Theodore Hesburgh

Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC (May 25, 1917 – February 26, 2015) was an American priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He served as president of the University of Notre Dame for 35 years. TIAA–CREF's Hesburgh Award is named after him.

Theodore Hesburgh was born in Syracuse, New York to Anne Murphy Hesburgh and Theodore Bernard Hesburgh and had one brother and three sisters. He had wished to become a priest since early childhood. He enrolled at Notre Dame in 1934, but after three years he was relocated to Rome and in 1939 he earned a bachelor of philosophy degree from the Gregorian University. Because he was sent to Rome, Hesburgh never finished his Notre Dame degree. (He obtained it years later, in 1984, when the University awarded him an honorary degree, 32 years after he became university president.) He studied in Rome until he was forced to leave due to the outbreak of World War II. In 1943 he was ordained a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross at Notre Dame's Sacred Heart Church, later renamed the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. He graduated from The Catholic University of America in 1945, having earned a Doctorate in Sacred Theology, and taught Religion at Notre Dame. In 1948 he was named head of the Department of Theology. In 1949 Notre Dame president Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C. appointed him executive vice-president and Hesburgh served in that position for three years.

Fr. Hesburgh presents the Laetare Medal to John F. Kennedy

Hesburgh served as Notre Dame's President for 35 years (1952–1987), the longest tenure to date. He supervised dramatic growth, as well as a transition to coeducation in 1972. During his term, the annual operating budget rose by a factor of 18 from $9.7 million to $176.6 million, the endowment rose by a factor of 40 from $9 million to $350 million, and research funding rose by a factor of 20 from $735,000 to $15 million. Enrollment nearly doubled from 4,979 to 9,600, faculty more than doubled 389 to 950, and degrees awarded annually doubled from 1,212 to 2,500. In 1967 he turned governance of the University over to a two-tiered, mixed board of lay and religious trustees and fellows.

In 1967, he led an academic movement which issued the so-called Land O'Lakes statement which insisted upon "true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical". According to Rick Perlstein in Nixonland, Hesburgh was considered by George McGovern as his running mate in the 1972 presidential election. McGovern chose Thomas Eagleton.

Hesburgh was a key figure in anti-Vietnam War student activism. After discovering a student plot to burn the Notre Dame campus ROTC building in 1969, Hesburgh issued a letter to the student body outlining the University's stance. The letter was later reprinted by the New York Times and Washington Post. At the request of President Richard Nixon, Hesburgh advised Vice President Spiro Agnew regarding controlling violence on college campuses. Hesburgh generally disagreed with American policy in Vietnam and favored accelerated withdrawal of the troops.

His career included sixteen presidential appointments involving most major social issues of his time, including civil rights, peaceful uses of atomic energy, campus unrest, Third World development, and immigration reform. In 1953 he created the Distinguished Professors Program to attract top scholars to Notre Dame. In 1954 he was appointed by President Eisenhower to the National Science Board.

Fr. Hesburgh chairs the Civil Rights Committee

Hesburgh served as a member of the United States Civil Rights Commission from 1957 (appointed by president Eisenhower), and Chairman from 1969, until his dismissal by President Richard Nixon in 1972 due to his frequent opposition to Nixon policies. He also served in a number of other posts on government commissions, non-profit organization boards, and Vatican missions, beginning with his appointment to a science commission by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954. He was a contributor to the 1958 analysis of the U.S. education system, The Pursuit of Excellence, commissioned by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as part of its Special Studies Project.

In 1964 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest honor, by President Johnson. The same year he joined hands with Martin Luther King Jr. in support for civil rights during a rally in Chicago.

From 1977 to 1982 Hesburgh was chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to a blue-ribbon immigration reform commission in 1979; the commission's finding — that any national immigration reform proposals can succeed only if the American national border is properly secured beforehand — was cited by various opponents of illegal immigration to the United States, especially those who are Catholic or sympathetic to Catholic views.

In 1968 he was appointed by Pope Paul VI as head of the Vatican representatives attending the 20th anniversary of the United Nations’ human rights declaration in Tehran, Iran. In 1972 he organized the establishment of the Tantur Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Jerusalem, at the request of Pope Paul VI. In 1974 Paul VI appointed him as a member of the Holy See’s U.N. delegation.

From 1956 until 1970 he served as the permanent Vatican representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

In 1983 he was appointed to the Pontifical Council for Culture by Pope John Paul II.

In 1994 he was elected to Chair the Harvard Board of Overseers, the first priest to do so.

He was one of the founders of People for the American Way. Hesburgh served on the Knight Commission that overhauled college sports from 1990 to 1996. Hesburgh was a major figure in American politics and Church politics from the 1950s to the 1990s. He was a strong supporter of interfaith dialogue.

