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Holy Cross Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, who led the University of Notre Dame through a period of dramatic growth during his 35 years as president and held sway with political and civil rights leaders, died Feb. 26. He was 97.
As the longest serving president of Notre Dame, from 1952 to 1987, Father Hesburgh built the university from a small college primarily known for its prowess on the football field into one of the nation's premier higher education institutions.
A Funeral Mass was to be offered in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Notre Dame campus March 4.
"We mourn today a great man and faithful priest who transformed the University of Notre Dame and touched the lives of many," Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame's current president, said in a statement.
Citing his predecessor’s “leadership, vision and charisma” in transforming Notre Dame, Father Jenkins also paid tribute to Father Hesburgh’s "historic service to the nation, the Church and the world,” calling him “a steadfast champion for human rights, the cause of peace and care for the poor.”
Born in Syracuse, he was educated at Notre Dame and Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1943 at Notre Dame. He received a doctorate in sacred theology from The Catholic University of America in 1945.
After doctoral studies he joined the university faculty, teaching in the religion department, and served as chaplain to World War II veterans on campus. In 1949 he was appointed executive vice president of Notre Dame. He became the university's 15th president in 1952.
During his presidency, the university budget grew from $9.7 million to $176.6 million while the endowment expanded from $9 million to $350 million. Enrollment nearly doubled to 9,600, and the faculty expanded from 389 to 950.
In 1967, he oversaw the transference of governance of the school from the Congregation of the Holy Cross to a two-tiered, mixed board of lay and religious trustees and fellows. The school admitted women to undergraduate programs beginning in 1972.
Father Hesburgh played an influential role in national and international affairs. He held 16 presidential appointments, tackling major social issues including civil rights, immigration reform, peaceful uses of atomic energy, campus unrest, treatment of Vietnam draft evaders and development in the world's poorest nations.
He was a charter member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights created in 1957 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He chaired the body from 1969 until 1972, when President Richard Nixon dismissed him over his criticism of the administration's civil rights record.
The Holy Cross priest also served on President Gerald R. Ford's Clemency Board, which was responsible for deciding the fate of Vietnam offenders.
During a tribute on Capitol Hill in 2013, congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle honored Father Hesburgh days before his 96th birthday.
He served on the Overseas Development Council, a private organization supporting interests in developing nations, beginning in 1971 and chaired it until 1982. From 1979 to 1981, he chaired the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, whose recommendations later became the basis of congressional reform legislation.
Father Hesburgh served four popes, including three as the Vatican's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from 1956 to 1970. Blessed Paul VI asked him to build the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, which the university continues to operate. Father Hesburgh also served as head of the Vatican delegation attending the 20th anniversary of the United Nations' human rights declaration in Teheran, Iran, in 1968.
In 1983, St. John Paul II appointed the Holy Cross priest to the Pontifical Council for Culture.
He became ambassador to the 1979 U.N. Conference on Science and Technology for Development, the first time a priest served in a formal diplomatic role for the U.S. government.
He served as chairman of the International Federation of Catholic Universities from 1963 to 1970, leading a movement to redefine the nature and mission of contemporary Catholic education.
He held 150 honorary degrees and was the first priest elected to the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, serving from 1994 to 1995 as president of the board.
Father Hesburgh wrote an autobiography, "God, Country and Notre Dame," and three other books.
He is survived by a brother, James.
—CNS
