Now, more than five decades later, Ninehan is supporting her old New York City neighborhood, one of the hardest hit by COVID-19, while paying tribute to the lifelong mentor and friend she found at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

Her gift to Fordham’s new Cultural Engagement Internships program—made in honor of the late history professor Anne M. Mannion, Ph.D., UGE ’58—helped make it possible for the Elmhurst Corona Recovery Collaborative to offer a paid internship this year, giving a Fordham student an opportunity to support the collaborative’s efforts to meet the food security, mental health, and other needs of community members impacted by the pandemic.

For Ninehan, who graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) in 1974 and earned a Master of Science degree from Fordham’s Graduate School of Education in 2000, supporting Fordham students is a way to express gratitude for the education she received.

“The people I met, the professors I had: It was a whole world. The elevator doors would open up and you didn’t know who was going to walk out—what new celebrity,” she said, recalling one particular instance during her first year when she attended a lecture by noted anthropologist Margaret Mead, Ph.D., who was teaching at Fordham at the time.

This access to outstanding professors was eye-opening for Ninehan, but it certainly wasn’t rare. She said history professor John F. Roche, Ph.D., who died in 2012, “was really an inspiration,” and Mannion even attended Ninehan’s wedding to fellow Ram William J. Ninehan, FCLC ’93, in 1975.

Ninehan remained close to Mannion, exchanging annual holiday cards with her until she died in 2013, a year after retiring from her 53-year-long career at FCLC. She credits Mannion with not only teaching her about history but also modeling how to teach.

“She was really the most outstanding professor,” Ninehan said. “Her enthusiasm, her love of subject: It all enhanced the pedagogy. You can learn methodology, you can learn classroom management, but if you don’t bring that spark that’s a love of your subject with you, it’s meaningless.”

Never Say Never

Despite her passion for teaching, Ninehan didn’t secure a full-time teaching position until 14 years after earning her bachelor’s degree. In the meantime, she parlayed the part-time job she’d held at Bloomingdale’s as a student into a full-time gig as a personal shopper. Due to her background in history, Ninehan often was assigned to work with foreign dignitaries and political figures, but she said it was “not what I intended to be in my life.”

Finally, while reading the newspaper on the way to work in 1988, she saw a classified ad for a seventh-grade social studies teacher—“just by the grace of God,” she said. “I never used to take the newspaper to work and one day I did.”

“I called when I got to my office and the secretary said, ‘Sister will call you back,’ and I thought, ‘Catholic school?’ And that’s where I’ve been ever since.”

Funnily enough, if it hadn’t been for some insistent advice Ninehan received as a student, her path may have differed. When applying for New York state teacher certification, someone suggested she also apply for New Jersey certification. As a “kid from Queens,” she thought, “I’m never going to live in New Jersey,” but that’s where her teaching career has taken place, the bulk of it at the very first school she found via the newspaper ad: Perth Amboy Catholic School in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

In addition to serving as a seventh- and eighth-grade teacher at Perth Amboy, Ninehan was a principal there. After an autoimmune disease diagnosis in 2011 prompted her retirement, Ninehan continued to teach part time and volunteer at the school. Due to COVID-19, she hasn’t been able to return to Perth Amboy yet, but she said she helps out however she can.

“I’ve done things like revise the handbook and helped with alumni affairs—things of that nature,” Ninehan said. “Things that are not classroom per se, but school-oriented. So, it’s kept me in the loop.”

A Cause Close to Home

As a faithful Fordham donor for more than 20 years—a milestone that earned her entrance into the University’s Doty Society—and an “Elmhurst girl” who walked to PS 13 and high school, Ninehan didn’t think twice about supporting Fordham’s Cultural Engagement Internships program after learning about it during this year’s Lincoln Center Block Party reunion, held virtually in June. The program offers FCLC and Fordham College at Rose Hill students the opportunity to participate in paid internships at local nonprofits and cultural institutions, like the Elmhurst Corona Recovery Collaborative.

