At 11:30 PM on February 26, 2015, this nation lost a precious treasure. That resource was a man who had dedicated his 97-year life to all the good and great things that renowned leaders demonstrate and stand for. Reverend Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., President Emeritus of University of Notre Dame, passed into history. The new campus library, built in 1963 was renamed the Theodore Hesburgh Library upon his retirement in 1987. His private office that also housed the Olympic torch from the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics was on the 13th floor of the Hesburgh Library.
Theodore Hesburgh was born in Syracuse, NY on May 25, 1917; it is said that as a youth he planned to become a priest. He entered the University of Notre Dame in 1934 for studies leading to ordination. His training was interrupted when the Congregation of Holy Cross sent him to Rome to study at Gregorian University. Receiving a degree in philosophy in 1939, he returned to Washington, D.C. and entered Catholic University of America. Ordained as a priest in 1943, he pursued further studies graduating from Catholic University with a PhD in 1945. He returned to Notre Dame as a professor of religion.
Father Hesburgh became department head in 1948, Executive Vice President in 1949, President in 1952 at age 35 and President Emeritus in 1987. He was the longest-serving president of the University. During his 35 year tenure as President Notre Dame introduced co-education and the operating budget grew from almost $10 million to more than $175 million. University endowment grew from $9 million to $350 million. Research funding rose from about $735,000 to $15 million while student enrollment increased from nearly 5,000 to almost 10,000. The University reported enrollment of more than 12,000 students in a 2014 report.
President Eisenhower appointed him to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1957. In June 1964 he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. In September of that year, Father Hesburgh received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His 150 honorary degrees and 16 Presidential appointments are records. One of his most memorable decisions was issuance of the ’15-minute rule’ regarding campus protests. His February 1969 letter announced that, “any person or group that substitutes force for rational persuasion, be it violent or non-violent, will be given 15 minutes of meditation to cease and desist.”
What creates towering achievement in a person? Is there a seed of success; of destiny that exists in the spirit, the soul of noble altruistic characters of Hesburgh’s stature? What are the building blocks of luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill and Golda Meir? Did the notions of their parents, the learning opportunities from their clerics and teachers influence their thoughts and actions? Or did these men and women who expanded their oversight exponentially simply grasp their perceptions of truth and honesty and bank their reputations and their very lives on those principles? Does common sense and uncommon courage rule the day?
Psychologists, biographers, demographers and other social scientists could spend a lifetime researching the underlying reasons for renown without identifying specific answer(s). Eminence may just spring from the conscience of good men and women who can repel the insults of critics with truth and wisdom while lifting the spirits of the confused with clarity and supplant the lust for violence with the search for success and serenity.
It doesn’t matter what catapulted Hesburgh’s life into leadership positions that influenced the lives of others; what does matter is that he created magnetic auras of thought and action that brought people together. He was phlegmatic toward politics, race, religion, age and gender. His leadership and guidance seemed to be focused on goals without exalting the powerful or demeaning the powerless. His legacy resides in the minds and spirits of those lives he touched through personal contact and the outreach of his writings, his teaching and his actions. RIP, Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C*.
*NOTE: C.S.C. designates membership in the Congregation of Holy Cross (Congregatio a Saneta Cruce). This congregation of priests and brothers was founded in 1837 by Blessed Father Basil Anthony-Marie Moreau in Le Mans, France.
Dick Baynton
