the 2006 President’s Crystal Shamrock Award Celebration on October 26, 2006. The University Club of Chicago, located at 76 East Monroe Avenue, will host the event. For further information, tickets, or ad book details, contact Ann Christman, Administrative Assistant to the President, by e-mail at achristman@stpatrick.org, online at www.stpatrick.org, or by calling 773.282.8844 ext. 223.

Cardinal Francis Eugene George O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, was born in Chicago, the son of Francis J. George and Julia R. McCarthy in 1937. He is the first native of Chicago to become Archbishop of the city. After attending Saint Paschal Grade School on Chicago’s northwest side, and the Saint Henry Minor Seminary, he entered the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1957, and he was ordained priest in 1963. Cardinal George pursued undergraduate studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and then doctoral studies in philosophy at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Pope John Paul II named him Bishop of Yakima in Washington State in 1990. After five and a half years at Yakima, he was named Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, in 1996. Less than a year later, he was named the eighth Archbishop of Chicago, following the death of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin on November 14, 1996. Cardinal George was installed as Archbishop of Chicago in May of 1997.

Cardinal George is the tenth honoree to receive the President’s Crystal Shamrock. Previous recipients were: Fr. John Smyth, Phil Corboy, Pat Conroy, Ray Meyer, Elaine Schuster/Paul Vallas, Lowell and Nancy Stahl, Edwin “Max” Kurland, Robert Scarpelli, and John and Kathleen Buck.

Saint Patrick is Chicago’s oldest secondary school for young men, having provided 145 years of educational service to the youth of Chicago and surrounding communities.