Louise "Lisa" Norris Grabarek is an American educator and Baptist preacher. She taught at St. Catherine's School in Richmond, Virginia and at St. Mary's School in Raleigh, North Carolina. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Grabarek was the fourth woman to be ordained as a preacher with the approval of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Early life and education.
Grabarek is the daughter of Marion Pritchard Norris Grabarek, a member of the Junior League of Durham, and Wense Grabarek, a politician and civil rights activist who served as Mayor of Durham from 1963 to 1971.
She graduated from Calvert Method School, a predecessor to Durham Academy, in 1967.
Grabarek was presented to society as a debutante at the Durham Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball at the Durham Armory in the 1960s. She was vehemently opposed to being a debutante due to the exclusive nature of the tradition, but ultimately decided to be presented to appease her parents.
She studied at Vassar College. She obtained a masters degree in divinity from Yale Divinity School, graduating magna cum laude.
Career.
She was ordained as a Baptist preacher, as the fourth woman to be ordained by the convention, at Watts Street Baptist Church in 1974. Grabarek's ordination was approved by a council composed of clergy from both the Southern Baptist Convention and the American Baptist Association.
She worked as a humanities teacher at Saint Mary's School, an Episcopal boarding school for girls in Raleigh, North Carolina. She previously taught at St. Catherine's School, an all-girls Episcopal school in Richmond, Virginia.
Personal life.
She married Rev. Bill Matthews, a lawyer and former pastor at the United Church of Christ in Milford, Connecticut.
Grabarek attends Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh.