WINCHESTER -- From the pulpit of St. Mary Parish in Winchester, August "Gus" Niewenhous can see generations of parish history "rolling" out before his eyes.

Niewenhous, 71, has been a parishioner at St. Mary's since he was four years old, and has served as a lector there since 1968.

"I can think, 'Oh, I knew so-and-so's father, grandmother, mother, brother, sister,'" Niewenhous told The Pilot on Aug. 20. "I'll look out Sunday and see people that I've known generationally for a long, long time."

For his service as a lector, as well as his long tenures on the St. Mary's School Committee and Finance Committee, Niewenhous was one of 151 people presented with the Cheverus Award in 2023. The award annually honors those who have dedicated their lives to serving the Archdiocese of Boston.

Speaking to The Pilot on May 22, Father Paul Clifford, pastor of St. Mary's, said that Niewenhous represents "a great legacy of service to the parish."

"He's a man of deep faith that he's not afraid to bring into the daily conduct of his life, but on the other hand, he isn't preachy," Father Clifford said.

Father Clifford called Niewenhous, "Somebody who brings his love of God out into the love of neighbor in a natural way."

Father Clifford has only been pastor at St. Mary's since July 2023, but in talking to parishioners and getting to know Niewenhous, he said that he considers him "a truly good person."

Niewenhous found out he was nominated for the award from Michael Fitzmaurice, the parish's director of finance and operations.

"I was overwhelmed, knowing the fine people that preceded me in the parish, all good friends," Niewenhous said.

Bernie Boyle, a parishioner who had previously won the Cheverus Award, died around the same time that Niewenhous was nominated.

"As one door was closed, another got open, and I was glad I could walk through it, figuratively," Niewenhous said.

In November 2023, Niewenhous and the other Cheverus Award awardees received medals from Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley in a ceremony at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. Niewenhous said he was "honored" to be one of the final Cheverus awardees honored by Cardinal O'Malley, who announced his retirement earlier this month.

"That's a big thing to think about," Niewenhous said.

Niewenhous is a commercial and regulatory lawyer by trade, a job which Father Clifford said taught Niewenhous the leadership that he uses to share his faith. Niewenhous himself said that his faith has influenced the way that he practices law.

"I think I look at clients as people that need to be treated with respect and dignity, need to be treated very kindly, very courteously," he said. "If I have one fault, it might be that I tend to be a little more patient with people than some of my colleagues might be."

Niewenhous was born in Larchmont, New York, and moved to Winchester as a toddler.

"This parish has been an integral part of my life and my sister's life," he said.

He served as an altar boy and spent his entire childhood in Catholic education. He attended St. Mary's School from first to eighth grade, and after graduating high school at Austin Prep in Reading, he attended Merrimack College in North Andover. The first non-Catholic institution he attended was the New England School of Law.

Niewenhous said that through Catholic education, he learned "great values" and met lifelong friends. Many of his childhood friends at St. Mary's grew up to become lawyers, which he attributes to Winchester's proximity to Boston and the area's many law schools.

"I was raised with the fact that part of your life is going to school, doing this, and church on Sunday," he said.

He was invited to join the St. Mary's School Committee by the pastor at the time, Father Stephen Koen, to help the school in a transitional period. St. Mary's was about to remove grades seven and eight from its curriculum, an unpopular decision among parents. Niewenhous remembered it as a time, one of many in his service to the church, when he had to make "decisions that were the right thing to do, that people didn't like."

"That was a bit of a trying time, because I had gone through the school," he said. "I had gone first to eighth grade."

St. Mary's School now serves students from pre-K to fourth grade.

After serving on the School Committee, Niewenhous joined the parish Finance Committee, and has served on it ever since. He is responsible for assisting and advising Father Clifford on budgetary matters and spending projects within the parish. Niewenhous said it has been a challenge "to take a tempered, Catholic, charitable look" at where the parish should spend its money.

"We have a very, very good finance council with extremely qualified people that are on it, and they've been a pleasure to work with," he said.

When asked why he has done so much work for the parish, he quoted the motto of the Jesuits: "Ad majorem Dei gloriam," Latin for "For the greater glory of God."

"And that's why we do, I think, everything for the church," he said. "You know, the old saying is that God is God, but I think the service to God is important with our relationship with him."

He recalled being at St. Mary's for some of the most momentous occasions of his own life and that of the parish, such as the baptisms of his nephew and niece and the funerals of his parents, his grandmother, and former parish pastor Father Dick Messina.

"I guess I could say I've been through the consolation during the sad times, and joy during the good times," he said.

Describing his relationship to the parish, he quoted the hymn "How Can I Keep from Singing:" "And to that Rock I'm clinging."

"I felt that the parish has been a rock, outside from family and friends," he said. "The parish as part of the greater Christian Catholic community has been very important to me."