RACINE - The black-and-white letter jacket still hangs in the upstairs closet of Wendy Barr's Sturtevant home. No way would she ever consign this precious garment it to a damp basement or a moth-infested attic even though she graduated from high school 20 years ago.

On occasion, she will slip on this jacket of honor and explain to her daughter and three sons what is possible for a poor farm girl, one of eight children, to achieve with the proper mixture of inspiration, perspiration and encouragement. And then she'll invariably reflect on "Miss P," the sometimes feisty, always passionate coach from St. Catherine's High School who found a way to get the standout sophomore runner from a financially-challenged family that letter jacket in 1987.

"I earned my letter and I couldn't put it on a letter jacket," said Barr (nee: Orlowski). "I couldn't afford it. When she gave it to me, it was so cool because I was so proud to be able to wear that letter jacket."

That's Cathy Poulson for you. The woman who answered to "Miss P." for nearly a half century as a coach , teacher and administrator at St. Catherine's was known for such benevolence. She could intimidate - "I have a gymnasium voice," she concedes - and she thought nothing about standing up to Bob Letsch, with whom she graduated from St. Catherine's in 1961.

"She let people know where she stood," said Letsch, the longtime boys' basketball coach at St. Catherine's. "She didn't back down."

But what endures about Poulson after all these years is not so much how she oversaw the growth of girls' sports at the school in the early 1970s. Nor was it how she was a mainstay at St. Catherine's since 1966, when a handshake deal with Msgr., Stanley Witkowiak, the school's late president, after she graduated from UW-La Crosse symbolically started a 43-year career at her alma mater.

No, now that Poulson has retired from St. Catherine's, what truly defines her is a life of selfless service that she carried out with a compassion that was sometimes belied by her feistiness. The same woman who had a way of quashing any sign of insubordination with an extended index finger or with her sharp voice was a Mother Teresa beneath that occasional crustiness.

"She never thought of herself," Barr said. "She only thought of others."

We take you back to the summer of 1962 at Camp Singing Hills in Elkhorn, where Poulson was working at a retreat for the Girl Scouts, for which she remains involved to this day.

A 12-year-old Girl Scout named Sue LaBoda was beside herself with panic because, a year earlier during this same camp, LaBoda's brother was critically injured when he was struck by a car. Her parents, not wanting to worry her, decided not to tell LaBoda until after she returned from camp.

LaBoda's imagination was running wild one year later even though her brother had recovered. She was convinced another tragedy was imminent.

"I was crying," said LaBoda, whose married name is Craanen. "I was really upset. I was sick to my stomach and I wanted to go home. I was saying, "I need to go home. Something is going to happen.'

"They went and got her and she same in our tent and sat and talked and comforted me. I was able to sleep the rest of the night and I enjoyed the rest of the camp. I remember she said that we were all together and she would make sure nothing would happen to me."

Perhaps what enhances this story is Poulson has absolutely no memory of it. Could it be that Poulson has been such a shining light in her life that so much of what she's done for others has fallen through the cracks?

"She has a heart of gold," Letsch said. "If students were struggling in classes, she was willing to work extra after school. She was always willing to work with them so they were successful."

To try and probe into the origins of such a person proves to be fruitless. About the most interesting story Poulson reveals is that she didn't see her father, Chuck, for the first time until she was 3 because he had been serving in the Philippines during World War II.

"All I remember from my early childhood was seeing this guy at Woods Hospital trying to hand me a candy bar," Poulson. "I was trying to figure out who this guy was because he went to war with all kinds of curly hair (from the photos Poulson had been shown) and he came back bald."

Poulson shied away from this stranger, which might have been the only time she ever shied away from anything in her hands-on life.

Had Msgr. Witkowiak shook hands with some other new teacher back in 1966, maybe this person would have been just as qualified as Poulson. Nevertheless, it just wouldn't have been the same all these years because the Cathy Poulsons of this world come in such limited quantities.

From standing her ground for what she believed in to just being there whenever and wherever, that was Poulson. Case in point? If you happen to notice on her resume that volleyball was about the only girls sport she didn't coach at Catherine's, she will politely correct you.

"I coached one game when Barb (Christensen) got into a car accident," she said. "It took us longer to get to Pius than it did to play the match. We got killed."

But then, the result of that match doesn't matter. After all, it just wouldn't be right to try and define her life in terms of wins and losses.

From being there for kids to just doing things right, Poulson has been a success story for 43 years.

"They're going to realize what she's done all these years," Letsch said. "I have no idea who's going to do that. We are going to miss her tremendously."

The Poulson File

BORN: Sept. 7, 1943 in Racine.

FAMILY: Parents Charles and Joyce and younger brothers Gary, Jim and Chuck.

HIGH SCHOOL: St. Catherine's '61

COLLEGE: Poulson attended Marian College in Fond du Lac for one year before transferring to UW-La Crosse in 1962. She graduated from La Crosse in 1966 with a double major in history and physical education.

CAREER: Poulson returned to St. Catherine's in 1966, where she was hired to teach classes in history, religion and physical education. She was instrumental in starting girls athletic programs at St. Catherine's starting in 1972 and has coached numerous programs. Her coaching assignments have included track and field (1974-77), basketball (1972-74, 1977-78), softball (1973-74, 1987-89), tennis (1974-84), cheerleading (1966-79) and golf (2002-08). She also coached the boys golf program sporadically for a total of eight years, most recently in 2008 and served as girls athletic director for most of her career at St. Catherine's. Poulson also has been heavily involved with the Girls Scouts since the 1950s and received that organization's highest honor, the "Thanks Badge," in 1982.

Poulson retired from the school this summer after 43 years as a faculty member.

QUOTE: "She has done so much for St. Cat's," said Sue Craanen, a graduate at St. Catherine's who is an office worker at the school. "It's her family. It's her home."