Greg and Martha (DeLorenzo ’ 84) McKenna “ There are two things I love in life other than my faith and my family,” says Martha (DeLorenzo ’84) McKenna, “and those are waterfalls and flowers.”
All four of those loves came together for Martha recently while she was taking a tour of Franciscan University’s newly constructed Christ the Teacher Hall. She noticed a spot that would be perfect for a fountain and a rose garden and felt inspired to make a donation to cover the installation of both.
It was her faith that first drew Martha to Franciscan. Back when she was a college student in Seattle, she wanted to transfer to a faithful Catholic school to study theology. Her parents and brother recommended going to Steubenville. Martha rallied 2 of her 11 siblings to join her, and all 3 arrived on campus together that fall.
From then on, Franciscan became a family legacy. After Martha returned to Washington and married Greg, whom she had met at college in Seattle, her sister, Kari (DeLorenzo ’91) Curran, headed to Steubenville. This past spring, Greg and Martha’s daughter, Clare McKenna ’25, graduated with a degree in psychology. Next year, five of Clare’s cousins will attend Franciscan together.
Clare’s enrollment blessed the whole McKenna family, drawing them closer into campus life. This past summer, Greg, Martha, Clare, and two of Clare’s six siblings all flew to Gaming, where several of them participated in Franciscan’s Austria Summer Experience. They took Dr. Matt Breuninger and Dr. Brandon Dahm’s virtue and sourdough breadmaking class together, before Clare led them all on a tour of France.
Martha’s heart was overflowing with thanksgiving to God for the blessings he had granted their family through Franciscan—and naturally, the way Martha pours out her heart is through flowers. An old barn near their Seattle home was dubbed the “Flower Barn” when Martha began cultivating acres of stunning flower gardens there. For several years, she made bouquets to support a local charity that assists young, vulnerable moms and their newborn babies.
“The rose,” she would tell the moms, “is the most coveted flower of all the flowers in the garden. It’s the most valuable and the most sought after, and to me, it’s the most beautiful.” Then she would point out the thorns and talk about how to protect roses from disease, helping the moms see that through overcoming obstacles, with God’s help, we can achieve the beautiful blooms he plants in our lives.
This is the message she hopes to convey silently through the fountain and rose garden, expected to be installed in 2026. It is a message of gratitude and hope, of beauty and faith. It is also a reminder of the frailty and hardship that can come with growth, and the way God, with his Living Water, protects and nurtures each soul like the flowers in the garden.
Martha saw this nurturing care firsthand when she and Clare went on a pilgrimage to Israel with Franciscan University. She had taken Matthew 6:28 as her Scripture verse for the trip—a verse she says references the anemone flower that grows in Israel.
“I said, ‘God, I want to find that flower on this trip to Israel as a sign that this is my signature flower,’” remembers Martha.
She went the whole trip without finding the flower. Then, on the last day, Father Jonathan St. André, TOR ’96, gave her a book—and on the cover was a big, bright, bold anemone.
God used a beautiful flower to answer the desires of Martha’s heart. And she hopes that for each person who visits the forthcoming fountain and rose garden at Christ the Teacher, he will do the same.
