Mahan, Rev. George S., S.J. - Oral History (transcript)

              Fairfield University
Oral History Transcripts
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev. George S. Mahan, S.J.
Dean of Freshmen; Director of Admission;
Executive Assistant to the President
August 13, 1991
Rev. George S. Mahan, S.J.
a brief biography
“I was here for the first commencement and I remember standing on the side and
watching them parade to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers… It was nice to
have been a part of that little bit of the early commencement, of the early years of
the school… just the image and the sounds and the people parading in and it
was a great beginning, a happy beginning for everybody.”
Rev. George Stirling Mahan, S.J. was born on December 2, 1909 in the Dorchester section of Boston,
Massachusetts. A member of a family that includes 28 priests and nuns among his relatives, he
graduate from Boston College High School in 1928 and entered the Society of Jesus at Shadowbrook in
Lenox, Massachusetts where he studied until 1932. He came to Weston College in Weston,
Massachusetts, studying philosophy from 1932 to1935 and theology from 1937 to 1941. During the
interim, Father Mahan traveled to Palestine for two years of archeological study and fieldwork in and
around Jerusalem under the auspices of the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He was a member of a Jesuit
archeological team from Boston College that took part in the pre-historic excavations at Ksar Akil in
Lebanon in 1937; he also participated in the archeological excavation in 1936 of Teleilat El Ghassul in
Jordan, a large Chalcolithic settlement near the northeast Dead Sea coast, which led to his co-authorship
of Teleilat Ghassul II, an analysis of the excavation. Father Mahan was ordained in 1940, and undertook
his tertianship at Pomfret, Connecticut from 1941 to 1942. Wartime conditions prevented his returning to
Palestine, so from 1942 to 1947, he undertook graduate studies in Near Eastern Archeology and
Languages at the University of Chicago. He returned to Boston in 1948 to teach for a year at Boston
College High School, then served as minister and theology teacher at the province’s School of St. Phillip
Neri in Haverhill, Massachusetts. In 1950, Father Mahan was appointed Assistant Principal of Fairfield
College Preparatory School. After a year, Rev. James H. Dolan, Fairfield’s second president, asked him
to become an Assistant Dean and the first Director of Admissions at the university. He served in this
capacity for ten years, 1951 to 1961. In 1961, he was appointed Executive Assistant to the President, an
office he held for four consecutive administrations until 1980. Father Mahan was also active at the
university in many other ways. In 1961, he became the Director of Alumni Relations, and started the first
Alumni Fund in 1961-62. In 1972, he became the Director of Development at Fairfield Prep, and in 1980,
ran his eighth Prep Auction. Father Mahan was also the housemaster in the Southeast Hall (now called
Kostka Hall) for ten years, and was respected and well-liked by the students. He was active with the
United Way, the American Red Cross, the Connecticut Commission for Higher Education and the
Diocese of Bridgeport. Upon his retirement in 1980, Father Mahan was awarded an Honorary Doctor of
Humane Letters in recognition of his service to the University, the Prep and the community.
Coincidentally, Father Mahan also received a watch from the New York Football Giants team inscribed to
“Giant at Fairfield, Happy Days.” Father Mahan had been the liaison between Fairfield University and the
Giants when they conducted their pre-season training on the campus for eight years during the 1960s.
Upon leaving Fairfield, Father Mahan transferred to Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River,
Massachusetts where he worked for the next seven years as assistant to the president and director of
development. Later he moved to the Jesuit provincial headquarters in Boston to serve as assistant
director of the Jesuit Seminary and Mission Bureau and moderator of the mission support club. Along
with these responsibilities he was much involved in pastoral ministry in the Greater Boston area until
failing health required him to relocate to Campion Health Center in Weston, Mass. Father Mahan died
at Campion Center in Weston, Massachusetts on October 3, 2004.
Sources: “Rev. George S. Mahan, S.J.” obituary by Rev. Paul McCarty S.J., from the National Jesuit News, February/March 2005, p.22.; Public
Relations Files, “Rev. George S. Mahan, S.J.”, Folder #1, Fairfield University Archives and Special Collections; Noonan, Kathy, “Fr. Mahan Bids
Farewell After 30 Years, The Fairfield Mirror, May 2, 1980,p. 1-2; Photograph: The Stag, May 3, 1952, p. 1.
Additional citation: Koeppel, R.; Senes, H.; Murphy, J. W.; Mahan, G. S. (1940) Teleilat Ghassul II. Compte Rendu des Fouilles de l'Institut
Biblique Pontifical, 1932- 1936. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute.
WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making
of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material.
Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to
furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is
that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than
private study, scholarship, or research. As a component of the library and
archives of Fairfield University, the mission of this database is to provide relevant
information pertaining to the history of Fairfield University. It is expected that use
of this document will be for informational and non-commercial use only, that the
document will not be re-copied or re-posted on any other network computer or
broadcast in any other media, and that no modifications of any kind will be made
to the document itself.
If electronic transmission of this material is used for purposes in excess of what
constitutes “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Use for purposes other than private study, scholarship,
or research is expressly prohibited.
Please note: the cover page, biography and copyright statement are not part of
the original transcript document.
INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE MAHANtS.Je
APRIL 1992
(Note: Pages 1-3 Audio Only; Video Starts on Page 4)
LET ME JUST REVIEW WITH YOU WHEN YOU FIRST CAME TO FAIRFIELD. WHEN
WAS THAT?
ANSWER: I came in '50, the summer of '50 or the June of '50. I'm
not sure of the exact date but I came that month. My first memory of
the campus even though I came to work at the Prep School, I .worked a
year at the Prep School ih the Assistant Principal's office with
. Father Harry Butler. I was here for the first commencement and I
.remember standing on the side and watching them parade to the tune of
Onward Christian Soldiers, you know, to the ball field and to shell
. .
that was there at the time. It was nice to have been a part of that
little bit of the early commencement, of the early years of the
school, so but I don't remember details beyond.that really, just the
image and the sounds and the people parading in and it was a great
beginning, a happy beginning for everybody. That Is as far as it
goes.
HOW MANY STUDENTS WERE THERE IN THAT FIRST GRADUATING CLASS?
,,
ANSWER: I'm not sure that's available to us readily, but I would
say I would expect something like 75, but I don't know. I'd have to
go back and check records.
WAS COMING TO FAIRFIELD, WHEN YOU FIRST CAME IN 1950, WAS IT A
COVETED ASSIGNMENT FOR JESUITS? WAS IT SOMETHING THAT YOU...? -a ANSWER: At that time, I think for most Jesuits, it was barely
Y'
:I*
0 known because we had our other schools where our men were working in
and being assigned to and I think, I suppose, the superiors who made
decisions in those days were just picking a few men here 'and
there who would help fill in some necessary slot at Fairfield, so
it wasn't that well known. I remember later on, not terribly later
on, but later on, one man said to me, who's now teaching at Boston
College, he said, ''1 was 20 years at Fairfield. Well, two, it
sounded, it seemed like 20 in those days because Fairfield was
relatively speaking, unknown among the rank and file of the Jesuits
because it was getting its feet on the ground.!! But, itss been a
happy association because the students are enthusiastic about being
part, they're making history and the professors feel that everything
that they can do is very much worthwhile, they're not just
supernumerary, they need this extra round, this extra hand and so
thatss....There was a certain spirit, a certain pride that went with
it and there was some ''relative hardshipsw, but people wouldn't call
them hardships today with what we hear about people who are suffering
today; just rough and tumble, you know. The buildings were finished,
you didn't have this, you didn't have that, nothing like, no air
conditioning in those days and so forth and you climbed up --most of
the buildings you climbed up to the top floor on your own, you know,
but again, there was a camaraderie that the setting developed and
you'd enjoy 'it very much -- being a part of it, so I was delighted to
be here at the Prep and to make what little contribution I could make
to their operation and then, at the end of that year, they were
looking for someone to fill the spot of the Director of Admissions
here at the University who was called to Boston College. They were
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 2
looking for a man, so I came over and took his position as Director
of Admissions and
Assistant Dean, the man to whom I was Assistant Dean was Father
Lawrence Langguth, who I think youqre going to interview in a day or
two, so we had been all through our academic life together from you
might say, from grammar school. He and I went to the same grammar
school, the same high school, graduated the same day, he entered the
Jesuits about 2 weeks before I did, we both in '28 and we, our
courses of study as formally, were at the same time together. We
were ordained together in 1940, and so forth, so while I had 30 years
in Connecticut after he left here, we were pulled back again together
about 1980. I, it was time fo. r, me to retire, I was Executive
Assistant to the President so I was asked to go up to Boston or Fall
River and be the Director of Development there. When I got there, I
met Father Langguth. He was there, so then we spent the 7 years that
I had in Fall River and 4 years in Boston together and here we are
today; so it's been a great -- a lot of wonderful things have
happened between, not big things, but things, know.
IN GROWING UP WITH FATHER LANGGUTH, AS YOU DID, DID YOU SHqRE
TOGETHER THE DECISION TO BECOME JESUITS?
ANSWER: Not really. I didn't know he was applying to the Jesuits
at all. In fact, maybe 32 men in my class, I donqt think I knew any
one of them was going to apply when we entered. We graduated from
high school together, we lived in the same neighborhood, but we
didn't pal around together. He was just that little distance away
from where I lived -- not that far, but you had nothing in common as
youngsters on the street, you know, away from school. It was just
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 3
a the schooling that we had together. It was just that
little different association.
QUESTION #I, VHS #1 (0-00-07-04) NOW WHEN YOU WORKED TOGETHER HERE
AT FAIRFIELD WITH FATHER LANGGUTH...
ANSWER: I worked with very short time at Fairfield...he was Dean
and I was Assistant Dean, but I don't know the dates. He may
remember them, but it was only two or three years later that he was
called to Western Massachusetts to help develop the Shadowbrook
Complex that we were setting up there for our Novitiate and so forth
because he had great talents as a Physicist and as a mathematician
and a lot of balance that those disciplines seem to build into your • system, so he was very much in demand, so I would say that I donut
think we were together here for more than 7 years, I am guessing.
That's my impression. It would be something like 7 years, but it
could be less than that, but he would know the exact dates.
QUESTION #2, VHS #1 (0-00-38-08) WHAT WAS THE SPIRIT HERE IN THE
EARLY DAYS? WAS THERE A FEELING THAT YOU WERE DOING SOMETHING NEW
AND DIFFERENT?
ANSWER: Yes, it was, well, it was a spirit of doing something new,
different in this area, but .not different from our other schools.
But it was a beginning and you just had to feel, we're going to make
this as fine an operation as we can. We used Holy Cross and Boston
a. College, instinctively, as models. You know, you didnst say that to
each other, but you wanted to be sure if they did anything there, you
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 4
were going to try to move this along in that direction as well as you
possibly could, either catch up with them, maybe in some places, to
pass them, you know, but you had that feeling, sslet's learn from what
was done there and see what
we can put into the value for the people and the boys and the
people in this area.'! A lot of nice people welcomed us, just by
their attitudes and cooperation and made it a very happy and
wonderful association.
QUESTION #3, VHS #1 (0-1-35-15) ' IS THIS THE.COMMUNITY THAT
WELCOMED YOU?
ANSWER: The community. Yeah, just individuals in the community
who just went out of -their way to support anything you tried to do,
to make it come to life, you know and a lot of them have come back to
me. Howard Owens who is the, who might say is the community lawyer
and his two sons, his sons and it went on and on like that. I don't
know when John Sullivan came into the picture, you know, the man who
was, he was a great friend of the school for many years and oh
theress another man who's still alive over in Milford. He must be
well along now. Mr. Bedco. Frank Bedco and his sons went through I
think the Prep and the University and he used to run the concessions
at the ball field in the old days, you know, with all his family
pitching in, but he was a loyal, deep fan and still is of the school
and the individual men, just a top flight person, you know.
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 5
' ',
QUESTION #4, VHS #1 (0-02-31-06) WERE THERE OTHER WAYS THAT
PEOPLE LIKE JOHN SULLIVAN HELPED OUT THE SCHOOL?
ANSWER: Well, I think what John, I suspect, did, first of all he
was a good friend of any one of us, but I think what he did was he
helped them perhaps mostly in his good counsel in anything that had a
legal effect, you know, anything that the community would be in any
way involved with, we should understand, be sensitive to them and
understand how they would react to anything you tried
to do and of course, anything that he could do positively, Iqm
sure he did, but I can't remember specifically an issue where we had
to have John to take care of that particular issue. I think the
basic thing was our relationships were so fine and he was so positive
in guiding us along that he must have saved us from an awful lot of
mistakes, you know, and John is still just a fine, fine 'friend.a nd
person. You're very proud to know him and so forth. I can
appreciate him right up to the last. I was walking up here two years
ago, through the campus, had come down for a retreat and I saw a
fellow working on his car there, one of the security people, in the
parking lot outside of the gym and I came up, and the next thing I
knew, he was kneeling bes'ide me on the parking lot and ,the security
people were there, he was one of them, but I mean they had an
ambulance there, apparently I.had just passed out like that, without
a warning of any sort and they took me to St. Vincent's Hospital, put
in a pacemaker, but when I came to life at the hospital, there was
John Sullivan, there, with a couple of other friends. It was
terrific to see somebody like that. I remember John so well, you
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 6
know, that hets been a part of the life of the school, Prep and the
University in such ahappy genial way, you know, that we hope we
dontt forget who our real friends are from the way back of the old
days.
QUESTION #5, VHS #1 (0-04-29-16) WHEN YOU BECAME DIRECTOR OF
ADMISSIONS8 WHAT WERE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIESI EXACTLY? WHAT DID YOU
DO:!
ANSWER: I think, basically, you had to interview the boys who
applied and follow their records and see if they had the basic
background, the high school background that they needed for the
program and
in the off-season, you would visit the schools around the area
whenever they would have like a "Student Nighttt,y ou know, a "College
NightN to represent Fairfield, to meet the people who were
interested, to answer their questions, you know, and then, of course,
when they came, to help them over the steps of Admission. It was,
that was a very, very pleasant experience because sometimes you'd
meet a man, I can remember two or three men, I remember one went to
Southfield, I think in high school and the principal said to me, he
says, we only have one man that might be interested and he might be
interested in you but hets unusual, he's a little bit different,
apparently, he's a very bright boy who went like his own way,
respectfully and all, but he couldn't make up his mind, well he
actually applied and I was surprised 'cause sometimes you see 50
people and you're lucky to get 1 into it. This was the only man I • met. He stayed with us, he went through the whole course, he's been
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 7
to school, I guess at M.I.T. and everywhere and he's now out in Kenya
or someplace like that building windmills to try to give the people
water, you know. He's been to ~thiopia and maybe still there. I'm
not sure exactly where he is right now, but to see somebody like that
come along all the way and stay with you and make a great success of
it and be happy with it himself is kind of nice. So, there are a few
like that.
QUESTION #6, VHS #1 (0-06-06-21) IN THE EARLY DAYS WHEN FAIRFIELD
WAS JUST GETTING OFF. THE GROUND AND A LOT OF PEOPLE HADN'T HEARD OF
IT, WHAT WAS IT LIKE GOING OUT TO THE HIGH SCHOOLS TALKING ABOUT THIS
NEW COLLEGE?
ANSWER: Oh, well, it was very much, it was very lonely in a sense
when you went into these halls you know with all the other colleges
represented and you just hoped that one or two or three or four
people might stop by your table and give you a chance to talk to them
and so that was quite a thrill because some days you'd come and you
saw a lot of people and some days, either you saw either no one or
just one and so it was kind of a beating to move around the area,
into New York and throughout New England and the school wasn't that
well known, but when anybody said oh, I was told to look you up,
you'd brighten right up and say that's fine and then, itDs a question
of how much of this work is going to frip to fry into real students
and people to do well. But when you see them come all the way
through, it's quite a thrill. And there are a few of them like that,
Oral' History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 8
you know, that you've seen them all the way, from the very beginning.
But, there were some lonely nights on the road. It's a long ride
down in the rain and I met one person or I'm not sure that I made any
worthwhile contact and here I,am, back again to work tomorrow
morning.. That was part of the early days, that was part of the early
days. You were, the school was not that well known and I think that
sparked you, in a sense, there was always, in the early days, nothing
was routine. It was always a challenge so that you felt your efforts
were worthwhile, you weren't just filling a slot that routinely
is to be filled, but if you didn't do it, there was no one else
to do it, you know and so, it was kind of a nice experience.
QUESTION #7, VHS #1 (0-08-00-24) DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THE
@ QUESTIONS THAT STUDENTS WOULD ASK YOU ABOUT FAIRFIELD WHEN THEY WOULD
COME UP TO THE TABLE?
ANSWER: Yes. Well, in general, I would say they first of all
wanted to know, where is it now and tried to locate it and actually I
tried to locate it between Yale in New Haven- and New York border and
all the schools'down there and that wasn't too hard and then youDd
offer them the programs that you had and while we had all the basic
programs you needed, we didn't have them in the richness and the
depth in those days, so that we had to,.very honestly, tell the
fellows, we have what you're looking for and we'll give you a good
solid education, but we don't, we're not going to try to convince you
that we have the background of the name colleges that have been here
a long time and doing very well. So, I think what you try to do and
really wis the confidence of the man who comes to you, that youqre
Oral History: George ah an, S.J. Page 9
e giving him an honest appraisal of the school and telling him what his
chances of being happy, going there and what would be demanded of him
in cooperation. As I say, you only got a small percentage of all you
met, but to see those fellows come through and do well meant an awful
lot.
QUESTION #8, VHS #1 (0-09-17-12) DID YOU HAVE TROUBLE FILLING THE
EARLY CLASSES?
ANSWER: No, we didn't in the sense that if we got today, each
year, the numbers that we had coming in those days, we'd be terribly
disappointed, but in those days, because we were coming along, each
year it was growing, it was a growing ... we never had a
panicky feeling that I could remember where we won't have enough
to make it, you know. I don't think we had the financial commitments
in buildings , in other things, in those days, that we have today, so
that it wasn't a crisis, but we were delighted to have a good group
to present to your faculty that they had something worthwhile to work
with, but I don't think we had that sense of, you never cut the line
if the fellow has the background that he needs for the school. You
never cut anybody off, but, on the other hand, in my mind, worried
that much. We had, I can't remember a year when we worried about not
having enough students. Now, maybe people who were closer to Father
Maline, they might have had a little more worry than I have, but it
never came through to me, in any memory of any tight feeling
financially, you know, that wetre not going to make it, we haven't
got enough students. We would always compare, when we got 24 this a year and 56 next year and it went up and up and up. I'm wondering,
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 10
when I left that job in say, about '60, how many we had. I cantt
remember, but we seemed to have all that we wanted here, number-wise,
'you," say all that you wanted, but I 'couldn't tell you whether we had'
200 freshmen or not. I would think it would be around there, you
know, but I don't know for sure.
