W. Coleman Nevils

William Coleman Nevils, S.J. (1878 - 1955) was an American priest of the Society of Jesus. A renowned educator, Fr. Nevils worked at a number of Jesuits schools throughout the Northeast in both teaching and administrative capacities. He served as the first Jesuit President of the University of Scranton from 1942 until 1947 and as the President of Georgetown University from 1928 until 1935.

Fr. Nevils was born in Philadelphia on May 29, 1878 to Andrew P. and Mary Coleman Nevils. He received his bachelor’s degree and master of arts degree from St. Joseph’s College before going on to Woodstock College, where he earned a doctorate in Philosophy, and to Georgetown University, where he received his doctorate in Divinity. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1896 and became ordained in 1911.

Early career

Fr. Nevils began his career teaching Latin and Greek at Boston College and Loyola High School in New York before becoming a professor of Philosophy at College of the Holy Cross from 1916 to 1918. He then served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University from 1918 to 1922, simultaneously working as the Chancellor at Georgetown from 1919 to 1924. Fr. Nevils then became the Dean of the Shadowbrook Jesuit House of Studies from 1924 to 1928. He was appointed President of Georgetown University, a position in which he served from 1928 to 1935. Fr. Nevils left Georgetown University in 1935 for New York City, where he worked as the pastor of St. Ignatius’ Church in New York City and headed both Regis High School and Loyola High School before returning to Georgetown in 1940.

President of the University of Scranton

In February 1942, after the Christian Brothers proved unable to supply the University of Scranton with a sufficient number of priests to administer the school and instruct the students, Bishop Hafey invited the Society of Jesus to take over administration and ownership of the University. After the Jesuits accepted his offer in May, official announcement was made in June after the University's commencement. The Provincial of the Maryland Province appointed Fr. Nevils as the University’s President and Rector of the Jesuit community at Scranton, a post which he assumed in July 1942.

Fr. Nevils served as the University’s president from 1942 until 1947. He oversaw the successful transfer of the administration of the school from the Christian Brothers to the Jesuits. Understanding the importance of good community relations, he also established close ties between the University’s new Jesuit leaders and the local community, accepting numerous invitations to speak before both civic and Catholic associations. Under Fr. Nevils’ guidance, many Jesuits also served as pastors at local churches on the weekends, in addition to their teaching and administrative positions at the school. Through new policies about tuition in which they required students to pay half of the semester’s tuition before being admitted to class, Fr. Nevils and the Jesuits achieved a positive balance in the operating funds after only a year. With Fr. Nevils, the Jesuits continued to create innovative programs during World War II to maintain enrollment as many young men left school to fight and adjusted to the surge in enrollment after the end of the war.

Reorganization of the Board of Trustees

Immediately after the first two Jesuits arrived in Scranton in early July, Bishop Hafey called for a meeting of the Board of Trustees in which he officially transferred ownership of the University and the titles to all of its properties from the Diocese of Scranton to the Society of Jesus, creating a new corporation designated as the University of Scranton. Additionally, the old Board of Trustees, composed of the Bishop of Scranton and prominent local lay leaders, was dissolved and a new Board was elected, composed entirely of Jesuits who were going to work at the University of Scranton. This new Board of Trustees was headed by Fr. Nevils, who thus served as Rector of the Scranton Jesuit community, President of the University of Scranton, and Chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees. After the reorganization was complete, the University of Scranton officially became the twenty-fourth Jesuit college in the United States.

Occupation of the Scranton Estate

Since the building adjacent to Old Main, the University’s main building, on Wyoming Avenue that had housed the Christian Brothers was too small to accommodate the 18 Jesuits who arrived in the summer of 1942 to administer the school, one of Fr. Nevils’ first decisions was to establish residency of the Scranton Jesuit community in the former Scranton Family Estate in the lower Hill Section, which had been donated by Worthington Scranton in December 1941 to the University. While the Christian Brothers never made any use of the Scranton Estate before their departure, it would remain as the Jesuit community residence for over forty years. During Fr. Nevils’ presidency, however, all of the University’s operations, including all classes and offices, continued to be centered in Old Main.

Revision of the Curriculum

Once Fr. W. Coleman Nevils and the rest of the Jesuits arrived at the University, they began making gradual changes to the school’s curriculum and required core classes so that they aligned with the traditional Jesuit education and standards used in all Jesuit institutions of higher education. One of the most significant changes occurred in philosophy. The Christian Brothers, who had administered the school from 1897 until the summer of 1942, had not emphasized philosophy in their educational program, only offering a few classes on the subject. Thus, when the Jesuits arrived, they instituted a heavy courseload of philosophy with a prescribed sequence of courses covering logic, cosmology, metaphysics, epistemology and ethics was required of all students, regardless of major. Under Fr. Nevils, the school also added other courses and majors to the curriculum, as well as general education requirements for all students in order to create a well-rounded education for students. In particular, the Jesuits placed importance on rhetoric, public speaking, history, and the classical languages of Greek and Latin.

World War II

When the United States became involved in World War II, enrollment declined precipitously, as young men left to fight. In order to offset declines in enrollment, the University created an aviation program that trained aviation cadets for the Army Air Corps and the Navy, an expansion of the 1939 Civil Pilot Training Program offered by the University. While flight training was conducted at the local Scranton airport, University of Scranton faculty instructed cadets preparing for reserve commissions as pilots in both the Army and Navy at the school’s campus.

Additionally, in 1942, under Fr. Nevils, the four year baccalaureate degrees were accelerated and converted into a three-year degree program, accomplished by eliminating summer vacation and holiday breaks. This program allowed young men to graduate from college quickly rather than having to drop out before entering the military to fight in the War. By the end of the war, the University’s Honor Roll included more than 1,800 students and faculty who had served in the Armed Forces.

In 1945, with the end of the war and the creation of the G.I. Bill, legislation intended to help veterans reintegrate after the war which included cash payments for college tuition, enrollment exploded. Many returning servicemen also wanted to complete degrees, after their studies had been interrupted by conscription for the war. In Fr. Nevils’ last year as president, the University was leasing space in several downtown locations to supplement Old Main, which by then was being stretched beyond its capacity. In order to accommodate the large numbers, the University also started offering “twilight classes” in addition to its regularly scheduled day and evening courses.

Creation of Scranton Preparatory School

Since the Jesuits had arrived in Scranton to administer the University, the diocese of Scranton and Catholic parents in the area had been asking Fr. Nevils to establish a secondary school. The availability of the newly reconstructed Annex, which was returned to its original condition after a damaging fire in December 1943, made such a step possible. In 1941, Bishop William J. Hafey had acquired Dr. Charles E. Thomson's Scranton Private Hospital, called the Annex, on the corner of Wyoming Avenue and Mulberry Street for the University just as enrollment dropped with the beginning of U.S. involvement with the Second World War in Europe. As a result, the University did not need to expand its facilities and the building sat unused for the next three years. Thus, Scranton Preparatory School, a secondary school for young Catholic men, was born. It became the twenty-seventh Jesuit high school in the United States.

The Annex served as the high school’s home until 1961 when the construction of an expressway necessitated a move to a new location. After making the Old Main Building of the University of Scranton its temporary home for two years, Prep moved to its permanent location, the former Women’s Institute Building of the International Correspondence Schools, at 1000 Wyoming Avenue. Although Scranton Prep had operated independently from the University since its founding, it was owned by the university and under its corporate control from 1944 until 1977, when it received its official charter of separate incorporation.

Later career

After leaving Scranton, Fr. Nevils returned to New York City where he served in a number of position, including as the spiritual director of the Jesuit community at St. Ignatius Church.

Nevils Hall

Ten years after his death, the University completed construction on two new residence halls, one of which they named in Fr. Nevil’s honor to commemorate his service to the University. Today, it serves as one of the residence halls for freshmen at the University.

Fr. Nevils died in October 1955 in New York City, where he had been working. He had suffered from health problems for over a year before his death, spending most of his time in the hospital.