Robert M. Conway, a member of the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees for more than three decades, died Sunday (Jan. 15) in New York City. He was 78. “Bob was an accomplished business leader, a generous benefactor, a Trustee and loyal alumnus of Notre Dame and, above all, a true gentleman,” University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said. “He was also to many of us a dear friend, whom we will miss deeply.”
Roos received the Sheedy Award, the Joyce and Dockweiler Awards for undergraduate teaching and mentorship, and a Notre Dame Presidential Award for service to the campus community. The Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy annually presents the John Roos Award to students with the best senior honors thesis in American politics.
For 45 years, Swartz taught everything from introductory courses to interdisciplinary seminars. The popular professor received Notre Dame's highest teaching honor in the College of Arts and Letters — the Sheedy Award. He also introduced a summer program at the University's study abroad site in London and was president of the Faculty Senate.
University of Notre Dame alumnus Charles Sheedy and his wife, Ellen, have made a leadership gift to his alma mater to endow an innovative new program that will offer specialized coursework, programming and resources for undergraduate students interested in finding deeper meaning in the practice of business through the liberal arts. The Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise and Society will be open to College of Arts and Letters students with a minor in business economics or a Mendoza College of Business minor, or Mendoza majors who have a major, supplemental major, or minor in the College of Arts and Letters.
John T. McGreevy, a distinguished historian and former dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University by its Board of Trustees, acting on the recommendation of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and informed by a search committee of elected and appointed faculty and students. “The Notre Dame community is fortunate to have in John a provost who is ideally suited for a position that is so central to our progress as the world’s leading Catholic university and among our nation’s most respected teaching and research institutions,” Board Chairman John J. Brennan said. “The search committee and Father Jenkins recommended to the Trustees a scholar and administrator with impeccable credentials, and we look forward to working closely with him in the years ahead.”
The U.S. Senate today confirmed the nomination of University of Notre Dame alumnus and former senator Joe Donnelly as ambassador to the Holy See. A 1977 graduate of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in political science, Donnelly went on to earn his law degree from the University four years later. He represented Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Notre Dame, for three terms and served one term in the U.S. Senate.
Notre Dame alumnus Adm. Christopher Grady, the first and only four-star flag or general officer from Notre Dame, has been nominated vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the No. 2 military officer in the country. A history major and three-time monogram winner for fencing, Grady is commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Naval Forces Northern Command, and Naval Forces Strategic Command.
Walter Nugent, the Andrew V. Tackes Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Notre Dame, died Sept. 8 in Seattle. He was 86. Nugent taught undergraduate and graduate courses primarily on U.S. migration, the Gilded Age and progressive era, and the U.S. West. His research focused on westward migration in the United States, populism and demography. He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and Beinecke Fellowship, the Warsaw University Medal of Merit and two Fulbright Awards.
Janice Poorman, director of formation and field education and professor of the practice in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, died Wednesday (March 10) after a courageous battle with breast cancer. She was 68.
Pete Buttigieg, former South Bend mayor, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and a faculty fellow in the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS), has been nominated to serve as Secretary of Transportation by President-elect Joe Biden.
Edward Manier, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, died on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26) at his home in South Bend. He was 89.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a 1998 University of Notre Dame alumna and an investigative reporter for The New York Times Magazine, has won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for criticism, journalism’s highest honor. Hannah-Jones was recognized for her introductory essay to the newspaper’s landmark The 1619 Project, an ongoing and interactive series she created that focuses on the 400th anniversary of when enslaved Africans were first brought to what would become the United States.
Gilburt Loescher, a longtime Notre Dame political scientist and an international expert on refugee and humanitarian issues, died April 28 of heart failure. He was 75. In 2003, he was in Baghdad, Iraq, when a suicide bomber attacked United Nations offices at the Canal Hotel. Loescher was among the more than 150 people injured in the attack, his wounds life-threatening, with doctors giving him only a 25 percent chance of survival. It took rescuers more than four hours to extract him from the rubble, amputating his legs in the process.
In a letter today to the Class of 2020, University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., announced that the University Commencement Ceremony on May 17 will be held online rather than in Notre Dame Stadium, and that an on-campus celebration has been scheduled for the spring of 2021. Father Jenkins made the decision after discussions with experts on infectious diseases, University deans, and student government and class officers as he continued to monitor the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Notre Dame faculty member and alumnus Carlos Lozada, the nonfiction book critic for the Washington Post, is the recipient of a 2019 Pulitzer Prize for criticism, journalism’s highest honor. In announcing the award April 15, the Pulitzer jurors cited Lozada “for trenchant and searching reviews and essays that joined warm emotion and careful analysis in examining a broad range of books addressing government and the American experience.”
