Leeber, Rev. Victor F., S.J. - Oral History (transcript)

              Fairfield University
Oral History Transcripts
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Rev. Victor F. Leeber, S.J.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Modern
Languages
April 10, 1992
Fairfield University
Oral History Transcripts
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Rev. Victor F. Leeber, S.J.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Modern
Languages
April 1992
Rev. Victor F. Leeber, S.J.
a brief biography
“The books come first, but we have a lot of students who budget their time, get higher marks
when they're competing in sports than those who don't compete in sports. They fritter their time
away, the ones who don't. Sports make them conscious of time and they budget their time and I
tell them, saying we always encourage that. Sound mind and sound body.”
Rev. Victor F. Leeber, S.J. was born in Elkins, West Virginia on February 18, 1922. After the
Great Depression hit in 1929, his father moved the family to Boston. Father Leeber entered the
Shadowbrook Jesuit Seminary in Lenox, Massachusetts on June 30, 1940 and was ordained a
priest on June 20, 1953, at Weston College in Massachusetts. He was a member of the original
faculty that greeted students when Fairfield University first opened in its doors in 1947. During
45 years at Fairfield University, he founded and chaired, for 26 years, the modern languages
and literature department, where he taught Spanish, French and Italian to generations of
students. Affectionately dubbed the "Father of Athletics,” Father Leeber is credited with
founding five varsity sports programs and was chaplain and mentor to scores of student
athletes. Surveying Fairfield University's pristine 200-acre campus in 1947, he envisioned
cross-country running trails and urged then-President James Dolan, S.J., to let him start a
cross-country running team. He went on to found track, football, men's and women's swimming
and men's basketball programs at Fairfield. Athletic Director Gene Doris said, "Everyone just
loved Father Leeber. He had a great sense of humor and a great loyalty to our student-athletes.
They could always depend on him for his good counsel and encouragement." Father Leeber
retired from teaching in 1992, but remained active as a tutor and mentor to student athletes. He
was chaplain to several teams, frequently traveling to away games. In 1992, he was inducted
into the Alumni Association's Hall of Fame and in 2003 was honored at The Fairfield Awards
Dinner with the Honorary Alumnus Award. For 32 years Fairfield has hosted the Victor F.
Leeber, S.J. Cross Country Invitational. In 1992, the first scholarship was established in his
name through the generosity of countless friends, family, faculty and staff. Eight years later, in
2000, a second scholarship was named for Father Leeber through the generosity of alumnus
and former trustee William Egan and his wife Jacalyn. In addition, former students recognized
him with an anonymous donation, a statue of the Blessed Mother nestled in a grotto near the
DiMenna-Nyselius Library, along with a nearby bench for reflection at the statue. After Father
Leeber’s passing on August 14, 2009, Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, university president, said, "We have
truly lost one of our founding fathers. Father Leeber not only helped to successfully launch
Fairfield University, but his many years of dedicated service helped it to thrive. He will long be
remembered through the countless lives he impacted as a priest, teacher and mentor.”
Source: Fairfield University Press Release, Vol. 41, No. 34, August 17, 2009.
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INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR LEEBER - 4/92
QUESTION #I, VHS fl (0-00-00) THE COST OF LIVING GOES WAY DOWNt
IT'S MUCH DIFFERENT THAN IT IS DOWN HERE IN FAIRFIELD.
ANSWER: It's only Fairfield County, but Westchester County is
also very expensive, you know that, don't you?
AND SO IS NORTHERN NEW JERSEY?
That area.
IT S .ALL NEW YORK.
Well, we're in the, they call Greenwich, of course, the 'bedroom
of New Yorkl. Bankers live there, but they don't pay the taxes
that they pay in New York City, am I right?
QUESTION #2, VHS fl (0-00-24) THAT'S RIGHT. BUT IT'S VERY
EXPENSIVE LIVING HERE. I MEANt YOU SAY TO SOMEBODYt GEE YOU MAKE
$70t000 OR $80t000 AND THEY LOOK AT YOU FROM THE OTHER PART OF THE
COUNTRY AND IT SOUNDS LIKE A FORTUNE. BUT YOU LIVE IN FAIRFIELD
COUNTY e
ANSWER : Oh I know that.
IT'S LIKE AS MUCH AS THEY CRITICIZE SOME OF THESE CONGRESSMEN WHO
VOTE THEMSELVES A RAISEt WELL YOU TRY TO MAINTAIN TWO HOMESt WHICH
IS WHAT MOST OF THEM m V E GOT TO DO.
ANSWER: Do you know what I love about them? h he^ vote themselves
<
a beautiful retirement salary. I think that's beautiful. I wish
we had that'retireme.n t. salary, but they get away with it because
, the voters, they deserve one another. They vote them in all the
time. I think they should take a cut in their salary, don't you.
complaining. I just saw a piece of paper about I don't know if
you know LeMoyne College, a Jesuit college upstate, well the
faculty want to fire the Jesuit President so you read in the
inside page, you get the one sentence that says llwhyll.T he
President will not give them any increase in salary next year, so
they want him fired. Isn't that something? I thought the Board
of Trustees did the firing, didn't you?
NOT ANY MORE.
QUESTION #3, VHS #J (0-01-41) LET'S JUST GO BACK A LITTLE BIT.
I'M JUST KIND OF INTERESTED. YOU WERE .HERE SINCE 1947. • ANSWER: Yes, see I was 18 when I joined the Jesuits and so, in
fact, when I entered the Jesuits, this was 1940, there were only
three places I could be assigned to, to teach, Boston College,
Holy Cross College and Boston College High School. But as I went
through the course of studies which as you know for a Jesuit, if
you take the full course is about 15 years. That's why Jesuits
come out a little older than the ordinary Diocesan parish priests
because the studies are very comprehensive. Well then, when I got
to be assigned, lo and behold I said, ''1 never heard of this place
-- Connecticut -- I thought it,was the boon dock^.^^ Fairfield,
Connecticut. I had never been there'. Well, anyhow, that was my
first, I was assigned there and first, we have what we call a
status. That means that you are appointed. They donst have this
anymore. It Is a written document every year and all Jesuits are
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 2
assigned by the Provincial who is in Boston. Now you can go to
various assignments. I got mine and it read "Teaching Languages
at Fairfield Prepw. Then I got a letter and it said
"No, you're not going to teach it. We are opening a new college
on the same property and we need Language'teachers, therefore,
'since you're young,I1 they said ''You can start." And I was in New
Mexico.at the time studying Spanish, in New Mexico, so I came here
and I, there was nothing. A big field. Two adjoining estates and
actually, the Jennings Estate, the Jennings Family, well-known in
this town as you know, the Jennings Beach and many places, that
was one building and then there was another building. We bought
the Lasher Estate. He made his money, as you know, in chain-link
fences and chain links for your tires, so we bought those two
adjoining estates and of course, I don't think the townspeople
liked it because it was tax exempt property -- 200 acres when you
put them together and a little piece where we now live -- the
Morehouse Estate, right on the edge of the property and that had
one little house on it that goes way back. So then I come down
here and they said I1No, you're going to live in Bridgeport." I
didn't know we had a building there called Loyola Hall; it was a
house that had big pillars in front of it, I remember on Park
Avenue and we had that. We, a small group of us lived there, we
had lunch there, but we came to Bellarmine Hall which was the
Lasher Estate house for the main meal and then when the two
properties were purchased, we eventually sold that house to the
university of Bridgeport and then I think subsequently, it burned
down in a fire, accidentally. But, when I first came here, there
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 3
was nothing -- a big field with chain link fences, all through the
, ...
property and so the first year, where did they put me? Oh they
put me in a little house that
must have been a caretaker's house on Round Hill Road. They have
it now as an Alumni House; it's called Southwell Hall and it was a
little frame thing and they say it was originally, way, way back,
an old house. It was a tavern in early Colonial, I suppose
Fairfield, 'cause Fairfield, they say, was the site of the Pequot
Indian village before, around Colonial times. I didn't know
anything about this and actually the two properties were very good
because for our needs, our first President, he had a dream, as you
know, he told his dream. He wanted to create a Notre Dame of the
East and that's what he called it, and we were told to sell • bricks, "$1.00 a red brick.'' I remember that. It was early days,
but then built...we got here. McAuliffe Hall, which was the
Jennings Estate, the Prep was there. We were told we could have
one floor of Berchmans Hall, the building that had just been
built, so we used one floor, the Prep used the other floors and
when you'd go to the gas station, they'd say, Where are you
stationed?" And I'd say, "1 teach at Fairfield U." and they said,
"You mean Fairfield Prep?" I said, "No, I mean Fairfield U." So,
finally, we put up a building right on the road --Xavier Hall --
you probably see it -- this one. And they said, "Why, with 200
acres did you build it so near the road?" Because we had a very
I
shrewd President. Father Dolan said, "One never knows, imminent
domain, that is a state highway (which I didn't even know -- North
Benson Road was a state highway); he said they could, by imminent
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 4
domain, take a piece eventually. See he looked, he was amazing,
he had an amazing imagination. There is a drawing, I think you
can see it in one of our Fairfield Now
magazines. It shows you Dolants Dream -- something like 54
buildings. This was going to be a great University and one day,
he was showing Father, what's his name, the President of Fordham
university, he said, "Now if you are showing this field, you will
now, if you step down, you will go into the Operating Room of our
Medical School building.'' Of course, there was nothing there, but
see he had it all planned and even the architecture, but since he
left and died, we have not followed his architectural plan
because, well like Boston College started modified Gothic. Well,
you should see the Tip OtNeill Building; that's very plain, isn't
it? Have you seen Boston College? But, it's amazing because the
way it grew is really ... if you could see the day I arrived and
compare it today, I would say compared with our 2 cousins, Boston
College and ... that we grew faster. However, to be fair, to be
objective, we get something they didn't. They had no government
money. In fact, our blessing, our greatest blessing was
government loan money, which we had time to pay back if
we had more tuition. However, our greatest blessing proved to be
a very critical moment as Father McInnes would say. During
the...we were sued by a group, A.C.L.U. later saying "We should
give back that money to the government because we are church-related,
therefore." We said, ''We do not proselytize, we are
church-related, but we are not, we are not funded by the Catholic
Church or the Bishop." So, we did not have to, but we helped two
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 5
a other colleges, Albertus Magnus in New Haven and as you know,
, he probably told you all about that, 'cause he was the
President and I think he did a great job. I think hess
the greatest President we ever had. Of course, presenting from
the incumbent because his term is not up yet and he, right now, 'is
developing the University by leaps and bounds. You know that, I'm
talking about Father Aloyisius Kelley, but see you can't really
say' yet, he's too near the present and if you're talking about
history. But Father McInnes had to make a lot of very ... the Black
students took over this building. I remember very clearly. They
held a pipe over his head because he picked up the phone when he
went into the building to talk to them. It was a long story.
Those are the usual type students we would admit, but we had a • grant and we had money left over and as usual, you donst want to
give it back, it's easier, but they were not the ones we usually
take in, so sure enough, they wanted more say in the school, they
had five demands and he capitulated all five because he said it
was in the best interest. I think he made the right decision even
though at the time he was criticized for giving in to them. They
wanted a black counselor, they wanted more black students, they
wanted a black language and I was Chairman of the Language
Department for 25 years here and at that time, the Dean called me
and he said, "Meet with the black students, find out which black
language they want and tell them they have to get at least 20
students and they have to, at least, get a teacher; that's their
responsibility if they want." So, they came to me with, in fact,
I just heard from him recently, he went back there and now he's
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 6
back in the States. He called me up to say ... I said, ttYes,I
remember you very clearly.I1 We had it for 5 years; it was not
Swahili, I said, ttWell,d o you want
~wahili? Do you want Zulu or Arabic?" I said, These are
very ... languages from Africa." They said, I1No, we want Foola, of
the Foolanic People.I1 I said, "1s that ... why do you want that?"
They said, "We are quite convinced that our ancestors came over on
J
the blacks...came from that side of Africa, namely the East, not
the West. l1 And I didn't want to say was, "It ' s very difficult for
you to prove that. Who knows where our ancestors came from on
these slave ships? But we gave them Foola and the teacher was
*
qualified; I interviewed him. He had tapes, he had tapes that he
got from the State Department. And it went for five years and
then everything quieted down and first thing you know, he said, "1
have to go back to Africav1 so Father Coughlin, the Dean said to me
as Chairman, "If the teacher goes back to Africa, I could get
another teacher, the one who wrote our textbook." He said, "No,
if he goes back to Africa, Foola goes back to Africa." And from
that day on, we've never had an African language.
DUESTION #4, VHS #J (0-11-33) WHEN YOU CAME HERE IN 1947,
DURING THE LATE '40'8, WHAT WERE THE STUDENTS LIKE?
ANSWER: There were two kinds of students the first year -- very
unusual. What we were doing ... they took a chance on us and we
took a chance on them. We had one great advantage -- two big
advantages in this, really ... as I say, we were taking a chance.
