PLANNED GIVING
Ursuline Related and Educated—A Winning Combo for This Planned Gift Colette Hughes was born in 1933 above the family grocery store in a predominately Catholic area of Louisville’s west end. She was educated by the Sisters of Loretto through high school and thought she would join the order. However, she was talked out of it by her pastor, who encouraged her, at 17 years of age, to wait. With her sister and brother-in-law living out west, she traveled by train to visit them and explored Washington, California, and Oregon for a year. Then she returned to Louisville to attend Ursuline College, while working part-time to help pay for the tuition. Colette’s college plans were interrupted after her junior year when a former boyfriend from high school days, Tom Dumstorf, who had served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, returned home to Louisville, where he soon began looking for dates! Colette and Tom reconnected, married, and had their first child. Colette was insistent that they both finish college. While she taught, Tom attended the University of Louisville Speed School, earning an electrical engineering degree. He was employed by Corning Glass Company, Hooker Chemical Company and Occidental Petroleum before retiring in 1985. They lived in California and Pennsylvania before returning permanently to Kentucky. Colette, wanting to re-enroll to complete her senior year at Ursuline College, found herself pregnant with their second child. She knew she had to check if her return was permitted because college then was usually for young, single women just out of high school. She met with Sister Raymond Carter, the dean, about her situation. Sister Raymond told her, “Just try to fit in and not be too conspicuous.” Colette still laughs about it, since being inconspicuous while pregnant in classes with novices and postulants, as well as recent high school grads, and going unnoticed was going to be a bit of a challenge! She graduated in May 1959 with a degree in elementary education and pursued her love for teaching and science as a teacher and principal at several Louisville Catholic elementary schools. She commented that she was a working mom raising a family when working moms with children were not
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the norm. After she left her positions in elementary schools, she worked for the Archdiocese of Louisville, and then Spalding University as supervisor of student teaching. She eventually retired and continued to volunteer with the Ursulines. The Dumstorfs’ memories include taking their entire wedding party to the Motherhouse so their Ursuline relatives could see them, and cruising down the Ohio River in the summer on their Kris Kraft with a boatload of Sisters in their habits. Tom and Colette have six children and nine grandchildren. They still live in the house they bought in 1967, which is within walking distance from the Ursuline campus. They have traveled extensively, and recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary with a ride-by of family and friends during this time of social-distancing due to COVID-19. When asked what influenced their decision to include the Sisters in their planned giving, they both said Ursulines have been in their lives forever. Tom is related to the Staeuble/Stauble family, including deceased aunt Sister Agnese Staeuble and first cousins Sister Sarah Stauble and deceased Sister Inez Staeuble. Colette remains close friends with college classmate Sister Kathy Franze. She is grateful for her education and teaching career, which were Ursuline inspired by “Dean Raymond” and a distant deceased relative, Sister Kyran Larkin. The decision to give back to beloved causes and organizations through a planned gift was “relatively” easy.