Catholic Schools Week: Conn Area teacher nearing 50-year milestone

By Melissa Williams Brown
Contributing Writer

CONNELLSVILLE – Goldie Lohr couldn’t see herself in any other profession or working for any other employer. She’s proud to have taught three generations of students over the past 47 years at Conn-Area Catholic School.

“I love my job, my principal, my fellow teachers, office personnel and students. We all get along and we all help each other,” said Lohr. “Conn-Area is just wonderful. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. The greatest gift a teacher can receive is the look in a student’s eyes when they finally understand what you have been trying to teach them.”

Lohr, a parishioner of St. Pius X Parish in Mount Pleasant, teaches second-grade language arts, math and religion, fifth-grade religion, pre-kindergarten Spanish and first-grade art. Raised with a strong Catholic upbringing, she graduated from the former St. John the Baptist School and Geibel Catholic High School, Connellsville, and earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the former Villa Maria College Academy in Erie.

Principal Cecilia Solan said the school has been blessed to have had Lohr on staff for so many years.

“She has grown with the school, just as a member of the family grows with the family. She has experienced its trials and tribulations and celebrates the Lord through it all,” Solan said. “There is nothing she would not do for the school and its community. In fact, Mrs. Lohr is such an integral part of the school that when I give tours to prospective families who happen to be alumni, they always ask if Mrs. Lohr still teaches there and are so excited to see her.

“Her love for the school is evident in her selfless dedication to its students and their families, as well as to the faculty and staff.”