One was, we had a Prep School that had been going since '42 and
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 7
though we had a nucleus because they, as soon as they graduated in
'46, that class constituted a nucleus of our freshman year and we
had 303 freshmen, but it's interesting because the other half, it
was
War, it was the Second World War and a lot of them were ex-G.1.l~
who, by the Bill of Rights, thelG.1. Bill of Rights, their tuition
would have been paid for, so we had those. So, when I came in, I
was very young and probably, I entered at 18, I was in my early
20's. A lot of them were older than myself. I looked in the
classroom and remember the first day and I was a little nervous.
Over half of them were older than I was. I noticed that he gave
them a break in the tuition. The tuition was $200 per semester in
1947 and they got a break on it. I don't know how much they
probably ... but I was telling my class today, reminiscing and they
were shocked because they're paying, what $13,000 now. $200 and I
thought that was a lot of money. In fact, I went to Father, the
Rector President and said, I1You know, these students are paying
good tuition, $200 semester, they don't have any sports, you know
we really should give them some sports.I1 llOh,lhle said, llMister,
can you be sure that you can win all the contest^?^^ flWell,lIl
said, I1Thattsv ery difficult to say ahead of time. There are so
many variables. He said, "What did you have in mind?" I said,
I1Well we have nice property and we have the Prep School, their
stuff, why can't we start with Cross Country Intercollegiate, not
intramural~?~S~e e, he wanted us to just have intramurals. I
said, I1No, intramurals are no ... they should have intercollegiate,
even though not necessarily varsity, so we tried it and we did
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 8
very well but it was funny because a lot of funny things happened.
0
For example, we had to meet, I remember very clearly
college freshmen and who is it came up to me? Oh, the coach came
and he said, I
said, I1Now here's a map of our course, 5-mile course through
beautiful terrain.'' I said, "If you walk, we'll walk them
around." He said, "No, they're not that stupid. I think the map
is very clear." Well, it just happened that our best runner never
showed up for practice much, so innocently he leads the pack and
he goes a longer course. I just looked at him, it was too late,
their whole team followed him, well, our team went the regular
course, so naturally, we won. So, I asked the coach at the end, I
said, "Would you like to protest?" He said, "They should
be...lose like good sportsmen." But you see, we got a lot of
little breaks like that and we did have a good season, the first
year. We p,layed, we had to play some Prep Schools too, but since
it was a freshman intercollegiate team and Arnold College, at that
time, was merging with the University of Bridgeport, well they did
later as a Junior College, so the early days, though, the students
were, I would say, you know a little nervous but then one of the
students, we were reading a story I1Las Mulas de Su Excellencia"
and one of the kids spelled 'Mules1 in English translation 'muelsl
and I said, "Gee I know more than they know." Well you know on
your first day of teaching, a rookie teacher, all I needed was a
little confidence, then the next year they gave me three languages
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 9
a young teacher just starting out, apprentice, then the third year,
then they gave me, but we grew, we grew slowly, but we were very
fortunate. Like medical school, the first graduates we only
recommended the very best and some of
them were older, more mature men, some married and of course, our
medical schools were very kind, Georgetown Medical, a lot of them.
They took our first graduates and they made out very well because
we only recommended the very top who were very good.
@ PUESTION #5, VHS fi (0-16-05) LET ME INTERRUPT YOU FOR A
SECOND. WE WERE INTERVIEWING I FORGET WHO IT WAS, THE SC1ENCEm.o
ANSWER : Was it Carmen?
NO I WAS INTERVIEWING ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT.
Oh, Donald Ross. Dr. Ross. Yeah, he's a Pre-Med Advisor.
9UESTION #6, VHS fi (0-16-28L HE WAS SAYING THAT THERE WAS A
JESUIT WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF THE PRE-MED PROGRAM BEFORE DR. ROSS
TOOK OVER AND IT WAS, IN PART, ALSO BECAUSE OF HIS GOOD
CONNECTIONS WITH THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS.
ANSWER : That was Father Wilkie. Father Wilkie started the
Biology Department, but he died very suddenly. I remember, it was
very suddenly and we were eating at a table and he just keeled
over. But he did work hard for 'the, to start just like Father
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 10
a Hutchison got a recognition in the National Chemical Society. In . .
the early days, they were pioneers. We really were pioneers. We
had a great disadvantage ... see, and then War, you got to figure
out War, they didn't want to encourage us to build. Why? And
they didn't want you to fund raise because those were very tricky
times. We did take a chance, really, in that year, l47. However,
everything turned out because right now, wePre very strong. We've
been in the IblackVor years and a lot of schools are folding.
4-year Liberal Arts Colleges. You just have to have some
business-minded people at the top if you're going to
have it like...Welve been fortunate with the Presidents wePve had.
QUESTION #7, VHS & (0-17-38) I WAS READING THAT IN THE EARLY
DAYS THAT MONEY WAS SO TIGHT THAT WHEN THE FAIRFIELD TEAMS WOULD
GO OUT TO PLAY A BASKETBALL GAME, THE JESUIT WHO WAS IN CHARGE
WOULD COLLECT THE BALL AFTERWARD.
ANSWER : I had to do that for Father, the Director. He said
"The only reason I take you to the basketball game (we used the
Bridgeport Brass Armory for our games because we had no
gymna~ium)~b~u,t he would get very upset with me if I talked, if I
became distracted at the game, another basketball would disappear
and he'd say "Now I have to go beg another measly $10.00." Today
you can't buy a basketball for $10.00 and they did. In fact, we
inducted into the Hall of Fame Joe Mico who was our first center
who got the first two points in 1940 when we started basketball,
which was probably '48, '49. He said, "Coach, could you try and
get this game over fast?'' He said, "The only basketball we have
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 11
developed a slow leak and if we don't have the game over, it's
going to be very embarrassingetl But he told us when he was.
inducted into the Hall of Fame here recently and the place
laughed, no, we really were pioneers, but Dolan was very, very
shrewd. He was a financial wizard. He borrowed money from the
Bank of .Newton where my family lived, Newton, Massachusetts and he
was very fortunate in getting a very good deal. Well, when he
went out of office, there was no debt and thatDs unusual, but we
did all work, blood, sweat and tears, really, but they were'
pioneers in those days and we did it.
QUESTION #8, VHS #1 (0-19-08) DO YOU ALL, I GUESS, NOT ONLY
TAUGHT, BUT YOU TOOK CARE OF THE GROUNDS?
ANSWER : I was Assistant to the Dean, I was Assistant to
the...and also I had to wax floors, we had no Maintenance, we had
no Security, we had nothing, but we all chipped in. One day, I
remember what's the name, Maloney was his name, he was the
Maintenance guy and he said, "Who's going to help me do this job
tomorrow?" He said, "They will report you tomorrow, the men.''
When he went, he said, "What's your name?" He said, "My name's
Father so and so, my name is Father so and so." His team, all of
them were Jesuit priests. They had their clothes on, their work
clothes and they did the maintenance. We had to, we couldnDt
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 12
afford it.
9UESTION #9, VHS #1 (0-19-48) HOW DID YOU TALK FATHER DOLAN
INTO LETTING YOU START A BASKETBALL TEAM?
ANSWER : Well, he said that he had received from Ion highf, from
the Superior in Boston that new colleges should develop
only on an intramural level because it is safer, because that's
the expensive. Finally, well, I think the first, when he
saw what he could do, see he argued this way when I went into him
and asked him for Cross Country, he said "The reason why he should
try to have a winning team or not start it at all, some studehts
are not well motivated. If you don't have a winning team, they
think your education is inferior, too, that your academics are..."
And he said then, I1We1ren ormal afterwards, they see that it is a
good school academi~ally.~B ut he, evidently, he thought, he said
nIfll make an exceptionn and he did. But now,
they had no sweatsuits and so the faculty wouldn't let him see
that the newspaper was saying, a comment on our part, poverty, so
I put it right under his door because I could see they were
keeping it away from the President, that the Student Body votes
$100 for sweatsuits. Well he called me and he said, I1Oh, Mister,"
he said, n ~ cean afford another $100. If Then we had sweatsuits.
It was really amazing how the thing survived. At that time,
really, we had a few benefactors wefre honoring this year for.50
years who were very helpful to us when we came in this area. The
reason we came -- you know we were not in Connecticut, but were
called the New England Province of the Jesuits, so that we were
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 13
really, that time we were very, very fortunate. Why? We had over
1,000 men, Jesuits and only 3 schools, so we said ''We should
spread out in New England since we're a New England ..." So, we
decided to come to Connecticut. Of course, it's just the
opposite; we're shrinking. We close schools instead of open
schools.
QUESTION #lo, VHS #1 (0-21-55) IN THE EARLY DAYS, FROM WHAT I
READ AND I SPOKE TO FATHER LARRY LANGGUTH ABOUT THIS, STUDENTS WHO
DID NOT LIVE HERE IN FAIRFIELD, BUT HAD TO ROOM IN HOMES IN THE
AREA ANDI.GUESS FATHER LANGGUTH WOULD GO OUT TO LOOK AT THE
HOUSES.
ANSWER : He had a lot of work to do. Yeah, we all had to do
stuff like that. Like he said to me one day I took it as a joke
Dcause we're good friends. He said, "You know, Vic, when you came
to work in my office," (really wasn't an office for me, he said
I1Assistant to the DeanN because he had nobody), Ityou didn't know
the right side of carbon paper." I said, ''Thank you very much.I1
But he said "After three years of apprenticeship in my office,I1
he said, I1I got to hand it to you, you could type a perfect wax
stencil. I said, ''That is high praisev1 Dcause he real
Germanic, perfection, like the things he put in the Gonzaga Hall;
he put spotlights that are really for much more, for much larger
stage, but you see he had to be 'Jack of, all trades' and is very
practical, Germanic temperament. He taught Physics and Math but
you could see everything was.. .whereas Father Coughlin, he had a
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 14
sense of humor. Father Coughlin, for example, one day I remember
there were 3 students sitting on the bench outside his office, in
this building, his building was up' there, a student came out and
he did like this (gesture). The three of them got up and left.
In other words, you'd go in and students would tell you, you go in
and they'd look up about to ask him. He said, "The answer is noN
and they said, ulWellw e haven't told you what the question is
yet." He said, '#The answer is still no." But he had a sense of
humor; he got away with it, do you see.
QUESTION #ll, VHS #1 (0-23-35) DID YOU, IN LOOKING AT SOME OF
MATERIAL ABOUT YOU, YOU, I GUESS, LEFT FOR A WHILE AND CAME BACK.
ANSWER: Well, we have a system of studies in the Jesuits,
especially in those days, now. For example, we had to learn Latin
and Greek and we usually had, dependent upon your age, see I went
one year to Boston College, then I joined the Jesuits, continued
with those three years, the Extension School that we have, that
gets their degree from Boston College and then we get a Master's,
I got it in Classics, but then in Philosophy, I got my undergrad
in Classics, but I got my Master's in Philosophy. Well, yousre
supposed to go normally four years equivalent to four years of
college, then you go out what we call apprentice teaching or you
study. Now, the emphasis today is heavily on study, getting a
Doctorate, if possible, so you can use it, but we also, at the end
of the course, we have three years of Philosophy, then four years
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 15
a Jesuits were unique in that they were allowed to get ordained
after three yearsD Theology and then put the fourth one in later,
but the thing's very distinctive is they had what they called
'third year probation'. After you have two years of noviceship
before you study, you have a third year of noviceship after youtve
gone through all the course of studies because they figure
studying so much has dried up some of your spiritual wealthDs
power, so they said, "Go back to those roots and therefore you
make a 30-day retreat1' which is really a good test of your
vocation. For 30-days, you have to keep your mouth shut and you
go through the spiritual exercise which are very distinctive.
Everybody raves about them, that they are so unusual and a lot of
people make them every year; itts a retreat. Then, so I went here
three years, then I had to go back and get ordained and then they
said, "Now, you know several languages, where would you like to
go?'' I was ordained at Weston. They said, !'For your third year,
would you like to go Italy, France or Spain?'' And I said, ltOh,
Itd like to go to Italy 'cause my roots are Italian.It My real
name is Leopardi; I don't know how they changed it, I much prefer
Leopardi to Leeber, but the fact is
when I went to Italy, then they said ''Now you can stay here and
get a higher degree. When I went to Italy then they said ''Now you
can stay there and get a higher degree, which country.'' I checked
it out, I could do it as fast in Spain because...so I went there,
so it really was a two years and a half because the was
shorter. So I was in Europe for three years and that gave me a
lot of good experience. Summers I go to France so I got to know
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 16
Europe, but I came back here, they signed me here and I've been
here ever since but if you add it 'together, though Carmen was
unbroken, I had that ... I came back in '57, so I came in '47 to
31, then came back in '57, 6 years later and have been here ever
since.
9UESTION f12, VHS #1 (0-26-32) BETWEEN THE TIME YOU LEFT IN O51
AND THE TIME YOU CAME BACK, HOW HAD THE UNIVERSITY CHANGED?