Ninehan is one of several alumni donors who have stepped up to help fund student pay and expand the program. She said that while Elmhurst has “taken quite a beating—economically and physically”—over the years, it “was a wonderful place to grow up,” and it means a lot to her that people are interested in preserving the community and helping the people who live there.

“The fact that an intern can help, it’s a double blessing,” she added. “I can help [a Fordham student]do something that’s meaningful and you could help the community you came from; it just made perfect sense.”

Fordham has meant a “great deal” to Ninehan, and she’s looking forward to a time when she can connect with the Fordham community in person again. (She’ll have opportunities pretty soon: Numerous in-person alumni events are returning this month, and Homecoming, scheduled for Saturday, October 9, will be in person, too.)

“In terms of the guidance I got, in terms of my courses, the influence of the professors, and then the lifetime relationships and the friends I made, the friends I still have, my husband: It’s all Fordham,” she said.

What are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about teaching.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice I ever received was to go to Fordham, because of my lasting personal relationships and its impact on my career.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
Although I have enjoyed visiting many places, my favorite place has always been my classroom.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
I couldn’t possibly name just one book; influence or inspiration comes from many and sometimes unexpected sources.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Anne Mannion’s love of history and her infectious enthusiasm made her a truly great teacher and role model.

What are you optimistic about?
Despite the many challenges that face us all, with the grace of God, I am optimistic about the future.

Edward Bristow, Ph.D., professor of history, dubbed her the mother of the honors program and a “throwback” in the best sense of the word. Grace Vernon, Ph.D., professor of biology, fondly recalled her love of baseball, her family and friends, and her fellow faculty. 

Robert M. Grimes, S.J., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, sang the Gregorian chant “In Paradisum,” to pay homage to her chosen field of medievalism.

And Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, called Anne Mannion, Ph.D., professor emerita of history, a liberating and affirming force in students’ lives.

“She was a woman of great faith in God, who gave her a vocation in the University that was her home, in her students who made her heart sing, and in her colleagues who were for her the family that really anchored her in New York,” he said at the Sept. 19 service.

Faculty, friends, and students packed the 12th-floor Lounge/Corrigan Center to celebrate the life of Mannion, a member of the faculty for 52 years and a 1958 alumna of the Undergraduate School of Education, who died in July.

“She now knows all the answers that were raised by Thomas Aquinas, and I would imagine she’s lecturing him on all the mistakes he made,” Father McShane said.

“But doing so with affection as well as with conviction. Anne was for us, citizen, colleague, and—let’s be honest—a patron saint.”

Photos by Bruce Gilbert and Bill Denison

A wake was held on Thursday, July 25, at St. James Funeral Home, in St. James, N.Y.  A Mass of Christian Burial was held at Saints Philip & James Catholic Church, in St. James, N.Y., and interment followed at St. Charles Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y.

In a statement on July 28, the Convey family said, “We would like to thank all of Anne’s colleagues at Fordham University who either attended the wake, funeral mass and burial, or who expressed their condolences on Anne’s passing on July 16, 2013. We have taken great comfort from all of this.”

“For generations of students, Anne Mannion was the heart of Fordham College at Lincoln Center,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University. “She was a teacher’s teacher, and a warm and generous colleague. I know the entire Fordham community joins with me in prayer for her family and loved ones.”

Mannion, who died on July 16, graduated in 1958 from Fordham’s School of Education, which was then located at 302 Broadway in lower Manhattan. The School of Education was the only college at Fordham that admitted women; at the time the Rose Hill campus was still all male..

She began teaching at Fordham in 1959 while still a graduate student at Columbia University specializing in Medieval monasticism and institutional history. She would go on to become the director of the honors program at Lincoln Center, and was appointed director of Fordham’s Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) when it opened in 2008.

Robert R. Grimes, S.J., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center recalled Mannion’s many contributions to the college. “It is no surprise that Anne was the first recipient of an Arts and Sciences faculty-wide teaching award,” he said, “but she was also a source of joy and vitality to the entire college community:  students, faculty and staff.”

