When Father Leo McAllister died on Feb. 10, 2005, parishioners at Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Carmichael found themselves at a loss.

The gentle Irish priest, who served as pastor from 1989 to 2005, had become both a friend and kind of moral compass for so many. Now he was gone.

It was the children of Our Lady of Assumption who found a solution to the dilemma.

They took to wearing green bracelets, engraved with shamrocks and five letters, “WWFLD.”

The words those letters represented — “What Would Father Leo Do” — inspired a group of men in the parish to form a committee and launch the Father Leo McAllister Scholarship Fund. Their goal was to enable academically-qualified students with financial need to attend one of four Sacramento-area Catholic high schools.

Guidelines of the fund stipulate that students selected on a rotating cycle by the admissions departments of Jesuit High School in Carmichael and Christian Brothers, St. Francis Catholic and Loretto High Schools in Sacramento receive full tuition for four years.

“Father Leo was such a special guy to a lot of people in our community. It didn’t make any difference if you were Catholic, white, blue or green. He took care of everybody,” said parishioner Ken Adamson, who chairs the Father McAllister scholarship committee. “We needed to perpetuate his name.”

Parishioner Paul Wagstaffe said he signed on as a member of the scholarship committee to be part of an effort that will be a permanent legacy to a priest who made “a tremendous impact” on his own family and the entire parish community.

“I remember thinking Father Leo’s favorite sermons always involved kids,” Wagstaffe said. “It was like every Sunday being able to go and hear part of the Sermon on the Mount — our blueprint how to live — being given by somebody today.”

Dave Murphy, another member of the scholarship committee, is convinced there could be no better memorial to the popular pastor than helping young people live out their dreams.

“Father Leo probably loved children more than any other people in his life,” Murphy said. “Even when we are gone, even when our children are gone, this scholarship will be there helping young people.”

The first recipient of a Father Leo McAllister Scholarship is a graduate of Our Lady of Assumption School, Matt Macdonald.

Macdonald, 15, currently a sophomore at Jesuit High School, received the honor in May 2005, an award his mother Linda Macdonald said “was a very special blessing.”

“Father Leo touched our lives in so many ways,” said Macdonald, an Our Lady of Assumption parishioner and mother of two sons, both of whom wear Father Leo bracelets. “He was such a welcoming person, the face of the community for us.”

Last spring the second Father Leo McAllister Scholarship was awarded to Maureen Isbell, a graduate of St. Patrick School in Sacramento, who currently attends St. Francis Catholic High School.

Nearing the scholarship committee’s goal of raising $1 million by the second anniversary of Father McAllister’s death on Feb. 10, 2007, the scholarship fund, managed by the Sacramento Regional Community Foundation, has now received $800,000 in pledges.

Fund organizers envision the spirit of a fund honoring a priest who lived his faith will be reflected among its recipients.

“Our hope is that these kids come full circle, become educated, go to college and become productive in our society, and then someday come back and run this fund,” Adamson said.

Adamson said since Father McAllister “made so many friends from all over” during his 50 years of ministry, people throughout the diocese are invited to donate to the scholarship program.

For more information about the Father Leo McAllister Scholarship Fund, call (916) 371-9044.

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