Local

A Christian in commerce

Dave Borowski | Catholic Herald

Bill Dalgetty, former president of Christians in Commerce, sits at his desk in his Vienna home.

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It’s not always easy to live a Christian life in a secular
workplace. Issues from balancing work and family to shady
business ethics are a constant threat to any hope for
recognizing Christ’s presence on the job.

Bill Dalgetty has spent a lifetime working to help Christians
live their faith at home and at work.

Dalgetty, 75, was born in Mason City, Iowa, to a Catholic
mother and Baptist father. Although baptized in a Catholic
church, he was raised Baptist. But early in life he had an
epiphany.

“At about 13 or 14, I became curious about Mom’s church,” he
said.

He liked the sense of holiness and the special reverence that
people displayed during Mass at Holy Family Church in Mason
City. With the help of a parish priest, he began a path to
conversion. At 14, he became a Catholic –much to the chagrin
of his father.

Dalgetty said that his mother felt isolated in the family
because of her faith, and he converted, in part, to show
respect and to support her.

“That’s what God had in mind for me,” he said.

In 1961, Dalgetty earned a bachelor’s in business
administration from Iowa State University in Ames. After
graduation, he went to work in the marketing division of the
Mobil Corp. Eventually he realized that marketing was not for
him. He wanted to go to law school, something that Mobil
supported. They paid for him to attend the University of
Missouri at Kansas City.

After law school, he worked as a law clerk at Mobil for
several years. That early legal experience allowed him to
rise through the ranks of corporate law at Mobil, working in
New York and Fairfax.

Dalgetty, a parishioner of St. Mark Church in Vienna, tells a
story of his conflict between family and work. When he was in
his 40s and working in Fairfax, he was offered a senior legal
position at Mobil’s international marketing and refining
operation in New York.

He and his wife, Marilynn, had left New York five years
earlier with their young family.

The new job would have been a career-enhancing move, but it
would have been a major disruption for his family. They had
three teenage daughters who were settled into a routine at
school and a 2-year-old son. They had many friends in the
neighborhood. He agonized over the decision for days.

“I prayed earnestly, asking the Lord what He wanted me to do.
I consulted Christian friends, drew up lists of pros and cons
and talked at length with Marilynn. It was the most difficult
decision I had ever faced,” he wrote in his book, Hope for
the Workplace.

He turned down the job. The decision did affect his career.
The man who took the position eventually became Exxon Mobil’s
general counsel, he said.

He does not regret the decision and says the company has been
good to him and his family. He retired as senior attorney for
Exxon Mobil Corp. in 1999.

Since 1985, Dalgetty has been involved in Christians in
Commerce, whose mission is to bring Christ to offices,
schools, factories and hospitals and to change workplaces for
the better. They offer Challenge Weekends where Christian men
and women work to bring love, integrity and excellence to the
workplace. Challenge Groups meet periodically to talk of ways
to accomplish the goals of Christians in Commerce. Seminars
and newsletters help members keep Christ in the workplace.
And Dalgetty believes all these efforts bear fruit.

“I’ve seen so many lives changed,” said Dalgetty of
Christians in Commerce. “The spark gets lit.”

When Dalgetty retired from Exxon Mobil, he was asked to
become president of Christians in Commerce. It is an
ecumenical group, but most members are Catholic. Dalgetty
said the group is not designed for networking, people don’t
exchange business cards and all types of workers are
represented.

“Work is a part of God’s plan,” he said. “It’s important to
God.”

Dalgetty is working to keep Christ in families too.

Since 1982, Bill and Marilynn, who have been married for 51
years, have been involved with People of Praise Ministry, a
charismatic renewal Christian group founded in South Bend,
Ind., in 1971.

There are about 3,000 members nationwide, with between 300
and 400 members in Northern Virginia.

“(People of Praise) helps you to be a better Catholic or
Protestant,” said Dalgetty.

It’s a family movement where local groups meet regularly to
discuss issues of interest.

Dalgetty said the group has developed a Christ in Marriage
Seminar that will be held at St. Michael Church in Annandale
next month.

In addition to all he does, he and Marilynn are caretakers of
their daughter, Emily, who was born with Down syndrome. While
she was a student at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax,
Emily was in the Options Program, a special education program
for students with moderate intellectual or cognitive
disabilities.

Dalgetty is active in Porto Caravan No. 104 of the
International Order of Alhambra, a group that works to raise
funds and support education and socialization opportunities
for the intellectually disabled.

Dalgetty left Christians in Commerce in 2012, but still works
closely with the group, and he continues to bring Christ to
the workplace and the home.

As Dalgetty wrote in his book, “This is the hope for the
workplace – Christ in you, living in you, working through
you.”

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