Cardinal Honors Aikenhead

Pacific Palisades resident Kathleen H. Aikenhead was honored by Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Diocese with the 2009 Cardinal’s Award at a benefit dinner in early February.   She was joined by the other honored members of the Los Angeles Catholic community’Christopher Alders, Dr. Leo Lagasse, Virginia Schneider and Vin Scully. In the 20 years of the award, 99 men and women have been honored. Aikenhead is president of the William Hannon Foundation (founded in 1983 by her late uncle, a 1994 honoree), which provides tuition assistance for disadvantaged children attending Catholic schools, preschool through college.   When he introduced Aikenheard, Mahony noted that she is among ‘the active people in the archdiocese, whose faith is an integral part of her life.’ Hannon, who has lived in the Palisades for 30 years, is one of the foundation’s original board members. She has been president for the last 15 years.   ’We give about 300 grants a year to schools, churches and social service agencies in the Los Angeles area,’ Aikenhead told the Palisadian-Post. ‘While most of the recipients are Catholic organizations, about 25 are not.’ In addition, the foundation has funded several large buildings, including the new William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University and the new science hall at Loyola High School.   Grant amounts have ranged from $5,000 and $10,000 to $10 million, in the case of Loyola University. ‘We also run several programs to help organizations raise money,’ Aikenhead said. ‘For example, we have purchased Hawaiian trips that we then give to organizations to use as raffle prizes, with all the proceeds going to that organization.’ In addition to her work with the Hannon Foundation, Aikenhead serves on the board of the Catholic Education Foundation, which gives millions of dollars every year for tuition assistance for Catholic school students, from elementary through high school. Aikenhead grew up in Brentwood and attended St. Martin of Tours and Marymount High School. She graduated from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, where she met her husband David, now an estate-planning attorney. The couple has three children, all of whom attended Corpus Christi School. Emily, 35, is a pediatrician and expecting her first child. Gigi is a trained Cordon Bleu chef with two children, and Brian, 30, is a Loyola Law School student.