Father James N. Loughran, S.J.

Father James N. Loughran, S.J., president of St. Peter's College in Jersey City, N.J., died on Dec. 23 after a fall at his campus residence. He was 66. Father Loughran was the 21st president of the college, a post he had held since 1995. "Father Loughran led our institution with grace, dignity and a profound enthusiasm for all associated with St. Peter's," said Eugene Cornacchia, provost/vice president for academic affairs. In the 1960s, Father Loughran was a philosophy professor at St. Peter's. He was president of Loyola Marymount University in California, 1984-1991; acting president of Brooklyn College, 1992; and interim president of Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md., 1993-1994. Father Loughran was associate professor of philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, 1974-1984, and held the Edmund Miller, S.J., Philosophy Professorship at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, 1992-1993, and was the author of numerous scholarly articles. He also served as interim vice president for academic affairs and interim dean of the arts and sciences faculty at Fordham before returning to St. Peter's. Born in Brooklyn, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1958 and professed final vows in 1978. He was ordained in 1970. He held a bachelor's degree in history and master's and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Fordham University. A Funeral Mass was offered at St. Aedan's Church in Jersey City, with burial at the Jesuit Cemetery in Auriesville.