Statue of Fr. Hesburgh and his VP Joyce

In 2000 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the first person from higher education to receive the honor. In 2004 he was named the first recipient of the NCAA’s Gerald R. Ford Award for leadership in intercollegiate athletics.

In 2009, he supported the invitation for Barack Obama to speak at Notre Dame, which was controversial because of Obama's strong endorsement of pro-choice legislation.

Hesburgh died on February 26, 2015, aged 97. His death, funeral and memorial gained media widespread attention. Attendees and speakers at the memorial included Jimmy Carter, Condoleezza Rice, Lou Holtz, cardinals Theodore McCarrick and Roger Mahony, former senator Harris L. Wofford, governor Mike Pence, First Lady Rosalynn Carter, former senator Alan K. Simpson, senator Joe Donnelly, William G. Bowen, and a video message from Barack Obama.

Fr. Hesburgh's Presidential Medal of Freedom

Hesburgh attained many accomplishments, honors, and awards in his public career and he was "the recipient of over 150 honorary degrees, the most ever awarded to one person." He became the first individual from post-secondary education to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2000. He served in over sixteen presidential appointments "involving him in civil rights, peaceful uses of atomic energy, campus unrest, and immigration reform — including the American policy of amnesty for immigrants in the mid-1980s." He was the first priest to be elected to the Board of Overseers at Harvard and for two years served as president of the Harvard Board. He also served as a director for the Chase Manhattan Bank. While serving on the Board of the United States Institute of Peace, he "helped organize a meeting of scientists and representative leaders of six faith traditions who called for the elimination of nuclear weapons." He served as a trustee and later Chairman of the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was appointed as ambassador to the 1979 UN Conference on Science and Technology for Development.

Other awards include:

• Honorary member of the Austrian catholic fraternity KÖHV Alpenland (1961)
• Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964)
• The Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards (1976)
• Sylvanus Thayer Award from the United States Military Academy (1980)

Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame.

• F. Sadlier Dinger Award by educational publisher William H. Sadlier, Inc. in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the ministry of religious education in America. (1982)
• Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1984)
• Four Freedom Award for the Freedom of Worship (1993)
• NCAA Gerald R. Ford Award (2004) (inaugural recipient)
• Honorary Navy chaplain (2013)

He holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for "Most Honorary Degrees", having been awarded 150.

He also holds the world record for the fastest any civilian has ever flown, having ridden in an Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird at 2,200 MPH as a favor owed to him by President Jimmy Carter.

The University of Notre Dame's library opened on September 18, 1963 as the Memorial Library. It was renamed the Theodore Hesburgh Library after Father Hesburgh in 1987. He had a private office on the thirteenth floor with the Olympic Torch from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The University of Notre Dame has named several buildings and programs after Fr. Hesburgh, including the Hesburgh Library, the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholarship, the Hesburgh Institute for International Studies, the Hesburgh International Scholar Experience, and more.

Father Theodore Hesburgh received more than 150 honorary degrees, a world record for most honorary degrees given to one individual. These include:

Honorary degrees

Country	Date	School	Degree
New York	1954	Le Moyne College
Illinois	1955	Bradley University
Chile	1956	Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Kansas	1958	St. Benedict's College
Pennsylvania	1958	Villanova University
New Hampshire	1958	Dartmouth College
Rhode Island	1960	University of Rhode Island
New York	1961	Columbia University
New Jersey	1961	Princeton University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Massachusetts	1962	Brandeis University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Indiana	1962	Indiana University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Illinois	1963	Northwestern University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Pennsylvania	1963	Lafayette College	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Austria	1965	University of Vienna	Honorary Citizen
California	1965	University of California Los Angeles	UCLA Later imposed a moratorium on awarding honorary degrees.
Philippines	1965	Saint Louis University
Washington	1965	Gonzaga University
Pennsylvania	1965	Temple University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Quebec	1965	Université de Montréal
Illinois	1966	University of Illinois	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Georgia (U.S. state)	1966	Atlanta University
Indiana	1966	Wabash College
New York	1967	Fordham University
Indiana	1967	Manchester University
Indiana	1967	Valparaiso University
Rhode Island	1968	Providence College
California	1968	University of Southern California
Michigan	1968	Michigan State University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Indiana	1969	Saint Mary's College
Missouri	1969	Saint Louis University
District of Columbia	1969	The Catholic University of America	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Illinois	1970	Loyola University
Indiana	1970	Anderson College	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
New York	1970	State University of New York
Utah	1970	Utah State University	Doctor of Arts (HD)
Pennsylvania	1971	Lehigh University
Connecticut	1971	Yale University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Pennsylvania	1972	King's College
Massachusetts	1972	Stonehill College
Michigan	1972	Alma College
New York	1973	Syracuse University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
New York	1973	Marymount College
New York	1973	Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Ohio	1973	Hebrew Union College
Massachusetts	1973	Harvard University
Colorado	1974	Regis College
Pennsylvania	1974	Lincoln University
Massachusetts	1974	Tufts University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Tennessee	1974	The University of the South
Oregon	1975	University of Portland	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Connecticut	1975	Fairfield University	Doctor of Public Service
North Carolina	1976	Davidson College
New York	1976	College of New Rochelle
Colorado	1976	University of Denver
Wisconsin	1976	Beloit College	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Pennsylvania	1977	Dickinson College	Doctor of Sacred Theology (STD)
District of Columbia	1977	Georgetown University
New York	1977	Queens College
Quebec	1977	Laval University
Belgium	1978	Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
South Carolina	1978	University of South Carolina
Pennsylvania	1978	University of Pennsylvania	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Belgium	1978	Université catholique de Louvain
Pennsylvania	1978	Duquesne University
Nova Scotia	1978	St. Francis Xavier University
Indiana	1979	University of Evansville
Michigan	1979	Albion College
Utah	1979	University of Utah	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Massachusetts	1979	Assumption College
Virginia	1980	College of William and Mary	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Maryland	1980	Johns Hopkins University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
New Jersey	1980	Seton Hall University
Alabama	1980	Tuskegee Institute
New York	1980	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
California	1980	University of San Diego
Texas	1980	University of the Incarnate Word	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
New York	1981	St. John Fisher College
Washington	1981	Seattle University
Ohio	9 May 1981	University of Toledo	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Iowa	1981	St. Ambrose University
Pennsylvania	1981	University of Scranton
Ohio	1981	University of Cincinnati	Doctor of Letters (D.Litt)
Michigan	1981	University of Michigan	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Michigan	1981	Hope College	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Brazil	1981	University of Brasília
New York	1982	New York University
Indiana	1982	Indiana State University
Michigan	1982	Madonna College
California	1982	Loyola Marymount University
Pennsylvania	1982	Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital
Michigan	1982	Kalamazoo College	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Colorado	1982	Loretto Heights College
Dominican Republic	1982	Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
Thailand	1983	Ramkhamhaeng University	This Degree was Received In Absentia.
Indiana	1983	Saint Joseph's College
New Jersey	1983	Rider College
New York	1983	Colgate University
New Jersey	1983	Immaculate Conception Seminary
Florida	1984	St. Leo College
West Virginia	1984	West Virginia Wesleyan College
Indiana	1984	University of Notre Dame
Montana	1985	Carroll College
Ohio	1985	College of Mount St. Joseph
Pennsylvania	1985	Holy Family College
North Carolina	1985	Duke University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Tennessee	1985	Christian Brothers College
New Brunswick	1985	St. Thomas University
Ohio	1985	Walsh College
Iowa	1986	Briar Cliff College
Michigan	1986	Aquinas College	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Nebraska	1986	University of Nebraska	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Pennsylvania	1987	University of Pittsburgh
Guatemala	1987	Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Malta	1988	University of Malta
Missouri	1988	Rockhurst College
West Virginia	1989	Wheeling Jesuit College
Louisiana	1989	Loyola University
Maryland	1989	Mount Saint Mary’s College
Rhode Island	1989	Brown University
Iowa	1990	Loras College
Ohio	1990	Defiance College
Minnesota	1990	St. Olaf College
District of Columbia	1991	Defiance College	Doctor of Public Service
Louisiana	1991	Our Lady of Holy Cross College
Pennsylvania	1992	Gannon University
Iowa	1993	Mount Mercy College
New Hampshire	1993	Notre Dame College
North Carolina	1993	Wake Forest University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Indiana	1994	Marian College
Missouri	1994	Avila College
Illinois	1995	North Park College
Pennsylvania	1996	Saint Vincent College
Illinois	1996	University of St. Francis	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Connecticut	1996	Albertus Magnus College	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Australia	1997	University of Notre Dame Australia
New York	1997	The College of Saint Rose
Kentucky	1998	University of Kentucky	Doctor of Letters (D.Litt)
New York	1998	Touro College Law Center
Florida	1998	Barry University
New York	1999	State University of New York Polytechnic Institute
Connecticut	1999	Connecticut College
Indiana	2000	University of Saint Francis
Indiana	2000	Holy Cross College
New Jersey	2000	Saint Peter's College
North Carolina	2000	North Carolina State University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Texas	2001	St. Edward's University
New Jersey	2001	Georgian Court College
Ohio	2002	Ohio State University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Indiana	2002	Ivy Tech State College
California	2002	University of San Diego