Pope Francis: In Your Eyes I See My Words

This spring saw the publication of the second volume in Fordham University Press’ collection of homilies, letters, and speeches by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, in the years before he became Pope Francis. (The third and final volume is due in October.) In an introduction to this book, which covers 2005 to 2008, Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham, writes about the future pope’s focus on “ecological ethics” during this time, and his growing ability to “[enter]into the tragedies of his fellow citizens” and “speak truth to power,” particularly after 194 people were killed in a fire at a nightclub whose owner had ignored the fire safety code in the building’s construction.

For Marina A. Herrera, Ph.D., GSAS ’71, ’74, who translated the pope’s words into English, the book highlights the pope’s “boundless linguistic creativity” and gives readers an opportunity to see how “a mind destined to lead the Church in this turbulent time was shaped in the laboratory of a life lived among the people he served, traveling in public buses and shunning the trappings of hierarchical privilege.”

That Further Shore: A Memoir of Irish Roots and American Promise

In this memoir, John D. Feerick, FCRH ’58, LAW ’61, dean emeritus and Norris Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, reflects with characteristic humility and humor on his upbringing as the eldest child of Irish immigrant parents in the South Bronx, his landmark role in framing the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment during the 1960s, his leadership as dean of Fordham Law for 18 years, and his commitment to a life lived in the service of others. The Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”) hung on a plaque on his Fordham office wall for many years, he writes, a reminder of “the importance of being a bridge builder” and “not letting the pressure of everyday life take away from our capacity to feel for one another.”

Related Story: On May 27, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, served as guest host of the show Fordham Conversations to interview John Feerick for WFUV, the University’s public media station. 

Lady Liberty: An Illustrated History of America’s Most Storied Woman

In a series of brief essays—richly illustrated with 33 full-page reproductions of paintings by Antonio Masi—Joan Marans Dim recounts the epic struggle to create the Statue of Liberty and transport it from France to the U.S. during the 19th century. She also writes about the immigrant experience, and how “The New Colossus,” an 1883 sonnet by Emma Lazarus (“Give me your tired, your poor,/ your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”) helped transform the statue into a symbol of American freedom and economic prosperity for arriving immigrants—an ideal often at odds with U.S. immigration policy and Americans’ shifting attitudes toward immigrants through the years.

Father O’Hare succeeded James C. Finlay, S.J., on July 1, 1984, to become the 31st president of Fordham University. He held that position for 19 years, making him the longest-serving president in Fordham’s history when he stepped down on June 30, 2003. His tenure marked a period of dramatic growth for Fordham: Applications soared in number; the student body grew academically stronger and more diverse; residential and academic space expanded; and the University exceeded the goal of its first comprehensive fundraising campaign, the crowning achievement of which was the creation of the William D. Walsh Family Library on the Rose Hill campus.

“Having served as Fordham’s president for some time—though not as long as Father O’Hare—I have some insight into, and a deep appreciation for, how gifted he was as a leader, a communicator, and a pastor,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., who succeeded Father O’Hare as president of Fordham. “He placed all of his considerable intellect, integrity, and vision in service of the University, and in doing so transformed Fordham into a powerhouse of Jesuit education. We will miss his wisdom, steady counsel, and warm wit.”

Robert D. Daleo, GABELLI ’72, chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, said the Fordham community owes Father O’Hare “a debt of gratitude for his long and singular service.”

“Father O’Hare led the University for 19 years, and despite some tough financial times, began Fordham’s rebirth as a national university,” he said.

Bronx Roots

A bit of an outsider to academia, Father O’Hare was working as the editor in chief of America, the Jesuit journal of opinion, when he was recruited for the presidency by Fordham’s Board of Trustees.

But the son of first-generation Irish Americans was hardly an outsider to Fordham, the Bronx, or to Catholic education. He was born on February 12, 1931, to Joseph, a New York City mounted police officer, and Marie, a schoolteacher, who raised their family in the close-knit Irish community of Tremont, just two miles from the Rose Hill campus. He attended Regis High School in Manhattan.

In a video tribute to Father O’Hare when he received the Fordham Founder’s Award in 2003, friends, teachers, and siblings recalled the young Joe O’Hare as a well-loved classmate with an easy demeanor, a straight-A student, and a natural storyteller.  Although his exploratory forays into theater and basketball at Regis met with success, it was the priesthood that ultimately called to him: Upon graduating from high school in 1948, he joined the Society of Jesus.

