Kristy VonderHaar Gardner ’91 arrived at the University of Dayton with no idea how much she would come to rely on the community she found there. Within her first two years on campus, she lost her grandmother, who was her best friend, and then her mother.
But Kristy found something at UD that she has never forgotten: a level of care from her professors and classmates that felt, even then, like something rare and irreplaceable.
One memory stands out. The first class Kristy attended after her mother died, she was already in her seat when her professor, Mary R. Sudzina, arrived. Sudzina walked in, saw Kristy and made a decision: she canceled class and took her out for ice cream instead. This small act has stayed with Kristy for more than three decades, and the friendship has lasted just as long. Whenever the Gardners travel near Charleston, South Carolina, they make a point to reconnect with Sudzina.
“That level of genuine care for your students, for your community, that compassion,” Kristy said. “I cannot imagine that being a typical experience at other universities for most families.”
Different Paths to the Same Front Porch
Ed Gardner ’88 found his way to UD a few years earlier, drawn north from Louisville by friends who were already Flyers, his decision sealed during a campus visit his senior year of high school. That weekend, UD’s men’s basketball team upset Oklahoma in the second round of the NCAA tournament and the campus erupted around him.
“It was maybe the best weekend I had at Dayton,” he said, “Maybe even better than the four years I spent there!”
He went home and told his mother about the accounting program. By fall, he was enrolled.
Ed spent his first three years at UD living in Stuart Complex, where he served as a resident assistant, a job he says suited his introverted, accountant’s nature just fine.
“It was nice to just have a place to myself for two years,” he said.
Kristy, meanwhile, was a Marycrest Complex resident who took the opposite route when it came to her UD housing. She ended up in an eight-girl household, agreed upon over corn dogs and cotton candy at a circus night dorm event her first year. She spent her sophomore, junior and senior years living in UD’s student neighborhood.
“I will never live in a home without a porch now,” she said.
Flyers Find a Way
Ed and Kristy didn’t meet at UD at all. Gardner graduated in 1988 and stayed in the Dayton area for work before moving back to Louisville at the end of 1990. Kristy graduated from UD in April 1991. It wasn’t until January 1992, both back home in Louisville, that they crossed paths at a bar, introduced by Kristy’s cousin who happened to be one of Ed’s grade-school classmates.
Ed likes to tell people that Kristy followed him around campus during his senior year, a claim he once made directly to her grandfather, who, as a fellow accountant, believed Ed rather than his granddaughter for the rest of his life. Though technically, they were at UD together for one year, they never crossed paths on campus.
As Ed puts it, Flyers have a way of finding each other, and he and Kristy are proof of it.
A Family of Flyers
Ed and Kristy have raised five children, four of whom have chosen the University of Dayton: Joey ’18, Charlie ’26, current student Matthew, and Lauren, who will arrive on campus this fall.
The Gardners have stayed connected to campus life, serving for several years on UD’s Parent Leadership Council, an experience Gardner calls “very positive,” one that has given them a voice in shaping the student experience and supporting other families navigating UD alongside their children.
Why a Bequest and Why Now
As lifelong supporters of Catholic education, the Gardners have long given to Kristy’s high school, Sacred Heart Academy, and to Ed’s high school, DeSales. With four of five children choosing UD, thinking about a planned gift to the university felt like a natural next step. With two children still in college, the timing called for a thoughtful approach.
“We need to get a little further along with kids still in college,” Ed said, “but it just made sense to us, as we’ve done some estate planning over the last few years, to go ahead and leave money to Dayton.”
Ever the accountant, Ed split the gift down the middle: half to benefit accounting scholarships, the discipline that shaped his career, and half to the Lalanne Program, the Catholic education initiative that resonates deeply with Kristy’s life as an educator. The Gardners also established the Gardner Family Endowed Scholarship, a name chosen so future generations of the family, regardless of which UD program they pursue, can feel connected to it.
For Kristy, the choice to support the Lalanne Program reflects something she believes about the world right now. As home values and faith commitments feel fragile, she sees Catholic educators as a quiet but powerful force for good.
“If you have a Catholic education, you are still getting some of those values in the classroom,” Kristy said. “The opportunity of Lalanne teachers, encouraging more educators to want to be Catholic educators, is a way that we can make a difference. We’re honored and humbled to be part of the program.”
A Legacy Still Being Written
It started, in a way, with ice cream: a professor who saw a grieving student and chose compassion over curriculum. Thirty years later, that small moment lives on in something larger: a family legacy and a gift to support UD students.
“We have opportunity,” Ed said, smiling at the thought of future grandchildren, future Flyers, future gifts.
Walk, run, fly, soar — the Gardners are just finding their stride.