Arthur A. O'Leary

Arthur Aloysius O'Leary (September 27, 1887 – February 8, 1962) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit, who served as president of Georgetown University in from 1935 to 1942. Born in Washington, D.C., he studied at Gonzaga College before entering the Society of Jesus and continuing his education at St. Andrew-on-Hudson and Woodstock College. He then taught at St. Andrew-on-Hudson and Georgetown University, where he eventually became the university's librarian, and undertook a major improvement of the Georgetown University Library. O'Leary then assumed the presidency of the university in the midst of the Great Depression and, later, World War II.

In office, he began a revitalization of the nationwide alumni network from the disparate, regional chapters, re-established the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences as a standalone school within the university, and significantly expanded Georgetown's athletic programs. After, he became the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, and then pastor of St. Andrew-on-Hudson. Towards the end of his life, he returned to Georgetown, where he died.

Early life Arthur Aloysius O'Leary was born on September 27, 1887, in Washington, D.C. His father was a worker on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He entered the Society of Jesus on August 14, 1903, He began in 1935 to comprehensively catalogue all of the university's 177,000 volumes of books according to the Library of Congress Control Number. This signified the first time that the library's holdings in various subjects had all been organized together.

President of Georgetown University

The end of Coleman Nevils' second term as president of Georgetown University was due in 1934. However, the faculty and alumni of Georgetown petitioned the Jesuit Superior General in Rome to allow Nevils to remain for an additional year in order to prepare a suitable successor. With the general's approval of the petition, in October 1935, when Nevils was sent to Japan for three months to represent the American Red Cross at an international conference, he appointed O'Leary as acting president in his stead. In July of that year, O'Leary was officially appointed president of the university, becoming the first native of Washington, D.C. to hold the office. The inauguration ceremony on November 23 was attended by several justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, government officials, many foreign diplomats, delegates of several hundred educational institutions and learned societies, and the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, Amleto Giovanni Cicognani. urged O'Leary to revitalize the alumni association. In response, O'Leary traveled around the country in the spring of 1938 to reorganize the regional chapters and appointed one of Georgetown's professors of English as the first secretary of the national association; the board of directors officially approved the national alumni organization in the fall of 1938, which began compiling a national directory and publishing a newsletter.

O'Leary was a proponent of expanding Georgetown's athletic programs, in part due to the recognition that they proved to be profitable for other universities, and greatly expanded scholarships available to athletes. Unlike his predecessor, O'Leary was a rather conservative figure. In light of protests at college campuses around the country against involvement in World War II, such as the presence of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps on campuses, and increasing political tension, O'Leary requested that the Jesuit provincial superior appoint a censor in 1937 to review any public speeches that would be given by Jesuits, so as to remove any political overtones. Due to the national mobilization during the War, Georgetown's campus became a testing ground for the Army Specialized Training Center.

During O'Leary's presidency, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was re-established as an independent school within the university. In the law school, O'Leary decided to condense the two leadership positions of dean and regent (the latter of which was always a Jesuit) into a single position, due to the resignation of the previous dean.

Toward the end of his presidency, O'Leary's health began to deteriorate. He underwent surgery to remove kidney stones in 1937. Soon after the operation, he again became seriously ill and nearly died. As a result, he went to New England and Jamaica for several months to recuperate, returning to the university in October 1937.

Later years

In 1947, O'Leary replaced James A. McCarl as the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. He remained pastor until 1953, when he was succeeded by Emory Ross. His final assignment was as pastor of St. Andrew-on-Hudson, which he held until his death. The requiem mass was held at St. Aloysius Church in Washington, D.C.