QUESTION # 9, VHS #1 (011-16-01) WERE 'YOU ALSO INVOLVED, I KNOW, I
WAS TALKING TO CARMEN DONNARUMMA LAST WEEK., HE WAS INVOLVED IN GOING
OUT AND SPEAKING TO LOCAL CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS...
ANSWER: Yes, he did a lot of that.
DID YOU ALSO DO SOME OF THAT?
I did almost none of that, no. I think carmen did a lot of that
and he was very well received. He had a nice style. He had a
full background of the school. But I did, I would say, almost none
of that, because the work on Admissions and the paperwork and the
traveling, in my memory, was almost my whole life. Now, there might
have been some incidental occasions when I.was called out for
something like that, but I really don't have any real great memory of
that at all. What I do remember very much that Carmen was our man on
the road. He was a sample of the kind of professors you had and what
kind of'people you're going.to be dealing with, if you come here to
school. He's really a great man, he still is, he isn't retired, they
tell me. I remember him so well.
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 11
QUESTION #lot VHS #1 (0-12-20-02) WHEN STUDENTS SELECTED FAIRFIELD
UNIVERSITYt WHEN THEY DECIDED TO COME HEREt WHAT WERE THE REASONS
THAT THEY CHOSE THIS UNIVERSITY?
ANSWER: My impression of them was that they felt, perhaps because
it was a Jesuit University, it had a solid program. It had a solid '
program and I also think they felt that it was, there was a warmth
about the faculty, about the association with which you'd be
involved, you know, and those two things stand out. For some of
them, of course, it was financially available to them and for others,
it was in their commuting grasp. They could make it decently, but
beyond that, but when a fellow chose it who could have gone somewhere
else, some of them were very outstanding high school students and
they could have gone almost anywhere, I think they came because they
had faith in the program being sufficiently organized and solid, that
they wouldn't be making a mistake choosing it, but I also think they
had, which I think
many of the kids seem to have today from what I hear, there8s a
warmth about the setting here, the setting in which you're going to
do your college work and get your degree and that attracted them,
whatever little they saw of it, whatever came within their grasp.
That's what kind of struck me about them, looking back and that's
what I think, because they knew the Jesuits were running it and
they'd like to go to school under their aegis, but, for the most
part, they didn't really know the Jesuits personally, it was the
tradition handed down to them wherever they came from. So, it must
have been the program first.of all and the warmth of the reception
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 12
a they received, either from the man on the road, or the people they'd
meet visiting the school and, after that, it could have been
financially available to them or it could have been, it could be
reached from home. It wasn't, many of the fellows were not, very few
came out of New York, but some did, more than any others, Connecticut
basically, nearby New York and a few from Massachusetts, not so many
over the line in Massachusetts, very, very few, but that" the way I
remember them and the setting at that time.
QUESTION #ll, VHS #1 (0-14-32-28) WERE YOU INVOLVED IN ANY OF THE
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES GOING ON IN THE CAMPUS, LIKE THE WINTER CARNIVAL OR
ANSWER: Not directly. I might have visited some aspects of those.
The only thing that I was very much involved in was the social
movement in the 601s when students, in the sense, took over the
colleges, I was very much a part of that. But, the social, the happy
gatherings they had, I might sit in on them, or an alumni get-together,
attend some of their activities, join them, but I
was never involved in the organizational aspect of those things
at all so that I was kind of on the periphery if they had a big dance
on the campus or something, if the Glee Club went to the Klein in
Bridgeport to sing, if that was the case. Naturally, I'd be there to
meet a lot of the fellows and their folks, but I didn't, never had
any organizational responsibility for any of the various clubs in
that sort of thing, not that I can remember. Somebody even tried to
tell me, donlt you remember that, but I donlt remember anything like
that.
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 13
QUESTION #l2, VHS #1 (0-15-38-11) WERE THE PARENTS OF THE STUDENTS
VERY MUCH INVOLVED WITH THE UNIVERSITY?
ANSWER : Reasonably, as one could expect them to be. I think very
few of them were able to financially support the school, but they
gave their cooperation and they cooperated in anything you asked of
them. When you asked them to be involved and take, they were
wonderful on that level and whenever the students had any, whether it
was a commencement or any other affair during the year, well, the
Glee Club, they would come in numbers, supporting anything you did
and they liked to support their sons, they liked to support the
school and they created a warm, family atmosphere and they, I think,
they still do. I'm not on top of it now. I've been away so long.
QUESTION #13, VHS #1 (0-16-28-08) WERE YOU INVOLVED WITH THE
BELLARMINE CLUBS AT ALL?
ANSWER: The Bellarmine Club, as such, I don't think I was really
involved with it, except incidentally as a member of the faculty to
attend a meeting or something like that, a celebration, but not to be
responsible for its organization or in any key way that comes
back to me. I'm trying to recall. No, no, no. Somebody should
remember this, but it doesn't come back to me.
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5.' Page 14
QUESTION #14, VHS #1 (0-17-01-25) DID YOU KNOW THE-FIRST FATHER
FITZGERALD FAIRLY WELL, I GUESS FATHER JOSEPH FITZGERALD, WAS HE THE
FIRST. . .3
ANSWER: Father Joseph Fitzgerald was not the first president, by
any means.
\
NO, NO, BUT HE WAS THE FIRST FPTZGERALD WHO WAS PRESIDENT, P THINK,
WASN'T HE. DID HE SUCCEED FATHER DOLAN?
Yes, I think he was. Father Joe, he was a short, little man, quiet
little man, very nice person. Father Dolan, I think was here when I
first came in '50 and I think Father Fitzgerald succeeded him.
Father Joseph. A quiet little man. We had not much of memorable
a events that I can remember connected with his presidency, even though
he was a very effective and kept things neatly tied together and
moving along. Father Jim Fitzgerald, who I think was his successor
, and not of the same family at all, he's the one who came to me one
day and.asked me how would I like being.the Executive Assistant to
the President because he was a very quiet man. He needed somebody on
the outside who would represent us downtown or here and there when we
needed to show some interest in a project and so that's where I
started my Assistant to the President situation with Father Jim.
With Father Joe, it was just a warm, family relationship, but no key
thing that I can remember.
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 15
QUESTION #15, VHS #1 (0-18-19-12) THERE WAS A FAIR AMOUNT OF
BUILDING, I THINK, STARTED UNDER FATHER JOSEPH FITZGERALD. CANISIUS
WENT UP, GONZAGA AND SO FORTH.
ANSWER: When I was here, we had Berchmans and I think Xavier was
finished too by that time and I was operating in the initially, in
Canisius as Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions and then I
believe that I moved over from there to offices in the front of the
Gym, the front face of the Gym and it was while I was there that
Father James Fitzgerald came to me and asked me to think of the work
in Admissions in the College, as Assistant Dean in the College, but
a that's as much as I can put together of that.
QUESTION #l6, VHS #1 (0-19-10-11) NOW YOU BECAME ASSISTANT TO
FATHER JIM FITZGERALD?
ANSWER: That's correct. That's right.
WHAT SORT OF A MAN WAS HE?
He was.a tall, quiet man, very much of a retiring man and he really
worked out of his office in Bellarmine Hall where he lived, rather
than having an office set aside for himself on the midst of the
campus. I represented him, that's not putting it correctly. I, in
my office in the Gym, I did what little you might say paperwork that
had to be done for him and his secretary would come down from the
main house and bring material to me and I would work on it from
there, but it was later on'when Canisius was built, but I think, as I
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 16
recall, that Father McInnes was the first man to have an office in
~anisius and to work as President out of that building and I moved up
to be with him up there. I don't remember Father Jim, now he may
have, but I don't
remember his functioning in Canisius.
QUESTION #17, VHS #1 (0'20-23-20) DID FATHER JAMES FITZGERALD HAVE
A PARTICULAR VISION FOR THE UNIVERSITY, ANY DIRECTION?
ANSWER: Well, I think he had a vision, but I think, this is, I'm
speaking for a man who's dead. What my impression was that he had
been Dean ,at Holy Cross in Worcester and his brothers were very
prominent Jesuits, too and I would imagine his vision of the
University was making it as solid and appealing as he could in terms
of the picture he had in his own mind of Holy Cross, of where it had
gone up to that time and I'm sure that he had enough associations
with the Boston College setting that they would know that too, but
did he have visions and long range dreams and plans, that I'm not on
top of. That's not that clear to me. I think it was Father McInnes
that brought that new opening up of the flower and going to town on
that effort. But Father Jim was the quiet, solid man, who was
building on a tradition that he had inherited from our other schools.
That's my guess. That's the way I would have thought of it anyway.
QUESTION #18, VHS #1 (0-21-35-00) YOU WERE, FOR A WHILE, WERE IN
CHARGE, I GUESS OF WHAT WAS CALLED THE NEW HORIZONS PROGRAM THAT WAS
BEGUN AROUND 1960; IT WAS A FUND RAISING PROGRAM TO PUT UP NEW
BUILDINGS AND INCREASE FACULTY SALARIES AND SO FORTH.