ANSWER: Amazing. Not only did it grow horizontally. See, what
it did, it went from a college idea to a university idea. They
started to have other schools towards that idea of having a
university, a full-blown university, but then they stopped. The
state asked us in '51, right after we'd been in existence, to help
a be a teacher trainer for the State of Connecticut, so we said,
"Sure8' so we had that Grad Ed; it was a program then, became an
educating one, so we gave not only, then they expanded it to
Allied Professions so our Grad Ed, so we get a lot of local people
who like that type of education because we still make them take a
course, an obligatory course called Philosophical Foundations of
Education and that's very different and none of the other schools
don't give that. do. Then we tried Communications and it was
difficult. We had a Grad School of Communications, but it had a
short life. The other, Business, we're in a business area and
that's why we had the Center for Financial Studies, Father McGrath
probably told you about it. They wanted that, they were, you know
where Brown University is, it was located there, but they were
looking for some other location nearer . . . savings banks were
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 17
interested. Well, we were near Wall Street, really, and then
Bridgeport, so we said ulWeulgli ve you the land," Fairfield
University said, "the property, you build your Center which has
two floors of dorms1u(,y ou know that) plus a lot of other nice
rooms that they've recently. They said, Itwe will give it back to
you." First they said, m4011," 30 yearsuus o in 30 years it will be
part of Fairfield University. They give them courses taught by
some of our Finance Instructors in the School of Business. We now
have a Grad School of Business, but we don't give an M.B.A., but
we give a Master in Financial, Financial Studies or Financial
Administration, so the School has grown in those years. When I
came back to this completely, it was altogether different
emphasis, it was not only a Liberal Arts college, but it was a
University's campus. And then we had a couple of experiences that
helped us to get into the mainstream of higher education in the
United States and you could see de-emphasis of the literal
character, Catholic character in this sense, except for the
values. They still kept the values that make us different from
either State universities or secular universities because Ivy
League, they all started as a religious order, you know that.
Yale and Harvard both had religious roots,
but now you wouldn't call them Protestant, just like Catholic,
ours now, we have the values, they are still church-related, but
we have now a Protestant Minister who teaches Protestant Theology
and we have a Jewish Rabbi who teaches for those who want it. We
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 18
a Religions, we call it Introduction to Religious Studies, but the
second one can be in your own religion, Catholic, Protestant or
Jewish and the same way with Philosophy. Now to fill.it now, we
have a historical approach, it used to be only Scholastic
Philosophy which is Catholic, but now it isn't.
QUESTION #13, VHS #1 (0-30-02) WERE YOU INVOLVED, DURING THE
EARLY PERIOD YOU WERE HERE AND THEN COMING BACK IN THE SOCIAL LIFE
OF THE e r n e OF THE STUDENTS.
ANSWER: Father Rodney MacDonald, they called him Robert
MacDonald, he was our first Director of Socials and what they did,
a they built a wall in the gymnasium to save space. The first part
was the gymnasium and then the second part was for social dances.
They took that down later. With clubs, I was very active in clubs
and especially in sports, but when it came back, these other
sports began like. When we had Football Club here for 20
years, the first 10, they were a struggle and then the second 10,
they asked me to be Faculty Moderator. Since it was a club sport
and not a varsity sport, they wouldn't allow them unless they had
a what do you call it, a faculty moderator, so they couldn't get a
faculty moderator. No one would ... because they wouldn't let
you see their bank book, so one of the came to me and he said, ''1
see, I think every student should have a sport if he wantsn1 so I
said, 111'11 be a monitor.I1 Well, the next 10 years, they did
very well. In fact, they went to the playoffs for club football;
Oral History: Victor Leeber, .Page 19
out of 54 club teams in the United States, they did very well and
then they caputted it, the students, because we hit the point in
1986 where the quarterback quit because he said he didn't have the
backup of an experienced football player from high school and they
didn't want to lose. Now, they're trying to get it back again.
We have a group now, about 70 students, but they're going to have
to fight because they threw away practically $20,000 appropriation
fee that this University gave them for club sports as opposed to
and next year, sports have really blossomed from nothing when I
was here as a Scholastic, next year, they're adding two sports.
They're having varsity, they have 15 varsity sports now, they're
going to add Men's Lacrosse Varsity, Women's Soccer Varsity, but
they're doing something very unusual. They're keeping the club
status of both of those sports so if a student wants to take it
seriously and is strong in academics, he'll play varsity; if
they're afraid, they,can stay in the club part of that sport.
There are going to be more fields, but what are you going to do?
PUESTION 814, VHS #1 J0-32-17L WERE YOU INVOLVED IN THE
CARDINAL KEY SOCIETY?
ANSWER: No, I had other things, but Cardinal Key is the Honor,
is the students, Campus Guides. I didn't have that particular
one, but there were a lot of clubs, Language Clubs, what else. We
all had to take part in, like the newspaper.
QUESTION #15, VHS #1 (0-32-40L FOR EXAMPLE, THE LANGUAGE CLUB?
ANSWER: Yes, we had the Italian Carnival, we had Spanish Club,
now we have Alpha Mugamma, which is the National Collegiate Honor
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 20
a Society, Itm the faculty moderator of Alpha Mugamma. That is, you
have to get 2 Ats, you get initiated, you have to take the pledge
in your language for the ideals of the , it means youDre
very good in a foreign language. I told them the advantage is if
you belong to Alpha Mugamma, if you try for a government job,
especially, and say youDre competing with someone else who is
equally well qualified, if you know this language and youtre good
in it, Uncle Sam will hire you over someone else and put you into
studying a more difficult language, an exotic language, like
Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, or Vietnamese because America needs
that. See the Russians know foreign languages; we are slow in
getting people who really can speak those languages and the
emphasis is on that. And I remember when I was Chairman, Itm
a speaking of Languages, we reached our peak in number of majors.
When there was only a single major, not that much. 1975, we had
75 Modern Language majors, French, German, Spanish, then we had
also, but not as a major, Italian, Russian, (which we dropped),
now we have Japanese, (first two levels and itts becoming more and
more popular), weld like to bring Russian back again. We also had
Portuguese which we dropped because of lack of student interest,
but we are pushing Foreign study, study in a foreign country. We
have about 50 a semester who go to foreign countries for either a
semester or a year and we encourage
educational leave, that's educational leave and what we do, we
transfer their credits, but not their grades because the foreign
university system, the educational system would be, in some cases,
different and an ttAthter e would be a ttBttthe re, so we feel in
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 21
fairness 'to the students.
PUESTION #16, VHS & (0-34-401 RUN THE PROGRAM IN THE
3
ANSWER: Yes, wewve had this workshop in Spain, this will be the
18th program, Summer Program and it was very good. It was
government-funded when it first started under N.D.E.A., National
Defense Education Act. We petitioned, we wrote a proposal which
was competitive and we got three of them; we had one, French, for
French and Spanish high school teachers, to re-train them in the
new method and we got $99,000 and this was way in the sixties
which was a lot of money. Of course, today, this is nothing,
$99,000, but we could bring 30 on campus. Then we wrote and we
collaborated with public school system of Fairfield, Ed Bourque
was my Associate Director and that was a very strong system
because Mary Thompson, many years ago who was in the public school
system of Fairfield, she started teaching, she was a Foreign
Language Consultant, French and Spanish in the third grade. Well,
this was really the first time; shews now in Glastonbury,
Connecticut, but she started this program that had received
national attention. Well, Ed Bourque was her successor. Now,
they donwt have it in third and fourth; I think they start it in
seventh grade, but we collaborated and we got a, we wrote a
proposal, we got one in Spain, two locations, Alicante in Madrid
and then Grenada in Madrid. They were very successful. Students
a still write back and say that they. ..and this was quite a while
ago. Then they said, "Art, no more money, wetre going to give the
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 22
a money to Southern Colleges; you fund your own." So, ever since
that time, we've been doing for 18 summers, a workshop in Spain;
we picked Spain over France or the other Spanish-speaking
countries in South America and we worked it out. We have
international contacts. I have a very good friend of mine who's
Jesuit who teaches on this faculty of the University of Madrid
which is the biggest university and he is our, what we'd call our
visiting professor, but we visit him actually, but the school has
grown if that was your initial question, has grown, not only in
physically the number of buildings. See, there are only,
originally there were just the two estate buildings, two manor
houses, the Maylands was what the Jennings called, what we call
McAuliffe Hall. McAuliffe Hall is named after the Bishop of
a Hartford, way back. Bellarmine Hall was called Hearthstone Hall;
the Lashers built that and it's quite a building. I have pictures
of what it looked like when the Lashers lived there and we had
converted it. Then the Jesuits gave it over to the University
when we legally separately incorporated because we really felt
that it was too much with our small numbers so we built, I don't
know if you visited St. Ignatius, have you? It's in the bottom of
Lower Campus, but it was a good idea because we built it in two
units and that was wetlands, believe it or not. We chose that
instead of the top part where the townhouses are. We had 35 rooms
for 35 Jesuits; however, we don't need them all for we get
visitors. We just finished, but we don't have...itls
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 23
a other about 15-16.
DUESTION #17, VHS #1 (0-38-13) THE TEACHING TRAINING PROGRAM
THAT YOU BEGAN FOR SPANISH TEACHERSd THAT, I THINK, ENHANCED THE
REPUTATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.
ANSWER : Yes, do you know why? We sent down, even for the
Summer Program, but even for the other, we sent it out to
practically every, all over the country, people never heard of
Fairfield (where is it, in Connecticut?). They knew that it had
this N.D.E.A. Grant that had come from competitive proposals, that
they are good schools for teaching languages and especially
foreign so those three national, they were national, just like our
College Bowl. We were exposed to, people never heard of, we beat
a Creighton, we beat schools that were better known than Fairfield
and that way we got to be known.
QUESTION #la, VHS #1 (0-38-57L WHAT DID THAT DO TO THE SELF
IMAGE OF THE UNIVERSITY?
ANSWER : It gave them a sense, as before, I wouldn't say we had
an inferiority complex, but we were like literally the kid, the
brother or sister, whatever you wanted to say, of the 27 other
Jesuit colleges. Actually, we were the 26th, if there are 28
Jesuit colleges, I think, Wheeling College in West Virginia which
is my home state, by the way, I was born in Elkins, West Virginia
many years, but I was seven when my father moved up to Boston
because of the Depression, (it hit in 1929, I was 7 years of age)
a and my father had 12 children to support so we had cousins in
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 24
a Boston. He moved up to Boston and they all got jobs, mechanics;
one of my brothers, Bill, who, he in the Army, he was in the
Intelligence Corps, he helped make the maps for the Burma Road in
the War. When we came up here, it was much better, up here, I
mean, New England, Boston and the place really boomed, but our
reputation did spread throughout. Now, I think we get students
from California as one of the states. This year, now, we have
Victor Mike Smith, they both from...but see, we have a feed line.
If we have 28 Jesuit colleges and universities, we have a lot of
high schools that feed us, plus public schools, but I noticed that
we get, now this year, I happened to be teaching three sections of
the same course and I was curious to see, second semester, how
many of the students, 'cause they don't have to take the same • teacher, I have 10, I think I have 10 of my 82 students in those
three sections are from Jesuit High Schools and all over the
universities, I mean ten different in about what, 47, 48 Jesuit
High Schools in the United States. There are 4 Loyola's I know, 4
colleges of Loyola, but I know I have students from ... I have one
from Regis, I have one from Chevis in Maine, one from Xavier, I
have one from Gonzaga, I have one from, I said to Father Kelley
one day, "1 have a student from Jesuit ~ i g hsc hool in Oregon." He
said, "Do you mean we have a high school in...?" I said, "Yes,
he's in my class; his name is Lauther.I1 And he, sure enough, he's
from a Jesuit High School in Oregon and a lot of people don't even
know we have a Jesuit High School in Oregon.
a QUESTION #19, VHS #1 (0-41-28) WERE A NUMBER OF THE STUDENTS
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 25
THAT YOU HAD IN THE MODERN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT, DID THEY GO ON TO
GRADUATE SCHOOL?
