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The first of the lasts occurred in September at Faculty Convocation, the annual

meeting at which the President delivers his state-of-the-University

address. Robsham Theater was packed that afternoon in expectation not

of the first last but of something else: that the naming of the next BC

president would be on Fr. Monan's regular slate of announcements,

appreciations, cautions and encouragements. It had been 19 months

since he announced he would step aside for "new leadership," 1 5 since the

trustees put the succession search on hold after none of the Jesuit final

candidates was able to meet BC's timetable, and six weeks since the Boston

Globe reported that the search had quietly resumed and "narrowed the

field to fewer than five."

J. Donald Monan's 24th convocation address started out with a stroll

through precincts that would have appeared quite familiar to anyone

22 BOS TON COLLEGE MAGAZINE PHOTOS BY GARY GILBERT

who'd been on one of the previous 23 guided tours. and celebrations—from Pops on , to First, the appreciation of summer weather, then the Christmas-tree lighting, to faculty promotions, welcome ofsome notable new hires and an apprecia- to Commencement—at each stop someone was tion of the areas they would lead at BC. Then came sure to remark, "You know, this is Fr. Monan's last." the review of construction projects and plans, the delivery ofpleasant news about the balance sheet and SEASON OF FAREWTLL IS LIKE a full moon. It the caution that such news should not be taken as A perturbs the tides. It makes people reflective. evidence that BC had no reason to be concerned It makes them remember things. And it makes about its finances. Later came the appreciation of them check the backs of desk drawers to see if faculty, the explication of the current academic plan- there's something there that might be of use now ning process and the comment on the special nature that hasn't been of use for a while and that will not of the Jesuit university. be of use soon again, such as a long-forgotten Three-quarters of the way through, though, black-and-white film that was made a few months and just ahead of the historical corrtextualization of after JDM arrived on the Heights. the past year, the expression of gratitude for excel- It was the fall of 1 972, and BC was an institution lent work and the call for continued support of the shaken by financial shortages, fractious students,

University, Fr. Monan made the announcement. It and alumni angry at an administration and faculty wasn't the naming of a new president (that came six that, in their view, had surrendered to the kids weeks later) but official confirmation that the trust- without firing a shot. The film's title, "A New ees, after more than a year's hiatus, had resumed President," may sound flat to contemporary ears, their presidential search. "If the renewed activities but it would have appeared quite pointed in the fall of the Board of Trustees among their Jesuit candi- of 1972. And the production, while charmingly dates proves productive, the College should be in a retro to contemporary eyes (it seems to have been position to name a successor within this calendar shot without benefit of electric lighting or a script, year for arrival the following September," said the for examples), is clearly pointed—a 25-minute- president in a sentence exquisitely iMonanesque in long assurance that BC was now in confident, its detailed embroidery, its adamantine avoidance young, vigorous, virile and responsible hands. of the personal pronoun and its flouting of the One of the segments shows what seems to be a principles of sentence structure that are observed pickup game in the gloaming in the old hockey by journalists. arena, McHugh Forum. The camera finds a slim,

But that, in any case, is when it became clear youthful, grinning skater as he weaves up the ice that the September 1995 convocation had suddenly like he knows what he's doing. Crossing the blue become the first of the lasts. And, indeed, as line, he takes a soft pass from Athletic Director Bill Photo pages 20-21 the academic year wound through its ceremonies Flynn and then, while the defense hangs back by Lee Pellegrini

IU)SK)\ COLLEG1 \l\(,\/l\i 23 —

.e is a public man who doesn't keep the capable of setting new standards of excellence," he H urges a faculty might have been satisfied to who be assured that they were capable of meeting a couple customary valise full of public selves handy. of old standards and keeping their jobs. The odd spring of enthusiasm that buoys certain phrases is, in fact, it as He himself—as much of when he speaks: "You're going to be met with an avalanche of interests," he tells the freshmen as- he will allow you to see, certainly—but sembled in their folding chairs in the cavelike darkness of the old basketball arena, Roberts Cen- himself, always. It's what makes him appear ter. His occasional lapse into an upstate-New York

"awl" for "all." Then as now, it's the man. strangely vulnerable in public appearances. So I gave that up and tried instead to watch the film through the eyes of a member of the Class of

1955, say, who in December of 1972 is invited to

politely, he pops the puck over the goalie's stick come by after a long day at the office and sit in a and into the net. The voice-over meanwhile re- classmate's darkened, overheated den with other minds us that Fr. Monan "was a defenseman for his class members, have a beer and watch a short film championship high-school team." about the new president.

In a similar vein, another segment finds the young If I am that man, I come away thinking that this

president seated with a group of bearded, long- guy Monan seems to be having the time of his life,

haired male students and their silent, long-haired and I just hope he knows how to run the place, too. female companions, discussing the purposes of edu- cation. "Is learning something we're beginning to be SOME YEARS AGO I TRIED TO read JDM's Moral afraid of?" the president wants to know. "Where Knowledge and Its Methodology in Aristotle, which

does learning fit into the lifestyle that you call col- is said, by those who study such things for a living,

lege?" He listens attentively to the halting and som- to be a fine little book. I found it to be a tightly

ber responses and then asks whether "the youth wound poem written in a language I didn't know;

culture" is "anti-intellectual." After some hemming I could make no headway. In fact, I don't believe I and hawing, one of the young men admits that there was able to keep my bearing through any one may be "traces" of anti-intellectualism here and paragraph. Another of his books, A Prelude to

there and then veers off. Not fast enough. J DM sets Metaphysics, which he cowrote with another mem- the hook. "What traces?" he smiles. ber of the Le Moyne College philosophy faculty,

