MILANVILLE, PA — Sheila Dugan lives quietly and modestly in her beloved longtime home, the 1815 Nathan Skinner House, steps from the Skinners Falls Bridge in the historic hamlet of Milanville. 

Stretching across the north wall of her living room is a shelf with photographs of everyone she has loved in her long life: parents, siblings, husbands, children, grandchildren, colleagues and friends. 

Dugan also loves the Upper Delaware River Valley. Here she feels the peace of its beauty but also the peace provided by the kindness she finds is characteristic of those who also make it their home. 

Dugan is a lifelong Democrat, raised Catholic and powerfully influenced by Buddhism. She emphasizes that the kindness she has found in this community is significant in our era because it transcends political differences.

Perhaps it’s only possible to experience what is in one’s own self. Certainly Dugan has followed kindness her entire life. It carried her from childhood In Minnesota to New York City. 

She is acutely aware of humanity’s social and economic struggles and their consequent inequities. Her life’s work has been dedicated to social change, peace and justice inspired by her belief that kindness is a gently powerful force for good. 

Raised by a Slovenian Catholic mother and an Irish Catholic father, Dugan attended Catholic schools. When she was 13, she became a novitiate, but the independent spirit instilled in her by her mother made her begin a career in nursing, another pursuit dedicated to caring and kindness. 

While still in her teens, she heard about a woman of “great kindness,” Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker, an activist charity and social movement. 

Dugan left the Midwest for New York City where she worked at the Catholic Worker “hospitality house,” a shelter for the disadvantaged. 

The Catholic Worker movement is still very active, and its newspaper, The Catholic Worker, is printed seven times a year. Dugan still reads it faithfully.

She was only 19 when she married her first husband. Dugan raised five daughters. She is proud of their individualism, even as they have embraced her core values.

It’s not surprising that in addition to her work with Dorothy Day, Sheila became involved with the movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s and participated in many marches. It was after one of those marches that someone suggested she empower her commitment to activism by getting a law degree. So in her early 50s she did exactly that and practiced law for the rest of her working life as an independent attorney, often serving pro bono for the underprivileged and the underserved.

Sheila represented Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist who denied all the charges made by the U.S. government during his trial and extended incarceration in federal prison for murders he did not commit. Her work on behalf of Peltier was honored at a recent event at the Damascus Manor Community Center as part of a celebration of Peltier’s commuted sentence after 50 years in federal prison.

She is appalled by the course her nation is taking, which she sees as fueled by punitive anger. She is horrified to see the unraveling of so much that was achieved in her own lifetime, achievements made by those who devoted their lives to kindness in one way or another.When asked what she would like for the world to be—not just now but when she is no longer here—it is not surprising to hear her say that she simply wants people to be kind. 

Sheila Dugan still believes in the power of kindness, and is still moved by the peace and beauty and goodness of the community here. 

Her poetry articulates the deep love that is part of her kindness. A recent poem by Sheila Dugan dedicated to the endangered Skinners Falls Bridge captures not just the spirit of the bridge itself, but her own:

River Falls…
Skinners Falls Bridge
river of our dreams
Life goes on flowing south
Under the bridge
With the river
Home to thousands of tiny fish
Their lives saved or not
By the river of Hope
As they glide swiftly by
Our River of Dreams.
Our Bridge of Wonder
Our Bridge of Love