Joseph A. O'Hare

Joseph Aloysius O'Hare (February 12, 1931 – March 29, 2020) was a Jesuit priest, New York City civic leader and editor. He was president of Fordham University from 1984 to 2003 and chaired New York City's Campaign Finance Board for its first fifteen years from 1988 to 2003.

Early life O'Hare was born in the Bronx, New York City, on February 12, 1931, one of three children born to Joseph O'Hare, a member of the New York City Police Department's Mounted Division, and Marie Enright O'Hare, a New York City schoolteacher and guidance counselor. its first and only Bronx-born president. he ultimately increased the endowment by a factor of seven. During his tenure the University expanded in both the Bronx and Manhattan, adding 1.1 million square feet of teaching and residential space. The student population changed from 70% commuters to 70% residents and from 75% drawn from the New York metropolitan region to 60% from outside New York.

At Fordham he allowed the student government to recognize advocacy groups as long as they promoted "enlightened discussion", including those organized around gay rights and abortion.

He received ten honorary degrees while at Fordham.

Civic roles O'Hare was a trustee of the Asia Society. In 1986 he joined a study mission it sponsored to the Philippines. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. That same year Koch also named him to the 15-person New York City Charter Revision Commission, formed in response to a federal court ruling that found the structure of the city's government, specifically its Board of Estimate, unconstitutional.

In 1988 Koch named O'Hare the first chairman of the city's five-person Campaign Finance Board, which oversaw the public financing of municipal elections, allocating funds to candidates who agreed to adhere to restrictions designed to make candidates independent of large contributors. His reappointment in 1993 became the focus of a dispute between Mayor David Dinkins and his successor Rudolph Giuliani. Dinkins did not replace O'Hare when his term expired in March 1993, and O'Hare continued to preside over the Board. After the Board fined Dinkins' campaign for finance violations during the November mayoral election, Dinkins replaced O'Hare on December 30, 1993, just as his term as mayor expired, a move widely seen as retribution. Giuliani prevailed on O'Hare's replacement to resign and he named O'Hare to a second five-year term. (The website of the New York City Campaign Finance Board does not acknowledge any interruption in O'Hare's service as chair in 1993 or 1994.) and O'Hare served until he retired of his own accord in March 2003.

In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg named him to another Charter Revision Commission, tasked with considering several modest reforms and one controversial one: eliminating party primaries for municipal offices and making those elections non-partisan. O'Hare was in the minority in opposing non-partisan elections, and 70% of voters opposed the change in the November 2003 balloting.

The Citizens Union of New York City awarded him its Civil Leadership Award in 1992. Common Cause/New York recognized his work as chair of the New York Campaign Finance Board during its first ten years with its I Love an Ethical New York Award in 1999.

He died on March 29, 2020, of liver cancer at Murray-Weigel Hall, a Jesuit retirement hall and infirmary at Fordham University in Fordham, the Bronx, at the age of 89. His funeral Mass was held privately because of restrictions maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic.