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Donor Profile: Hank '74 and Chris Shea
Forensics Supporters & Forensics Team Impact Profile
by Eric T. Lawrence ’98
Bright-eyed teenagers enter the halls of Delone Catholic not entirely sure where the next four years will take them, to say nothing of the 50 years after that. They encounter faculty and staff members eager to help them use the classroom and extracurricular activities to ultimately discern where they are being called. The results often lead the Spirit of a Squire to be filled with gratitude.
The story of Hank Shea ’74 becoming a grateful Squire began when his father, an employee of Westinghouse, was transferred to Gettysburg in the fall of 1970. Shea is the oldest of five brothers, the three oldest of whom would graduate from Delone Catholic before another transfer for Mr. Shea took the family to New Jersey.
Shea recalls his parents being very supportive of his activities, which were many and varied, including time spent as a member of the basketball and golf teams, the international relations club, and student government, where he ultimately served as the student body president as a senior. With an already full resume, another pursuit at Delone Catholic served to open doors that have led to a vast array of experiences over the past 50 years.
“The really important and most transformative involvement was in Forensics,” Shea said. “Dad said that we could play whatever sports we wanted as long as our grades were good enough, but all of us had to participate in either speech or debate. It turned out to be very wise.”
“Delone Catholic taught me about my responsibility to others through my faith, my family, and my friendships. It taught me to feel and express gratitude and to work together with other people to make the world a better place.” – Hank Shea ’74
Shea recalls that he “dabbled” in debate, but as a sophomore, he got into extemporaneous speech because of Delone Catholic Hall of Honor inductee Mary Furlong.
“Mary was a strong taskmaster,” Shea recalled. “She said to me and Mike Dorman ’74 that we could be very competitive at the state and national level. Starting in my junior year, three days a week, sometimes more, we would eat our sandwich in about five minutes and then go to Mary’s classroom. We would give extemporaneous speeches on topics she would give us. We did that for two years.”
That dedication was rewarded when Shea and Dorman qualified for the National Catholic Forensics League tournament in New Orleans, La., as seniors. “There was not a lot of money, so we took a bus from Hanover to New Orleans,” Shea said. “I don’t think there was even money for a hotel along the way. We just slept on the bus, but it was a wonderful experience.”
His experiences at Delone Catholic, particularly with Forensics, led to his being accepted to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University on an ROTC scholarship. He spent time during college as an intern on Capitol Hill and won a competition for the Circumnavigators Foundation Fellowship as a junior. The prize for that win was a 90-day world trip that took him to South America, Africa, and South Asia. “Seeds planted at Delone were nurtured at Georgetown. That’s the bottom line,” Shea said.
He was accepted into the Harvard University School of Law, leading the U.S. Army to defer his active duty until he graduated. Shea was named Assistant to the Army General Counsel, working at the Pentagon, where he served on the Panama Canal Commission, as the lawyer for Arlington National Cemetery, and in numerous roles that increased professional opportunities for women.
Following a move to Minnesota in the mid-1980s to raise a family, Shea served as an assistant U.S. Attorney, mostly prosecuting white-collar crime. “I had a wonderful career as a federal prosecutor drawing on what I learned at Delone,” Shea said. “I could have spent the rest of my career in the courtroom and been fulfilled, but about 20 years ago, I wondered if I was doing enough for my community.”
Shea has spent the last 20 years working at the St. Thomas University School of Law, based in Minneapolis, partly as a way to promote restorative justice. Even before COVID-19 and ubiquitous virtual classrooms, he was using video conferencing to teach students in Minnesota and Arizona at the same time, and over the years, he has brought more than three dozen former offenders, many of whom he prosecuted, into the classroom to “share the lessons they have learned from their failures.”
Over the last five years, he has gotten involved with the Veterans Defense Project, a non-profit advocacy organization. He is currently on sabbatical from St. Thomas, focusing his efforts on this project full-time. “Especially in the last 20 years, with veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, a lot of criminal activity has resulted from invisible injuries like PTSD and traumatic brain injuries,” Shea said. “We work to secure justice for all veterans and give them a second chance if their offenses are a result of military service. These are good people who served our country. Their families and communities love them, but they have to deal with these issues stemming from their service.”
This is one of the many philanthropic areas Shea and his wife, Chris, have supported. They married in the mid-1990s after Shea was widowed. Chris spent 35 years working for General Mills and retired as the Executive Vice President for External Affairs. “I worked for the government,” Shea said. “She was very generously compensated by the company. That’s what has allowed us to engage in a wide range of philanthropy.”
Their passions lie in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, assisting victims of war and natural disasters, and helping veterans through restorative justice. “For my entire life, I have supported Catholic education, ministries, and outreach,” Shea said. “Since we’ve been married, Chris has joined me in that.”
Delone Catholic has been a grateful beneficiary of the Shea’s generosity. The school’s donor records go back nearly 30 years, and Shea has been a mainstay. “I cannot remember the first time I gave to Delone,” Shea said. “I like to support Delone because it made me who I have become. In recent years, we have given in memory of Mary (Furlong) and Chuck (Glessner – another retired faculty member and Hall of Honor inductee). That is an easy thing to do. They did so much for me and my brothers. My affinity for Forensics comes from the huge impact it had on me as a person. Their (Furlong and Glessner) dedication and sacrifice created a debt we can never repay, but we can plant seeds and provide opportunities like those that were provided for us.”
Like Shea and Dorman before them, current members of the Delone Catholic Forensics team have excelled. In the spring, a strong contingent qualified for the national tournament in Louisville, Ky. Thanks to the generosity of the Sheas, the current Squires were able to have the lifechanging experience of representing their school on the national stage. And they didn’t even have to sleep on the bus.
“Our hope is that Delone continues to educate community leaders who think clearly, act justly, and interact respectfully with others,” Shea said. “That is so important in the world today. Delone Catholic taught me about my responsibility to others through my faith, my family, and my friendships. It taught me to feel and express gratitude and to work together with other people to make the world a better place. The Delone Squire Spirit is something you just wish you could have every student benefit from.”