ANSWER: Yes, in fact, my...our first one was Tom Holland, whose
father was Chief of Police in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was
one of the first ones to get a Doctorate and he went to Southern
Cal. He's one of our first. I think he's using it to teach in
Massachusetts. Then we had Michael Oates who was trained by
Messr. Courteau, famous French teacher who probably educated up to
his time, half of all the high school teachers of French in the
State of Connecticut, very popular. Well, he is, this Michael
Oates wrote a book on French and he, in the preface, he said "1
want to thank my teacher at Fairfield University, Messr. Courteau
who taught me and got me my start in French; he was a good
a teacher.'' So, he got a Ph.D. and he's teaching way out in the
Midwest, Iowa and he has a program in France, but our very first
ones, it's interesting, although at 75 we hit the peak, now that
we don't have 75 majors in Languages because they're all going in
for other things like Economics, Political Science. We're getting
a lot of Fine Arts majors now as we expand, like the Quick Center
for the Arts. And then we're near New York City, but we still
have...Economics used to be ... English is always the largest
major, you know that at Fairfield...all good schools, I would say,
but we have a double major. A lot are going in for Business now,
but we're still predominantly Liberal Arts. One of our other
universities out in the Midwest, I think that almost became
Rockhurst, you ever hear of Rockhurst? Well, it's in the middle
of the country, Missouri, I think, somewhere around there. They
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 26
almost became a Jesuit school of Business and we donmt want to
become a Jesuit School of Business though we have a large number
who go through, who major in Business, especially ... Accounting
like.my kid' nephew, Patrick, graduated a couple of years ago.
get A's in Accounting, guess where hems going? As soon as he
graduated, to Deloite Haskins and Sells, one of the 8 top
Accounting firms signed him up immediately. Three years, they
liked him, gave him a bonus, promotion, then he decided to go into
finance. Hets going now to N.Y.U. Graduate School of Business,
majoring in Finance, minoring in International Business and
already they gave him a bonus; well, see they want...hets young
and hets very serious.
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 27
9UESTION #20, VHS #1 (0-43-54) CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE
ABOUT e
ANSWER: He was French Canadian, he ran a newspaper, then he
taught at University of Connecticut, Storrs, until he was' 65, then
he asked for early retirement. We were delighted when he early
retired to hire him as a French teacher. He was a great Humanist.
He would make them dramatize the La Fontense Fables. He could
get, here these sophisticated college students quacking like a
duck, as they recited the French for the , how to learn
French pronunciation through opera, singing and he was amazing.
Everyone liked him the great Humanist. He'd take you, he'd invite
his students to his home for coffee with croissants flown in from
Paris, but see, he made them live the culture. Well they all
loved him and finally one day they said with fear and trembling
810h, Messr. Courteau, we have a new policy, you must retire at
,70.81 He said, ''That does not pertain to me, I am 84!Iq And he was.
Now, here's a man, they didn't even know how .old he was, he was
doing such a great job as a teacher, and he's the first one while
still teaching, a member of the faculty, who was given and Father
McInnes was President at the time, an Honorary Doctorate Degree
while he was still here teaching -- the first one. Since then, I
think Carmen got one, Donnarumma, but he was the first one, do you
see my point? While he was still teaching, the school gave him
their Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters which I think is
terrific.
OUESTION 821, VHS #1 (0-45-381 DID YOU RECRUIT HIM HERE?
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 28
ANSWER: No, it was Father Walsh, my predecessor. He was the
@ Chairman of
the Modern Language Department and they wanted to move him to
Chairmanship of Theology Department so I was appointed Chairman to
take his place, but he recruited, but we became very good friends.
He used to ... since I don't drive. He used to take me to all the
meetings and I got to know a lot of the teachers in the State of
Connecticut and elsewhere because he was always there. Held drive
me to these meetings and weld meet all these teachers. They'd say
I1Messr. C~urteau~~E.ve rybody knew him in Connecticut. Oh he had
a radio station. What's that Hartford WI, ~ ~ ~ ' w I c c ?
OUESTION #22, VHS #1 (0-46-16) WTIC?
@ ANSWER: Yes, well he had lessons in French and Spanish --
amazing man, he had several textbooks out on how to learn French,
but a great man and they liked him because he was a great humanist
and he certainly knew how to ... I have a lot of stories about
him, but that one, they didn't know that he was 84, so at 84, he
retired. I don't think you'll find anyone to match that.
OUESTION #23, VHS #1 (0-46-46) ARE THERE OTHER PROFESSORS THAT
STAND OUT DURING THE YEARS THAT YOU WERE HERE?
ANSWER: I thought you were going to ask me who was the
greatest President. Last time somebody said, "In your opinion,
yeah, I would say Father Bond was one of the greatest teachers to
ever teach here. He was an English teacher who was an expert in
@ Shakespeare and everybody.. .he was amazing. He was, when I was a
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 29
student at Boston College, he not only was in charge of ~ramatics
and then English; he taught English, especially Shakespeare; he
was, he came to show us how to act in an Italian play, The Dante
Academy and I was one there, so he showed me how to do my part
even though he'd go "Blah, blah, blahH because he didn't know the
Italian, but he told me how to do the part. Well, I set him back
-- he hit me in the elbow and I got a bloody nose. Well, he says
that gave me my vocation to be a Jesuit because he put some sense
into me. I reminded him it was funny because that was very
painful, but he was amazing. He was a great actor. John Louis
Bond. He had written about 7 or 8 books and then he didn't like
the idea that our .schools were going co-educational. He didn t
agree with that. He said llShould be all..." and he went out to
help prisoners, you know take care of their...and then died in the
Midwest, but I would say certainly one of the greatest English
teachers you could have anywhere, especially Shakespearean scholar
-- very, very good teacher. We've had a lot of interesting
teachers. I'm just trying to think of the Jesuits more because I
know them more. Father Clancy, he was in the Army, he was a
Chaplain both in the Army and the Navy and I remember my kid
brother was in the Navy off the Coast of Brazil; he did doublO
duty and he met my kid brother in the Navy. I still remember
Father Clancy. He was, during the time of Roosevelt, do you
remember -- he had all these alphabet organizations -- he was
working there first and war broke out and he became double Major,
double chaplain, Army Chaplain and Navy Chaplain and my kid
brother was on a Navy, what do you call it? -- Navy plane?
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 30
QUESTION #24, VHS #1 (0-49-09) AIRCRAFT CARRIER.
ANSWER: Yes and that's where he met him, but he'll tell you a
lot of stories about...Father Clancy'was very ... he had a lot of
stories...
NOW WHAT DID HE DO3
He was a Philosophy teacher -- Ethics, especially. You get a lot
of stories from the Alumni about the old time Philosophy teachers
who were Jesuits, who would tell you a lot of stories about you
know a lot of cases, of how would you solve this problem "two men
on a raft1' or I1two men hanging on a rope over a cliff 'I. Can you
cut it ethnically below you to release the lower man and then save
your own life? Can you do that? (laughter) Well, they love the
way those cases are solved anyhow, but Fairfield's come a long
way, really it has.
WHEN YOU CAME BACK...
' 57
GUESTION $25. VHS #1 (0-49-54) FATHER JAMES FITZGERALD WAS
PRESIDENT.
ANSWER: Yup. James Edgar Fitzgerald. They called him "King-size
Fitzl1 and the other Fitz they called ''Silver Fox1'; that was
Tom Fitz. We called him #'Silver Fox1'. He was amazing too. You
had three Fitzgeralds in a row, so they called that the
"Fitzgerald Decadew but was very interesting because they were all
different, but all colorful.
OUESTION #26, VHS #1 (0-50-28) KING SIZE FITZ -- WHAT WAS HE
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 31
LIKE? a ANSWER: He was very serious. What happened to him? Who was it
who was asking -- can't find much material on him, he was writing
chronicle 3. You know, we're writing a History of Fairfield U.
We're going to bring in a professional, but we're doing Chronicles
now and I'm on a sub-committee with Alphonses Mitchell who's in
the P.R. with Murray Farber. He, I suggested Father
Duffy do the First Chronicle because see, he feeds me all this
material 'cause I, as a hobby in my retirement, one of my goals is
to write my own personal History of Fairfield, not this one that
they're writing. This would be a unique one because we already
have two histories, you know that. We have Bob Turcot's. He got
his Master's by writing that. Then we have Joe Pravil's. He got
his Doctorate in the Grad School of Education at B.C. Both
of ... they have an Oral History on both of those and I have copies
of those two histories. Mine would be quite different from the
one that Murray Farber is doing, but these Chronicles, Chronicle I
is founding years, that's Father Duffy and he did a great job on
it because he was, he was in charge of the Bookstore, he was a
Registrar, he was on the Board of Trustees, the original, and he
is a good transition from Prep School to the University. The
second one, we're asking one of our Grads, I don't know if you
know Dick Jewitt (sp.) Did you talk to Dr. George Baird? Well
he was a student, he graduated in 1951, the first graduating class
and came back for that. He's writing the years. Now, he's the
one that has to cover, no not the Fitzgeralds, no he has to go
from 1951, 1964 and then some had, now who is it? The next one is
Oral History: Victor L e e b e r , P a g e 32
Paul Davis who went to Notre Dame, but then he came here as a
@ teacher. He's writing the Restless Years and that Is Father
McInnes and he can't find a lot on Father McInnes. I said, I1Well,
I may have more 'cause Father Duffy always used to give me a copy
of everything he has.'' Then he says, ''If I die before you, you're
my room, and all these.'' And he has researched even the Boston
Province Archives 'cause I
have material that they don't have in our Library. But,
archivist. He goes over there every day and he has a lot of
material. You read his, didn't you? It's in the Fairfield Now,
that one issue, the Anniversary Issue. He typed that himself,
took one month to type it, 24 pages because he didn't want to give
it to a Secretary. Amazing man, Father Duffy, he's 80 years of • age and still goes out and acts as a Chaplain in nearby hospitals
when they need a sub; an amazing person.
9UESTION #27, M S #1 (0-53-12) NOW, GETTING BACK TO KING-SIZE
PITZ e
ANSWER: King-size Fitz, I don't remember as much. I know him,
I remember him very clearly, but something distinctive, a story, a
very quiet person. His reign was not that...it was during a
quiet ... I don't remember any great things like the other two, like
McInnes has a lot under; a lot of things happened while he was
President. James Edgar, not as many. It was more years of
-expansion. Not too.many buildings, though. Under Father McInnes,
we built. The University expanded. Well, they tried to put
a.. .they didn't want more than.. .right now, we have 2850
oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 33
undergrads. There may have been another...with Grad Ed and the
Grad Business, but there might have been another 2000, but we
don't want it to much over the undergrad we were talking about.
2,800 say 3,000 because even now though we have a lot of land, 200
acres, we need more office space, do you see because we have a
faculty that is growing immensely. He's another thing. We had
very few faculty. We used to teach 15 hours; everybody; now we
teach 12 hours -- a normal schedule and same way with the salaries
have gone way up, but so has the tuition gone way up, but weDve
grown as healthy
growth because we're still in the black which is amazing. How we
have stayed in the black where a lot of our neighbors have gone in
the red, but I'm not saying that any sense of triumph.
9UESTION #28, VHS #1 (0-54-52-17) WERE YOU INVOLVED AT ALL
DURING THIS PERIOD WITH THE RELIGIOUS LIFE THE UNIVERSITY HAD
TAKEN ON RETREATS?
ANSWER : Yes, I was here at the time and when we changed over,
we sort of de-emphasized like going to Mass or making a Retreat
because it was post Vatican I1 and there was a de-emphasis on
that. They wanted to say the objective of a University, whether
it's church-related or not is search for truth, but you can still
say it's church-related also searches for values, ethical values
and religious values; that's not out of order. That's why we won
the lawsuit that was brought against us saying that...in fact, we
had a very good lawyer. You probably heard of him. Bennett
Williams. He graduated from Holy Cross College. This lawsuit
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 34
went to the Supreme Court. Did they tell you that? And you heard
how we won, didn't you? One vote by the Supreme Court and they
said, "No you don't have to give back money for putting up those
buildings because you have proven that..." Bennett Williams was a
shrewd, very good lawyer. He...because we were not proselytizing
he said. I don't see why they had to take down crucifixes but
see, we could have crucifixes in the buildings that we put up with
our own money, but a lot of people did take them down and I
noticed we were called originally ''Fairfield University 'of St.
Robert BellarmineN who was the patron of Fairfield and it still
exists in three places on campus. The shield that says ltFairfield
University Robert Bellarminell who was
famous, as you know, a lawyer. He knew law very well. It's in
three
places. You probably will see if you go in the gymnasium on the
floor -- did you see a mosaic and a shield, I mean a coat of arms?
It's on there, but they took it off because they wanted it sound
more secular which is ridicul6us because what difference does it
make? It's just a name we dontt...I think we should have left it
there. Oh, you were saying religious values. Yeah, they decided
to de-emphasize. They don't have to go to Mass any more, they
don't have to ... although we have a very good substitute for that.
We have a very vibrant campus ministry made of three young Jesuits
who were trained specifically in campus ministry. They do
voluntary, they have a lot of students; I'm amazed how many they
have enlisted for community service; they go and help the poor,
they have,Cardboard City where they experienced, overnight, on a
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 35
cold night, how it feels to be homeless in this cardboard city and
they're doing a great job on feeding the hungry and going into
Appalachia and they help build houses...the people there...free.
They get money donated to pay for their transportation to go to
Appalachia.
PUESTION #29, VHS #1 ( 0 - 5 8 - 0 0 ) BEFORE VATICAN 11, THOUGH
CHANGED THINGS, WERE YOU INVOLVED THEN?