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 17
ANSWER: Only incidentally. I wasn't ...y eah slightly touched there,
because I was not Director of Admissions, I was not Director of
Development. I was in Admissions and as long, and when I moved out
of that to work with Father McInnes, I was very much of an assistant
to him and perhaps an Assistant to anyone who would be
his directly appointed fund raiser or architect or anyone who was
dreaming up the plans for the future of the school. But I was never
a moving part, a moving, an inspiration to any one of those projects
that I can recall at all. I just cooperated with them in their
effort and keep them clearly on track, in touch with the President,
but the men that came in to head those various departments really
must have their own autonomy and you try to be sure that they had
a everything they needed to work effectively, but they were doing the
brain work on the issue for it, so I'd be only incidentally a part of
those things.
QUESTION #19, VHS #1 (0-23-00-13) WAS FAIRFIELD IN THE 50'8 AND
NOW MOVING INTO THE EARLY 60'8, WAS IT INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY WORK AT
ALL, AS IT BECAME LATER ON? WERE THE STUDENTS GOING OUT INTO
BRIDGEPORT, SAY OR WHATEVER, DOING ANY KIND OF COMMUNITY WORK BY THIS
TIME?
ANSWER: Not in my memory of that. There might have been some
incidental work here and there where they were contributing quite a
bit to the community, but as we think of the community efforts today
and sending men into those areas of the city where they need some
visible support and where there is a great development of a college
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 18
certain areas that I, that escape me, in terms of memories where men
could say "Don't you remember we used to go to Stamford or we used to
Hartford?" That I don't recall, with any clarity, certainly,
somebody would say you should recall this, but I don't, I don't
remember that well, but I know we had nothing of the caliber of the
Jesuit volunteer corps or the group
having a special group who had a special project in the inner
city; that may have been, but I don't remember it. The things that
they do today are much more sophisticated and probably effective too,
they're so well organized than they did in the old days.
QUESTION #2O, VHS #I (0-24-25-1 0) YOU AND FATHER MCPEAKE, I READ,
WERE THE FIRST ONES TO COME UP WITH A FRESHMAN ORIENTATION, OR I
GUESS YOU BEGAN A FRESHMAN ORIENTATION?
ANSWER: I think we, he, of course was in the Graduate School,
rather than the undergraduate and we would be, perhaps, I would be
following his lead I would imagine, because he had a better sense --
he worked with a lot of school teachers, he would know what they
would like to see happen, especially friends of the school who were
in the school teaching area, they would know what would be helpful to
the incoming students to prospective students and I think that he
would be someone with whom I might have worked in those days. I
remember him very well, but I don't remember the context, our
associations and that level. We were planning a program of
orientation, but I feel very much that I was very much a part of the
Oral History: George Mahan,, 8.5. Page 19
did and how we did and how we planned it and put it together. We
looked to him because of his.. .he had a great depth, I think in
public school education, too, and in the courses that offered to
public school teachers, to enrich themselves and those probably
working, coming into the area that we kind of, as it were, in the
undergraduate college, at least I
did, left that sort of thing to those men who had the expertise
and knew where they were going with it, where they'd like to go and
you tried to support them rather than contribute and not block the
upbuilding of the program. He made wonderful friends for the school
among the public school teachers and their whole operation. He
served them, but he also served us by being close to them and
responding to their needs and responding also to their suggestions
and so the ideas they thought would be worthwhile. He did a lot for
the school. He did very much and we appreciated it very much. Even
today, I have people still ask me, I'm sending you something in
memory of Father Helmuth McPeake and what he did for us. Some of the
public school teachers are still around.
QUESTION #21, VHS #1 (0-26-47-16) DID HE BEGIN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF EDUCATION?
ANSWER: I'd like to say quickly, yes, but I'm not sure that I'm
saying that correct'ly. He may have been its first Dean and Director.
My inclination is to say yes, but I'm not absolutely sure. The
records would have to check that out.
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 20
QUESTION #22, VHS #1 (0-27-08-22) YOU, FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT, AS
DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS, YOU REMAIN IN THAT POSITION ALL THROUGH THE
ANSWER: Yes, I think it was about 1960 that Father Fitzgerald
asked me to come up to the President's Ofgice.
WERE THE STUDENTS CHANGING IN ANY WAY DURING THAT PERIOD? DID YOU
SEE ANY CHANGE?
ANSWER: 50's to the 60's -- I would say quickly, not noticeably
so, except they were coming in larger numbers in the 60's and I think
we had a sense you were dealing with a body, rather than the
individual. In the 501s, you were very close to each individual
student in his application all the way through. It seemed, I think
as we got into the 601s, while there was a good tone among the
students, you had that sense you were dealing with a nucleus, a
group, a solidly bound group and there was a difference in your
treatment and your mentality than you had in the early 50's. So,
we're building the school together in the 50's and I think as we got
into the 601s, there was more of a sense of a body and the challenges
that go with the body ... the thought and work together as a body of
students.
QUESTION #23, VHS #1 (0-28-29-29) WAS THE FATHER'S WEEKEND
SOMETHING THAT YOU WERE INVOLVED IN?
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 21
ANSWER: I worked again, have been slightly involved there, but not
in the, I'm trying to think of who would have been the imaginative
person who would put it together.. .I might have been, but I don't
remember the mechanics, I don't remember detail. I certainly,
naturally would have been very close to them, coming on the weekend,
but who put it together. Who sent out the letters? Who planned the .
program? If I did, I've been so far away from it, it doesn't stand
out vividly in my mind, but I wonder who did that. Father Langguth
may be able to tell you some of those things, if they didnDt come up
too late after he left us because we all have a little trouble with,
memory these days, but he may remember certain things of those days
better than I because he was 'always, while he was here, he was in a
key administrative position, so that held be a better source on that
than I am..pa
QUESTION #24, VHB #1 (0-29-43-29) YOU WERE ALSO8 I GUEBS, DIRECTOR
OF ALUMNI RELATIONS FOR A WHILE.
ANSWER: Yes, I worked with the alumni and kept in touch with their
administration of the Alumni Council and tried to be sure that the
things that they tried to do, that they got a good hearing, attended
all their meetings, consulted with the men who were President and so
forth among the Alumni. I remember a few men from that and some of
the pictures of the issues. I am trying to think of some of the
issues that were bothering them then. I just remember a couple of
faces at meetings and their enthusiasm or their impatience with our
moving faster on some of the things. Olawski is a name that...I a don't know if you've run across that in your reading. Bronislaw
Oral History: George Mahan, B.J. Page 22
Olawski ... very active Alumnus and very generous fellow and the Bepko
brothers, they were very prominent among the alumni and all through
the years. ..I think one of them has died since and one of them is
head of a law firm in Bridgeport, but Olawski and the Bepkos and
there were a few other names I'd hate to hurt them by not mentioning
them, but, no I was very much a part of the Alumni Association and
worked with their men in putting their programs together, but I
wasn't much o'f a creative influence on them. I was generally
speaking, a cooperating administrator and I was depending more on
their own imagination, things that were burning issues with them,
tried to work them out together with them, rather than to lead them,
give them some worthwhile leadership. They seemed to be a lot
brighter than I and a lot more imaginative, a lot more courageous
too in moving along. There were some fine people there.
QUESTION #25, VHS #1 (0-31-43-18) DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THE
ISSUES THAT THEY WANTED YOU TO MOVE ALONG FASTER ON THAN THE
UNIVERSITY SEEMED TO BE MOVING? WAS THERE ANY ONE THAT STICKS' OUT
THAT YOU RECALL?
ANSWER: I think the first issues that generally stood out were, I
would say, developing some aspects of the athletic program. Those
things stand out to me, developing the grounds and so forth or
setting up memorials at time for different issues or class memorials,
but something that they would have discussed and tried to press for
action on...letts see...I can see them in their meetings and I can
hear them talking, but I don't hear the words, I don't hear the
issues...I can see the spirit that was among them, but I don't see
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 23
the issues...the issues don't come through. The only place that I
would look for something like that would be in early records of the
Alumni Association, the early history of the school. If we were
talking to people like the Bepkos or talking to people like Olawski
and a few others about the early days of the school, Bob Marconi,
who's a school teacher or a principal in the Bridgeport area
somewhere now and you'd have to ask them "What are the things that
were burning while you were students here?" They probably would
remember them very vividly, but I don't. They don't separate
themselves out.
QUESTION #26, VHS #1 (0-33-34-05) WERE YOU INVOLVED IN THE
HOMECOMINGS AT ALL?
a ANSWER: Again, yeah, I would be involved in cooperating with
them, but not creatively, organizationally, very slightly
organizationally, I would say. I might -- providing facilities for
them, see that the facilities that they were counting on, having
available when
they came here, then I definitely would be involved in being sure
that those things were in place. What they expected to find when
they arrived here were ready to go. That's the sort of involvement I
generally had, rather than the dreaming up of what's going to make a
good program. They generally speaking, I usually, generally depend
on their imagination. What do they want to do? How do we want to do
it? What are we going to do to make it come true? But, I'd want to
a be sure than on campus when they arrived, they were able to get the
full benefit of their planning.
