Celebrating a University Founder

Research at Examining First-Generation Golden Creighton Sarbanes-Oxley Students Anniversaries Spring 2007 View the magazine online at: Spring 2007 www.creightonmagazine.org University Magazine The Death of John A. Creighton ......................................6 One hundred years ago, the Omaha community mourned the death of John A. Creighton. His philanthropy helped shape the city and the University that bears his family name. Homeless in Omaha ........................................................12 Creighton student Katherine Bradley spent her fall break living with the homeless in Omaha. She stayed at a local homeless shelter, and spent her days wandering the streets. 12 The experience, she writes, has changed her forever. Can We Prevent the Next Enron? ...................................16 Mark Taylor, Ph.D., Creighton’s John P. Begley Endowed Chair of Accounting, spent a year in Washington, D.C., as part of an academic fellowship, studying the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act — the sweeping reforms passed into law following the corporate scandals of the ‘90s. Has this legislation made a difference? Research at Creighton: Making Connections ...............22 16 From fighting antibiotic resistant “super-bugs” to tracking the biological causes of allergies to studying obesity and offering surgical solutions to conducting pioneering research in hereditary cancers, Creighton scientists are at the forefront in their fields. First-Generation Students ..............................................28 They are ambitious, hard-working and among the first in their families to attend college. Meet three first-generation college students who are attending Creighton. Their stories are filled with hope and a desire to succeed. 22 Golden Anniversaries .....................................................36 Fifty years ago these Creighton couples tied the marital knot. Most met while on campus, and many were married at St. John’s Church. Now learn how they met. 28 University News .....................4 Campaign Update ...............38 Alumni News .......................43 Last Word .............................54 36 CONTACT US: Editor — Rick Davis, (402) 280-1785, [email protected] • Associate Editor — Sheila Swanson, (402) 280-2069, [email protected] View the magazine online at: www.creightonmagazine.org. Message from the University president Remembering Our Roots In preparation for my annual Founders Week address to the Indeed, I believe Creighton community, I found myself reflecting on the University’s we have lived up to founding family. — if not exceeded This February marked the 100th anniversary of the death of — the expectations Count John A. Creighton — one of Omaha’s leading businessmen, of our founders. philanthropists and visionaries, and a founder of the University that Most assuredly, John bears his family name. Creighton would be John and his brother Edward, the sons of hard-working Irish astounded at our progress immigrants, came to Omaha in the mid-1800s by way of Ohio, where and delighted that we their family built successful farms. As a teenager, Edward hauled have remained true to our freight — timber, foodstocks, construction tools, etc. — with a wagon Jesuit, Catholic heritage and to and a team of horses given to him by his father. our commitment of developing Omaha was little more than a dusty frontier town on the banks of women and men for others. the Missouri when the brothers arrived. Edward returned to Ohio He would find a University that to marry Mary Lucretia Wareham, and John later wed Mary’s sister, opened its doors to 120 grade school students now setting record Sarah Emily. The families then set down roots in Omaha. enrollments — with nearly 7,000 students studying in more than 50 They found success in a variety of business ventures, most notably undergraduate majors and 30 graduate and professional programs. erecting telegraph lines westward. Through their efforts, both coasts He would find that his Creighton Memorial St. Joseph’s Hospital has would be linked via this new communication. Even as their success blossomed into one of the area’s leading medical centers — dedicated not grew, they remained humble. Edward died in 1874, without a will, only to excellence in teaching and patient care, but world-renowned for and his wife, Mary Lucretia, died a year later, bequeathing $100,000 to research in such areas as osteoporosis and hereditary cancer. establish Creighton College, fulfilling a dream of her late husband. He would find a University that continues to move forward by Creighton opened its doors on Sept. 2, 1878, a free school for investing resources in new facilities, programs and people, with a focus boys, mostly serving Omaha’s minority Irish, Catholic community. on improving