Jesuit Formation

That decision, Father O’Hare told The New York Times, was largely inspired by the work of John Corridan, S.J., and the labor priests of the 1940s New York waterfront. “It’s not an otherworldly kind of spirituality,” Father O’Hare said of the Jesuits’ active faith. “It’s the kind very geared to involvement in the present time.”

The young Jesuit-in-training was sent to the Philippines, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Berchmans College in Cebu City. From 1955 to 1958 and again from 1967 to 1972, he served on the faculty at Ateneo de Manila University.

Edmundo Martinez, S.J., recalled being a student of Father O’Hare’s in the 1950s.

‘Those were heady days of youth’s idealism for the search of truth, and goodness, and beauty—ideals that rubbed off on us principally, for myself at least, from Joe O’Hare,” said Father Martinez, co-founder, chaplain, and teacher at the Ingenium School in the Philippines. “Like Socrates and his friends, we would sit around in class and discuss such topics as the medieval universities, with Joe leading us on to ever deeper levels and ever wider ranges of meaning.”

Between teaching posts, Father O’Hare returned to the United States, earning licentiate degrees in philosophy and theology in the early 1960s from Woodstock College in Maryland and a doctorate in philosophy from Fordham in 1968. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1961 in the Fordham University Church.

Fordham Presidency

Sixteen years after his doctoral studies, he left his post at America and was back at Fordham—this time in the Office of the President.

“He made the transition seamlessly,” said Leo O’Donovan, S.J., president emeritus of Georgetown University. “At a time of major discussion between the Vatican and American Catholic universities on the mission of Catholic education,” he said, “he was one of the foremost advocates of fidelity to both true Catholicity and true university freedom of thought and research.”

His presidency took shape just as the Bronx itself was undergoing an economic and cultural comeback from its worst period of blight. Under Father O’Hare’s leadership, Fordham experienced a comeback too. In two decades, the school’s growth exceeded national trends, moving from a school largely attended by commuters to a university with a vibrant campus life and an increasingly national and diverse student body. The number of undergraduate applicants tripled.

The school’s endowment rose from $36.5 million to $271.6 million, enabling the addition of approximately 1.1 million square feet of academic and residential space, and the renovation of more than 1 million square feet of existing space on the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses. Four new residence halls were built at Rose Hill, including Millennium Hall, opened in 2000 and later renamed O’Hare Hall. The Lincoln Center campus saw the addition of its first residence—the 20-story McMahon Hall—in 1993.

In 1991, the University’s sesquicentennial year, Father O’Hare announced the launch of a $150 million fundraising campaign—the largest of its kind at the time for a Jesuit university.  Nearly one-quarter of all alumni contributed, and more than two-thirds of funds raised came from individuals, many of whom had no previous connection to the University. The campaign helped to create 170 endowed scholarships as well as several new faculty chairs. Fordham surpassed its goal by $5.6 million.

One of the campaign’s many successes—and one of Father O’Hare’s outstanding legacies—was the construction of the Walsh Family Library, a world-class facility that opened in 1997 at Rose Hill and was subsequently ranked No. 6 in the country in the Princeton Review.

Robert Campbell, GABELLI ’55, former vice chairman of Johnson & Johnson who served as Fordham’s board chair during much of the 1990s, said that as a leader, Father O’Hare showed a “willingness to take risks.” He recalled Father O’Hare telling him that Fordham had been talking about building a new library for 50 years.

“He went to the board with it and they went along,” he said. “It was very symbolic, because it was tied to a major campaign and because it said Fordham’s on the move. New York was a tough place, and we were there to compete with anyone.”

Campbell said Father O’Hare’s determination was complemented by “his sincerity and his sense of humor that always came through.”

As a native New Yorker and a Jesuit committed to social justice, Father O’Hare saw great potential in a stronger unification of Fordham’s two New York City campuses, which he helped achieve through the restructuring of faculty and adoption of a shared core curriculum. He felt that each location had much to teach students.

