All of us involved in vocation ministry lost a dear friend on Oct. 8 with the death of Margaret "Mickey" Paluch, chairman of the  board of the J.S. Paluch company and longtime promoter and supporter of Catholic church vocations. 

In 1985 she established the J.S. Paluch Company’s National Vocation Awareness Division, which supports vocation ministry in the church and underwrites an annual national vocations seminar. In 1991 Mickey established the Endowment for the Margaret and Chester Paluch Chair of Theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary/Mundelein Seminary, Mundelein, IL, in support of that effort.In 1995 she created the Paluch Family Foundation, which funds liturgy, stewardship, and vocation projects.

In recognition of her devotion to vocation ministry, the National Religious Vocation Conference(NRVC) presented its John Paul II Award to Mickey in 1987. In 1989 the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors (NCDVD) bestowed its Stewardship Award on Mickey and later established the Margaret A. Paluch Award in her honor. In 2007 Mickey received the Pope John Paul II Seminary Leadership Award from the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) Seminary Department in recognition of her distinguished service to Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States and Canada.