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Retiring manager was ‘matriarch’ of parish office
By John Gleason
After more than three decades of service, Jan Zeller is retiring as office manager at Risen Christ Church in Denver. Current pastor Msgr. Kenneth Leone summed up Zeller’s career at the parish with one word.
“The best way to describe Jan would be to call her the ‘matriarch’ of Risen Christ,” he said. “Any pastor who has such a person on their staff is truly blessed.”
Zeller began her first day at Risen Christ 34 years ago on April 1, April Fools Day. This month, Friday the 13th in fact, will be her last day.
She never considered it foolish to start or unlucky to leave. But Zeller said there are two things about her job that she’ll dearly miss.
“The first is the fact that I won’t be coming in on a daily basis,” she said. “The other is the people.”
Zeller, 75, and her husband, William, are the parents of five children, 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren (with two more expected by the summer). Trained as a nurse, Zeller worked as a teacher’s assistant in special education in Denver Public Schools before she was approached by then-pastor and founder of
Risen Christ, Father Joseph M. O’Malley, if she’d like to come work for him.
“I asked him if I did, would he ever yell at me,” Zeller said. “He laughed and told me I had permission to yell back at him if he ever did. I never had the opportunity to test that.”
Zeller’s responsibilities covered all facets of running the office. She supervised the office staff, put together the weekly bulletin, organized the priests’ daily schedules, distributed information regarding baptisms, weddings and funerals; organized receptions and lined up volunteers. Zeller’s biggest strength, the pastor said, is her ability to listen.
“It’s been a special quality of hers,” Msgr. Leone said. “And a big reason I’d give her the title of matriarch. She has the gift of listening—really listening—to everyone who comes to her desk. Not only questions from the staff, but parishioners who come by just to talk. You could say Jan is like the resident counselor.
She gives everyone her full attention and gets everything done that needs to be done. That’s a real art.”
Zeller said her position at the parish was enriching.
“I tell people that this has never been simply a job, but a ministry,” she said. “And there is always something new to learn.”
And when you’ve been learning—and retaining—information at the same place for decades, you tend to be the go-to person.
“Many times I would ask about a particular family I needed to call, if they were members of the parish, and she’d know without looking at the parish directory if they were,” he said. “It takes years to accumulate that kind of knowledge and that’s one reason it’s been a blessing to have her on staff.”
Zeller reflected on what led to her successful career.
“Each time a new priest arrives, it can be like starting over again but in order to make the office work, you have to be flexible,” she said, adding mischievously, “How else are you going to teach them everything they need to know?”
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