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 24
QUESTION #27, VHS #1 (0-34-29-19) IN THE 60'8, IN THE EARLY 60'8,
I GUESS FAIRFIELD WON THE G.E. COLLEGE BOWL, DID THAT HAVE A BIG
IMPACT ON THE UNIVERSITY?
ANSWER: Oh, it had spirit wise. It really knit the fellows
together. They were very proud of their school. It had a great
influence, I think, on getting the school known and so, on people
applying to the school. They had the feeling that they were joining
a school that had a reputation, whereas the first fellows that I met • in my earliest days, of course, were coming with a lot of faith in
the school administration and so forth, but I think by that time,
they were so proud to be recognized as being able to stand on their
own, among other colleges, that was always a thrill. That was always
a great thrill and of course, the faculty participated in it, too,
but when we would stand out like that, the students were just ... it
would just make them new men. It really, really did because you
always had that sense of pioneering, that there were worlds to
conquer and we're breaking down a few of the barriers right now and
so those were great days,
to see them succeed in anything like that. Oh yeah, I remember
them very well.
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 25
QUESTION #28, VHS #1 (0-35-47-11) YOU WORKED CLOSELY WITH FATHER
MCINNES WHILE HE WAS HERE.
ANSWER: Yes, he and I worked very closely. He was the
imaginative, courageous man, moving forward and I was simply his
assistant and support within the framework of the administration and
so forth.
QUESTION #29, VHS #1 (0-37-24-04) WHEN YOU SAY HE WAS COURAGEOUS
AND IMAGINATIVE, IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU MEAN?
ANSWER: New programs ... I think he developed, he began the
development program, hiring people who headed up and see it through.
He would, I think he was the one who had the courage to develop- all
the different schools, the Business School, the Education School, not
that he did them all himself, but he gave everyone encouragement that
he was going to back the development of broader expanse of programs
at the school and where we had a chance to compete or to stand out or
to be a part of the national collegiate educational program, he would
pull the plugs to be sure that the gates were open,-that the fluid
was running through and he, in a sense, ushered us into the greater
national university life -- student and administrative life of the
nation, so he brought to the university, people of national
prominence ...p eople that would be invit.. e d for a honorary program at .
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 26
. A
commencement. He would have made the contacts, if not directly, then
through the contacts he made in educational circles, he.was able to
bring in the people who would give stature to their commencement
exercises and so, again, people, students were very proud of him too
because they realized he was
making their family famous, as it were and they responded very,
very well. Those were great years and I think it opened up, it set
the stage and opened up the whole present, the wonderful flowering
that we see today is built on the adventuresome spirit that he had in
those days.
QUESTION #30, VHS #1 (0-38-17-03) WHERE DID THAT SPIRIT COME
FROM? a ANSWER: Well, of course he was young and vigorous himself. Held
been in the service, you know, and you know how those fellows come
out of the service, with a lot of courage. The world is their oyster
and he had been, for a short time, an Administrative Assistant to one
of the Deans of Boston College, the Dean of the School of Education
and he was just there a short time, but just long enough to get the
saliva running and then he wanted now on his own, while he's got an
opportunity to get in the swing of that and so he came from a
background, a collegiate background that was only short lived as far
as he was concerned, but it gave him the incentive, I think, the
associations, to let's go with Fairfield, now that we have a chance.
That's my impression, my personal one, other people may read the
a cards differently.
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 27
QUESTION #31, VHS #1 (0-39-12-11) DID VATICAN 11, ALSO HAVE AN
IMPACT, COMING AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME?
ANSWER: As such, quickly, I'd say no, but what happened in the mid
601s, the fact that the world changed and the students felt that no
matter how loyal they were and how proud they were of their school,
they're not going to be anything worthwhile, unless they can stir up
some activity on their campus, similar to what was happening on the
big campuses around the country because we
0
didn't fight the students in the sense of a stand-off. We worked
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 28
with them and I think they were satisfied to move things and be the
dynamic source of movement, comparable to what was happening on other
campuses, but they never lost, in my mind, that respect they had for
the staff. I remember one time they took over Canisius one night,
and I went in to check and see what was going on, and one of them
came up to me and said to me !!Father, you better get out of here,
somebody's liable to lose his head and hurt you or something." But
the thought, and he was one of the key men in the movement, so I said
fine and I walked off because...but you could see they wanted to have
their own show, but at the same time, there was not the negative,
terrible black attitude towards their faculty and administration.
That was just fine, so that we never had anything ... I remember that
one time they had a big student rally in the gym here. They loaded
it up, the whole student body was in there; in a sense, they had
taken over the gym, but in the midst of their program and all their
yelling and screaming, Father McInnes came in on the floor from the
back of the gym and I was up in the gallery with the students and
there would say llWow,h as that guy got guts to walk out quietly and
get up in the middle of the gym program and speak to them!" I don't
remember a word he said, but I remember his attitude and their
attitude at seeing them. They didn't hoot him, but they just admired
the fact that he would come face to face with them all and discuss a
couple of the points that were very much a part of their thinking in
those days. So I remember
him, of course, but I remember the attitude of the students. To
me, it was a tremendously wholesome one for kids who wanted to be
themselves. he^ wanted to show that they could take their place
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 29
with any students in the country as far as standing up for issues
that were important in their mind, so that stood out. 1'11 always
remember that picture and their reaction to it. So there were a lot
of fine things that came up. The toughest times, in a sense, the
crucial times were times that paid you back in great dividends in
terms of what you thought of the men in the school and their reaction
to things. They were just great.
QUESTION #32, VHS #1 (0-42-48-26) FATHER MCINNES REALLY OPENED THE
ADMINISTRATION UP A GREAT DEAL. I MEAN THERE WAS A LAY BOARD OF
TRUSTEES APPOINTED AT THAT TIMEt THERE WERE NEW VICE PRESIDENTS OF
DEVELOPMENT AND SO FORTH. WHAT WAS HIS IMPETUS FOR THIS? I MEAN,
WHY DID HE MAKE THIS DECISION? DO YOU KNOW?
ANSWER: Well, my impression is you're not going to ever be a great
university with just a kitchen cabinet. Oh sure, you could run the
school and you could make some pretty solid decisions, but you're not
going to be worthy of the goals you set for yourself and for your
students of being an intelligent, responsible part of the academic
world as we know it today and so he felt he had to open the school
up. He had to have a Board of Trustees, of course, then they had
their own say from their academic, from their political, from their
financial background, whatever it was, legal background, they then
insisted themselves on issues and reaction to issues in terms of a
mature, responsible operation of a major institution today, so they
responded very
well to his initiative and he was a man who could work with
people of sophisticated backgrounds and of course, I think they liked
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 30
it too because they didn't find in him a dead, plodding, super sure
person. He was willing to take some risks, with careful appraisa1,of
the issues, but he didn't duck them and I think they admired him for
that. He was always very pleasant and open with them and I think the
students who weren't that close to him, still from their long range
viewpoint, they were proud of having a man like that at the head of
the institution. They probably articulated that much later after
they graduated, but I think it was there at the time because I
remember those tough times were also good times too. We were lucky,
he was lucky. Father McInnes was lucky because he had with him, at
that time, the Dean was Father Jim Coughlin who is not too well at
this time, but hess down there. Father Coughlin had, I wouldn't say
he was the courageous type, but he had the integrity and the courage
to work things out with the students if it was 2 or 3 in the morning
and a gang of them came to his room, he'd get up and talk with them
and discuss the issue with,them, but he was never a softie in the
discouraging sense of the word. He was kindly and he was restrained,
but he was clear-headed and strong and they respected him and they
found he's a man you could talk turkey with so I think that Father
McInnes, having a man like Father Coughlin at that time as Dean, that
was tremendous, they were a tremendous team and I was his assistant,
but that was kind of incidental, compared to the support he got from
a man like the Dean. He could have had a weak dean and the place
could have
been a disaster. Those were great days because of a couple of
great men, others too, but those stood out. a
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 31
QUESTION #33, VHS #1 (0-46-11-06) WERE YOU INVOLVED IN ANY OF THE
DECISIONS AT ALL TO PUT UP ANY OF THE NEW BUILDINGS? I GUESS THE
LIBRARY WENT UP AT THAT TIME) THE SCIENCE CENTER.
ANSWER: Only in this sense, being Assistant to the President. I
would have been involved in all of the discussions, especially with
the Trustees and all that. I1ve.beena part of that and see who was
that, and what they were saying and this and that, but I wasn't
contributing to the academic decision-weighing of issues the way
these men on the board were. I was a part of the scene, I sat in on
them all, took notes, prepared the drafts of the meetings, but did
not actually, I was not a key figure in the sophisticated planning
that went into all these things, but no, that came out of his
Trustees and his Library Committee -- all those ideas of where we
would put a building,,w hat kind of a building, how big or small
should it be within our resources. That was always on the Board
level.
QUESTION #34, VHS #1 (0-47-19-26) WAS THERE A LOT OF DEBATE ON
THESE ISSUES IN THE BOARD MEETINGS?
ANSWER : I think there was a fair amount of debate, especially as I
see it, one or two key men, maybe on the staff or the faculty would
prepare the agenda for the meeting and the issues to be handled.
