Veronica Brand, longtime teacher at Utah Catholic Schools, set to retire this year

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Erika Manternach

Over 48 years, Veronica Brand has taught hundreds of elementary and middle-school students. She has presented lessons on social studies, language arts, science, math and music, using songs to help students memorize the Preamble to the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address. But as she prepares to retire at the end of this school year, she hopes her former students from St. Ann’s (now Kearns-St. Ann’s) and St. Francis Xavier Catholic schools recall the two most important lessons she tried to share with each of her “children.”

“I’d say [to them], ‘If you don’t ever remember anything else from St. Francis, this is what I want you to remember: God always loves you, and God will always forgive you,’” Brand said. “I think they need to hear that. There’s too many times in life where people despair, and I want my children to always know those two things.”

The second oldest of 13 children, Veronica attended a Catholic grade school in her home state of Indiana. When she and her younger siblings played “school,” she eagerly claimed the role of teacher, and knew she was destined to pursue a career in education.

“My thought was I would teach during the week and be a famous singer on the weekend,” Brand said. “That second part didn’t happen, but that’s an 8-year-old brain for you!”

After graduating from Indiana University, Brand accepted a position teaching first grade at a public school in Hayden, Ind. Having just split a large class in two, the school had no books or materials for her to use, so she spent each evening during her first year making flash cards and drawing pictures to help her students learn. When her husband’s career took them west to New Mexico, she taught at a Catholic school in Alamogordo before moving north to the Diocese of Salt Lake City, where she has been ever since. She found a perfect fit as a teacher in Catholic schools.

“[The Catholic faith] infuses the whole being of the place – the Catholicity, the Christian values, the ability to talk about God and faith,” Brand said. “Faith infuses everything – your science classes, your social studies classes – everything is taught through the vision of Christ.”

Brand started teaching at St. Ann’s Catholic School in South Salt Lake in 1977. Her children, Joan and Curtis, graduated from St. Ann’s and, later, Judge Memorial Catholic High School, where Joan is now in her 24th year as a teacher herself. After 14 years, Brand moved to St. Francis Xavier Catholic School in Kearns in 1991. Along the way, she found that teaching middle school students was her passion. She says the key – besides having clear structures, rules and consequences – is building a relationship with each child.

“Middle-school kids just want somebody to care about them,” Brand said. “You just have to be open to them. You have to be compassionate, because they are going through a lot of stuff. I think one of my primary philosophies is [that] … even though I want to get content in – I want them to know things – what they do remember is the person that you were, and the relationship that they have with you. … It just takes consistency and care.”

Brand’s deep care, joy and love for each child, according to current St. Francis Xavier principal Marianne Roszahegyi, is what prompts alumni to come back to the school looking to reconnect with her. Maria Stallings Ostrowski, a former student who has maintained a friendship with Brand well into adulthood, is one example. She was Brand’s student in both first grade and fourth grade at St. Ann’s between 1977 and 1981.

“Her whole heart went into teaching, always,” Stallings Ostrowski said. “Veronica always knew how to capture her students, how to reach their minds as well as their hearts. I am so glad this beautiful, generous woman is a part of my life.”

Brand also served as assistant principal at St. Francis Xavier for 16 years, providing advice and mentoring fellow teachers. She taught alongside three of her former students who came back after college to teach in the diocese, and has taught the children of many of her former students. And while she may not have become “a famous singer on the weekends,” as she once planned, she has found various channels for her love of music. She used to sing in her parish choir and taught the choir class at St. Francis for nearly 20 years.

Brand says her role as a teacher has strengthened her own faith in many ways. “I tell my students there are many paths to God, but this is the right path for me,” she said. “The Catholic Church is it. It is what I believe, and it is what I try to live by.”

Even though she looks forward to an Alaskan cruise this fall and having time to tackle more projects around the house with her husband, who also just retired, Brand hopes her relationships with all of her former students stay strong. She has always told them that if they ever need anything, she will do what she can to help them.

“I don’t want them to feel like I’ve ever forgotten them,” Brand said.

Erika Manternach is a member of the St. Francis Xavier Catholic School board.