Mrs. Laurie Price

     "Hi!  I am a native Oregonian, having grown up in Milwaukie with my 2 brothers and 2 sisters.  We all attended St. John the Baptist grade school.  ( I have 2 nieces there today).  My dad was a school administrator and my mom a nurse.

     After attending Milwaukie High School, I enrolled at Marylhurst College, before it was co-ed, and graduated in 1972 with a teaching degree, a French major and a minor in Journalism.  (I was editor of the school newspaper.)

     I taught 1st or 2nd grade at All Saints for 6 years, during which time I got married (1976) and had my first child (1978).  I was then mostly at home for the next 14 years, raising children (The second one arrived in 1981), volunteering at schools, being a room parent, working on fundraisers, etc.; then gradually doing part-time teaching for Portland Public Schools.  That included tutoring ill or emotionally troubled students through the Home and Hospital program.  It also included teaching French classes through the Talented and Gifted Program.

     Besides my family, of course, my first love has always been teaching 1st graders.  Their love of learning and love of life is infectious.  So when I decided it was time to go back to full-time teaching, a 1st grade position is what I looked for.  Luckily, I found one at St. Clare School and am now in my 14th year here. When I started here in 1992 my daughter Michelle was just starting high school at Central Catholic.  She graduated from Central, then from U of O, traveled a bit, worked at OHSU and then recently married a boy she met in 1st grade, Jeff.  Michelle and Jeff are currently living in Detroit, Michigan because of a 2-year job opportunity and adventure.

Also when I started at St. Clare, my son Jeff was starting 5th grade at All Saints.  He also graduated from Central Catholic and went on to OSU.  (So I have a Duck and a Beaver.)  He recently graduated in Computer Science Engineering and works for Stockamp and Associates in Lake Oswego.

     My husband Don and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary next spring.  We live in a 1910 Laurelhurst home and love to travel, read, camp, ski and march in the Rose Festival parades with the One More Time Around Again Marching Band.

Mrs. Colleen O'Mahony

"My family lives in Tacoma, WA, where I was born and raised. I attended Catholic grade school and Bellarmine Prep for high school. After high school, I went to Stanford University in California, where I met my husband, Frank. In college, I spent time interning with various newspapers, like the  LA Times and the Oregonian;  after that experience, I knew I would love living full-time in Portland!  When I graduated, I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working with children who had survived abusive homes. That job was really difficult, but I loved working with and advocating for the children in the shelter. I still felt my future was in academia, and continued that direction, winning a Fulbright scholarship to study in Canada and then a Hewlett fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley. 

I had completed all my classes toward my doctorate when I found myself increasingly unsettled. I was working in a pre-school on my "off" days and I found myself enjoying that work so much more than my own graduate research. It took a year of these nagging feelings and increasingly desperate prayer to finally realize that my vocation was teaching. "Quitting" was really hard for me, but I have never for a moment regretted that decision.  I became a kindergarten teacher in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, going to night school for my credential.  After several years of working as a classroom teacher, I went back to school and got another Masters in Special Education to become a learning specialist in the Catholic schools. The Bay Area was a great place to learn that new role, and I had some amazing mentors there as I learned to assess students, coach teachers and support parents.

When my husband Frank (finally!) finished his doctoral program at Stanford, we got the chance to return to the Northwest. We always knew we wanted to settle here, but didn't know if everything would work out. Frank ended up at Intel, and we very happily moved a few blocks from St. Clare and became parishioners.  I worked at Thomas Edison High School (on the campus of Jesuit High School) and did testing for various schools in the Archdiocese before becoming the Learning Specialist at St. Clare in 2004. I have loved working here so much, and am constantly impressed by the quality of our faculty and the positive energy of our students. Thank you to all of the school families who have made me feel so welcome here.

Not only are the O'Mahonys involved in the parish and the school, but Frank and I also have two children in the pre-school program. Lizzie (3) and Noah (1) love St. Clare as much as we do, and are lucky to have such an amazing extended family here. In my free time, I enjoy hanging out with my family, walking, reading, cooking and spending as much time as possible with Grandma and Grandpa from Tacoma!

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