They'd be treated in the Board Meeting and then Board Members would
take different sides of it. ~ h e ~ lkidnd of talk it through, like
today, we call it discernment. Well, they would talk it through and
so, finally, there was consensus pretty much developedamong them of
what areas seemed to be most solid and '
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 32
make the most sense and then Father McInnes would pull that
together with one or two men and present it to them again as a final
draft. My dreaming of it was it would start out with the people in
that particular discipline, making their personal contribution, what
they think we need and how we should go about it. Those ideas, being
pulled together, would be presented to the President, he would
present it to the Board of Trustees, or the special commission for
this affair and then the results of those meetings would be
coordinated in his office and we'd go from there. That's the way I
review it in my own mind.
QUESTION #35, VHS #1 (0-48-37-24) NOT TO INTERRUPT YOU, DO YOU
REMEMBER ANY PARTICULAR MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES?
ANSWER: Well, our lawyer was usually there which was Howard Owens
in the old days because any legal aspects of this issue that might
come up. Then, I'm trying to think of some of the bankers that were
helpful to us. I'm liable to be confused on that level because I
lived in Fall River for some time and I have a few banker friends
from that area and I could put a Fall River man on our Board from
memory. Some of the key men in the industries from around here were
very supportive. A man that's now very, very apparently active at
Boston College was at that time, probably the key man at General
Electric in town --Tom Vanderslice. He was on the Board and then
Tom, and a few others who had similar positions in other major
industries would weigh the major decision-making processes as we were
getting in close and help Father McInnes to keep balance in judgment
of what the people were asking for, where are the finances for this,
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 33
how are you going to handle this
and I think because of their sophisticated experience in
business, they were able to make a fine-contribution to his academic
aspirations for the school, but he had men, I'm trying to think, some
of the men of the Board were Administrators of our other colleges,
either at Fordham, or in the Midwest or something like that and they
would bring in what experience they had at their own institution.
These men would bring in the business common sense, Howard Owens
would bring in, among others, the legal aspects of these issues, so
we donst miss the major points of issue and there may have been a
couple of other lawyers too. I think a man like John Sullivan, I'm
not sure when John came on the Board, but men like John would be able
to help you to see what stance you should have towards the political
world of the cities and the state and it was that happy blending of
quite a bit of fine talent that made those years so worthwhile so
that we could do the great things that have been done since. So,
that's my memory of it; it's a broad swipe.
QUESTION #36, VHS #1 (0-51-12-03) THE STUDENTS AT THIS TIME WERE
ALSO EAGER FOR, I GUESS, MORE FREEDOM WOULD BE THE WORD, CONTROL OVER
WHAT THEY WERE WEARING, WHAT THE PARIETAL HOURS WOULD BE, WHAT WAS
THE ADMINISTRATION'S REACTION TO THAT?
ANSWER: Well, I think the administration's reaction, you might
say, was practical in a sense. They were always worried about moral
issues and so if you were creating some false standards, but I think
they also had a sense of you've got to respect the students, youDve
got to protect them, in a sense, from themselves, but in making these
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 34
decisions, you've got to respect
them as respectable, honest to goodness people and if you donBt
respect them, you're going to respect them and destroy your school,
if you get too narrow-minded at picayune, on your assistance on this
and then, again, they did some experimenting in decisions and the
changes that the students were looking for and my own feeling is that
some of the issues that we went with them on, it took a lot of faith
on our part on them, but part of it, too, is what can you do on the
practical order? It was a heartbreaking time because some of our
Jesuits, finest men we had in our school, thought that Father McInnes
and his advisors were really washing out -- they were just
irresponsible with the liberties that they were willing to go with,
with the students and I remember one of the men, one of the finest • men we had on the campus, a good professor, a good student, a fine
Jesuit, he just felt that we abrogated some of our responsibility
with some of the freedom we allowed them ... visiting girls, with girls
visiting the school, visiting boys' dormitories that it got so bad
that he was so discouraged at the way the university was handling it
that he said I'm going to move off campus; I'm just not going to live
in this situation and it was kind of tough to have somebody move
on ...g ood man like that and he wasn't just a crackpot, he just lost
his faith, his balance of the administration, so I said to Father
McInnes at that time, 1'11 go over and live in the dorm where he was
and 1'11 take over his room. He said "You're crazy, but if you want
to try it, try it." So, I went over there and it was a disaster at
the time I went. The condition of the dorm, you'd go through some
rooms and some
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 35
students had moved out into other rooms, the rooms were just a
dump, you'd go by and say "hin to the students, and then I remember I
had two kids who had just come back from Woodstock in New York and
they lived in the room next to me and I got up one night and I heard
these girls screaming and crying and this, that and the other thing,
so I got dressed and knocked on the door and the guy said Itcome in.ft
I didn't see any girl there and the guys are lying back on the bed
like this and I says "Where are the girls?" And they said "Father,
in the closetw. They had a radio on, so I got a big kick out of that
-- two just regular fine students who thought they would give me a
good time for myself, but they were in the closet. Two fellows, I
couldn't tell you their names right now, but I still remember the
incident very well. So they were little tense situations like this -
- how far do you go? But, I don't think one of the things that
helped us, I really don't think we ever lost our respect for the
students. We tried to hold them a little tighter and I think they
sensed that they were not being treated in a black and white sense;
you are wrong with every student an enemy, you know that sort of
thing. They seemed to have that feeling that it's almost as if they
were home...the mother and dad might be tough on them, but they still
remembered they owed them an awful lot. They seemed to say that
quietly without any discussion at all because little by little, I'd
be able to walk with them, they saw you had respect for them and
they'd clean up their act, little by little, so I mean, we had these
terrible grooves that I first ran into when I first went into the
dorm, but little by little we got that straightened
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 36
a out, mostly because they were not that deeply antagonistic. They
wanted to be treated like human beings who had some intelligence and
some balance and could be trusted, but they also wanted to make some
decisions for themselves, so that worked out, it was an exciting
time, but it did work out and they did some crazy things in a way. I
remember one night I used to prowl the campus at 2 or 3 in the
morning and one night,.about 1 O'clock in the morning, maybe 1:30, I
don't know, I went into Father McInnest office 'cause I had a key and
gee I heard this noise and some guys ran out the back door. There
was a little back door and they ran down the road and to the Regis
and I chased them out, but of course they were gone so fast you
couldn't catch up with them, but I went back and what they were
doing, I realized now, 'cause Father McInnes had asked me a couple of
a days before, "George have you been taking liquor out of my liquor
closet?It And I said, "NoN. And he says, "Well, it seems to be going
awfully fast." What they did was they had a key, 'cause they didn't
seem to break any window or a lock, they got a key somewhere and they
took the telephone receiver off the hook on his secretary's desk and
that little light on a telephone would give them just enough light
and they'd get into the closet and they'd help themselves to the
bottles. They weren't drinking there, but I just surprised them that
night, I didn't catch them at all because they were off and gone in
no time. But there were a lot of little things like that that
happened through those years, but again saved you from getting a
terrible negative, crying response to it all and I think they grew
with it too because they thought
we had some respect for them and could allow for some, a little
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 37
wildness here and there, so it was a great time in a way.
QUESTION #37, VHS #1 (0-57-48-16) WERE THERE OTHER JESUITSb AS
WELL, WHO FELT THAT FATHER MCINNES HAD BEEN GOING A LITTLE TOO FAR?
ANSWER: Oh sure. I don't know what the proportion was, but I
would say that maybe only a sma'll proportion, maybe one-tenth. This
man that I spoke of whose room I took over must have had, at least,
four or five who felt the way he did. He was very discouraged and
then, of course, the men at the Prep School who were not involved in
the college and didn't have any of the involvement with the college,
they might, more quickly, criticize them because they weren't close
enough to the operation, so he might have had more people who thought
little of him at that time, but I would say, 75-90% of the college
involved Jesuits were with Father McInnes and Father Coughlin. I
think part of that was that Father Coughlin had a great standing
among his colleagues. We all respected him, he represented us well.
What I can't do, he can do, let's support him, but I think there
might have been up to 10% who had that, maybe I don't know how to
judge it, but that's my feeling. There were some, definitely. They
couldn't, they just thought he threw all principle and responsibility
out the window, but that was a very minority. And then the other
man, like the man whose place I took, he was a very fine person. It
just affected him personally, he wasn't a crab. In fact, I think he
was a friend, a very good friend of the Dean, but just personally, he
just couldn't relate all this in what he thought was a balanced way,
but sometimes we do just personally
hurt too much by issues.
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 38
QUESTION #38, VHS #1 (0-59-48-02) WAS THE LAY FACULTY GENERALLY
SUPPORTIVE?
ANSWER: I think they were generally in support of him, but you
don't live as close to them. In other words, you?e not hearing what
they're saying at home and they're not hearing when they go downtown
or in the restaurants or have a few drinks and what they're saying to
each other, but in general, I'd say, it was a good healthy attitude.
I don't know the lay faculty moving out; again some of the things
that would happen would only be us who lived on campus and lived in
the dorms with the students who really knew what was going on so the
lay faculty were not having this impinge on them that directly. They
were coming in for their classes, but it's the men who lived on the
floor with the students, who either made a success of it or a
failure. Very few were broken with it, one or two were, not that
many, somehow or other, there was a bond between the students and
what we called Housemasters, the men who lived on the floor that
saved them from getting too negative about it all. I think it was a
healthy thing. I can't look back on it in any way, but say it was
good for us, it was good for the students that went through the
experience.