Titled “American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh,” the book examines Father Hesburgh’s life and his many varied engagements — from the University he led to his associations with the Vatican and White House — and evaluates the extent and importance of his work.
Rev. Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C., associate professor of theology and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame and an award-winning author and filmmaker on international migration and refugee issues, was elected a Fellow and Trustee of the University at the Board of Trustees winter meeting Friday (Feb. 1) on campus.
Joseph A. Buttigieg, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of English and retired director of the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program at the University of Notre Dame, died Sunday (Jan. 27). He was 71.
The transformative gift will help the center expand its work forming and mentoring Notre Dame students, engaging in interdisciplinary programming and research, and promoting a culture of life worldwide through teaching, exchange, and service.
Donald C. Sniegowski, professor emeritus of English at the University of Notre Dame, died Tuesday (Sept. 18) at the age of 83.
Longtime philanthropists in the greater South Bend community — Ernestine Raclin and her daughter and son-in-law Carmen and Chris Murphy — have made a lead gift to the University of Notre Dame for the construction of a new community asset, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at Notre Dame.
University of Notre Dame alumnus John A. “Jack” Kelly and his wife, Gail E. Weiss, have made a $1 million gift to his alma mater to support initiatives within the University’s Notre Dame International Security Center (NDISC) and the Office of the President. Founded in 2008 and recently expanded with the addition of three new faculty members, the International Security Center is under the direction of Michael Desch, professor of political science. NDISC examines pressing international security issues facing the nation and world and conducts research that contributes to dialogue on global policy. The center supports faculty and student research projects, an endowed speaker series, an undergraduate fellows program and a seminar series featuring scholars and experts on national security.
A one-hour documentary detailing the origins, construction, and academic, student life, performance, and athletic components of the Campus Crossroads Project at the University of Notre Dame will air at 9 p.m. Friday, September 8, on WNIT (Channel 34) in the South Bend area.
The largest construction project in the 175-year history of the University of Notre Dame – an 800,000-square-foot integration of world-class space for teaching, research, performances, faith, multimedia, student life and athletics – is nearing completion, with several components now open or opening over the next two weeks and most of the other facilities ready for occupancy in January. The buildings include the new homes of the Deparment of Anthropology, Department of Psychology, Department of Music, and Sacred Music at Notre Dame.
In a restructured position, Eileen Hunt Botting will oversee the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program, Stamps Scholars Program, and other merit-based scholarship programs at the University. She succeeds Joseph Buttigieg, who is retiring at the end of the academic year.
Timothy S. Fuerst, William and Dorothy O’Neill Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame, died Tuesday (Feb. 21) after a 10-month battle with stomach cancer. He was 54. Fuerst conducted research on monetary theory and policy, with a special focus on business cycles. “Tim was a devoted and loving husband and father, a productive and highly respected economist, a gifted teacher and, of course, a wonderful friend to us all,” said William Evans, chair of the Department of Economics. “After Tim’s diagnosis, he adopted the motto of the Congregation of Holy Cross — Ave Crux, Spes Unica – ‘Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope.’ His courageous, dignified and faith-filled battle against the disease was an inspiration to us all.”
The gift was made to the University by Helen Schwab and her husband, Charles, in honor of her brother Joe O’Neill. O’Neill Hall joins Corbett Family Hall and the Duncan Student Center as the three structures surrounding Notre Dame Stadium, and will be a six-story, 100,000-square-foot building for the Department of Music, the Sacred Music at Notre Dame program, and hospitality space, with completion scheduled for August.
University of Notre Dame alumnus Robert P. McGrath and his wife, Joan, have made a $15 million gift to his alma mater to endow the University’s Institute for Church Life.
A conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 (Monday) at the University of Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., announced Tuesday (Aug. 30).
An associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1993, Ginsburg will engage in a dialogue on a wide range of issues with U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Ann Claire Williams, a Notre Dame alumna and Trustee.
Singer, songwriter and producer Todd Rundgren will serve as an artist-in-residence for the Department of Film, Television and Theatre (FTT) at the University of Notre Dame from Sept. 22 to Oct. 1. During his residency, Rundgren will teach several classes, work with students and teachers in the South Bend/Mishawaka community, perform with student bands in a concert Oct. 1 at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, organize an on-campus collection of used musical instruments for national redistribution to music students in need and, in conjunction with his Spirit of Harmony Foundation, present an award to Notre Dame alumnus Bill Hurd.