Central Catholic is proud to recognize 1957 Trinity High School alum David Wochner with the 2022 Alumni Achievement Award for his dedication and support of development efforts toward his alma mater, and many other nonprofit organizations. Some of David’s most impactful work includes chartering the Central Catholic High School Foundation in 1977 alongside fellow alumni – Bill Wetzel ’57, Ron Hundman ’57, and George Flynn ’62. Because of their work in forming the Foundation, our school has a secure future and will continue to flourish.
By establishing the Central Catholic Foundation’s tax-exempt identity, David and fellow alumni helped financially incentivize contributors who wanted to support the school’s mission. David also suggested the opportunity and wrote the legal terms that secured the Foundation’s largest single cash gift of $1.2M through the estate of fellow Trinity alum Dick Breen ’54. David’s personal work with Dick’s brother Gordon Breen ’50, the Lyons-Shadid family, and others, helped the Foundation exceed the $7M mark in assets, making Central Catholic’s long-term sustainability secure.
David’s passion for Central Catholic is largely due to his connections to Catholic education. Both of the Bloomington native’s parents attended St. Mary’s Grade School. His mother Antoinette (Oberkoetter) Wochner ’31 graduated from St. Mary’s High School, the original name of Central Catholic before it became Trinity. David, too, attended St. Mary’s grade school and Trinity. “The whole atmosphere of Trinity High School was Christ-centered, and it was the important thing, and it influences your whole life, your work ethic, and your family situation,” David reflected.
David recalls listening to the Fighting Irish football games which played constantly on his family’s radio. This, along with the appeal of attending college with high school classmates Wetzel, Hundman, and Jim Kane ’57, inspired him to choose Notre Dame for his undergraduate degree after Trinity. After receiving his finance degree, he headed to the University of Illinois for Law School. He passed the bar in 1964 then joined The Law Firm of Costigan & Wollrab, P.C. in Bloomington, and he has worked there ever since.
Living the majority of his life in Bloomington, for David, has been a great ride. Looking back, many factors made him decide to stay and raise his own family here. “Good roots and safety that I knew people and had a lot of respect for the community and the people,” David said. Also, he had the perk of his parents, several siblings, and friends living locally, like his golf buddy Wetzel who worked at a different law firm in town. In fact, the Wochners still reside in the historic home David’s parents previously owned on Franklin Park.
David shared that Catholic education was always high on the priority list for his parents and so it was for the next generation of Wochners, too. David met his wife of 58 years, Joan, while she was attending Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, IL – the same school from which his mother and aunt graduated. David and Joan made Christ-centered education a priority for their five children, Michael ’83, Melissa ’85, Monica ’86, Sarah ’88, and David, as all of them attended Central Catholic. The five Wochner children now reside outside the area, but in November they returned home to Bloomington with ten of David and Joan’s twelve grandchildren to be present at Saints Alive, where he was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award.
David’s desire to use his legal knowledge to help those in need goes further than his passion and service to Central Catholic. He served as President of St. Mary’s Parish Council, he was on Holy Trinity School’s Board of Education, and he remains a Trustee for Holy Trinity Parish. Along with parents of children with certain disabilities, he helped establish Homes of Hope, Inc., and its charitable foundation, so that children with special needs would be cared for in a Christian home when their parents could no longer do so on their own. Currently, six homes in Bloomington-Normal provide a Christian environment for the residents. As if all that did not keep him busy enough, David was involved in the early stages of United Cerebral Palsy of Central Illinois, plus he has held leadership roles with OSF St. Joseph Medical Center Foundation, Bloomington-Normal YMCA, Central Illinois Neuroscience Foundation, and previously served as President for the McLean County Bar Association.
When David decided to become an attorney, he looked at practicing law as an opportunity to help people with their legal needs. “It’s been a pleasure to assist so many people of the Bloomington-Normal community in my legal career, especially those who want to help local organizations such as Central Catholic,” David recounted. His gift to Central Catholic of his talents and knowledge is one that keeps on giving. With David’s help in establishing a system for donations of various forms, the forever gift of a Catholic education is perpetuated to students throughout our community.