Luminaria

 The Monsignor Herbert Hillenmeyer Memorial Endowment was established by the Hillenmeyer family to honor the legacy of their family icon and his commitment to Catholic education. 

Fr. Hillenmeyer served the Diocese of Covington as apriest for 73 years. Between 1915 and 1923, he was Secretary to the Bishop and Chancellor of the Diocese. He was named a Monsignor in 1936 and Vicar General of the Diocese in 1949. For 43 years, he was pastor of St. Thomas Parish in Ft. Thomas where he built the current impressive church building in 1938-39 and established St. Thomas High School in 1945. He remained pastor of St. Thomas Parish until his retirementin 1968. Msgr. Hillenmeyer, a trustee of Thomas More College, was instrumental in raising funds for the Crestview Hills campus construction project. In 1962, he was granted Thomas More’s first honorary degree and received the first Thomas More Medallion in 1971.

On his 70th jubilee as a priest in 1972, Fr. Hillenmeyer’s nieces and nephews honored him with their commitment to endow a lecture series at Thomas More College. The first Hillenmeyer Lecture was given in 1975, by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Bernardin of Cincinnati. The topic was “Catholic Higher Educationand Moral Values.” Fr. Hillenmeyer passed away shortly thereafter. Over the next four decades, the series attracted notable speakers on various topics including social justice, women and the Church, history, science, Catholic spiritual life, papal encyclicals, and ethics.

What began as a small fund grew over the years as a tax-exempt charitable Trust devoted to supporting the annual Lecture Series and numerous Catholic charitable and educational causes in both the Diocese of Covington and what became the Diocese of Lexington. In 2021, the Hillenmeyer family determined the best way to honor Fr. Hillenmeyer’s commitment to Catholic education was to terminate the Trust and distribute 100% of its assets to Catholic educational charities positioned for longevity, including CEOF.