“Fordham men and women have found in the city rich cultural resources, but also daunting moral and social challenges, soaring celebrations of the human spirit here at Lincoln Center, but also a summons to service in the neighborhoods of the Bronx. These different faces of the city engage the classical Renaissance humanism of Jesuit education, but also the new Jesuit humanism that adds to this classic ideal the urgency of education for justice,” he said at Fordham’s 160th Anniversary Dinner at the New York State Theater in 2002.

Influence and Reach

Father O’Hare’s influence extended far beyond Fordham and New York City in many ways, not least of which are the accomplishments of those who worked for him.

“In his 19 years as president, he helped mentor many Fordham colleagues into their own presidencies, including me,” said Fordham Trustee Donna Carroll, Ph.D., University secretary under Father O’Hare and current president of Dominican University in Chicago. “He said something to me once that guides me still: ‘You choose to see the limits or the possibility in Catholic higher education. What you choose determines how you lead.’”

Demonstrating a commitment to Fordham’s many Catholic traditions, Father O’Hare helped establish Fordham’s Center for American Catholic Studies, the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, and the Laurence J. McGinley Chair in Religion and Society, for which he recruited Avery Dulles, S.J. (before he was elevated to cardinal). He made many international trips in service to Fordham and the Jesuits, traveling to 26 countries during his presidency.

Principled Civic Leadership

Father O’Hare devoted equal time to forging Fordham’s relationships with New York City. In 1988, Mayor Edward I. Koch made him the founding chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, one of the nation’s groundbreaking models for campaign finance reform. So ethical was Father O’Hare’s leadership, said Mayor Koch, that the board even fined his mayoral staff for errors made in campaign contribution reporting. Father O’Hare held the position for 15 years. In late 1993, Mayor David N. Dinkins refused to reappoint Father O’Hare after the board fined the Dinkins campaign $320,000. But Mayor Rudolph Giuliani reappointed him when he took office in 1994.

“It could’ve been a nothing job if it didn’t have a superb leader willing to take on every person in politics,” said Mayor Koch. “He made the job.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor worked with Father O’Hare as one of the Campaign Finance Board’s founding appointees.

“Father O’Hare is one of my heroes,” said Sotomayor, a Bronx native who has remained close to Fordham, receiving an honorary degree at 2014’s commencement and attending many University events. “Brilliant, witty, kind, gentle but firm, he lived his life caring and giving to so many. The nation, the city of New York, and the Bronx have lost a great man.  I have lost a friend I greatly admired but whose principles continue to guide my life.”

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised Father O’Hare for his integrity.

“Father O’Hare not only began a renaissance at Fordham, he helped clean up corruption in city politics as the founding chair of the Campaign Finance Board,” Bloomberg said. “Appointing him to that post was one of Mayor Koch’s best decisions. He was scrupulously honest, fiercely independent, and never afraid to speak his mind, even when it rubbed elected officials the wrong way. Thanks to him, the city’s public matching funds program, which I was glad to expand, became a national model. In a city of legendary Irish pols, one of the very best never ran for office—but he left a mark on politics like no other.”

Mayor Koch joined several celebrities, religious leaders, and alumni to pay tribute to Father O’Hare when he received the 2003 Fordham Founder’s Award. Present were Cardinal Edward Egan; Cardinal Dulles; best-selling author and Fordham alumna Mary Higgins Clark; CBS newsman and Fordham alumnus Charles Osgood; and Fordham’s incoming 32nd president, Father McShane.

Accepting the award, Father O’Hare—a proud Irishman and humorist—characterized the ceremony.

“It’s something like an Irish wake,” he joked. “Everybody should have one before they die.”

Fordham’s Pastor

Father O’Hare was more than the University president; he was Fordham’s chief pastor and storyteller. During his tenure, he celebrated more than 7,000 Masses, including a Mass of Remembrance and Hope following the attacks on September 11, 2001, which killed three Fordham students and 36 alumni. He performed countless nuptials, burials, and baptisms for members of the Fordham community. He awarded more than 60,000 diplomas and cheered at more than 900 athletics events.

John Feerick, dean emeritus of Fordham Law, recalled Father O’Hare’s pastoral and professional support.

“Father O’Hare meant everything to me when I served as dean of the Law School. He supported me in difficult moments and was always a wise counselor on academic issues and public service undertakings. We owe much to him for the success the school enjoys today,” Feerick said.