ANSWER: Yes, we had to supervise. I was a Prefect in the Dorms
and uh, but see we had different things. For example, when I was
Prefect in the early days, 'lights out at 11'. Today, that's
unheard of. They would never have 'lights out1 today. Then we
didn't have any co-eds. Co-eds came in, in 1970 with the School
e of Nursing. That changed the whole University. We had a dress
-
code -- jacket and tie. They don't now. A lot of changes came
in. Now I think.
it teaches them, just like so and so says "this is terrible,
having women and men, they'll naturally go into having women in
their rooms." Well, we said, we have to teach them that they
should not, that they should act properly when they have the
occasion not to and we have a minimum of that. Same way with
drugs. We don't have any problems in drugs or, well alcohol is, I
think, a common problem at all colleges in the United States,
beer, but there is a sign on my board just to show you how the
thinking goes. They still have counselors and peers, you know to
help them and, but I don't think it's any worse than any other
college. I think it's worse at some other colleges that I've
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 36
visited, but here's an interesting. Guess what the sign says
under my bulletin board. "Students, when you say students have a
drinking problem, the students mean that they ran out of beer." Do
you get it? Well, the teachers don't mean that when they say a
student has a drinking problem, but isn't it funny? Do you see
the mentality that they had, they ran out of beer, they had a
drinking problem?
QUESTION f 3 0 , VHS #1 ( 0- 5 9- 38) WHAT WAB I T LIKE BEING A
PREFECT?
ANSWER: Well, we had to shut the lights out but a cherry bomb
would go off in a jake in the hopper and I had to go and find out
who was the last one there and I said ''Your campused for the weekw
and he said "You can't prove it." And I couldn't. Do you know
today he's a shrewd New York lawyer, this kid I clocked and yet,
he's so innocent he thinks that he, that the school is too, what
shall we say, not strict enough for his daughter to come here? I
get a big kick out of this because I know this boy, I had him, but
it's
not, it was altogether different. They were...it was too...I
thought too much. You gotta teach them to be responsible and I
think they should be the one because if you, in other words, we
used to say, in loco parentis; we don't say that any more. We are
not in loco parentis because a parent will call up and say "1
'don't think my ...I1 and he's a prominent citizen and I won't tell
you where in a big city in the United States, not in Connecticut,
he said, ''1 don't want my daughter living as being in the same
O r a l H i s t o r y : V i c t o r L e e b e r , P a g e 3 7
a room as this other girl." And then we looked up and naturally,
you know what the color of the other girl is. And then we said
"Maybe your daughter doesn't belong here." But the daughter
didn't feel that way; it was the father. Do you see my point?
So, we're trying to educate them that, you know, this is getting
you ready for life. It's true. We do have a lot of upper, middle
class people and you can't, we would like to have a better mix,
but we can't. Say, minorities, in other words, if we offer them
money as a scholarship for need, there are other schools that will
offer them more money so how can we compete with Yale for giving
them money on need basis? Do you see my point? But, every year,
we try to bring in more and more minorities.
a OUESTION #31, VHS & 11-01-34) DO YOU RECALL FROM THE FIFTIES
ANY OF THE DANCES OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
ANSWER: Yes, we had dances, but those were always with the
Catholic Girls' college and this is a Catholic Boys' college. We
had no co-education. Albertus Magnus, or maybe some of the
women's colleges in New York would come here or our boys would go
there. The same idea that Nuns' colleges and Jesuit colleges, but
see
today, they don't have.that.
DID YOU CHAPERONE ANY?
I didn't have to, but some of them did. I just didn't have to do
that, but some of the Jesuits did.
QUESTION 832, VHS & (1-02-04) WERE YOU INVOLVED WITH THE GLEE
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 38
CLUB AT ALL?
ANSWER: Glee Club, well Father Murray and I knew Mr. Harrick,
they started the Glee Club. I had a lot of the Glee Clubbers in
class and afterwards when they decided they were going to have a
combined Glee Club, 'cause my nephew who came to school here, he
was the accompanist of the Glee Club and even he admitted there
was a lot of pride. They said "Why are we making the Glee Club
now mixed?" Well, my nephew who was the first Music Major to give
a public recital, he said "All the great music of the world is
written for both voices, male and female.I1 Therels a good
argument why it shouldnlt be all male; you should have a male and
female Glee Club and that's what they have now under Dr., what's
her name, Mrs. Coyne Maxwell. Itls combined men and women voices,
but there was a lot of opposition to it when we went co-ed in
1970. We went co-ed and we had the School of Nursing which is
good because there are a lot of very good students. I know some
of the athletes on the swim team like you take Kate Heller, a very
bright girl, School of Nursing and yet, she could get good marks
and still they had it very rugged. We had team teaching in the
School of Nursing which is unique. I donlt know if you've heard
of it at any other school. All of them give a grade to each of
the student nurses and they get very good exposure to a variety of
teaching methodology which I think is terrific. They
do go out and they all get jobs. Yale Graduate School of Nursing
I
will accept our girls like that. They know they have a good
undergraduate training, but see we donlt want to go too much into
any of the Grad Schools and Medical Law School -- we could have
O r a l H i s t o r y : V i c t o r L e e b e r , P a g e 39
had the Wethersfield School of Law, did you know that under Father
Fitzgerald? Thomas Fitzgerald. It was up for grabs and our
President said 'Who wants to inherit a debt-ridden Law Sch~ol?~~
Well, U.B. did, but they made it, they got accreditation, do you
see? And now they have the problem of the school. I think it's
going to Quinnipiac, isn't it? But they did, they did build it
up. I know a lot of our Grads went there for Law School after
graduating Fairfield U. and they raised their standards and it was
accepted, but unfortunately they had a financial problem all
right.
OUESTION #33, VHS #J (1-04-27) WERE YOU INVOLVED AT ALL WITH
THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION?
ANSWER : Yes. See what I did -- my program had to do with
Language Teachers and though we give a degree, a Master's and a
Sixth Year Certificate, C.A.S., Certificate of Advanced Study, I
only taught ... well I used to teach a Graduate Course in Spanish
when we had an M.A.T., a Master's in Teaching, and teaching French
and Spanish, so I taught Graduate Courses in Spanish, but then
they dropped the M.A.T. since they would prefer to offer and we
didn't want to, an M.A., a. straight M.A. in Spanish and French.
Well, we didn't want to set up M.A.'s in specific subjects. We
just want...an M.A. in Curriculum which would be, if you were a
spanish teacher, you could get an M.A. from Fairfield, but it's
really an M.E.D., but we call it an M.A. in Education and/or
Applied Professions -- Counseling, that whole area,
oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 40
Administration. See, we have all those. Now we have Bi-lingual
Bi-Cultural -- we1re moving to that and we now have students
coming from foreign countries learning English as a Second
Language. Last year we brought in students from Spain and
Venezuela to learn English here as a foreign language. Next
summer, this summer, in addition to keeping those, we are bringing
in Japanese students and we1re teaching them English as a second
language so we're trying to expand in that area of Bi-lingual
Education.
QUESTION #34, VHS fi (1-06-04) WHAT WOULD YOUR EVALUATION OF
THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION BE?
ANSWER : Its strengths lie in the fact that it gives you, the
same way as our Undergraduate, a good, solid Liberal Arts
Education, so a teacher who comes here, as compared to a teacher
who goes to a State University of Teaching, gets a wider
preparation as a teacher, so I think that's why they would come to
a Jesuit Grad School of Education rather than...I asked that
question, "Why don't you charge more for Graduate Credit because
itls just practically the same as Undergrad?" They said, "To
compete with the State Schools of Education which are cheaper."
Like my program, I wanted 'to charge more for those who were
getting six gradua.te credits in Spanish who come from Spain on our
Summer Program. They said, "Well, no, give them more work to do,
the Grad Students and demand more of them'in that way.I1 We do
field.research projects, we interview and that way, they have to
,.@ .use their Spanish in real life situations and then they write a
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 41
report. One aspect, one cultural parameter of culture. For
example, generation gap, but they do it on the basis, not on
books, but on interviewing and they say ... they have to tell you in
the beginning what they're trying to do their search, their
research paper 'cause I have to correct them all and I had to send
them to Washington when we had government money. They say they
interviewed, say, 5 grandparents, 10 parents, 20 teenagers to get,
say, the generation gap and they say "I've met this as a limited
sampling." It wouldn't be a valid sociological document, but from
what they have seen, and they had to do this speaking Spanish,
they would say, ''The generation gap in Spain today is getting
wider and wider and more and more teenagers are living in
apartments which was unheard of under Franco.I1 Parents would have
a heart attack if they knew and it came suddenly; that's why it's
so shocking. In France and in the West, this idea took a long
time and now it's common. Teenagers living together if
they're ... Spain ... that came suddenly and that's why it's a shock
to the poor parents to have this. It's going to be a while for me
to get used to it.
OUESTION #35, VHS #J (1-08-23) THE PROGRAM IN SPAIN? WERE YOU
OVER THERE YOURSELF?
ANSWER: Oh, yes, I've been the Director for 18 years and I've '
coordinated all the activities, but I think it's very valuable.
This year, it's going to be hard though. Do you know why? They
have the Olympics, the Summer ~lympics in Barcelona which is the
last week of our program in July. Our first three weeks will be
Oral ~istory: victor Leeber, Page 42
in Green Spain, Santiago de Compos Delan in the North where we'll
have classes and field trips that go up to La Coluna, up that way,
which is something new in school and if you like shellfish,'
Mariscos, there's where you should get them. They're fresh and
they're very inexpensive -- Atlantic Shellfish. Now, you can go
to Barcelona because the last week we're moving down to Madrid and
the classes will be over. That, if they've never seen Madrid
before, they could see the Royal Palace, they could see the Prado
Museum, they could go out to little satellite communities, like El
Escorial, Toledo, Segovia, but if they want to use it and have the
money and can have friends, they can go to Barcelona for the
Summer Olympics. However, they're all sold out, you know that.
They're putting them aboard boats in the harbor, Barcelona Harbor;
see, they can't cope with the crowd and even the teams themselves,
they have to go further out of Barcelona into the suburbs.
Theysre so many people, they're not used to this. Now the Expo
'92 in Seville is amazing. It's the last World's Fair in the
Century. They have a new train now from Madrid to Seville --
normally, it would take you, oh by bus, it took us 10-12 hours, we
stopped at a little town. This one is 2 hours by train to get to
Seville from Madrid. They have there, and we saw 2 years ago,
pavilions. What they did was they diverted the river, the
Guadel River, created an island, on this island is an old
monastery to give you the old type of culture, then they put up
over 100 pavilions and all their conditions, even though it's hot
in Seville, why they know tourists don't like heat. You know, the
~nited'statehsa s one, the U.N. has one, over 100 countries have
Oral History: Victor. Leeber, Page- 43
already said they will put up a pavilion there. They've gone all
out to give you the theme, the theme is ''Modern Disc~veries~~
starting with the first great modern discovery,
llDiscoveryo f the'N ew World by Spain1' and then they show you
technology. We saw a movie; they showed us a movie in an air
conditioned theater of all the great discoveries in this Century
and they ... it's very interesting. You should see all the what do
you call these ... they call them marquis ... I suppose we call them
marquis ... they're little displays of things they can't show you in
real life...mar -1 they're mocks. But the prices are
ridiculous. Spain used to be one of the least expensive and the
dollar used to be great. Do you know what the dollar was when I
first went there 18 years ago -- 170 pecetas in a dollar? Guess
what it is today? Today's New York Times Business Week -- 103
pecetas in a dollar. That's amazing, isn't it?
QUESTION 836, VHS #1 11-11-45) LET ME TAKE YOU BACK A LITTLE
BIT BEFORE WE GO AHEAD. WERE YOU HERE FOR THE FIRST GRADUATION?
ANSWER: Yes. In fact, I was sprung, so to speak. When I went
back to the Seminary in Western Massachusetts, I got invited back
as one of the original faculty and the Superiors and all said
"This is very unusual ... to getting out of school to go back, all
the way to Connecticut." But, I had the, Father, what's his name,
one of the faculty members said, "No, he should, he was on the
original faculty and this is the first graduation1' And we had
some distinguished, the Governor was there, I think, at the time
and what's his name was there (we gave a couple of Honorary
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 44
Degrees that first year). We had it out in the field, under a
tent, because it was a big crowd. It was a very nice thing. It
was the very first one and they made an awful lot of it. That was
1951.
QUESTION #37r VHS #1 (1-12-37) I UNDERSTAND IT WAS ALSO A VERY,
VERY HOT DAY.
ANSWER : I remember. A very hot day, but it was really a great
achievement in four years, what they did in four years and not a
debt on them, not a penny debt. He had kept it -- a financial
wizard, he got the money from a bank out of state and he paid it
back and well, he had no salaries, really; all the Jesuits worked
for nothing, as you know. We don't see our salary. We do it for,
we're not in it for the money, but no, we've come a long way, we
have a long way to go, but I think we've come a long way.
NOW, IN 1963, WHEN FATHER MCINNES BECAME ...
