1997 when his wife passed away. He said that although he initially converted to Catholicism in 1991, he truly became Catholic after suffering the loss of a loved one and seeking guidance from a priest at a local church.
Perry then met his second wife, Heather, and was promoted to partner of a big law firm. After four years of serving as partner of the firm, Perry said he took another job and moved his family to Arizona.
He then found himself moving back to Washington, D.C. for another job position in 2005. Perry said at that point, he knew God was calling him to do more.
After helping with mission work in Steubenville, Perry said he and his wife answered the call to live closer to Steubenville and moved to Pennsylvania.
Perry said based on his experience he knows that God puts people in everyone’s life to help discern his will.
Senior Molly Propson said, “Professor Perry’s telling of his story was so real and so heartfelt that the message really ceased to be about business and just focused on the beauty of God’s work in our lives.”