“More personally, I will always remember that he was on the altar when my parents died and 10 years later when my brother Donald died.  And how can I forget the many times we walked alongside each other in St. Patrick’s Day parades? I watched people wave and call out to him as he waved back with a smile, all while maintaining his quick stride. In everything he was insightful and brought to every occasion a wonderful sense of humor. I will greatly miss him as I had no other friend like him.”

After he stepped down as president in 2003, Father O’Hare served for one year as president of Regis High School, his alma mater. He then returned to the staff of America as associate editor, retiring in 2009. In 2015, with Fordham as a co-sponsor, the magazine established the Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., Postgraduate Media Fellowship in his honor.

Father O’Hare was the recipient of 11 honorary degrees, including one from Fordham. He served as chairman of both the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, a trustee of the Asia Society, and a member of the Charter Revision Commission of the City of New York, among other appointments. For his contributions to the city, he received the 1992 Civil Leadership Award from the Citizens Union of New York. Legendary New York Post columnist Jack Newfield called Father O’Hare “the conscience of campaign finance reform and walking gravitas,” ranking him 44th on a list of “New York’s 50 Most Powerful People” in 1997.

A few years before he left his post as president, Father O’Hare spoke to radio listeners about St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits: “I have always preferred the image of Ignatius the Pilgrim to Ignatius the Soldier,” he said on WFUV’s Fordham Focus on July 30, 2000. “Ignatius the Pilgrim undertook a journey to seek the will of God, searching to discern what the greater glory of God demanded of him and his companions. Such a search, of course, will always challenge the status quo. What has been and what is can never exhaust the vision of what could be and what should be.”

Father O’Hare was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Gerard O’Hare; and his sister, Marie Scesney. He is survived by nine nieces and nephews and several great-nieces and nephews. A private burial will be held in Jesuit Cemetery, Auriesville, New York. Once the present health crisis has passed, a memorial Mass for Father O’Hare will be celebrated in the University Church. Contributions in his honor may be made to the Joseph A. O’Hare Endowed Scholarship Fund at Fordham. Notes of condolence may be mailed to his niece Claire Scesney Lundahl at 247 East 77 Street, Apt. 5C, New York, NY 10075.

Additional Tributes to Father O’Hare

The Rev. Edward A. “Monk” Molloy, C.S.C., President Emeritus, Notre Dame
Joe O’Hare was a multifaceted leader—as priest, editor, writer, and teacher.  Blessed with a great sense of humor, he was a person of vision with a strong international perspective and a deep commitment to Gospel values and human rights. He and I had some wonderful adventures together. He will be deeply missed.

The Rev. John Cecero, S.J., Provincial of the Jesuits’ USA Northeast Province
Father O’Hare was president of Fordham when I began my tenure as an assistant professor of psychology at the University. I had only known him previously through his work as editor in chief of America magazine, and despite his lofty pedigree as a widely respected intellectual, institutional chief executive, and civic leader in New York City campaign reform, he humbly and graciously welcomed me as a new Fordham Jesuit to meet with him to discuss my preliminary research interests and even to solicit some funding to support them! Joe led with insight, wit, and uncompromising loyalty to the Society of Jesus and our mission in higher education, and I will always be grateful for the inspiration that he imparted to me and to so many other Jesuits and lay colleagues at Fordham University.

Paul Guenther, FCRH ’62, Former President of Paine Webber, Former Chairman of the New York Philharmonic, and Former Chair of Fordham’s Board of Trustees
Whenever Joe O’Hare was present, there was an aura which everyone felt. He was an iconic New Yorker, a pastor, and a friend.

Tom Kane, GABELLI ’61, Retired Investment Banker, Former Fordham Board Chair
My long friendship with Father Joe O’Hare began when I joined the Fordham board as a trustee in 1986. We kept a friendly banter going between our two alma maters, Regis and Xavier high schools, throughout our time together.

In 1986, after joining the board, my wife, Judy, and I traveled to Manila for a reception hosted by a fellow trustee, Jose Fernandez, who at the time was minister of finance for the Philippines. The high point of the visit was an audience with the new president, Cory Aquino. Father Joe had been ordained at the Ateneo de Manila and so was friendly with her.  (Yes, after the meeting, we did get a Cook’s tour of the shoe collection of Imelda Marcos.)