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 39
QUESTION #39, VHS #1 (1-01-02-08) WERE YOU INVOLVED, THERE WAS A
FAMOUS INCIDENT AROUND 1970, WITH THE ROCK GROUP, THE DOORS8 WAS
SUPPOSED TO COME TO CAMPUS AND THEY COULDN'T COME ON BECAUSE
APPARENTLY THERE WASN'T ENOUGH ROOM FOR THE CROWDS TO SIT AND THEY
BLAMED FATHER MCINNES FOR NOT BEING OPEN AND TRUTHFUL ABOUT THAT
BECAUSE APPARENTLY HE HAD AGREED WITH THE POLICE IN FAIRFIELD...
ANSWER: No, I was not involved with that and I don't remember the
issues
that well. I can remember there was an issue like that, but I donqt
remember when you come right down to it, whether Father McInnes had
promised the Town something and promised the students something else
or they didn't mesh that well and they were expecting support where
they d'idntt get it or the Town was objecting to something that they
thought was different from the way it was explained to them, but
thatqs easy, I can see that happening ... no question about that at
all.
QUESTION #40, VHS #1 (1-02-03-04) IN 1970, THE COLLEGE MADE THE
DECISION TO GO CO-ED. WERE YOU INVOLVED, AT ALL, WITH THE BOARD OF
TRUSTEES MEETINGS? WAS THERE A LOT OF DEBATE ON THIS ISSUE?
ANSWER: I think there was just a reasonable amount of debate. I
was involved with the meetings of the Board, but I think it was just
a question of weighing the prudence of it and weighing the whether or
not this is the way a responsible college goes at this time and I am
sure this was kicked around quite a bit among the Board. But, the
fact that it turned out the way it did, it just seemed the most, to
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 40
my mind now, the most natural thing in the world because I think to
have insisted that you wouldn't go is like to say you don't believe
in all these things like liberal education and learning from the
world and being a part of the world. It would have seemed, in a
sense, that you would have destroyed your college if you didn't go.
Now, it's a question of when you go that route, how well you manage
the move. That's the big thing, because handling it responsibly is
one thing and just abrogating all principles is another thing and I
think they
handled it with a reasonable stance and watching it a grow and I
was a little bit a part of that because I not only lived with the
boys before we went Co-Ed in Regis, but when we opened the dorms over
here, the new dorms, Koska and Xavier, I was the first Jesuit to move
in and it worked out quite well. We weren't setting up a convent or
.a religious house or anything like that, but the give and take there
was just fine ... wholesome; we made some mistakes, but no, I donut
think any serious mistakes and the students responded very well to my
recollection, just great in those days.
QUESTION #41, VHS #1 (1-04-10-03) WERE FINANCES ANY PART OF THE
EQUATION HERE? DID THE FINANCES FEEL, FROM THE FINANCIAL POINT OF
VIEW, IT MADE SENSE TO ADMIT WOMEN?
ANSWER: It may have, but it never surfaced as such. It would be,
naturally, if you felt that you're going to cut your student body in
half, youqre not going to have the student body unless you take
women, I don't think that issue came up as such. I think if you had
girls, or if you couldn't get the boys that you needed, now I'm not
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 41
0 aware of any time, now there might have been, that we really couldnvt
get the students that we really needed, basically so. I mean, we
were never satisfied; if you have room, that you couldnqt fill every
space, but I don't recall any time that it was crucial that we
weren't getting the students and we had to have the girls to have the
finances to work with. That could have been there, but I donvt
remember it surfacing on that level. I think it surfaced on the
level of "Can you run a co-ed school responsibly?" I think that was
the issue and I think that they
talked that over back.and forth and they said it's worth going
with it, reasonably, carefully and thoughtfully. I think that was
where it went. That was my impression.
QUESTION #42, VHS #1 (1-05-32-23) I READ THAT IN THIS PERIOD,
ABOUT THIS UNIVERSITY, THE UNIVERSITY HAD BEEN SUFFERING A COUPLE OF
YEARS WITH DEFICITS, THAT FINANCING WAS A BIT OF A PROBLEM...
ANSWER: Yes, well now that could have been there. It didn't
surface for me as I looked at things, but I think that should be
looked at more carefully because, especially, there should be some
record of Board of Trustees' discussions on those times and that
would reveal a reality, but I don't remember it clearly at all.
QUESTION #43, VHS #1 (1-06-09-16) WHEN FATHER MCINNES LEFT, I
GUESS THIS IS AROUND 1972, SOMEWHERE AROUND THERE, WHAT WAS THE
UNIVERSITY LIKE? DID HE LEAVE IT A STRONGER UNIVERSITY FROM YOUR
POINT OF VIEW?
ANSWER: I think he certainly left it a stronger university,
academically and I think he left it a strong university in the terms
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 42
8 of its vision. I think when he left, like so many of us who stay
here a long time, I think your style can also, as it builds up a lot
of support, it can build up a certain groundswell of some critical
element 'cause Inve seen good men leave after having done a wonderful
job and people are glad to see them go. You know what I mean.
Youtre not doing everything well, and younre over the hill in terms
of your peak productive because I do think that when he left and I
had great admiration for him, I think that there was some.of that
feeling, that when he was leaving, a fair number were not afraid to
say that they were glad to see him go and I think there were some
embarra'ssing and rough times just
before he left so that his going to University of San
Francisco...so they said, more power to them, but we would like to
start off afresh. There was a certain amount of that. He wasn't
everybodyts champion. Everybody wasn't on his team, but if you look
at the overall contribution he made to Fairfield, itns hard to
believe that anybody, even Father Kelley's done a wonderful job, but
it's hard to believe that anyone made the contribution that he made.
He brought us into the world, the new world, you might say, the great
world, if you want to put it that way and so we have, we owe him an
awful lot and I would be the first to admit that he had his own
imperfections, his own shortcomings, but I was pretty blind to it
because I hit it off very well with him, no problem at all and the
next man that came after him was different, altogether different, but
he was a good, solid man from the adventure and wide open outlook
that Father McInnes had, this man was a quiet, solid, strong scholar
and I think he was the right man at the right time.
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 43
QUESTION #44, VHS #1 (1-08-33-28) NOW WERE YOU ALSO, DID YOU HAVE
THE SAME POSITION WITH HIM?
ANSWER: I had the same position with him. He asked me to stay on.
I said I'd be glad to go now because you might want to build your own
team, but he said he was new to the campus and the area and
everything and he said stay on, so I stayed, but after about a year,
he didn't need me. I needed him more than he needed me. In other
words, I had a very fine office and all that and he could run the
show without needing any help from me, but in the beginning, he
wanted to meet people and to get acquainted and I had the contact
there for him, but as time went on, he didn't a need me at all. He put up with me for the next 6 years.
QUESTION #45, VHS #1 (1-09-16-13) HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE HIM?
ANSWER: Well, I think the main thing ... first of all, he had a
solid academic background; he was a scholar, he wasn't just an
administrator, he was an administrator, but a scholar and in fact,
he's going back to teach when he could have done a million other
things. He was a scholar all the way. Secondly, he was quietly
strong and he didn't talk a lot, but he would stick by a decision and
there wasn't much challenge to it because he moved into it in a very
precise and careful way. On the other hand, while not being a "glad-hand
Charliew and wonderful, warm personality, he kept in touch with
the students, he'd walk around the campus and join their talk, their
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 44
hanging around together. He didn't say very much, but he was in
touch with them and they knew they could reach him any time they ,
wanted to, but he didn't have that wglad-handw, try to make friends
atmosphere about him at all, but he ran his Board of Trustees,
everything was carefully organized, everything ... every detail, so I'd
say that coming on after the openness and adventuresome freshness of
Father McInnes, he was just the right man at the right time and he
built solidly this new development that Father Kelley was able to
follow up on. He is so, he was a different type of person
altogether, but just the type of person you needed at that
time .
QUESTION #46, VHS #1 (1-10-53-16) SOMEONE WAS TELLING ME THAT HE
WOULD EVEN GO SO FARt BECAUSE HE WAS VERY CONCERNED ABOUT FINANCESt
TO ROAM AROUND THE CLASSROOMSt TURNING THE LIGHTS OFF.
ANSWER: Well, that may be so, I never thought of that. I think of
that as a small, minor thing that I might do myself, but nobody with
stature would do. Maybe he did that, but I don't remember that, but
could well be true. Now, he'd be careful about our finances. He
wouldn't let you spend money foolishly and so he laid the foundation
for what's been flowering of late, but whether he did those little
picayune things, I don't know.
QUESTION #47, VHS #1 (1-11-28-21) SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT THERE WAS
AN OPPORTUNITYt AT ONE POINTt TO HAVE A LAW SCHOOL HERE THAT'S NOW
DOWN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRIDGEPORT. I GUESS FATHER FITZGERALD WAS
NOT TOO ANXIOUS TO HAVE IT.
ANSWER: . My impression was, with him, he wasn't anxious to have a
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 45
Law School that would be very, very weak, that, I don't think he felt
that he had the resources to put in the kind of faculty y o ~ ' b~ed
proud of and he didn't want to get involved in a very apologetic
stance with the Law School. Everything else was so solid. ThatDs my
impression that he didn't want to play around with a weak baby that
you'd be apologizing for all along the line. That's just my general
impression. What the facts are and what the records would show is
something else, but a Law School is a good investment. I don't know
today, there are more lawyers than anything else in the country, and
they do well. That's only a little that I remember of that issue and
that time that he just
didn't want to play with anything that wasnvt solid gold --
reasonably so, starting off. He wanted to start off stronger than he • felt he could start if he put it in at that time. That's the way he
came across to me.