The llRestlessY earsv1- - his term.
GUESTION #38, VHS #1 (1-13-22) WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT WAS HE?
ANSWER : He was very active, dynamic. See, he's young. He
brought that idea of Kennedy, youthful and he was very
controversial. Why, all of a sudden, the students wanted
tripartitism. They said, "We should have a voice, we pay good
tuition, therefore, we want a voice, we want a student on the
Board of Trustees, we want, what did they call, a meeting with
faculty and the Administration.I1 There were a couple of
ringleaders, McAuliffe .and Gallagher and they really, right in
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 45
front of him they called the President a liar. I remember that at
a faculty meeting, in public, but McInnes was very, very cool. I
thought he was very shrewd. See, he has a degree in Business, you
know that. He knew exactly how to handle that. For example, they
took over first, the Blacks took over Xavier. He did.not, he
just, when they tried to hit him, he knew they wouldn't, with a
pipe.
QUESTION $39, VHS #1 (1-14-28L JUST TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT
THIS.
ANSWER: Well, it was in this building, Xavier. They took over
Xavier, the Black-Students and so he went in, they let him, they
wouldn't let anyone else, he wanted to make a phone call and they
thought that he was going to phone the police and he was actually
only phoning the switchboard, which was, at that time, Bellarmine
Hall. They lifted a pipe over his head as if they were going to
strike him. Of course, they wouldn't dare, but he only wanted to,
so they didn't think, but he did negotiate with them and this, he
was criticized for this, for giving into the students. Alumni
said that he capitulated. Others said no. I thought he used good
judgment. 1'11 tell you why. He came out of...he did not call
the police. See, if he had called the police, it would have been
bad publicity for us. Instead, he kept it quiet, handled it
beautifully and gave in, if you want to say that to five demands
of the Black Students and they were demands that were reasonable,
I suppose for that time though. That was '60. Black Counselor.
They wanted more Black teachers 'cause we only had one, I think,
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 46
. .
more Black students and Black Language, so he gave them all and I
say because I was Chairman at the time, I had to get the
Language in and I said, "You have to fulfill all the
requirement^.^^ We had one White student, all the rest were Black
and he was Scottish, I remember, Tom. But, you know, everything
worked out all right. I went to the first class as chairman, to
make sure he was...to observe...he said, "We do not say 'Good
morningt, it is always 'Good weather in Africaq.
Second, we do not say 'How is your wife?' We say, 'How are your
wives, because that is our c u l t ~ r e .T~h~en he said, "We do not
say 'How much money do you possess?' We say, 'How many cows do
you have?" In other words, it was interesting 'cause it was so
different and then I told him, I said, "You have to use tapes in
the Labw and he did. He had tapes. The State Department
evidently had tapes that went with his textbook, not his textbook,
but his friend's textbook who he said could take his place after
the five years when his students stopped going to class, so he
gave them low marks, so they wouldn't go to class. Finally, after
five years and it was out of their system then, and those kids had
graduated that caused the ...y ou know they were not really ... it's
just that we got them young, it was government money and they
shouldn't have been here. We dontt...itts the type of student we
don't ... However, to this day, we don't have ...
QUESTION #40, VHS #1 (1-16-54) THE, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT
FATHER MCINNES DID WAS TO OPEN THE UNIVERSITY UP TO LAY BOARD OF
TRUSTEES.
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 47
ANSWER: Yes, now they are in the majority, whereas they tried
to keep it half and half. See, when I first came here, all the
Trustees were Jesuits, all of them and all the teachers, except
four laymen, but they had plenty of Jesuits in those days. Then,
McInnes was the one to change it. Legally, we separately
incorporated and I think, if I'm not mistaken, I was acting Rector
for two months of the Jesuit community and though others had done
the work, like Father McGrath and Father Small, I did the actual
signing of making the Jesuit community a separate
legal entity and somebody else signed for the University, but
then that was the first time we had separate, legal, separate
incorporation of the two... university community and Jesuit
community.
OUESTION #dl, VHS #1 (1-17-51) HOW DID THE JESUITS FEEL ABOUT
THAT?
ANSWER: Very different views. They thought we were
capitulating ... making a mistake, but when we compare the way we
settled, we settled at our own little house, down where it is now.
Holy Cross still does not own the Jesuit residence. B.C. has a
tag on it. It can go until the end of the Century, the year 2000,
but I think we settled the best. Why? Because we own it, so
let's say that some day, as I jokingly say to some, When
Fairfield becomes the Fairfield branch of the University of
Connecticut and ..." I said, "We would have our enclave on the
perimeter end." But, no, I think it's healthy. Fairfield will
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 48
survive. A lot of small schools, colleges, already they have
been...but with shrewd leadership and see we have a very good
Board of Trustees and.a good President see, Father Kelleyls very
good, and I think...
QUESTION 842, VHS & (1-18-49). JUST PAINT A PICTURE FOR ME OF
WHAT IT WAS LIKE TRYING TO CONDUCT CLASSES AND KEEP EVERYTHING ON
AN EVEN KEEL WITH STUDENTS DEMONSTRATING ALL OVER THE PLACE.
ANSWER: Well, those were 'restless years'. The 'restless
years' they had what they called 'Free University Classes' and
some of the teachers said that over in the dorms they would have
in one of the parlors, classes. Why? Because at Canisius Hall,
they went on, they had a picket line and they wouldn't let the
teachers
through. The only one ... They let me through 'cause I always got
along very well with the students and I said to them I1Ilm not
going to have Free University classes over in the dorm. If I get
50% of the class, we will hold cla~s.~l And I never once had to
have one,, because we got along very well together, 'cause students
knew I was always trying to help them. Now, one of the...we had
his name was Jimansky, a Russian teacher and German teacher, he
was a big Polish fellow. Well, they didn't dare stop him; he went
right through. They broke ranks as soon as they saw him come
through.. Do you see? But, de facto, some called it off and we
also had to do one thing. Because of Vietnam, the War, a lot of
students couldn't study 'cause they were worried that we shouldn't
be in this War. Therefore, these ripples came from Kent State.
Oral History: victor Leeber, Page 49
Kent State, as you know State Troopers fired into students and
killed. them and that reverberated all over the United States and
the world, so we.took a lesson from that. We were told by the
Dean, we said, ffWell,w hat should we do now?" the teachers said,
"these students are so restless they haven't been coming to class;
we should flunk them." They said, "No, don't flunk them." ,They
said, 'What you should do is take into consideration the world in
which they live and that they don't want to go to War that they
feel we should not have been in anyhow. Therefore, give them..."
They wanted us to take in consideration that and inflate.grades.
Well, we were saying that's the trouble; they inflate grades not
only in high school now, but in grammar school and in kindergarten
and we didn't want to inflate grades, but they said, "No, you
e' really should,
especially if they've missed a lot of class." And I'm not saying
they got all A's and Bts, but we, cases where normally you would
fail them and I think this was common in the United States that
teachers were told, that because of Vietnamese War, this
definitely had impact on their study habits and therefore, to be a
little more on that. Now we say that we are inflating grades
because juniors and seniors here get a B average or higher, but I
said, "Well, why, I don't agree with the fact that that's
inflated. I think that they should say that we are also getting
better teaching and we're also getting better students.
Therefore, I don't mind, and in fact, I'm delighted if they get
B's and I love to give A's if I can." But, I told them I'm not
going to give you an A if you deserve it, if you work for it. And
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 50
that's why I think we have a good rep, especially in tri-state
. . , .
area. Fairfield has a very good ... I just got a call from an
Alumnus of 1980 andhe said, !!Gee, my cousin got.turned down.!! And
I said, !!Well, 1'11 check it out for you..!! !!And yet hels a
terrific athlete.!! !!Well, I1m sorry, you know, this is not a
Ijock1 school.!! But I checked and found his marks were low and we
cannot take students whose marks are low. I mean, S.A.T.s, we
have a multiple norm, you know for that. Only one of them is
S.A.T.!s and we have a certain minimum on the S.A.T., but I try to
argue that and I1m not the only one, a lot of teachers feel that
some students do not test well on multiple choice because therels
no thought there, do you know. They said, I1They should not put
all that emphasis orthat weight on one of the norms, mainly
S.A.T. scores, plus marks in high school, plus other
qualities, but S.A.T.s today, you heard about the coach at
Georgetown, didnlt you. He said that minorities are discriminated
Icause they can't get you know, 700. Well, 700, that means 350
and 200 is 0, that means you can write your name. You should be
able to get 700 in English and Math. I think anyway and we want
OUESTION #43# VHS #1 (1-23-24L DO YOU RECALL ANY OF THE FACULTY
MEETINGS DURING THAT PERIOD AND ISSUES THAT WERE DEBATED?
ANSWER: Well, there were some ... Tripartitism was one of the
big issues in the McInnes years. Faculties, some faculty backed
the students and said they .should be given a greater voice since
their tuition, but others said !!No, there should be discipline and
students are not mature enough to make decisions, like to be on
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 51
the Board of trustee^.'^ But, even in the ... they don't know about
teaching, they just started school, so it got to be quite a...at
the time. McInnes handled it very well. To this day, we do not
have Tripartite. We have one committee that is made it...
Tripartite. I don't know if it's a Planning Committee. You had
faculty, administration, students on that committee, that's all,
but you don't have any. In Sports and that's one of the things
since I'm now helping out in the Athletic Department although next
year I will be more, they have a new thing called, for first year,
last year, ''Student Athletic Advisory Boardw made up of a...l
student delegate from each of the 15, now we have 17 next year
Varsity sports and an alternate. The purpose is student input in
the difference between, student athletes' position in school and
they meet, so I'm supposed to conduct this and I just now heard
that the NCAA, National, set up a day called
"student athlete DayN nationwide; it was April 6, but it was too
late for us. The idea is to have a day in which you commemorate
Student Athletes by certain activities appropriate, which you
decide on what your school wants. And the objective is to dispel
the myth that, to dispel the myth of "that all student athletes in
college are 'dumb jocks.'" Now, I think that's good. Our
committee already met, we have a teacher, shews very good, Kathy
Lance, she teaches Economics, she had a nice discussion with some
of the leaders of the various Sports and she said they asked very
intelligent questions and she's convinced, as we all are, there
should be more discussion between faculty and students on this, in
fact we asked student athletes because it's very helpful, you
know, to get understanding and in a school, we should all work
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 52
together and they all believe that.- So, next year,' it's going to
be.
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 53
a Right from the beginning, I'm still Chaplain, I go with them.
Why? They want something. The day we went to LaSalle for the Mac
Finals and their Chaplain had to go down to Philadelphia, say,
Master, they said "Bring your Chaplainw meaning Leeber, so they
brought me there and they said ''Gee, would you, we'd like to have
a little service up in a room above the pool, Sunday and then they
go right down and warm up for the'final~.A~n~d I've been doing
that for years. I did it at Holy Cross; one lady came over .to me.
She said, "Oh, it was very nice of you," she says, What a
wonderful thing you brought the Church to the people." She said,
''1 'm not a Coach, but I 'm a, 'I. She. was an official, but she
thought it was wonderful to have 80 athletes, student athletes in
one place and I made them participate, do readings from Scripture,
one helped me give out Communion and it was right in this big room
that President Brooks had. One end you'd see the Basketball
Court, the other end the Hockey Rink, but they all pitched in and
they thought it was terrific, so we've been doing that for years,
so wetre trying to put Jesuit presence in there and also if they
don't have a Chaplain and they don't have to go; we don't force
anyone to go. The only thing is the Coach; one day, said "So and
so, you broke curfew, therefore you.have to go to Father's Mass as
puni~hment.~W~e ll, I don't want my Mass to be considered
punishment; it's a privilege, so he's not going to do that again
because I would ask to speak to him. We don't; he shouldn't use
that type of thing as punishment.
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 54
OUESTION #44, VHS #1 (1-27-51) DO YOU RECALL ANY PEOPLE WEO'VE
BEEN ON THE SWIMMING TEAM OVER THE YEARS THAT STAND OUT?
ANSWER: Yes, well Kate Heller I told you her father and mother
are officials in all the big swim meets; her sister went to West
Point, she had to compete against her sister when we had ... Army
used to be in the MAC, but they've gone onto a better, a bigger
league. Yes, she was very good. We have a Chris OtConnell who's
at Seton Hall now; he's Assistant Coach for Swimming. He's gonna,
I'm going to nominate him for Hall of Fame this year as a first
swimmer 'cause he has some records in short races here. Well,
he's their Assistant Coach 'cause he's going to Seton Hall School
of Law, but he was on the team; he had to be out five years and I
said to him, ItYou better be careful for whom you root in this meet
because he's a graduate of Fairfield, but you see he's Assistant
Swim Coach for Seton Hall College." No, we have a lot of, we're
at the stage now, we're growing, if you have to be out five, see,
we have students now who graduated in '51, so we have 5-year
class, 10-year class, 15-year, 20, now wesre getting up there.
