Mark Frankowski is St. Patrick Catholic Church's Irish Person of the Year

By Marci Laehr

Saturday, March 12, 2005 2:06 AM CST

For 25 years, St. Patrick's Catholic Church has named someone from their congregation Irish Person of the Year. Despite the title, these honored folks are often not Irish at all, but have dedicated their time and talents to the parish in a remarkable way.

Mark A. Frankowski is this year's Irish Person of the Year, even though he's really Polish.

"It was a surprise," he said of the award. "You never expect anything like that."

However, considering Frankowski's dedication to his church, the honor really isn't that surprising at all. For nearly 20 years he has been leading the Saturday afternoon Mass in song as the cantor, and also fills in as a choir member on special occasions.

Frankowski spent his time helping to renovate the church's convent several years ago, after renters left it in a shambles. "Instead of condemning it and knocking it down, a bunch of parishioners got together and restored it so it could be rented out again," he said.

Frankowski has also lent a helping hand in painting St. Patrick's rectory and getting bicycles ready for their annual rummage sale. He was a member of the church liturgy committee and is a member of their model car club.

His dedication to St. Patrick's is unwavering.

"It's a different type of church," he said. "It's a diverse, welcoming community. Even though in last six years we've had a number of turnovers (in priests), I still stay. It's the community, the people. It's an accepting community."

Frankowski joined St. Patrick's many years ago when he moved to Racine. A Milwaukee native from the Polish southside of the city, he came here when he married his wife, Catherine Meyer, who is a teacher in Racine.

At the time, Frankowski wanted to find a Catholic church in the area that would be accepting of him and his wife, who is Lutheran.

"We had to find a church that would welcome us both," he said.

He found that acceptance at St. Patrick's.

While they married at Meyer's church, Emmaus Lutheran, the former priest at St. Patrick's, Father Paul Daniels, also gave them a wedding blessing. Today, even though they both attend their own churches, they are known and embraced at both.

Aside from being St. Patrick's Irish Person of the Year, Frankowski is also a very interesting guy with a variety of interests.

He is a senior occupational therapist for the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, working with spinal cord injury patients.

Frankowski also has a certificate in theology from Marquette University, and at one point volunteered his time giving the Eucharist to those at a Lincoln Lutheran center here.

Fluent in Polish, Frankowski and his wife have traveled to Poland. They've also taken trips to Israel and Germany.

While the couple was never blessed with children of their own, Frankowski has eight godchildren ranging in age from 5 to 22.

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