QUESTION #48, VHS #1 (1-12-55-08) DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHY HE MADE
THE DECISION TO GO AHEAD WITH THE RECREATION COMPLEX WHICH WAS A
PRETTY MAJOR FINANCIAL...
ANSWER: Oh, no, the only thing that I can think of is this again,
what we had was less than, it was behind the rest of the development
of the school and he had to match it with reasonably parallel
development for the opportunities for the students in a wider
athletic setting than they had. I think that was one of the things
that would be, that should balance, there should be a
balance. You donqt want athletics to run away with you, but it
should balance. You can't be so academic that only half of your
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 46
brain is developed and that you had to have a rich set-up there that
-
you could be ,proud of, but beyond that and I think he felt that it
was something that he could stimulate on his advisors or his
development man and could win support from alumni and friends for a
good athletic complex ... especially, they made a gesture and I haven't
seen.firsthand how it worked out that it would be a service to the
Sound that we'd have facilities that would, to some balanced sense,
would be opened to the town people, would be a credit to the Town of
Fairfield. I think that was part of the: thinking, too. Letqs do
something that the Town would be proud of, too, not just internally
on campus and I suspect that's what developed, but I think part of
that, in a way, if that was involved in the thinking, which I'm not
sure of, John Sullivan
would have been able to contribute some good sound judgmint in
that area because he was Town First Chairman of the Council for so
long. I would think that he wanted to see a completely solid
flowering academic center and that has to be a part of it because it
was going crazy as though all we wanted were athletic teams. That's
my impression. I think another man who must have contributed an
awful lot and a lot of years to this development and I only know him
as a person, but not close up to his operation, because he's too much
of a professional to have everything sprayed out all over the place
is this George Diffley. He, I think, he led a lot of balance to the
thinking of the present president, Father Kelley because George came
in before Father Kelley came here, but again, I think he, in his
personal background, and then he had some experience down in the New
York area and that was another nice thing.. .Father Xelley and Diffley
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.J. Page 47
I think, worked very well together.
QUESTION #49, VHS #1 (1-15-55-17) WAS THERE THE RULE OF THE
JESUITS CHANGING DURING THIS PERIOD? WERE THEIR INFLUENCE DECLINING
ON THE CAMPUS BECAUSE THEIR NUMBERS WERE DIMINISHING, VIS A VIS THE
LAY FACULTY?
ANSWER: It's only more recently that that would have been
developed, that would be very recent. I don't think that was an
issue before I left. I had left and that was not an issue at that
time. Now, it's an issue in all our colleges, of course, and the
other thing too, is, I think is that the faculties, themselves,
throughout the country have so much influence on the hiring of the
professors that the Jesuit provincial who runs the Jesuits as a
group, as a family together, used to be able to appoint men to
Fairfield or to any other place. You can't appoint a man to
Boston College or Holy Cross or Fordham. They have to have all the
qualifications that the Faculty Committee is looking for and so with
the declining number of Jesuits, you're going to have fewer Jesuits
in your pool to appoint anywhere or to free up to go anywhere, but in
any case, the final decision is pretty much today what the Faculty
Committee in any hiring process, you know, a search for people in
various disciplines. So, the Jesuit provincials are not hit as hard
as they would have been if it was the old days when we had to put
a Jesuits in for every slot that opened up. That's not so now. What
they are doing now is they are encouraging all those men with talent
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 48
to go in and develop themselves to the full in their field, but then
after that, they talk over with them their invitation to go here or
to go there, the opportunity and some of them are,working completely
outside of Jesuit schools. I think there's one, I've heard different
stories of people in Boston, one man is Chief of the Department of
Psychiatry at the Mass. General Hospital and he's also a full
professor and Chairman of a Department at Harvard. He's a very great
asset to us and he makes a contribution in both of those areas and
he's a support to the province of Jesuits in their other needs, but
the salary that he would bring in and there are any number of men
like that now, who have been so encouraged to develop themselves in
their field that a man is very satisfied to be able to go along and
go ahead in his field as far as.he can, so I don't think...where it's
hitting us is in the high schools. Most of the high schools we had
have a heavy population of
Jesuits and there are two aspects of it: One of the ones is
first of all, either run them, if you staff with your own men and you
didn't have to pay any salaries except support them. The other side
of it was because you were in contact with fellows who were just
maturing into planning for life as a Senior in high school, many of
those men went off to be Jesuits. Many of the Jesuits that we know,
like myself, came into the Order out of high school, not out of
college, so where wet,re being hurt today is we don't have the number
of Jesuits teaching in high schools, we don't have the contact with
high schools that we had before so they don't learn anything about
the Jesuits until they're a mature person, out of college, with their
degrees so it's a very small proportion of all of those men who are
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 49
applying. Now the men who do apply, of course, theysre usually
scholars, mature person; they're not kids at all, but that affects
the numbers coming in, the availability of priests --there arenst
that many priests available, but I don't think it's hurt the colleges
because the college scene is such that the academic committees of
each discipline determine who's going to come on. Sometimes, Jesuits
can't get into the colleges because they feel that this man hasnqt
got what somebody else has for this discipline and so the Jesuit
might be very disappointed -- here's it a Catholic college and I
canst get into it; I got my degree and all that, but he's got to meet
the qualifications that this team has put down so I don't think it's
hurt us, I can't see it hurting us here and now maybe they can talk
differently at Boston College, their needs are greater, a panoply of
disciplines and somewhat at
Holy Cross and Fordham and those other schools, but I would say
that, while I'm not close enough to Fairfield any longer, I'm not
hearing the gossip, I'm not getting the reaction of faculty that you
did in the old days, so that I'm not a good ... I don't read the person
seeing with any confidence of knowing just what you're talking about,
but I don't see it as a problem that the lack of priests hurting the
University.
YOU, IN THE 70'6 LIVED IN THE DORM FOR THAT WHOLE LAST YEAR.
I left in '80.
QUESTION #50, VH8 #1 (1-21-15-03) WHY DID YOU MAKE THAT DECISION?
ANSWER: Well, mostly because I felt it's a wonderful thing to be
close to students, to be a part of their life. It's somewhat
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 50
disappointing to be Itonly an administratorw. It's more strictly a
business operation as an administrator, but if you're going to be a
part of the students, their hopes and their dreams, of growing up and
developing, you'd like to be, if possible, a constructive part and
like we had no special rules in the.dorms, if I'd hear any noise of
overdoing it, apparently in a party way or something, Ivd float
around the dorm at night, even if it meant getting.up at night and
just want to see what was going on. They knew you were interested
and then on the other hand, on a weekend, I would say mass for the
students up on the top floor of Gonzaga where the two buildings meet
and those who were interested, came and we,practically always had a
full house, but they came as they were, from whatever they were
doing, studying, whatever and it worked out fine, but it was being a
part of their life and also, having a chance for their life to
impinge on you.
It's a shame to not know anything about the modern world because
youqre living with guys that are past their peak, so, to me, I got a
lot out of being with the students and you.try to cooperate with
them. It gives you a chance to be a part of their education, with
them, even though I wasn't teaching at all. It was a nice
association.
QUESTION #51, VHS #1 (1-23-06-20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE
UNIVERSITY TODAY?
ANSWER: From what I see of it, it's as good, or better than we
ever dreamed of in the beginning. It seems to have, it hasnDt its
place among the big universities of the country, but it has a very
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 51
wholesome place among those who are close to the top and I think,
from what I get, the students who come here and graduate, you run
into them incidentally here and there, they're very delighted that
they came and as I see, the faculty's developing and what's available
to a student here, I'm very proud of the men who put it together and
of the people who helped us see our dreams fructify, and come true,
come to light. I'd say when you get away from that top 5-10% of the
best universities of the country, I think Fairfield is coming right
up, pushing behind them and in a way that wesre extremely grateful
for...that everybody who put a lot of his own hopes and his own
future --some men sacrifice themselves, they could have gone other
places. I'd like to be a part of what's going on here. I don't
think I get the impression that we haven't let them down. We gave
them a setting where it's part to have been around. Take a man like
Donald Rawley. He's been around here. I imagine he's very proud
of all the years that he spent'here and I think some of the
younger men, coming from the great universities where they got their
Ph.Dts, a fair number of them are very happy to stay when they could
have gone other places. That's my impression, but you don't live
close to them, you're putting ideas into their heads that were; you
don't know what the reality truly is, but just reading the picture
that they paint, by their association. I think it's great. I think
people are crazy when they start --this is the greatest university in
the country. It is really good and we are delighted with the way
it's gone and we made a great contribution, but we shouldnqt be blind
to reality as it were. It's nice to enjoy it and be thankful for it,
have been a part of it and, but I haven't got much more to say than
Oral History: George Mahan, S.J. Page 52
a that. I'm very happy with what we've been able to do here. I am,
from looking at the men and as I say, they all had their
imperfections, the men were great men, Father Coughlin is not
perfect, Father McInnes wasn't, Father Tom Fitz wasn't and Father
Kelley made a contribution, but you have to rely on them to be a
human being, too. You"e asking too much when you ask them to be
more than true to yourself, because true to themselves, they've done
a great job.
Oral History: George Mahan, 8.5. Page 53