During the visit, Father O’Hare issued an invitation for President Aquino to visit Fordham while in New York for the opening of the U.N. in September. She graciously accepted.

With the ascension of Mrs. Aquino to the presidency, Philippine nationalism in the world became renowned. On September 22, 1986, Fordham held a special convocation in honor of President Aquino’s visit to Rose Hill. She was presented with an honorary doctorate.

Edwards Parade was packed with Filipinos and Filipino Americans numbering in the thousands and bedecked with yellow ribbons and scarves. The press estimated the crowd at 5,000. When they spotted President Aquino, they went wild with celebration and chanted her name—Cory, Cory! The air was electric.

Gathering himself for a few moments, Father O’Hare then began his remarks in fluent Tagalog, and spoke for over five minutes before switching over to English. To say the crowd went wild with emotion at Joe’s linguistic gesture would be a massive understatement.

Jeffrey Gray, Fordham’s Senior Vice President for Student Affairs

Tall with broad shoulders and a gray mane, regal and striking in appearance, Father O’Hare was a towering figure on campus, in the world of New York City politics, and in the Society of Jesus globally. Anyone who met Joe O’Hare was left with the impression that he could carry the world on his shoulders.  A man of unmatched intellect, and personal and professional substance and depth, he was a confident, independent, deep-thinking, and fearless leader who never backed down from a challenge or a challenger. He was a proud New Yorker and man of great loyalty, with a mischievous streak and well developed, wry sense of humor.

Brian Byrne, Former Vice President for Fordham’s Lincoln Center Campus

Father O’Hare grew in his role as University president over his long tenure and in turn grew those who worked closely with him. He had an astonishingly flexible intellect, mastering not only the nuances of the academic world but also the game of politics in his tenure as the first chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board and president of the Commission of Independent Colleges and Universities.

As a Jesuit priest, however, he always kept his priorities in order. I remember a critical visit to the Albany power brokers with other university presidents which was delayed because Father O’Hare had promised to say Mass in a local parish. He was a student of the ironic in life, frequently noting his tendency to tell the world how it should behave yet remaining firm in his commitment to advance fairness and civility.

Bruno M. Santonocito, Former Fordham Vice President for Development and University Relations

Father O’Hare’s 19-year presidency set in motion some of the foundational steps that have led to the extraordinary success Fordham University enjoys today. He revitalized and reengaged the alumni community’s commitment to Fordham. He spent numerous hours with alumni either individually or at small gatherings or when giving his state of the University message to the various alumni chapters around the country and abroad. Through these activities, Father was able to recruit an active and involved Board of Trustees who were critical to the successful completion of the Fordham University Campaign in our sesquicentennial year.

He loved rubbing shoulders with our graduates who talked about him affectionately as “the priest from central casting.” And when he was with our alumni what was always on display was his charm and graciousness, his warmth, quick wit, sense of humor and mastery of the good joke and the good story. Father had style, delivery, and timing!

Finally, he had loyalty to and affection for all his vice presidents. In spite of that, he could not resist telling alumni that like a herd of elephants or a gaggle of geese, he had a “confusion” of vice presidents.

Simply put, Father O’Hare was the right man at the right time for Fordham and I feel privileged to have shared a good part of his tenure at his side.

Dorothy Marinucci, Associate Vice President for Presidential Operations

There was a brilliant Jesuit, Father John Donohue, S.J., who worked for many years as an associate editor at America magazine.  He was a good friend of Father O’Hare.  Whenever you visited Father Donohue as you were leaving he would say, “safe home.”  I know Father O’Hare particularly liked this phrase.  I know no more fitting tribute than to quote Father Donohue and say, “Safe home, JO’H.”

Nicole A. Gordon, Faculty Director of the CUNY Baruch College Executive M.P.A. program and Distinguished Lecturer of Public Affairs; Founding Executive Director of New York City’s Campaign Finance Board

Father O’Hare was the inspired choice of Mayor Ed Koch to be the founding chair of the pioneer New York City Campaign Finance Board in 1988.

The public record truly speaks for itself, including the many times when our board chair had to face off against powerful interests. Each time, Father O’Hare challenged efforts to intimidate and undermine the board, and in each instance, he prevailed. These occasions included attempts by elected officials to replace him as chair, to move the board’s offices to uninhabitable quarters, to stop valid matching funds checks to candidates, and to stack the board with a new member in the midst of public hearings on apparent (and, later, confirmed) substantial violations of the campaign finance law.