the educational experience for our students. Instruction was at the secondary school level. He would find a University engaged in the community — working John Creighton and Sarah Emily carried on the family’s with Omaha leaders to improve the downtown area, providing philanthropy. As detailed in The History of Creighton University service to local nonprofit agencies and educating the region’s next 1878-2003, by University historian Dennis Mihelich, Ph.D., John generation of teachers, scientists, health care professionals, lawyers Creighton “made weekly visits to St. Joseph Hospital to distribute and business leaders. candy to the patients as ‘sugar pills,’ he entertained … children at As Creighton entered its second year of existence, a newspaper editor Christmas and provided them with gifts, and he had the matron of the opined that the nascent university had “achieved a success which, to say city jail alert him to incarcerated individuals in need of help.” He also the least, is gratifying and commendable. built the first American convent for the Sisters of the Poor Clares. His “With the advance of time this success will become more and more generosity earned him the title “Count,” bestowed by Pope Leo XIII. pronounced, especially when the graduates, trained to think, to speak, to John and Sarah also provided for a young Creighton University write, to live lives of purity and honesty before God and man come forth. — establishing the medical college; Creighton Memorial St. Joseph’s … For such is the aim of Creighton College. Let it be hoped … that it may Hospital (today’s Creighton University Medical Center); the convey to posterity the name of its generous founder, of whose energy schools of law, dentistry, and pharmacy and health professions; and liability it is, indeed, a befitting memorial.” and St. John’s Church. May that hope — that prayer — be kept alive with us today and Count John A. Creighton died Feb. 7, 1907, but he, along with the among future generations. rest of the Creighton family, left an enduring legacy in Creighton University. As the late Creighton PR director Bob Reilly once wrote about these two sons of immigrants, who achieved the American John P. Schlegel, S.J. dream: “What looked like opportunity to them has now flowered into President opportunity for thousands of others.” University News University Magazine Creighton School of care environments and to accelerate the nursing Unveils nurse transformational change needed to design Publisher: Creighton University; Rev. John P. Schlegel, safer, higher-quality health care facilities,” S.J., President; Lisa Calvert, Vice President for University Leader program Howell said. “Clinical nurse leaders will Relations. Creighton University Magazine staff: Kim Barnes Creighton University School of Nursing engage in direct care while supporting nurses Manning, Assistant Vice President for Marketing and and serving as liaisons between patients Public Relations; Rick Davis, Editor; Sheila Swanson, is offering a new master’s degree program Associate Editor; Pamela A. Vaughn, Features Editor. designed to improve safety and quality of and their other health care providers, from Editorial Advisers: Cam Enarson, M.D., M.B.A.; patient care in hospitals. physicians to clinical nurse specialists to Christine Wiseman, J.D.; Richard O’Brien, M.D.; The program, designed in partnership social workers, to promote more effective Diane Dougherty; Rev. Donald A. Doll, S.J.; Tamara Buffalohead-McGill; and Jayne Schram. with four Nebraska hospitals, including bedside care and lowered risks to patients.” the Creighton University Medical Center, In Nebraska, Creighton University Creighton University Magazine (USPS728-070) is published is part of a national pilot project initiated Medical Center in Omaha, Veterans quarterly in February, May, August and November by by the American Association of Colleges Administration Medical Center in Omaha, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178-0001. Periodicals postage paid at Omaha, Nebraska, of Nursing. About 90 nursing schools Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital in and additional entry points. Address all mail to Marketing nationwide are participating in the effort Hastings, and St. Francis Medical Center in and Public Relations, Omaha, NE 68178. Postmaster: Send to develop the new role, called the Clinical Grand Island are involved in Creighton’s change of address to Creighton University Magazine, P.O. Nurse Leader. pilot project. Box 3266, Omaha, NE 68103-0078. Beginning this semester, spring 2007, Leota Rolls, M.S.N., vice president for For more enrollment information, contact the Creighton is offering a master’s degree Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, said that Undergraduate Admissions Office at 1-800-282-5835,

Load more