2003 Award

2003 Dorothy Day Award
Dick and Mary Keough

On a recent trip to St. Andrew's Church, Dick and Mary Keough told the assembled sixth-grade religious education pupils to take responsibility for their lives and their communities: Live simply so that others may simply live.

For decades, the Syracuse couple has practiced what they preached -- and for their lifetime of work they are honored with the Dorothy Day Award from St. Andrew's Church.

"They have lived a life full of the spirit of Dorothy Day and now we're teaching the youth, our future," said Eileen Clinton, publicity chair for St. Andrew's. "His (Dick's) message was: 'You individually can make a difference in this community.'

Dick and Mary Keough's relationship was imbedded in charity work from the beginning, having met at a Syracuse soup kitchen in the 1960's.

Mary, the daughter of a middle-class family from Skaneateles, recalls feeling "unaccepted" at first by people at the kitchen, but continued the work to "fill an emptiness" inside her.

"It was the first time I really put a face and a feel and a smell with poverty," she said. "My family thought I was a little bit nuts, but you have to be a little bit nuts to be in this world to make it right. It is so much easier just to fit in and feel safe."

In 1994, Mary founded the Sarah House on Roberts Avenue, a hospitality house for the relatives and loved ones of out-of-towners seeking medical treatment in Syracuse. She has also been a member of Witness for Peace and has traveled to Nicaragua during the war on peace missions.

In the past few years, Dick Keough has been most heavily involved in first protesting United Nations sanctions on Iraq and more recently the war.

A former Catholic priest, he has visited the country twice and was arrested in January with 15 other protesters on the steps of the federal buildings and charged with disorderly conduct. The case is pending.

In past years, he has been part of mayor's commission on juvenile violence and was founding director of HELP (Helping Ex-Offenders and Low-Income People)., a program that teaches ex-convicts a trade. At one time, he also operated Unity Kitchen for the homeless.

One story closely connected with Dick Keough was something he brought back from a peace walk in Northern Ireland in the late 1990's.

On the walk, he saw a sign that read, "Duck sanctuary, no shooting." He came back to Syracuse and told Mayor Roy Bernardi he thought there should be signs in Syracuse saying "Human sanctuary, no shooting."

The signs went up around St. Lucy's. Mary and Dick married in 1973 and have two daughters, who are now grown and live in Syracuse.