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STUDENTS and parents at St. Margaret's School are sometimes surprised to learn that its chaplain, an Episcopal priest and religion teacher at the private girls school, is a skilled woodworker who sometimes teaches the girls to use a hammer and saw.

"I've got a simple response for people who find that unusual," said Candine Johnson. "It makes perfect sense because my ultimate boss was a carpenter."

Johnson, a teacher, spiritual advisor and staffer at the Tappahannock school since 2004, is one of those special people you feel lucky to know.

The 56-year-old Brooklyn-born chaplain would seem to be a bit of a personal paradox, the New Yorker tending to the spiritual and academic needs of students and staff here in the South.

Her academic credentials include master's and doctoral degrees in education from the University of Virginia and a master's from The General Theological Seminary in New York and years teaching at the University of Richmond and Syracuse University.

The woodworking? She picked that up on her own, starting decades ago with Christmas-present projects that eventually escalated to furniture, from bookcases to tables to cabinets.

"My relatives now let me know what pieces they'd like me to build," said Johnson.

It's not a life the child of a New York City firefighter initially imagined.

When learning didn't come easily, she was awed by the strong, accomplished women who helped her--nuns at the Catholic schools she attended.

At the University of Richmond, from 1985 until 2001, Johnson was director of academic advising for the athletic department, summer school and more.

"Boy, was that a steep learning curve," she said. "I did all the talking, joking, laughing, crying and whatever else they needed, sometimes all in the same session."

Eventually, she felt a pull she couldn't ignore--the calling to dedicate her life to the faith that's an integral part of her.

"Here I was in my 40s, starting a new life," she said. "But the second I got to seminary, I loved every minute of it and knew it was the right decision."

In the first week she was back in New York, terrorists felled the twin towers, and Johnson ministered to police, emergency workers and others who needed care.