One wonderful exchange–among many on TV–was aired when a candidate’s spokesperson described how he had hired the most prominent law firm in the City to fight the CFB. Father O’Hare responded, “So, sue me!”.

Working closely with him, as I was privileged to do for some 15 years, was an experience next to none. As a leader of troops, Father O’Hare’s sharp intelligence, political acumen, crushing wit, unquestionable loyalty, and (literally) priestly status gave us daily lessons on how to operate in public and in private, especially when the job is to be independent and fair in a volatile arena and without natural allies.

Would that we had him with us now.

In celebration of University Press Week, Nov. 6 through 11, Fordham University Press is highlighting its 3rd edition of THE TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT: Its Complete History and Applications, by John D. Feerick, former dean of the Fordham School of Law and the Norris Professor of Law.

Feerick was one of the original drafters of the 1964 amendment, which lays out the succession process for the U.S. presidency and establishes procedures for when the president is disabled or cannot fulfill his responsibilities, and when a vice presidency vacancy must be filled. The amendment has been applied in several instances, including in the appointment of Nelson Rockefeller as vice president in 1974 upon the elevation of Gerald Ford to the presidency.

The book was originally published in 1976. In this most recent edition, published in 2013, Feerick has updated his landmark study with the amendment’s uses in the past 20 years and how those uses have changed perceptions of presidential disability.

Fred Nachbaur, director of the press, said the press chose to highlight Feerick’s book to promote the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) chosen theme for the week, “#LookItUP: Knowledge Matters.” It is, he said, a theme that should resonate in an era of fake news.

“In today’s political climate the high level of misinformation and alternative facts circulating is disconcerting and dangerous,” said Nachbaur, who served as chair of the task force for the AAUP’s University Press Week. “As a group, we felt it was critical to highlight the expertise of university presses, which relies on deeply researched scholarship thoroughly evaluated by external peer reviewers and held to the highest methodological standards.”

The American Bar Association recently awarded its highest honor, the ABA Medal, to Feerick. “Throughout his distinguished career as a labor lawyer, legal educator, and public servant, his unimpeachable integrity and brilliance has made him a giant in the legal community and an invaluable aide to our government and our democracy,” said Linda Klein, ABA president.

The government of the UK’s nearest neighbor, Ireland, may prove to be one step ahead of its fellow EU member states in reckoning with the effects of Brexit. During an address given at Fordham Law School on Sept. 19, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charles Flanagan told an audience of around 100 that his country had been preparing for a possible Brexit vote for a year.

“Expert reports were commissioned. All relevant government departments were asked to examine the possible impacts,” Flanagan said. “State agencies, business representatives, trades unions, and other stakeholders were consulted with and kept informed on the government’s approach.”

“When the UK leaves the EU, Northern Ireland will be the only region in Britain which shares a land border with another EU member state,” Flanagan said. “One of our key concerns raised by Brexit is a return to a hard or fortified border dividing north and south.”

Flanagan went on to say that the reinstating of a hard border would negatively affect cross-border trade and economic activity. However, more serious would be the symbolic effect of resurrecting historical divisions.

Despite the challenges ahead, Flanagan sounded an optimistic note when he told the audience that Fordham values can inspire politicians and government officials during this uncertain time.

“As the European Union and Ireland prepares for a challenging period ahead, there is much to learn from the Fordham ethos,” Flanagan said. “Above all, there will be a need to apply what is emphasized in this University in terms of critical thinking and creative problem-solving.”

Left to right: John Feerick ’61, professor and former dean of Fordham Law School; Charles Flanagan, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs and trade; Anne Anderson, ambassador of Ireland to the United States; Barbara Jones, counsel general of Ireland; Joseph McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University. Photo by James Higgins.

On April 14, the board recognized Father O’Hare’s many contributions with a ceremony and naming of its boardroom at 100 Church Street.

More than 150 people were on hand for the ceremonial naming of the Joseph A. O’Hare S.J. Boardroom, among them Fordham colleagues Jeffrey Gray, senior vice president for student affairs; Brian Byrne, vice president for Lincoln Center; and John Feerick, Sidney C. Norris Professor in Public Service at Fordham Law School and former law school dean.

