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Legacy of a Lion: Judy Dettenwanger Ebbeler ’61
A LIFETIME OF ART & SERVICE
By Kara Gebhart Uhl
Judy Dettenwanger Ebbeler ’61, whose artistic talents as an MSJ senior can be found throughout Mater Dei Chapel, has lived a life rich in art and service.
Growing up, Judy loved school. Because of her father’s job, the family moved often and she attended seven schools. Though none offered art class, Judy spent much of her childhood drawing. She attended Catholic Central High School in Springfield, Ohio, which was run by the Sisters of Charity, who awarded her an MSJ scholarship.
While a student at the Mount, Judy remembers curfews, a strict dress code which included always wearing skirts and nylon stockings, singing in the May Festival with the chorus, and sleeping in a large room her freshman year—everyone had their own cubby with a desk, chair and bed, and a cupboard outside it to store clothing. The bathroom was down the hall. She worked in the cafeteria serving family-style meals and later as a secretary for President Sister Maria Corona, SC.
As an art major she studied drawing, ceramics, calligraphy, painting, silver jewelry-making, and sculpture. In her memoir about designing and creating art for Mater Dei Chapel, Judy wrote that in 1961, the Sisters of Charity began to fulfill their dream of building an entirely new modern campus. Led by Sister Augusta Zimmer, SC, chair of the art department, all senior art majors were asked to design a piece of liturgical art as their senior thesis.
“Sister Augusta was amazingly generous to allow young artists to design and produce the art for the chapel, and to trust the training and inspiration of her students,” Judy wrote in her memoir. “Of course, she advised and supervised, but it was our own work.”
Marlene Hoffman ’61 designed the stained glass windows and Margaret Rolfes Brungs ’61 designed and created the mosaic Stations of the Cross and the backdrop for the crucifix. Judy submitted a small corpus and then completed her thesis by making a 5’ clay model.
“The Sisters then commissioned me to sculpt the full-size model for the corpus, which would be cast in bronze,” Judy wrote in her memoir. “What a challenge and privilege!”
Judy spent the summer after graduation helping Sr. Augusta with design work. Together they chose all the new dorm room furniture. Judy also designed and made the ceramic corpuses for Mater Dei Chapel’s side altars, designed and painted the baldachin over the main altar, and designed the statue of St. Joseph, the light fixtures, communion rail and the confessional doors. Upon learning about a local chapel filled with art designed entirely by women, Voice of America interviewed Judy and broadcast her story internationally.
Judy spent the next year studying sculpture at the Dayton Art Institute under Mr. Robert Koepnick, who was also her professor at the Mount. She earned several commissions for crucifixes and stations of the cross in chapels.
She married John, a chemist she met at an MSJ mixer, and she taught a ceramic class for women who are blind. Judy and John bought land in Goshen, Ohio, and Judy designed their two-story four-bedroom house. An architect brought her vision up to code and built the outside structure. Judy, John, family, and friends completed everything else. There they raised four children. They had pigs, calves, and a pony, a big garden and fruit trees.
Judy still found time for art, designing posters for her daughter’s dance recitals. Because her children’s school didn’t have an art teacher, she went to the principal with a proposal: she (who wasn’t trained as a teacher) would teach art for one year and if the principal saw a difference in the students, she would hire someone full-time. Soon the school’s walls were filled with art, lives were broadened, and a fulltime art teacher started the following year. When her children were older she started a business sculpting portraits of children in clay.
Judy also worked at her Parish, St. Columban Church, drawing bulletin covers and making banners. And she painted a mural in a mobile van that served as space to provide lessons to children who needed extra help at the Catholic school. Judy’s concept, which included a tree, student silhouettes and thumbprint flowers resulted in empathy among all the students.
“I was not able to work as a professional artist all my life because things intervened but I’ve always been doing something creative,” she says.
John was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and when it became severe, Judy served as caretaker. He died in 2014. “We were married 51 years. He was a kind, gentle man and a loving husband and father,” she says.
Each year Judy makes ornaments for her nine grandchildren. All of her children are artistic in some way, be it photography, music, ceramics, woodworking, or illustrating children’s books. Judy’s also taken up clay again, most recently creating all the characters from the Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon of St. Francis of Assisi.
Judy earned a master of arts degree through the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program (LPMP) at Mount St. Mary seminary, and was hired as coordinator of continuing education for priests and lay ministers, then as Associate Director of the LPMP. She then worked as Director of Adult Education at Good
“The liberal arts education I received at the Mount, including four years of philosophy and theology, the friendships formed, and the influence of the Sisters of Charity has been the foundation of my adult life, both as an artist and as a woman,” she says. “I am forever grateful.”