When she retired in 2012, Mannion was feted with several other longtime faculty members at the annual Fordham College Lincoln Center reunion. In a freewheeling panel discussion that was often punctuated by jokes and anecdotes from Mannion, she recalled what it was like to move into the Lincoln Center Campus’s Lowenstein Center when opened in 1969, and was surrounded by a vast stretches of concrete.

“I can remember walking into the building for the first time with a few of my colleagues from 302 Broadway, and saying well, if we don’t make it as a school, we’ll make it as a bank,” she said at the time. “It’s softened up a lot over the years since then.”

The role of unofficial historian was one that Mannion relished, along with teaching. “I loved Fordham as a student and still do,” she said in an interview in 2002. “I don’t think I’ve gone to work a day in my life. I still consider it going to school.”

Mannion is survived by brothers James Convery (Amy) and Michael Convery (Lynn) and five nieces and nephews. Her husband, Lawrence, passed away previously.

The family requests that gifts in Anne’s memory be made to the Fordham College at Lincoln Center Fund, Fordham University, Office of Development and University Relations, 888 Seventh Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10019.

You could say that Anne Mannion, Ph.D., associate professor of history, knows a thing or two about teaching. She has influenced countless young minds in the more than 50 years she has taught at Fordham.

The director of the honors program at Lincoln Center, Mannion was appointed director of Fordham’s Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) when it opened two years ago. We sat down with Mannion to learn what has been going on at CTE, which provides resources for faculty members.

How does the center dovetail with Fordham’s core curriculum?
The center basically was born coterminous with the new core curriculum. When you take a look at the core, at least four courses are Eloquentia Perfecta, or EP seminars. There are two in the freshman year, a third in one of the middle years, and the fourth is a values course in the senior year. One of the distinguishing characteristics of EP courses is that 20 percent of class time must be devoted to writing and public speaking.

The piece I was always so adamant about is oral presentations. It has always bothered me that so many college graduates struggle to give a strong oral presentation. Some have high GPAs and have earned their degrees in challenging majors, so it’s obvious that there is nothing wrong with their brain or critical thinking skills. But when you ask them to get up on their feet and make a formal presentation or speak extemporaneously, you might as well have asked them to jump off a roof. I have seen enough over the years to think we ought to do something to strengthen that component.

How does the center help faculty with EP courses?
Professors have to submit a syllabus that demonstrates how they are going to incorporate writing and speaking skills into the nuts and the bolts of their EP courses. Part of our job is to convince the faculty that teaching speaking skills is not the same as teaching an old-fashioned elocution class.

CTE came online two years ago to train the first group of EP teachers in history, theology, philosophy, English, classics and comparative literature through mentoring and workshops. The natural science group, led by Grace Vernon, Ph.D., put together a dazzling EP model. Slowly but surely, almost every academic department or program has a representation in the EP programs. Altogether on both campuses, we’ve “certified” roughly 130 faculty members.

Will these workshops continue?
At Rose Hill in particular, there are a large number of post-doctoral students and graduate teaching assistants who teach entry-level classes. Their departments are sending them to us. History, for example, used to have a program to train its own instructors, but now it’s probably easier for us to do it. For the foreseeable future, as long as there continues to be a supply of post-docs and TAs, that subculture will always be with us and we’ll always be there for them.

Is the center most helpful for post-doctoral teaching assistants and new faculty?
Some of the best players in the workshop are people who have been at Fordham for 30 years. I find that when you get a reasonably experienced teacher, he or she loves to talk about this kind of thing. When do you sit down and talk about teaching? It seems like never. So the idea that you could sit down for an hour and a half to talk about our craft, it’s great. You’ll hear, “What do you do with this kind of a situation?” and people chime in. Somebody in the room has a thought and it starts a group conversation.

How has the center grown?
In addition to the EP workshops, we have a good connection with the Office of Student Affairs and we’ve collectively devised something called “Students in Crisis.” We have a public presentation on all of the campuses each semester. It’s really a conversation.

What are the goals of CTE?
What I like most about the center is that it cuts across all schools. It has to. It was born in the undergraduate liberal arts colleges because that’s where the teaching business goes on, but if you’re going to reach out to other constituencies, I can see us getting phone calls from all of Fordham’s schools.

