Joseph A. Sellinger

Joseph A. Sellinger, S.J. (January 17, 1921 – April 19, 1993) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit. He served as the President of Loyola College in Maryland from 1964 to 1993, making him the longest-serving president of any Jesuit university in the United States at the time. During his presidency, he oversaw a significant transformation and growth of the school, including its merger with Mount Saint Agnes College, the admission of female students, the creation of an independent School of Business and Management (which was later named in his honor), and substantial increases in the school's endowment, number of professors, and campus. Prior to his appointment as president, he was a professor of theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and served as the Dean of Georgetown College from 1957 to 1964.

Early life Joseph Sellinger was born on January 17, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Frank and Carolyn Sellinger. He attended St. Joseph's Preparatory School, where he graduated first in his class, before entering the Society of Jesus in 1938. He was then sent to the seminary in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, and then Spring Hill College in Alabama in 1942. He became the Dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University in 1957, and remained in the position until 1964. Sellinger was expected to become the next President of Georgetown University, but had a falling-out with the Jesuit hierarchy, and was sent to Loyola.

Loyola College Sellinger was appointed president of Loyola College in Maryland in 1964. He oversaw significant changes in the school as a result of the turmoil of the 1960s as well as the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among these was the conversion of the college from all-male to co-educational (despite his initial opposition), which occurred after the absorption of Mount Saint Agnes College in 1971. He is interred at the Jesuit Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville. His presidency was the longest of any among the Jesuit universities in the United States.

Legacy Sellinger Lounge in the Leavey Center at Georgetown is named in his honor. Governor William Donald Schaefer announced in 1993 that the state of Maryland's program for distributing money to private colleges would be named after him. after an anonymous donor pledged $1 million to the school contingent upon its renaming.