by Owen Canfield, associate director for gift planning for the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma
BISON – Like so many people who lived through the Great Depression, Emil and Mary Fuksa placed great value on hard work and thriftiness. Devout Catholics in rural Oklahoma, the Fuksas also had a great appreciation for the priests who served their small church. An endowment fund in their name at the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma is a testament to that appreciation.
The couple’s two daughters created the Emil B. and Mary Agnes Fuksa Seminarian Endowment in 2016 following their father’s passing at age 97. It was his wish to use part of his estate to help educate future priests, particularly those born outside of the United States.
A biography provided by the sisters tells their parents’ story.
Both were of Czech descent. Her mother was born outside Goltry, grew up near Lovell and attended Saint Camillus Church in Marshall. Her father lived all his life on the family wheat farm near Bison. The two married in 1940 and spent 72 years as husband and wife, raising their daughters and working the farm together.
Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Bison was central to the couple’s religious and social life.
“Along with other families in the community, they supported and participated in the various functions and activities of this parish that nurtured a strong faith in God for themselves and their children,” the daughters wrote. “Friday night Stations of the Cross during Lent and Wednesday night novenas were rarely missed. They supported the two-room schoolhouse where their two daughters had the benefit of a Catholic elementary education. They prayed the Rosary together on a regular basis.”
In time, the Catholic school closed, and Saint Joseph became a mission church.
“Over the years they had known and admired several foreign-born priests,” they wrote. “They came to the belief that perhaps foreign seminarians could be a solution to the priest shortage. Thus, they decided to make a gift to the Catholic foundation to be used for seminarian education in the hope that the vibrant little parish of Saint Joseph in Bison would continue to live on and nurture the faith and lives of future generations.”
Mary Fuksa died in 2012. Emil passed away four years later. The daughters created the endowment soon after to support the formation of seminarians.
Contact Owen Canfield at the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma to learn more about gift planning – (405) 721-4115, [email protected].
Owen Canfield is the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma’s associate director of gift planning.