About Barbara Carr McKee

The Scholarship Luncheon

About Barbara
Carr McKee

For Participants
& Mentors

Past Scholarship Luncheons

The Scholarship Luncheon is named in honor of Barbara Carr McKee, the administrator who infused special life and enthusiasm into the event. Barbara gave her time and diverse talents to the St. Bonaventure University community for more than 15 years before succumbing to cancer on June 2, 2003.

She joined the University Advancement staff in August 1987 as associate director of development, and was promoted to director of development in October 1989. She served as vice president for University Relations from 1991 to 1995 and as director of planned giving from 1995 to 1999. From 1999 until her death, Barbara held the position of director of major gifts.

Her giving extended far beyond her work.

She was active in the community, serving on the board of the Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce and on the board of the Olean Community Foundation. She held several leadership positions with the Friends of Good Music, and was active as a volunteer with University Ministries, in particular with liturgical dance.

She earned her master’s degrees in library science and art history and a bachelor’s degree in classical archaeology from the University of Missouri at Columbia, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

In her eulogy during Barbara’s funeral, Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., S.T.D., now president of the University, said of Barbara, “This woman of profound prayer and contemplation ... believed that together we could create an oasis of beauty, truth and culture (at St. Bonaventure). ... She helped us to understand that the world is charged with God’s grandeur, that this Divine Source lives under the world’s splendor and wonder.”

Pax et Bonum