Preview
Date
1944
Description
The Most Rev. John J. McEleney, S.J. was born in Woburn, Massachusetts in 1895. He was educated at Boston College, receiving an A.B. in 1918 and an A.M. in 1924. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1918. From 1924 to 1927, he was a language professor at the Ateneo de Manila in the Philippines. After being ordained in 1930, he served as assistant master of novices at Shadowbrook in Lenox, Massachusetts from 1931 until 1934 and then returned to that post after a year studying ascetical theology in North Wales in the United Kingdom. In 1937, he received a Ph.D. from the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. From 1936 to 1942, he served as Rector of Shadowbrook.
With Rev. James H. Dolan, S.J., Fr. McEleney was instrumental in the founding of Fairfield University. Initially, the New England Province of the Society of Jesus (then led by Fr. Dolan) applied to the Bishop of Hartford for permission to found a boys’ preparatory school in the vicinity of Bridgeport. At the Bishop’s direction, they expanded these initial plans to encompass the founding of a new Jesuit university as well. On March 17, 1942 in Pomfret, Connecticut, on the feast of St. Patrick, Fr. McEleney, Father Dolan, and five more of their Jesuit brothers drew up Articles of Association for the “Fairfield College of St. Robert Bellarmine” and elected Fr. McEleney as Rector. In this role, Fr. McEleney supervised the establishment of the Fairfield College Preparatory School and welcomed its first class that fall. Fr. McEleney is honored both as the first Rector of Fairfield College Preparatory School and the first President of Fairfield University.
In 1944, Fr. McEleney was appointed New England Jesuit Provincial (swapping jobs with Fr. Dolan). In 1950, he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Jamaica by Pope Pius XII, subsequently serving as Bishop (and later Archbishop) of Kingston until his retirement to the Campion Center in Weston, Massachusetts in 1970. Archbishop McEleney died in 1986 in Needham, MA.
Publisher
Fairfield University
Collection
Image Archive
Original Format
Hearthstone 1944
Digitization Date
2016
Repository
Fairfield University Archives and Special Collections
Copyright
© Fairfield University. This resource may be used for educational or non-commercial purposes. Please direct any questions to digital@fairfield.edu.
Repository Citation
"Rev. John J. McEleney, S.J. – 1st President of Fairfield University / Fairfield College Preparatory School (1942-1944)." 1944. Image Archive. Fairfield University Archives and Special Collections. https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/image-archive/258.