NCEA's 1st Lay President Rides In on Waves of Change

By Jeff Archer

In 1976, Leonard DeFiore became the first lay person to be the superintendent of schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which served about 37,000 students.

Twelve years later, he had the similar distinction of becoming the first lay superintendent for the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., and its 18,000 students.

And last month, he took the reins of the National Catholic Educational Association here, which represents schools through college and seminary and Catholic school administrators. Mr. DeFiore is the first lay person to be president in...