NDNU Announces Ralston Hall Mansion Endowment

Belmont, CA, January 18, 2008 — The first endowed gift to preserve NDNU’s historic

Ralston Hall Mansion has appropriately been made in memory of longtime University

friend, Eleanor Heinen. 

 

“The Eleanor Heinen Endowed Fund for the Preservation of Ralston Hall Mansion,” will

provide $40,000 in endowment funds needed to repair and improve the 139-year-old

mansion. A reception for Heinen and the creation of the endowment, generously

established by her family, was held January 13 at Ralston Hall Mansion.

 

Heinen, served from 1965 to 1980 as the administrative assistant to the 15th President

 

of the University, Sister Catherine Julie Cunningham. It was under Sr. Cunningham’s 

 

guidance that the work of restoring the historic portions of  the house truly began. In

 

1966, with Eleanor’s assistance, Sr. Cunningham applied for national recognition. Two

 

years later, when the University celebrated the centennial of its charter, Ralston Hall

 

Mansion was also celebrated as a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the

 

Interior. Heinen was said to have dressed in period attire, and sat in a horse-drawn

 

carriage outside the mansion in celebration. In 1972, the 50th anniversary of the Sisters’

 

purchase of the estate, Ralston Hall Mansion was officially designated a California

 

Registered Historical Landmark.

 

“Anyone working at the University, during the time that Eleanor was here, remembers her

gracious personality and her love for Ralston Hall,” said Sister Roseanne Murphy,

NDNU’s Director of Planned Giving. “There are so many touches in the mansion that

remind us of Eleanor. We still miss her.”

 

Dr. Mary Ellen Boyling, NDNU Professor Emerita, also wrote of her great affection for

Heinen. “Whenever, I have had the good fortune to act as a docent, visitors will usually

ask whether there are ghosts in Ralston Hall Mansion. I must confess, I have never seen

a ghost, but, over the years, I have become convinced that benign spirits do indeed linger

here and I believe that these are individuals who have lived here or worked or celebrated

in Ralston Hall and loved the place. Certainly Eleanor Heinen may be counted among

those benign spirits who never leave.”

 

For more information regarding the “Eleanor Heinen Endowed Fund for the Preservation

of Ralston Hall Mansion,” call Sister Roseanne Murphy, NDNU’s Director of Planned

Giving at (650) 508-3551.