Catholic bishop to visit campus
The Newman House at Chadron State College will host an on campus visit from Bishop William J. Dendinger of the Diocese of Grand Island, on March 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Student Center.
The public is invited to a "drop in" reception. Special guests will include all Chadron community veterans and military personnel and CSC administration. Honorary hosts include Don King, Frances Gonzalez, Kris and Rick Koza and Bill O'Boyle, and all Newman House Council Members.
The youngest of six children, Dendinger grew up on a farm in rural Coleridge, just north of Wayne. He graduated with the first graduating class of Mount Michael High School in Elkhorn in 1957.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1965 in the Omaha Archdiocese. In 1969, he received a Master of Science degree in counseling from Creighton University in Omaha.
Dendinger taught at Petersburg and Elgin Catholic high schools, now Pope John XXIII, and then entered the military as a chaplain.
During the next 31 years, Bishop Dendinger served as a base chaplain, cadet wing chaplain, a member of the chaplain resource board for the United States Air Force Chaplain Institute, Plans and Programs officer in the Office of the Air Force Chief of Chaplain Service and then Chief of the Air Force Chaplain Services.
He retired to Omaha in 2001 as a Two Star General.
Dendinger was ordained as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Grand Island in 2004 at the Cathedral of the Nativity in Grand Island.
Category: Campus News