But see we haven't had a 50-year class yet, although Carmen
Donnarumma says in his speech, the last one that we had a class of
'51, he said the pioneer class, he said I1You should count that,
those three yearsn so he claims they have been out 50 years, but I
don't know how he figures that out. In a class of !51, see,
they've been here, well I've been here 44 years, he must be here,
well'he can't be 50, do you know why? 'cause we're counting the
four years of Prep, you know that. In other words,
.
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 55
we petitioned the Charter in 1942, therefore, we count that as
in. I said, "Well, you're celebrating the Anniversary Embryon,
but don't say that, Father. We have, let's see, '42, '43; in '45,
we received the Charter from the State, the Governor of
Connecticut; '47, now you figure it out, to get 50 years, should
you count the first graduating class or should you count the first
day of class, 1947, but in either case, do you get 50 years? No,
we count from the day we petitioned the year which was the opening
of Fairfield Prep, 1942, that's how you get 50 years.
OUESTION 845, VHS & (1-30-11) WHAT WAS THE REACTION OF THE
FAIRFIELD COMMUNITY TO HAVE...WERE THEY DELIGHTED?
ANSWER: There was an undercurrent because, well first, there was
a lot of land; they kept it quiet, the Lashers. See, Mr. Lasher,
as you know, made his fortune on chain link fences and also on
chains for your tires, you know we have studs now, but he had
chain links, but he got in financial trouble and he died and his
widow couldn't handle the property, so they put a tax lien on it
and we heard about the tax lien. The tax lien was very extreme.
Father Duffy's article will tell you how much we paid for it. It
was a...today, you would never buy that land for that. Same way
with the Jennings Estate. First, they didn't want to sell it to
the Jesuits. They said ''No, we're going to sell it to next door,
That estate and become the nuns place that we bought, so we were
very lucky because actually we bought the Jennings Estate, the
Maylands first, a few months before Lashers. Putting them
together,' they were losing a lot of taxable profit. Now, how
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 56
a would you think they'd feel? They weren't too happy, but in
fact, they were very displeased when the deal was, with the man
who represented them, who closed the deal, but I'm sorry, it's a
free country, isn't it? I hope so and so we were very lucky.
QUESTION #46, VHS #1 (1-31-381 WERE THERE OTHER ATHLETIC TEAMS
BESIDES SWIMMING? WERE YOU INVOLVED WITH THE BASKETBALL TEAM?
ANSWER: I was Academic Advisor under Baracat, Coach Baracat and
as I say, the Track and Field, which we eliminated after only
seven kids went out, I was also Faculty Monitor for Track and
Field, but then, the swimming team, right from the beginning,
football team, the last ten years, I was the Chaplain and we went
I
to all the games with them. The other sports, I used to have a
a ,lot of student athletes in class; I used to help and tutor them,
so I feel that I have that special ... and I think that's why Chappy
asked me if I would...he said, "What are you going to do after you
retire?" He told me this about a couple of years ago. And I
said, "Maybe, they'd give me one course to teach." He said,
tlWell,I got a job for you and a title." I said, What's the
title?" He said, ttIt.nmot going to tell you unless you commit
y~urself.~S~o, I went to him last year and I said, I1Gee, I guess
I am only going to teach one class, Spanish, what's your job?" Oh
he said, "1 want you to be the Assistant to the Director of
Athletics, not the Assistant Director of Athletics, we have three
of them already,It he says, "You work in my office, you take care
of several projects, Chaplain of any team that needs any,
recruiting." And he was very good and when he went to the
oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 57
N.C.A.A., he said, "Sit in my office." Now he had a secretary.
After the secretary gets the mail, she'll give it to you, go
through the mail, distribute it, then when I call you up from
California, Anaheim, you tell me whatss in there, in the mail and
1'11 tell you what to do with it. So he said, A lot of odd jobs
he wants me to...because and then he had the Alumni name me
Archivist Ex Officio of the Hall of Fame. That means, I would be
Assistant S.I.D., Vic Dicenzo who's Sports Information because
they know I go way back and the what do you call it, records are
not too good for the early years, but they want to know all the
rosters and all the schedules of all the sports, right from the
beginning and they pick up better after 1970. Do you get it? But
what about from '47 to '70? See, I have a lot of material where I
know a lot of the state rosters. I always used to be interested
in Sports.
QUESTION 847, VHS #1 11-33-51) WHAT ROLE WOULD YOU SAY THAT
SPORTS PLAYED HERE AT FAIRFIELD?
ANSWER: Well, what it did, it gave them the spirit. We had no
school spirit 'cause we had no...well they had, in the early days,
when they chose the mascot. It has been the 'Chanticleer1 and the
'Stagq. Well, now who the heck wants the gChanticleers, but they
did have a 'Stag1 crossing the Hartford, see 'Hartfords, the fort,
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 58
fording the River, I don't knpw what River in Connecticut, so they
voted 'Stagt and the 'Stagt became the emblem. But we needed a
Red Sea and therefore the .colors came out Cardinal Bellarmine,
cardinal red, Robert Bellamine, our Patron and then so, and then
the med in red, they used to have a song The Men in Red Will Fight . ,
Tonight For Fairfield. However, now we're co-ed, they said, "Hey,
we want that re-written." They want to
offer a prize to students who come out with another fight song
that says "The Men in Redm. You can't say the 'men and women in
red1, I don't know what, but they wanted to know the history of
our mascot, but they wanted to know the names of all the stags,
the people. I can take them back to around '70, but they didn't
start the stag until oh, I would say, around 1970,. having
@ . somebody, a fellow dress up like a stag on the court. That was
comparatively recent times that we had that. But no, it's given
us spirit. Do you know why? We had no school, really no real
school spirit, we just had the Glee Club which was the
'Ambassadors of Songt, gave us a cultural thing and then we went
in to the College Bowl, which we did very well in for a school
that never heard of us. Then, sports came in and that did give
us, but football, when we had the 20 years of Club Football, it's
amazing, they, a busload went up to Providence College and we beat
Providence Collegezin football and then went to Lowell to play
them for the title and I know they stopped in the middle of the
game and said "This is the most points ever accumulated in this
state in a football game --.lOO.tt And we were 40 to 40, I
. remember the Sports Writer from the Bridgeport Post coming up to
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 59
me and saying "Your team's gonna win1' #cause we had these twins,
these Myer Twins who played for Prep. Every time the other team
got, they would go in a get a touchdown, but then, all of a
sudden, all of our team defense got 'Nix' under the chin and one,
by one, they had to go to the hospital. That was the turning
point in the game, but Lowell Tech went Varsity next 'year; that
meant we were Number 1, ranked Number 1 in the Nation in Club
Football and we played the same rules as Varsity Football. That
was good. They said they should bring it back, but now, see we
have all these other sports -- Lacrosse, Women's Soccer, you know,
and in those days, 1970, don't forget when Football started, we
had Rugby and Rugby is very popular here, but it should be a Club,
not a Varsity because they like to socialize. Well, let's face
it. They like beer and I had nothing ... as long as they .... I1No,
Fairfield's come a long way,'' I really say, ''in every way.'' They
decided not to go Division 3 in Sports, to stay Division 1; it
helps our recruiting of males. See, our problem is, we want to
keep it, we'd like to say 50-50, 50% male, 50%; already it's gone
52% female, 48 and we would like to keep it pretty much, but what
are you going to do if you don't get that number of applications.
PUESTION #48, VHS #1 (1-37-30)- DO YOU RECALL WHEN FAIRFIELD
WENT CO-ED IN 1970?
ANSWER: 1970 -- it was a very good thing. Very bright girls, so
and it also had an affect on the fellows. Do you know why? They
began to dress more properly, do you know what I mean? You could
@ notice the difference. And it had a nice effect. It was a good
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 60
idea to go co-ed.
OUEBTION $49, VH8 #J (1-31-52) THE EARLY DAYS, WHEN WOMEN FIRST
WERE HERE, WERE THERE ANY UNUSUAL THING8 THAT HAPPENED, GETTING
USED TO THEM, AS YOU RECALL, ANY ANECDOTES?
ANSWER: Actually, let's see, when we first, they had to change
things that all referred to 'Male1. Of course, they had to change
the dorms because the very nature. I can't remember anything that
was outstanding. They fit in beautifully because the social life
improved, you didn't have to go far to get women for a dance and
socials. We had more events, social events and that was very
healthy. There was a little competition in classroom, I noticed
that. You could see fellows were a little bit embarrassed because
some of the co-eds were brighter, were brighter, knew the answer
faster; they kind of didn't like that, but that's natural and the
prizes ... We have an 'Arts and Science Awards Night1 in
April ... very noticeable since the co-eds. Over 50% of the prizes,
just guess, go to whom? Co-eds. On prizes and this is just, I
suppose it's very competitive. And I notice in class they're very
competitive; they come in and show you a paper, wShouldn't it be
two more points here?" I said, "Why?" But see, fellows, they
won't, ,they don't fight that much for I don't know, but there is a
difference, you can see it. Now I told them ever since we've gone
co-ed, I have Kleenex for the crying co-eds in my office, when
they come in to cry about their grade, but it's a joke.
UESTION #SO, VH8 & (1-39-43 WHEN FATHER THOMAS FITZGERALD
:DO. OVER FROM FATHER MCINNES) IN 1973, THERE WAS8 I GUESS8
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 61
SOMETHING OF A FINANCIAL PROBLEM AT THE UNIVERSITY.
ANSWER: Yes, well actually, Fitz did do a lot to remedy that
financial thing. I must say that because I was, he was more my
age group and I got along very well with him, although I must say
if you criticized, you got a letter, "Dear Colleagueuu letter, like
I criticized the bookstore because I complained that they didn't
get the books on time, made a lot of mistakes. He said, "since
you used my name in your letter to the Bookstore Manw, he said,
"Please back up your criticism with facts." And I did. I said,
"In Spanish, we didn't get these books, in German, we didnst get
and other things like this." He said, "You used 'shotgun tacticst
in your letter and since you evolved my name," which I did, I
wrote him back, never heard from him since. Do you see, if you
gave him an answer (laughter), no, he was, he did, he was very
good, too. His was more, not so much in building, shrewd, he did
shrewd financial things, too. I would say that. 'Now, he's Rector
of the Jesuit Community at Loyola Baltimore because Father
Costello, whots a colleague of mine has retired last year. He
helped him. The J e s u i t s moved, you know, from one building t o
another and he called upon our...he was here recently.
QUESTION #51, VHS #1 (1-41-07L STUDENTS HAVE SAID THAT THEY
RECALL FATHER FITZGERALD ROAMING THE CAMPUS AND TALKING TO THE
STUDENTS.
ANSWER : They called him 'The Silver Foxt. That Fitzgerald.
a See, they had to designate, like 'King Size Fitzt as James Edgar,
he was so big and tall, but they called Tom Fitz the 'Silver Foxt
.Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 62
because he was very shrewd and I thought it was financial; both
McInnes were very good for finances. You need people like that at
the top. Yeh, he used to go around, checking around at the
students, but no one had done what the incumbent has. He'moved
into a townhouse with the others, not with the students, but in
their midst, Father Kelley and I think maybe he had that when he
was Academic Vice President at Georgetown. Maybe he did live in
the dorms with students, I don't know, but he does, he's now.up
there and he has the record. He's the longest-reigning, shall we
say, President, so far. McInnes used to be.
9UESTION #52, VHS #1 (1-42-17) WHAT. KIND OF A JOB HAS HE DONE?
ANSWER : He, I would say the Board of Trustees like him.because
he has brought in more than the Capital Fund Drive Campaign. He
wanted $35 million, he got over $45, he told us he got $52 or $47.
You know he pledged at the last President's Dinner which was
aboard a boat down near the U.N. Building, you know, we had a boat
ride and his speech was "We have exceeded our goal." Of course,
he got some very generous, you know the Dolans, don't you? Now,
everybody at my table wondered when he announced that they were
going to give $5 million to buy the Nuns' Estate, they all said
"Well how did he make his money because~who, in the United States
today, can give that much money? What,kind of work does he do?"
Answer: Cable Television. And sure enough, he does and he did
a and that's the family we met one day and they said "Let's give
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 63
them the additional three milliontt because they'd already given a
couple and he said, "1'11 never forget that phone callw he told us
at the Presidential Dinner on board the boat. This was in New
York City. No, he's very calm and he's a Classicist, he taught
Greek. In fact, when he first came here he helped the Classics
program by teaching a Greek class (he has a Doctorate in
Classics), but he's very sharp and I think he has done very well
for the Board of Trustees. Well, he ought to, doesn't he appoint
them -- the new ones? Sure. And no, and so far, you always have
some faculty, as I've told you about Lemoyne's, they want to fire
the Jesuit President because he's not giving any ralses this year.
9UESTION #53, VHS #J (1-44-021 HAS THE CHARACTER OF THE
UNIVERSITY CHANGED SINCE YOU'VE BEEN HERE?
