Riesberg marks 45 years of service to the Diocese

November 20, 2023

Sandy Riesberg has been a cool, steady hand that’s kept the wheels of various diocesan offices rolling for 45 years.

As an administrative assistant serving five bishops (Bishops Maurice Dingman, William Bullock, Joseph Charron, Richard Pates, and William Joensen), she’s witnessed history in the Church in southwest Iowa.

She’s done it with grace, confidence, and kindness. 

Riesberg, of Holy Trinity Parish in Des Moines, has no regrets.

“This is where I‘m meant to be,” she said. “I really feel like God brought me here.”

It all started in 1978 when her friend, who worked for Monsignor Frank Bognanno at the Diocese, was expecting her first child and planned to be a stay-at-home mom. 

“She approached me and asked if I’d be interested in her job. She thought I’d be really good at it,” said Riesberg. “I came in and talked to Father Frank (Bognanno) and he hired me on the spot.”

At the time, Monsignor Bognanno served in an office for planning and pastoral councils, and ran a national retreat program for priests. 

“She was pretty darn good. She was very, very smart. She could keep track of everything. She was very reliable,” he said. 
Riesberg worked with his successor, Mercy Sister Stella Neill, and the Worship Office, then added the Communications Office.

“Her quiet competence and gentle spirit served the mission of the office and, indeed, of the whole diocese,” said former Worship Director Vicky Tufano. “She was simply always a bright light.”

“Working with Sandy for 15 years was a privilege,” said Jim Bond, former diocesan director of the Worship Office. “Her dedication to the worship life of the diocese (along with other areas) was and is outstanding. I could always rely on her expertise and her going the extra mile despite unforeseen challenges and sometimes chaos.”

Of the many hats she wore over the years, computer expert became one of them. She remembers when the chancery got its first computer.

“It was a big old clunker and there was only one,” she said. “All it had on it was Word. I was in charge with training support staff. I learned it and I was teaching everybody else. 

“When we moved to the Grand Avenue building, everybody got a computer but we weren’t networked yet. That was crazy. We were just learning it because we knew that was going to be the way of the world,” she said.

Riesberg is known for her patience and kindness. 

“She had a lot of patience with me when I started at the Diocese, for which I am very grateful,” said former Communications Director Tom Chapman. He succeeded Sister Mira Mosle.

“She has an unbelievable work ethic in getting things done,” Chapman said.

Her experience and institutional knowledge is vast.

“Sandy in many ways is the living memory of the Pastoral Center,” said Father Trevor Chicoine, diocesan Vicar for Divine Worship. “Her knowledge of the cycle of the diocesan year is so deep and organic that things flow without effort. She can both weather change and simultaneously provide continuity. Over and over again, I hear from parish staff and parishioners how responsive and helpful she is. Words fail to express my gratitude to her and admiration for her dedicated service.”

“It’s hard to underestimate the positive impact Sandy has had on diocesan liturgies in her 45 years of service,” said former Worship Director Kyle Lechtenberg. “Alongside making the necessary arrangements, Sandy’s experience and relational skills allow her to be a link from bishop to bishop, director to director, parish staff or pastor to staff or pastor.”
Riesberg has a collection of memories.

There was the flood of 1993, when the office closed temporarily, and the time the city of Des Moines allowed a car race that went past the chancery. She fondly remembers the time Bishop Dingman dressed up as a clown for the support staff for Secretaries Day. 

She worked with Worship Office Director Mary Ann Simcoe to prepare for the 1979 papal visit, forgoing the use of a parking pass so she could walk to Living History Farms with her friends.

Riesberg may never know how many people she’s helped grow closer to Christ.

“She has a love for the people these liturgies have impacted over the years from a papal Mass at Living History Farms to a noon Mass celebrating the Advent season with her beloved coworkers,” said Lechtenberg. 

“I do think it is interesting that for most of her 45 years of service, anyone in the diocese that received a sacrament involving holy oil did so through her efforts in preparing and distributing those oils – for the sick, catechumens, and Sacred Chrism (confirmation and holy orders) – to the parishes every year,” said Bond. “She has touched many, many lives with that duty alone.”