Rose Gill Hearn, chair of the board, said that Father O’Hare’s imprint is still on the agency today “through his integrity, fairness, and intelligence.”

“The CFB continues to benefit from his dedication, because of the respect and admiration Father O’Hare’s name elicits from everyone who knows him,” she said.

Although the board’s first executive director Nicole Gordon said she had written extensively on what makes an effective campaign finance program, “at the end of the day it’s about the individuals who serve. They have to be people of conviction and integrity. That’s what Father O’Hare established here.”

Former board chair Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. called Father O’Hare a “precursor to Pope Francis. “He couples a faith with an equal faith in the potential of human beings.”

During Father O’Hare’s tenure as board chair, the CFB developed a reputation as an agency where ethics were held to the highest standard; the board even fined its creator Mayor Koch’s own staff for errors that were made in campaign contribution reporting.

Among the Fifteenth Annual Fordham Founder’s Award Dinner’s celebrated firsts were:

– $2.6 million raised for the Founder’s Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, the most ever.
– 22 Founders Scholars, eight more than the previous year.
– a record-breaking 1,100 attendees at the dinner.

Speaking for her fellow scholars, Robyn Ayers, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior majoring in dance and philosophy, thanked attendees for making it possible for the scholars to get a Fordham education. She said that on the day she got the call informing her she would receive the scholarship she was shopping for a headset so she could Skype with her family in Kansas.

“I’m not one for public spectacles, but I don’t mind telling you that I sat down in the middle of Best Buy and started crying,” she said. “That phone call changed my life. Instead of having to drop out or sacrifice academic commitment for [working] multiple jobs, I was able to focus on becoming the most authentic version of myself.”

The University presented three families with Founder’s Awards: John and Emalie Feerick, Brian and Kathleen MacLean, and George and Marie Doty, the latter of whom were honored posthumously.

John Feerick, FCRH ’58, LAW, 61, former trustee and former dean of Fordham Law School, is the Sidney C. Norris Professor in Public Service and founder of the school’s Feerick Center for Social Justice.

John said he and Emalie were accepting the award on behalf of their parents: his hailed from County Cork, Ireland, and instilled in their children the importance of education even though they did not have one; hers encouraged them to serve others.

John also thanked Emalie onstage, saying her “suggestions, ideas, and encouragement have been reflected in all of my writings, tributes, and speeches, and all my life’s work.” Emalie helped him write From Failing Hands: The Story of Presidential Succession (Fordham University Press, 1965). The book details his involvement in crafting the 25^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Founder’s Award recipients Brian and Kathleen MacLean met their freshman year at Fordham and graduated together from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1975. Brian is a member of Fordham’s Board of Trustees and a former chair of the University’s President’s Council. Their son, Thomas, attended the Gabelli School.

The couple has supported Fordham through scholarship funds and through the Fordham Housing Fund, which provides assistance to commuter students so they can live on campus. Kathleen said the couple’s interest in programs like these stem from recognition of how fortunate they are both to have found each other and to be able to contribute philanthropically.

“Talking to these [housing fund] recipients and seeing the impact of how such a seemingly simple thing as living on campus was expanding their idea of what was possible for themselves was empowering to me, energizing, a glimpse into someone else’s future,” she said.

“My life has not been exceptional. It has been busy with family and community. I am not sure I will ever think of myself as a Fordham Founder. I will think of myself as a fortunate person.”

Brian thanked his co-workers at Travelers Insurance who were in attendance. He also gave a shout-out to the Fordham alumni whose 1969 performance on national television’s GE College Bowl convinced Kathleen to attend Fordham in the first place. “Without you, Kathy may have never made her way to the Bronx, and I may have missed out on the single most valuable thing I took away from Fordham,” he said.

The late George Doty, FCRH ’38, and his wife Marie, were hailed as stalwarts of the University through the years.

George, a managing partner at Goldman Sachs, was a Fordham Trustee Emeritus and was one of the University’s most consistent donors, prompting the University to name its donor loyalty society after him. Among the couple’s major gifts to Fordham were a generous donation to renovate the University Church, the establishment of the Marie Ward Doty University Chair in Psychology, and the creation of the Dr. M. J. Werthman Memorial Endowed Scholarship.

