Personal background and education
Francis P. Smith was born on March 28, 1907 in Waterbury, Connecticut, the son of Matthew Smith and his wife, Elizabeth A. Smith (née Begnal). Smith joined the Holy Ghost Fathers as a junior seminarian at the age of 13. He made his profession in the order on August 15, 1926.
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, Waterbury had a population of 110,366, making it the 10th largest city in the New York Metropolitan Area, 9th largest city in New England and the 5th largest city in Connecticut.
He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duquesne University in 1930. He was ordained a priest on September 14, 1933 at St. Mary's Seminary in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he went on to obtain a bachelor of divinity in 1934. Father Smith taught as a professor at St. Mary's from 1934 until 1937, when he left for The Catholic University of America. He earned a Master of Arts degree from that institution in 1938.
A Bachelor of Arts is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, sciences, or both. Bachelor of Arts programs generally take three to four years depending on the country, institution, and specific specializations, majors, or minors. The word baccalaureus should not be confused with baccalaureatus, which refers to the one- to two-year postgraduate Bachelor of Arts with Honors degree in some countries.
Norwalk is a U.S. city located in southwestern Connecticut, in southern Fairfield County, on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. Norwalk is included statistically within both the New York metropolitan area as well as the Bridgeport metropolitan area.
A Master of Arts is a person who was admitted to a type of master's degree awarded by universities in many countries, and the degree is also named Master of Arts in colloquial speech. The degree is usually contrasted with the Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree typically study linguistics, history, communication studies, diplomacy, public administration, political science, or other subjects within the scope of the humanities and social sciences; however, different universities have different conventions and may also offer the degree for fields typically considered within the natural sciences and mathematics. The degree can be conferred in respect of completing courses and passing examinations, research, or a combination of the two.
Service to Duquesne University
Smith had begun postgraduate work for a doctorate at Fordham University in 1938, but his studies were interrupted when he received an assignment to teach philosophy at Duquesne in 1940. He was named Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1943, and Vice President of the university in 1944.
Fordham University is a private research university in New York City. Founded by the Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841, it is the oldest Catholic university in the northeastern United States, the third-oldest university in New York, and the only Jesuit university in New York City.
In 1946, Smith was appointed the seventh President of Duquesne University. He would serve in that position until 1950, when he was appointed coordinator of Spiritan educational activities in the United States.
An obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted that Smith's presidency "guided the university through a major post-World War II expansion fed by the influx of veterans studying under the G.I. Bill" and "supervised an expansion of the school's physical plant, improvements in faculty benefits and the founding of WDUQ, the city's first college radio station".
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It has won six Pulitzer Prizes since 1938.
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. It was designed by the American Legion, who helped to push it through Congress by mobilizing its chapters ; the goal was to provide immediate rewards for practically all World War II veterans.
WESA is a public radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts at 90.5 MHz with an ERP of 25 kW. WESA is a full member station of NPR and is also affiliated with Public Radio International and American Public Media.
Smith died in Pittsburgh on June 30, 1990 at the age of 83. Before his death, he resided at the Holy Ghost Animation Center in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park.
Charles J. Dougherty is an American academic who served as the 12th president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. An expert in the field of health care ethics, Dougherty has published two books on the subject.
Monsignor Charles Owen Rice was a Catholic priest and an American labor activist.
The Duquesne Dukes represent Duquesne University in college basketball. The team, which started in 1914, has only ever played in NCAA Division I and has had five appearances in the NCAA Tournament. The Dukes play in the Atlantic 10 Conference, of which they have been members since 1976.
Eugene McGuigan, C.S.Sp. was the first athletic director of Duquesne University, serving in that capacity from 1920 until 1923. Known on campus as "Father Mac," McGuigan also coached baseball, football, and basketball.
William Patrick Power, C.S.Sp. (1843–1919) was the first head of Duquesne University, founded as the "Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost". Power was born in 1843 and ordained in 1866; he had spent many years teaching in Spiritan missions in India, Mauritius and Trinidad before coming to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Joseph Strub, C.S.Sp., an Alsatian missionary priest with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, was the founder of what is today Duquesne University, which was called the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost until 1911.
Kenneth Gerald Gormley is an American lawyer and academic who is the 13th president of Duquesne University. He is a former dean and a professor of constitutional law at Duquesne University School of Law. He is also a legal counsel for the Appellate Practice Group at the law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP. His scholarly work focuses particularly on the Watergate scandal and special prosecutors.
Richard Henry Ackerman, C.S.Sp. was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A member of the Holy Ghost Fathers, he served as Bishop of Covington from 1960 to 1978.
Martin A. Hehir C.S.Sp. was a Roman Catholic priest and the fourth president of Pittsburgh Catholic College. Hehir served as president of the university from 1899 until 1930. In Hehir's thirty-one years of presidency, the small college grew to become a university and the seventh largest Catholic school in the United States. After his retirement, Hehir served as Superior of the Holy Ghost Missionary College near Philadelphia, and then as the Superior of the Spiritan Fathers at Ferndale Seminary in Norwalk, Connecticut until his death.
Jeremiah Joseph Callahan, C.S.Sp. was a Roman Catholic priest and the fifth president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, from 1931 until 1940.
John S. Willms, C.S.Sp. was a German Roman Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Holy Ghost. He worked in a missionary capacity among the Catholic population in the United States, serving as the second rector of the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and as the director of the Holy Childhood Association in America.
John Baptist Tuohill Murphy, C.S.Sp. was an Irish Roman Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, who served from 1886 to 1899 as the president of the Pittsburgh Catholic College, which was later renamed Duquesne University in 1911 when it gained university status. Later, Murphy was consecrated as a bishop and administered the Roman Catholic Diocese of Port-Louis in Mauritius until his death.
Raymond V. Kirk, C.S.Sp. (1901–1947) was a Roman Catholic priest and the sixth president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, from 1940 until 1946.
Adrian van Kaam, C.S.Sp. was a Dutch Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, a college professor, existentialist psychologist, writer on formative spirituality, and founder of the Institute of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University and its successor, the Epiphany Association of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
Vernon F. Gallagher was an American Roman Catholic priest who served as the eighth president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1950 until 1959. After leaving the priesthood in 1972, he was an academic administrator at St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont.
Henry Joseph McAnulty, C.S.Sp. was an American Catholic priest. A Spiritan, McAnulty served as the ninth president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1959 until 1980, and afterwards as university chancellor until his death.
Donald Silvio Nesti, C.S.Sp. is an American Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. He served as the tenth president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1980 until 1988. He is the founder and current director of the Center for Faith and Culture at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas, and a professor of theology at St. Mary's Seminary, also in Houston.
