Alumni Connecti N - St. Vincent-St. Mary High School

At The University of Akron Kevin
worked his way through school learning
new skills such as: sign painting, building
plastering, drywall, aluminum siding,
refinishing, staining and varnishing,
industrial coatings, wall coverings and
field striping, under the direction of
Robert Gesquiere, a legendary painting
and decorating tradesman at The University
of Akron Physical Facilities. Mr. Gesquiere
is the father of Irish classmate, Fred
Gesquiere V71.
Kevin’s love for sports remained and
he returned to St. Sebastian as head football
coach at age 22 assisting the athletic
director with equipment and gymnasium
care in his spare time. Kevin graduated
from The University of Akron with a degree
in Health Education in 1979 and continued
working for the University until 1990.
In 1990, Kevin started his own
painting & decorating business, “Kevin
McDonald Industries.” He is proud to have
worked on several STVM painting projects
such as the green exterior wood that
surrounds the school, the burnt-orange
corrugated wall to the school’s north side,
the front office areas and the varsity boys
locker room and coaches office as well as
the exterior field house, freshman locker
room, shower room and the Eddie Wentz
room. He enjoyed being involved in
creating the beautiful color schemes for the
school with several more projects coming
this spring.
While painting at the field house,
Kevin met Al Letta and Pete Cistone,
football team managers and began to assist
them with various team duties and helping
nearly 120 Irish footballers each year. Kevin
was ecstatic to watch nephews Tommy
VM02 and Matthew VM04 McDonald start
for the Irish in recent years. Kevin is
currently active in the Irish Booster Club,
Shamrock Society and has been a member
in the Knights of Columbus and Ancient
Order of the Hibernians.
Kevin is known for his fierce loyalty to
STVM and his hobbies include reading,
playing acoustic and electric guitar, the
New York Yankees and of course his threelegged
rottweiler “McHale,” the Irish
football team mascot.
Captain Kathleen Ann Roman Michel VM81
Kathleen Ann Roman Michel was born
in Akron, Ohio to Tom V60 and Sharon
Moore Roman M60, the second of three
children. She graduated from St. Vincent-
St. Mary High School in 1981 and then
from The Ohio State University with a
Bachelor Degree of Science in Nursing in
1985. She was commissioned an Ensign in
the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps in September
1985. Following Naval Officer
Indoctrination School in Newport, RI, she
served at the Naval Hospital, Jacksonville as
a staff nurse specializing in Intensive Care
Unit (ICU) Nursing. Subsequent tours
took her to Corpus Christi, Texas where she
worked in the ICU and Alcohol
Rehabilitation Departments and where she
also earned a Masters Degree of Arts in
Management and Resource Development
from Webster University.
In 1991 she reported to the Naval
Hospital Guam, where she worked in the
Newborn Nursery and then back to the
Ohio State University where she earned a
Masters Degree of Nursing in 1995,
specializing in care of the high risk
newborn. After graduate school, she and
her husband John (whom she met the first
day on the job in Jacksonville in 1985) were
stationed at the Naval Medical Center in
Portsmouth, Virginia where she served as
the Clinical Nurse Specialist in the
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and
added a daughter, Parker (now 10) to her
family. In 1998 she reported to the Naval
Hospital, Bremerton, Washington, and
served as the Department Head, Maternal
Child services, and added three boys;
Griffin (now 9) and twins, Seth and Ethan
(now 7) to her family.
From 2001 to 2006, Captain Michel
was assigned to The Naval Hospital
Pensacola, Florida. During this period, her
duties included Department Head,
Maternal Child Services, Department Head,
Medical Surgical/ICU, then Acting Director
of Nursing. In 2006 she transferred back to
the Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Florida and
served as Associate Director, Medical
Services.
Concurrently from 2004 to 2007, she
was chosen to be the Specialty Advisor to
the Surgeon General for Maternal Child
and NICU Nursing, where she guided
perinatal and neonatal practices and
policies for all of Navy medicine and
participated in several patient safety
initiatives which impacted all Department
of Defense beneficiaries. During her tenure
as Specialty Leader, she initiated a Shaken
Baby Syndrome prevention program and a
perinatal pipeline training program for
nurses which are now standardized across
Navy Medicine.
In February 2007, she left for duty at
the Expeditionary Medical Facility-Kuwait,
the only coalition forces military hospital in
Kuwait. As the Director of Nursing for the
tent-hospital, she oversaw care in the
emergency room, medical/surgical unit,
mental health ward, post anesthesia care
unit, and operating rooms, and also
provided career support, and guidance to
40 military nurses in Kuwait. Continuing
her practice of serving as an Extraordinary
Minister of Holy Communion (LEM) and
lector at her stateside parishes, she quickly
completed the requirements to also serve in
that capacity in Kuwait. Her experience in
Kuwait was highlighted in the December
issue of the St. Augustine Catholic
Magazine, at http://www.staugcatholic.org
and subsequently featured at
http://www.catholicmil.org/. Despite
moving every couple of years, Captain
Michel integrates into the local parish,
having done many tasks over the years,
including, LEM, lector, and Religious
Education Teacher for elementary grades.
Soon Captain Kathleen Michel and her
family will transfer to the Great Lakes Naval
Hospital in Illinois, where she will assume
the Director of Nursing role, and assist in
planning the historical merger of the
VA/NAVY hospital, due to open in 2010.
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