Their son Bill Doty said that his father, who died in 2012, was the kind of man who was so devoted to Fordham he would have thanked everyone in attendance in person.

He also noted that his mother Marie, who was married to George for 63 years, had a huge impact on their focus on religious causes.

“It was mom’s devotion to God and the church and her belief that faith plays a big role in one’s life that provided the support for renovations of places of worship, including the amazing Fordham chapel,” he said.

Even though Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham, never attended the University, he said he felt as if he had gotten a full scholarship here. He said he absorbed the values of Fordham as a young boy from his father, who was a member of the Class of 1932.

“I challenge each of you to give a full scholarship to all whom you meet, the same way my father gave a full scholarship to all his sons. Explore. Discover. Take delight in God’s word. Transform the world with your goodness, and redeem it with your love. If you do that, you will indeed give all who you meet a full scholarship to Fordham.”

Watch Robin Ayers’ thank you speech.

John Feerick

The Kutak Award is given annually to honor a person who has made significant contributions to the collaboration of the academy, the bench and the bar.

The association chose Feerick for his lifelong service to the bar, the judiciary and legal education. During his distinguished career, he served as:

• an adviser to the ABA’s Commission on Electoral College Reform;
• a member of the ABA’s Special Constitutional Convention Committee; and
• as president of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, a rare assignment for an academic.

Feerick said the award was meaningful for him because when he became dean of Fordham Law in 1982, he worked a great deal with the ABA to resolve issues involving the accreditation review process.

“The fact that this award is being given to a Fordham Law professor means that the school is held in very high esteem nationally as it moves along in the 21st century,” he said.

Feerick is perhaps best known for his service as a member of the ABA Conference on Presidential Inability and Succession in 1964, which led to his participation in the drafting of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

He also served the New York City Bar as a member or chair of several committees—including the Special Committee on the New York Constitutional Convention of 1967—and was the founding chair of the New York County Lawyers’ Association Justice Center.

Upon stepping down as dean in 2002, he founded the Feerick Center for Social Justice, which he serves as its director. He was the Leonard F. Manning Professor of Law from 2002 to 2004, and has held the Sidney C. Norris Chair of Law in Public Service since 2004.

“John is one of Fordham Law’s great treasures,” said Michael M. Martin, dean of the law school. “In every one of his many distinguished roles throughout his career—as a lawyer, arbitrator, professor, dean, director, mentor—he has practiced law in the service of others. The entire Fordham Law community is grateful for all of his contributions to the law school, and we are proud that the ABA has decided to honor his many achievements with the Kutak Award.”

The Kutak Award is named for a founding partner of the national law firm of Kutak Rock LLP who dedicated his career to public service and the improvement of legal education and the legal profession.

Feerick will receive the award on Aug. 5 at a reception in Toronto.

The Fordham-Stein Prize honors individuals whose work exemplifies outstanding standards of professional conduct, promotes the advancement of justice, and brings credit to the profession by emphasizing in the public mind the contributions of lawyers to our society and to our democratic system of government.

Wald was the first woman to clerk on the Second Circuit, and later became the first woman at the firm of Arnold Fortas & Porter in Washington, D.C. She joined the first wave of legal service litigators with Washington D.C.’s Neighborhood Legal Services Program. She served in the Carter administration as Assistant Attorney General before being appointed as the first woman to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where she served as chief judge from 1986 until 1991.

Since her retirement from the Court of Appeals in 1999, Wald has served in the international arena, first as the U.S. representative to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and currently as a member of the Iraq Intelligence Commission.

“Judge Wald has led an exemplary career as a consummate legal professional and a reflection of the democratic ideal,” said William M. Treanor, J.D., dean of Fordham Law School. “She superbly continues the great traditions of this prize.”

Past winners of the Stein Prize include six members of the United States Supreme Court, three lawyers who have served as Secretary of State, and, in the past two years, Chief Judge Judith Kaye of the New York Court of Appeals and former Fordham Law School Dean John Feerick.

“I am thrilled to be added to the towering list of earlier recipients of the Fordham-Stein Prize,” said Wald after accepting the award. “I am especially grateful to have received this honor in the twilight of my career, since, if I qualify as worthy at all, it is for the long pursuit of an ephemeral goal called justice, rather than any singular dazzling achievement.”