ANSWER: I think so. I won't say it's more secularized because
that's negative; I don't think it is negative. We had, with,
there's been a little bit of controversy which has been over, it's
been exaggerated, as we get more and more minorities, if you do
find one little thing like a graffiti scan say with reference to a
Black student, they build that up, we do not have that, as my
personal opinion, I've been here 44 years. We do not have that,
but they build that up into a big thing; it's ridiculous because
we do not have that. You might have one or two kids kidding, fool
around and yelling a slur, racist slur, but it's not, I suppose
they think they should read the graffiti in some of these other
schools where there's hatred underneath; I don't think so, not
here. We're small. See, theysre small, thatss what I like about
Oral ~istory: Victor Leeber, Page 64
it, even though we've grown larger, we still have as I say 2850;
there's very good rapport: teacher-student. You stop any of the
students on the campus and ask them. They'll tell you; very good
rapport. We have hours of consultation that is part of your
contract, that you are supposed to meet with your students "XW
number of times during the week and help them and I think we have
good rep for that. The students are wrong when they don't come to
the teachers, but the teachers are there. Now you say llWell,d o
the teachers come?'' No, just the part-timers don't, sometimes.
Well, they're not getting much, you know. They're part-time.
They go home and that's bad for any school,
if you have too many part-time. Now we were, you visited, we
petitioned a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and I'd be that year Acting
Chair because my Chairman went away on sabbatical and the
gentleman came was a Harvard professor, his name was Wheeler and
his first question was "Do you feel, do you have the same problem
as the English ~epartment in your Language Department?" I said,
"1 beg your pardon.'' He said, "Do you have a lot of part-time
teachers?" I says, "Yes we do, but they don't teach upper
division courses; the only reason we have them is to make classes
~maller.~W~el l he thought that was a11 right; we had a very
pleasant conversation and now it looks like we're going to get a
Chapter because, though, at first they had some objections,
foolish that we have too many athletic scholarships, isn't that
ridiculous? We give 37 athletic scholarships. All our nearest
competitors, do you.know how many they give? B.C., Villanova,
Providence, they give over 100, well over 100, so do you think
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 65
that's a lot? No. They said, "In contrast to the number of
academic scholars hips.^^ Then I1you don't have enough books in the
library.'' Well, that's ridiculous. I could say that about any
library. They must mean we don't have a Book of Kells, we don't
have too many books of Kells, no I donlt...I think we're going to
get it because they said to apply again quickly and that's a good
sign that they will give it to us.
QUESTION #54, VHS #J. (1-47-11) DO YOU THINK ATHLETICS PLAYS TOO
STRONG A PART IN THE UNIVERSITY?
ANSWER: Here. Oh, I think that's ridiculous. We should
strengthen Athletics because that would give us...for example,
some of the students I had in class, one class, Gerry Fornow, he's
successful businessman, he came here, though he was accepted by
much bigger schools, because we had Club Football and he was Pre-
Med, it would take too much time from him, yet he 'loves football
and he was a good football player. Now, there are other students
like that who come here because it's a small school, but it has
sports and do you know we have a very good participation rate in
intramurals? We have high, I think some 80%. Now, that's very
high, but see since we always pushed, the Jesuits always pushed
sound mind and sound body, you get it in various ways, if you're
good, you can do varsity, but we always had intramurals, and then
we have Club Sports for the in-between people, but how they could
say that we're over emphasizing, no sir. I wish we could
emphasize it more. I think it's good for students, especially
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 66
those who can do both. Oh, they shouldn't do it if they're ... the
books come first, but we have a lot of students who budget their
time, get higher marks when they're competing in sports than those
who don't compete in sports. They fritter their time away, the
ones who don't. Sports make them conscious of time and they
budget their time and I tell them, saying we always encourage
that. Sound mind and sound body. We've had a couple, very rare
cases students who had to leave school because they overdid it and
they got too nervous, but not many of them, you know. - I think
Fairfield has got a good balance. The thing is, I think they
should put back football, but I'm biased because I was 10 years
with them and they produced some terrific friendships among
themselves. Now we had a Hall of Famer, Tommy Myers, running
back. You should see how many came back from all the years of
football in that little celebration we had in the Oak Room and
you can see the friendships and they all said ''Do you need any
money?'' Well, we can't take any money now, we don't have it yet,
we have to bring it back first.'' But they said, ''Let us know if
you need and we would be glad to contribute1' (You know, they're
Alumni) I1to financing a teamll.becausteh ey enjoyed it so much.
No, I think that it's good for school spirit and health.
9UESTION 855. VHS fi (1-49-44) WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE
STRENGTHS OF THE UNIVERSITY?
ANSWER: Okay. Small, I would say, it's small and good rapport
between interaction between faculty and students. Second, a very
beautiful campus because that's why a lot of women like to come
here. They think it's beautiful. Fellows want sports. Also, I'd
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 67
say, emphasis on...now we have better facilities, like we have now
the Chapel, we have the brand new Chapel. A lot of them come back
to get married here. Already, we've had so many that I don't
think they can handle them, but-then we have the Quick Center for
the Arts. I think that shows us that we're more than just a one-building
school, you know. The big though, I would say, is the
values we teach. That separates us from other good Liberal Arts
Colleges and any big Ivy League. We do stress values and that
makes us different from other Liberal Arts Colleges and we have
the Core. Core is one of our great glories, though. The students
tell us, after they graduate, though at the time they'll say that
they hated having to take Philosophy and Religious Studies and
English and Math and Science, you know we dictate to them, half of
their course is Core. Of 120 credits to graduate, 60 are Core
spread out over 4 years, but we found
that's a good mix, best balanced ingredients through all those
centuries of Jesuit education and I think that's our strength.
They surveyed students and they found over 50% of the students
said the reason they come to airfield, not because it's a Liberal
Arts College, not because of its geographical location, not
because of its Core, but not because it's Catholic, even if
they're Catholic, but they come because of the Jesuit tradition
and they know that Jesuits have had a lot of influence in Europe
and 28...what other group has 28? We're going to have a problem
holding them, I think after, to be honest about it, but no other
organization has 28 colleges and universities in one country.
It's amazing, that chain. Now, the question is, should we
Oral Iiistory: Victor Leeber, Page 68
consolidate to survive? Should we send all our best, say, Jesuit
and lay faculty to one school and say this is for Philosophy, this
one is for English, do you know what I mean? They're considering
that because wefre not getting the young people.
QUESTION #54, VHS #1 (1-52-21)- LET'S GO BACK OVER THE YEARS
THAT YOU'VE BEEN HERE. ANY PARTICULAR EXPERIENCES OR ACHIEVEMENTS
THAT YOU HAD THAT STAND OUT AS THE MOST ENJOYABLE OR MOST
IMPORTANT m
ANSWER: Well, the College Bowl I thought was very thrilling--
following them, the students and seeing them,win. That gave me a
lot of...also when two people got up to get their awards, Hall of
Fame, this was in Athletics, first one gets up and he,says "1
don't know how much Father Leeber knows about, knew about
baseball, but he was always there when we needed him." Another
got up and he says, quarterback, "1 donft.knowh ow much Father
Leeber knew or knows about football, but no one was happier than
he was when we won." In other words, they appreciated that; I
liked to hear that because it was flattering that you were there
for them and I would say to them, you know the girls are funny on
swim team. I said, I1You want a prayer 'cause I don't want to the
force anybody?" wOh,llt hey said "yes,"; the girls always "yeah we
could use some prayers.I1 Well, sometimes I feel like saying I1You
need more than prayers." Do you know why? Well, we don't have
enough depth. Do you see. my point? And it Is frustrating if you
lose all the time. Who likes to lose? No one likes to lose.
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 69
Like, one day we went to Pittsburgh. Do you know where Duquesne
is? They paid us to play and so before, usually we have a Mass
for the team, those who want to come, we don't force them, so the
other Chaplain and I, we had Mass on the side and I listened
carefully and I said to him afterwards, I said, ''Father, you
didn't pray for Prayers of the Faithful, you didn't pray that your
team will win." He said, 'INo, I never do because they'll think
that God is always on the side of the winner." Well, I said "1
always do because I hope that we will be on His side, that we
deserve to win." And I always quoted to them what Abe Lincoln
said in, I think it's part of the Civil War, a soldier came up and
he said, ''Gee, President Lincoln, do you think Abe, that we, that
God is on our side?" And he said, "1 don't know, but I hope we're
on God's side." Abe Lincoln said that. In other words, He helps
everybody, but they should help.
OUESTION 8 5 7 , VHS fl (1-54-38) WERE YOU THE COACH OF THE G.E.
COLLEGE BOWL TEAM?
ANSWER : No, I just was, do you know who was -- Father Lynch
who's the one who put on this ~ulti-~ediFai ftieth Anniversary.
Did you see
his...it was a video,' three TV's. He was and he was prime, but
one of my ideas is to have a Sports Trivia Bowl among ourselves to
see, to show people that student athletes aren't all 'jocks',
aren't all 'dumb jocks'. The other one I suggested was 'Donkey
Basketball' but I think the Society for the Cruelty of Dumb
Animals, they don't like you to put on things, but we had donkeys
O r a l ~ i s t o r y : V i c t o r L e e b e r , P a g e 70
a that we donated, we covered the basketball floor with a canvas and
then it was faculty against students. You should have heard the
noise in that gymnasium, but every time I kicked the animal, he
always went in the opposite basket. It really was ridiculous
because you can't control his movements, but somebody said it is
cruel. Actually, the faculty beat the students that year.
QUESTION #58, VHS #1 (1-55-43) WERE THERE ANY BASKETBALL GAMES
THAT YOU RECALL?
ANSWER: Yes, there was one where we played Bridgeport Brass
before and the baskets, I was sitting right near the basket and
the official couldn't do it and he said "It swished." He said,
"Did it go in?" Well, I didn't want to lie, but on the other
hand, I felt it was his responsibility so I wouldn't answer. No,
but I don't think that's devious; it is, but it didn't go in, but
why should I tell him? He was doubtful, you know and that's his
responsibility. But then at the same game, they threw a dead fish
on the floor. We've had a lot of funny incidents, but I enjoyed
teaching here because even though I was very young when I started,
it's nice to see an institution grow and I think it's growing
better. I do. Oh, we had problems, sure we do, but we always
seem to. I don't know how he got those pledges. Now he did say
at this boat ride, a lot of corporations said the reason
why he got over 35 million is because a lot of corporations said,
"We have pledged, but we may not be able to make our pledge
immediately because of the recessionw and I think Father mentioned
that because there were people there from the
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 71
a corporations. He says, "They only pledged.I1 But he got over 35
million, I don't know what's 47 million, wasn't it? 47 million?
But if not, he doesn't have it in hand. Oh no, I think the Alumni
will help us a lot. Alumni are wonderful; we have a very nice
group of Alumni and they are very supportive, I think...the ones I
know; they'll do anything for you.
QUESTION f59, VHS #1 (1-57-301 THAT CONCLUDES ALL THE QUESTIONS
I HAVE. I JUST WANT TO CHECK AND SEE.
ANSWER: Okay.
Sound fine, Richard, I'm just going to check the tape.
VERY ENJOYABLE.
I en joyed your . . .
QUESTION f60, VHS #1 (1-57-53L DID WE COVER MOST OF THE THINGS
YOU WANTED TO TALK ABOUT? WERE THERE ANY THINGS THAT WE LEFT OUT?
ANSWER: Just that in the very early years, the very, very early
years, people don't know some of the things that we, for example,
like we would have .a water-flooded cellar in Southwell Hall and
the furnace, but we were pioneers. They don't realize how far
we've come. That's the only point I want to make. For example,
my very first year, this white house at the foot of the hill at
the back of the campus which is now called Southwell Hall, the
Alumni House, too, we had five Jesuits who lived there in a rather
primitive
because the cellar used to flood from the water that came down the
hill and we had to get a pump, $60, to pump the water out. People
Oral ~istory': Victor Leeber, Page 72
don't realize how primitive that is. Then, I was just a a Scholastic, I wasn't a Priest, the Priests would go out to
parishes to help out and I was left with the furnace in the winter
and the grate was broken and they came back wanting a warm house,
but they don't realize that I had to take all of the stuff on top
of the broken grate out, rebuild the fire to get a decent fire.
See, little things like this shows you that you came from really
nothing because ... then, the next year, I think I had to movie up
to McAuliffe Hall and then the third year, Bellarmine Hall, at a
little tiny room at the head of the staircase. But still, you
know, though we didn't have much, we were happy because it was a
new venture and we were pioneers, but contrasted today with all
the cars and trucks they have and Maintenance, I had to wax the
floors. We would never do that today, you, in your own room. No,
it's just the memories are the nicest memories that we came from
nothing to today, I think we are well established. We're rated
very highly among schools our size. You saw that in the magazine.
Well, you know, it's nice to see that. If you were there in the
beginning, as a pioneer, I think it's very nice.
OKAY.
Okay, thank you.
THANK YOU FATHER.
Oral History: Victor Leeber, Page 73