BY ERIKA ANDERSON

Staff Writer

	George Aulbach

ATLANTA--George Aulbach, a parishioner of St. Andrew’s Church in Roswell, will be invested as a Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great in recognition of his service to the archdiocese, particularly on the project to establish new Catholic schools.

Archbishop John F. Donoghue announced that the honor will be conferred Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. at a service at St. Andrew’s Church.

The knighthood, given by Pope John Paul II at the request of Archbishop Donoghue, is the highest papal honor that a lay person can be given and recognizes notable accomplishments and personal character and reputation. Aulbach has served most recently as chairman of the Catholic schools implementation committee, after many years of work on other archdiocesan committees and projects.

“In my years as archbishop of Atlanta, I have been blessed to know George as a truly committed Christian leader in service to the church in North Georgia,” the archbishop said. “I am confident that George’s particular commitment to the education of our young Catholics will sustain the church into the next millennium.”

Aulbach said he was “dumbfounded” when the archbishop notified him of his honor.

“I certainly never expected anything like this,” he said. “I didn’t think I deserved it. I wasn’t doing things to get some honor, I just felt like I’d add my talents to what was available in the archdiocese.”

A native of York, Pa., Aulbach has volunteered with many projects, including serving on the board of Catholic Housing Initiatives of Catholic Charities, through which he was instrumental in the building of Good Shepherd Place, an apartment complex in Cumming for those over age 55 with lower incomes.

Aulbach also served on the archdiocesan building subcommittee for over six years, including three years as chairman. He also served on the archdiocesan finance committee, as well as a number of other boards and projects for the archdiocese.

Most of Aulbach’s time over the past few years, however, has been in heading up the new school implementation committee.

Three new Catholic elementary schools are slated to open in the fall of 1999 and two new Catholic high schools are projected to open in the fall of 2000.

Aulbach retired as president and chief executive officer of Laing Properties, a property investment company, in 1990, after working for the company for 15 years. Although throughout his career he has worked on projects totaling over $2 billion, Aulbach said he gets the most gratification from his work on the Catholic schools project.

“Unlike all the other projects that I’ve done that had a tangible flow from the project monetarily, working with the schools has an intangible humanitarian flow,” he said. “It’s one that will keep giving a return to kids over the years and will give kids a chance to develop a future.”

Aulbach has been involved from the beginning in the complex planning process for the schools, from the site selection phase to the later stages of designing the buildings. Aulbach, who attended Catholic schools from elementary school through his college years at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, believes that students in parochial schools are “head and shoulders” above other students.

“I think it builds the foundation for our children and their religious beliefs and teaches them how to live in society,” he said. “I attribute my success in life to the fact that I had nuns to teach me through school. There is just a tremendous benefit from education at a parochial school.”

In his commitment to young people and education, Aulbach was also a moving force in getting the Straight Adolescent Drug Rehabilitation program, which is based out of St. Petersburg, Fla., to Atlanta, by raising over $1 million through golf tournaments and other fund-raisers. Aulbach said that this project, which has helped over 1,000 adolescents overcome their addiction to drugs, was extremely rewarding.

Aulbach, who has been married to his wife, Gertrude, for 49 years, is also the father of five daughters and the grandfather of seven grandchildren. He said that he is looking forward to spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his family, who will also be at the investiture ceremony.

Spending three years in the Navy as a lieutenant junior grade, Aulbach has also served as the president of many civic and business clubs and associations. He has won numerous awards throughout his life, including listings in “Who’s Who in the Southeast,” “Who’s Who in the United States” and “Who’s Who in the World.” Aulbach said that investiture in this pontifical order means more than any other honor he has received.

“This is the best thing I’ve ever had,” he said. “They give you all sorts of awards for doing or finishing things, but coming from the pope, this is quite an honor.”

First established by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831 to honor citizens of the Papal States, the order has civil and military divisions and three classes of knights.