Chicago Tribune - July 20, 2006
Charles Storch, Tribune staff reporter, cstorch@tribune.com

Kenna said he is moving to Thailand in hopes of working on the HIV/AIDS crisis in that country and other parts of Southeast Asia. But his motives are not entirely altruistic.

"My partner lives in Bangkok," he said, "and a 9,000-mile relationship doesn't work."

Kenna, 58, will be succeeded by Rev. Bart Winters, 50. Winters said he is resigning, for personal reasons, from the priesthood and stepping down at month's end as pastor of St. Gregory the Great Church in Chicago's Edgewater community.

Kenna had been working for AIDS organizations on the West Coast when he was hired in 2003 to lead the Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry, which includes Bonaventure House on Chicago's North Side and The Harbor in Waukegan. Both are transitional-living facilities for adults with HIV or AIDS who are homeless or at risk of being on the street.

Kenna had been a volunteer and intern at Bonaventure House in the early 1990s -- soon after it opened in 1989 -- and was familiar with its workings. But when he returned three years ago, he said he found it struggling with a growing budget deficit, a burned-out staff and a reputation for standoffishness in the AIDS support-group community.

Kenna said in his first year he replaced all but one of his 24 employees.

He then strengthened two existing programs for HIV/AIDS clients: recovery from alcohol or drug abuse, and occupational therapy. Boosting their profile helped to attract new funding from the city and state, bringing the ministry close to balancing its $1.7 million budget. (The Brothers, a lay, apostolic order of the Catholic Church, does not support the ministry financially.)

Kenna said he also worked to repair relations with other AIDS groups and build partnerships with such organizations as Chicago House and Raphael House.

Brother Daniel McCormick, president of Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry, said his congregation continues "in part because we choose persons of great heart, skill and compassion to work with us. Merrill Kenna has been a fine example of these qualities."

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Wealth transfer: A new survey finds that 46 percent of the wealthiest Americans plan to leave part of their estates to charities, with academic, health and religious organizations heading a list of favored recipients.

The findings are by U.S. Trust Co., the New York-based investment-management unit of Charles Schwab & Co., which canvassed 150 people with household incomes of at least $300,000 or net worth of at least $5.9 million.

Respondents said that, should they outlive their spouses, most of their estate would go to children and other family, but an average 9 percent of assets would go to charity. The report also found that a majority of those surveyed have taken steps to limit or avoid estate taxes, by setting up a trust or foundation or through monetary gifts.

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Grants: The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York has awarded a matching grant of nearly $1.13 million over three years to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The award includes $375,000 for arts programming (requiring an equal amount raised from other sources) and $750,000 for endowment (to be matched by $1.5 million).

The Illinois State Board of Education gave the Northeastern Illinois University Chicago Teachers' Center $1.1 million to establish after-school, community-learning centers at nine low-performing elementary, middle and high schools in the Chicago area.

The University of Chicago and its Hospitals are spreading more than $423,000 among three South Side child-care groups, helping those non-profits expand while improving child-care options for U. of C. employees. The grants are for $200,000 to Baby PhD, $113,197 to Chicago Child Care Society and $110,000 to Centers for New Horizons.

The charitable arm of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association said it disbursed more than $50,000 among 12 groups serving the needy in the nearby community.

Comcast Foundation has given $10,000 to the Youth Job Center of Evanston for its summer tutor program.

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People: Mary Jo Lamparski is Chicago Shakespeare Theater's new development director.

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