We’ve been getting involved with individual faculty members who feel they want some extra help with aspects of classroom instruction. They look at us like a “help desk,” if you will. This is about teaching and we’re here to help. Our mission is basically the art and science of teaching. To the degree that we can be of help, we’re here. It’s as if we have this kind of magnet quality because there is a teaching component to so many things people do at a university.

Roche, a professor of history, arrived at Fordham’s Woolworth Building as a freshman in 1942 and, after service in World War II, graduated in 1948 from the University’s City Hall Division, which had moved to 302 Broadway.

While earning his Ph.D. from Columbia University, he began teaching at Fordham in February 1951. Although he retired in 1995, he continued to teach in FCLC, FCLS, and the College at 60.

On Wednesday, May 12, Fordham acknowledged John’s 59 ½ years of teaching here at a retirement party thrown by colleagues and friends in the 12th Floor Lounge at the Lowenstein Center on the Lincoln Center campus.

Robert R. Grimes, S.J., Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, took the occasion to go back through Roche’s personnel file and read a citation that had been written by Anne Mannion, Ph.D., associate professor of history, on the occasion of John’s first Bene Merenti award for 20 years of teaching.

Grimes concluded by adding, “John, for all you have given to Fordham over the years, mere words are not enough, but they are the best we have. Thank you to one of Fordham’s greatest alumni, one of Fordham’s greatest teachers, one of Fordham’s greatest. Period.”

Mannion, who reminisced about first meeting Roche as a student of his at 302 Broadway, said that even though she grew up in Long Island, living by railroad tracks made her feel that she, like Roche, a lifelong Brooklyn resident, was a city kid. As a fellow historian, she noted that they share a special sense of time and place.

“When I go through life, I count my blessings, and when I look at John, I count them twice,” she said.

Roche said he relished being able to see the University grow and change as it added campuses in Manhattan and integrated women into its student body. He also served on the first faculty senate.

“One can say one is fortunate to live and work in interesting times, and that’s certainly been true of these years at Fordham. Really, in terms of the overall history of the institution, one would be hard-pressed to find another period in its long history in which so many significant changes and elements of growth have occurred,” he said.

“I’ve had a happy time at Fordham. There have been a few rough passages, of course, over so many years. But all in all, thanks in a great part to my association with you, it’s been a very good experience, indeed.”

—Patrick Verel

That was the message of “Students in Crisis,” a panel discussion for faculty and staff members held on March 29 at the Rose Hill campus. The discussion offered practical ways to help students who are struggling with personal problems.

Anne Mannion, Ph.D., associate professor of history and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, noted that faculty and staff should be alert to signs of students experiencing a broad range of academic and personal issues.

David Marcotte, S.J., clinical assistant professor of psychology, detailed three recent case studies. One student was obnoxious and messy while the other two were seemingly self-assured and together. But their outward appearances had little to do with the personal turmoil each experienced—alcohol addiction, infidelity and a parent with depression.

“Apparently well-adjusted, functioning students can have considerable emotional and mental struggles. They can be going on right in front of us and we may not even know,” Father Marcotte said.

“Symptoms are ways in which pain is expressed, so don’t jump to blame their character. It may not be that they’re lazy and don’t care about school. It may be that they’re overwhelmed and doing the best they can.”

Mary Procidano, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, said she could boil down her advice to one phrase—notice a change.

Examples she gave include:
• a punctual student repeatedly arriving late to class.
• a neat student not looking as put together as he or she once did.
• a strong academic student showing a dip in performance.

Starting a conversation, Procidano said, is the best way to help link stressors that a student may reveal to different people.

“It’s OK to say, ‘How are you doing? You look a little tired,’” she said. “Tired is a pretty generic, unthreatening kind of word. They will appreciate that, and it can go a long way.”

