Joe and Rosella McKay Service Award
In 2023, the St. Paul Mission Historical Society established the Joe and Rosella McKay award for service to the Society as a way to honor individuals who have performed outstanding service to the Society.
The awardee(s) will have their name inscribed on a plaque in the Murphy House and will receive and award certificate at the October annual meeting.
Any dues paying or Life member of the Society may make a nomination, and the awardee will be selected from the nominations by a majority vote of the Board of Directors
Catherine Zorn graduated from Marylhurst College with a teaching degree. She taught at Arbor Grove School and West Woodburn School. She changed careers and worked full time as a city clerk in Salem while attending law school. She went to early morning classes at Willamette University and then took night classes at Northwestern College of Law in Portland (now Lewis and Clark College). In June 1948, she graduated as the only woman in her class. Catherine passed the bar exam – again as the only woman. She worked for several law firms before being appointed Oregon Assistant Attorney General in 1951. In 1961, she argued several Oregon land use cases before the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1967, she went into private practice and retired in 1989. In 1979, she wrote the Casper Zorn House nomination for the National Register of Historic Places. Catherine Zorn helped establish St. Brigid’s Home for Girls in Salem. She wrote the charter for the St. Paul Parochial School Fund. She was active in the Salem Soroptimist Club. Her special interests were agriculture problems, small businesses, taxation, education, historic preservation, and senior citizens. Catherine was one of the original SPMHS board members and the first vice president. As a practicing attorney, she wrote the SPMHS by-laws. When points of law came up, she provided legal advice to the Society. She acted as the SPMHS parliamentarian. She assisted in fund-raising by opening her home, the Zorn House, for the
annual SPMHS Tour of Homes. She is buried in the St. Paul Cemetery.