Christopher Rodgers, dean of students at Rose Hill, agreed that connecting the dots can be difficult because the traditional campus structure inherently separates departments and offices. Ideally, everyone—from cafeteria and student workers to receptionists—should be gatekeepers who are willing to let his office know if something is amiss, so that no student flies under the radar.

“Caring effectively is very different than simply caring,” he said. “That distinction is sometimes hard to incorporate into our daily work, as we run into students who have sometimes extremely subtle problems and issues that are coming to our attention.”

Jennifer Neuhof, Psy.D., director of counseling and psychological services at Fordham, noted that contrary to some beliefs, it is legal for a professor to contact her office if he or she has concerns about a student.

“There is clear evidence that students are struggling more today with problems of depression and anxiety than in years past,” she said. “In fact, anxiety is a major physiological predictor of failing grades.”

Neuhof also acknowledged that the current economic climate has led to increased pressure on students to succeed. More often, faculty members encounter gray areas where they’re not sure what to say to a student without seeming to invade their privacy. That, too, is something with which the counseling center staff could provide assistance, she noted.

Faculty members who are unsure should make an effort, she said, because it only takes one person to encourage a student to get the help they need.

“We rely on you to be our eyes and our ears, to notice things, and to refer students of concern. You do not have to handle the situation alone,” she said. “We really need to work together as a community to address these issues.”

Panelists provided a link to a brochure designed to assist faculty in finding assistance in cases of mental health emergencies. It can be downloaded at: www.fordham.edu/mentalhealthemergency/.

The event was sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence, Faculty Senate and Office of Student Affairs. It came on the heels of a similar event held on March 25 at the Lincoln Center campus.

John Adam, S.J.

Father Adam was a member of the faculty at Fordham, first teaching philosophy in the Undergraduate School of Education from 1962 until 1971, and then in the College at Lincoln Center from 1971 to 1994.

He was then called to Hungary to be the first provincial of the newly restored Hungarian Province of the Society.

“He traveled all over the world, but would always be back to teaching on Monday,” said Anne Mannion, Ph.D., associate professor of history, who knew Father Adams for more than 40 years. “He was a great friend, and his students adored him. He worked extremely well with young people. He recognized that was part of a Jesuit’s responsibility.”

Father Adam, who died at the Jesuit Community in Miskolc, Hungary, following a long illness, left his mark on the spiritual community around the world. He was a priest for 50 of his 83years. He died on the day of his 83rd birthday, in the presence of his Jesuit brothers.

Fellow Jesuits, colleagues, students and family members cherish the memories of his faithful love for all people, which was rooted in Jesus’ faithful love for him.

Astrid O’Brien, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, said Father Adam “touched the lives of many students.”

A Mass of the Resurrection was celebrated on April 23 in Miskolc.

A memorial service was held in the Blessed Rupert Mayer Chapel on the Lincoln Center campus that same day.

The center, designed by a planning committee made up of University faculty and administrators, was created to help propel Fordham to even greater national prominence among higher education institutions, said Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., senior vice president for academic affairs/chief academic officer.

“This is not a center that was given to us. It’s something that we wanted; that we asked for over time,” Freedman said. “It’s a place for us to grow together as colleagues and in which all of us can integrate our work.”

The CTE will provide three main resources for the University’s faculty:

• A Web site, in which faculty can use to find information on topics as diverse as writing a syllabus to using a Smart Board in class.

• An ongoing series of discussions and symposia about different aspects of teaching pedagogy. The first discussion, on students in crisis, is planned for next month and will be led by John Cecero, S.J., Ph.D.

• Individual consultation designed to help faculty share best practices and classroom techniques.

Anne Mannion, Ph.D., associate professor of history, has been tapped to direct the center.

“This goes to the core of what we’re about at Fordham,” Mannion said. “We’re talking about the idea of how you go about the art of teaching. We’re helping faculty find their own voices and get out of their comfort zone.”

Christopher Toulouse, Ph.D., visiting assistant of political science, will serve as the program coordinator for CTE.

“Technology has clearly changed teaching,” Toulouse said. “We’re aware of our students’ expectations and we’ll be helping faculty make connections with the facilities and technology the university provides.”