In other segments he addresses newly arrived is by no means a walk in the park (see, for example, freshmen, meets with the sideburned members of the pages on "the unity ofdouble problematique"),

the faculty senate, speaks at Faculty Convocation, but it is a much easier slog because, as the title

receives the sideburned mayor ofNewton, watches implies, it was written as a college-level introduc-

a football game from the president's box (despite tion to "the meaning of being." From this book I the demands on his time, he attended every home gleaned something, a note on conformity: game, the narration notes), tells the press that the "The real tragedy of the complete conformist

finances are going to be just fine thank you, pre- lies not in the predictable monotony of his life, but

sides over a folk Mass on the steps of in its radical inhumanity. The pawn of alien forces, and winces when he learns from a sideburned of compelling habits, of the fads of others, he lacks

member of the Council of Deans that 3 3 faculty are a personally embraced inner standard, which would likely to apply for tenure that year. place his personal signature upon his projects. His

I watched a video of the film several times one actions, rather than being extensions of his own evening, trying to note differences between the person, are hollow gestures because they are not JDM of 1972 (whom I did not know) and the JDM expressions of an inward life." of 1996, and I concluded that there aren't any It's not a voice—or a notion of conformity except that he appears to have been younger then. that most college students circa 1972 would have The joy with which he jumps into intellectual found endearing or comforting. At about the time tug-of-war, pulling the line of logic before anyone "A New President" was debuting in suburban dens else has even set his or her feet. The uncanny and Holiday Inn function rooms, a BC student optimism in the face of everything; "[You are] continued on page 25

24 I« )ST< )N COLLEGE MAGAZINE continuedfrom page 24 and shook his head in clear wonderment at this "activist" anonymously told a newspaper reporter fabulous possibility before he recalled his responsi- thatJDM's problem was a habit of "harking back to bilities and went on to say that his successor would, the ancients almost as a defense when faced with of course, at the same time also have a great deal of the real problems of today," and the BC student pride in the institution and so on. newspaper, The Heights, published an editorial in Four months later the trustees came to their which the writer called JDM "ignorant of the dead end and asked JDM if he would stay on realities of Boston College (and occasionally, I another "two to three" years, until it was appropri- have thought, of the last two or three decades as ate to pick up the succession trail again. Shortly well)." And then he harrumphed this gem: "The afterward I ran into a BC manager who had just presidency is still vacant." come from a meeting with the president. "He looks great," this fellow told me conspiratorially, IN 1991 THE BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE pub- "and he's right on top of things. In fact, he did not lished a very acute Q&A with JDM to mark, sound to me like a guy who was looking forward to approximately, the 20th anniversary of his presi- retiring. He must have been having some second dency. The interviewer, D.C. Denison, begins by thoughts, don't you think?" asking Fr. Monan to cite the most difficult decision Create the consequences. he'd made as BC's president. JDM responds that he couldn't do any such thing because "I'm a person DON'T REMEMBER AT WHAT POINT during the who can make decisions without a great deal of Iyear it first occurred to me that I would need to misgivings later on" and continues by saying that write this story. I do remember the thoughts that part of his doctoral dissertation had to do with the occurred to me immediately afterward, however. (1) processes of decision making. What did you learn? Writing about your boss is like juggling a two-edged the wise Denison then asks, to which JDM replies: sword that's missing its handle; however tilings fall, "That in the area of practical truth there is they will by some worthy standard not fall right. (2) usually no single a priori right answer. That in I can't use any personal biographical information many cases there are a variety of alternatives that gleaned from the conversations I've had with JDM would be equally successful as courses of action to over the past 17 years or I will be breaking the rules be chosen. And that, frequently, the values that you by which those conversations took place. (3)1 haven't are seeking are as important as the information you gleaned personal biographical information about are employing in the process. And in the last analy- JDM from the conversations we've had over the past sis, when you make a decision, you make it right by 17 years. (4) I can't use anything else from those the steps you take after the decision is made." conversations. (5) JDM would probably prefer that

I was talking to a guest at our office Christmas this story didn't get written. party this year, and the conversation, as often Not that he doesn't have enough ego to go happened in the season of farewell, got around around. And not that he wouldn't tell me, if I to JDM. I told this man about the Denison inter- seriously asked, whether he'd ever gone through a view, and he, who has more education than I, crisis of faith, or mourned the philosophy books he was then able to tell me thatJDM's expressed views didn't get to write because he took on BC, or were rooted in the American philosophical move- whether his Blasdell, New York, childhood was ment known as pragmatism, which preaches that rife with squirrel hunts or quiet afternoons in the outcomes are not achieved at the moment of deci- school library. It is just that he holds to the remark- sion making. "Rather," my guest said, "you create ably quaint notion that ego—much less the fan the consequences." dance of memoir and confession—is not relevant When JDM first announced his intention to to the work. And so I won't ask, and if I did and he resign, two-and-a-half years ago, I did the "exit answered, I wouldn't use it here. interview" that ran in BCM. Near the end of our talk This leads me to one of the more interesting

I asked if he had any plans for his first day in 23 years and complicated things I know about J DM: that he as "not the president of BC." He didn't as of yet, he is a public man who doesn't keep the customary told me, but he anticipated that "one of the big valise full of public selves handy. He is, in fact, differences [will be] that I'll wake up one morning himself—as much of it as he will allow you to see, and all of these preoccupations that I have won't be certainly—but himself, always. It's what makes there—someone else will have them." And he laughed most every conversation with him an encounter

BOSTONi Ol I I (.1 \l\(,\/l\l 25 PHOTOS BY GARY GILBERT

with a person and so, implicity and even retrospec- illusion because in June, when some of his family

tively, privileged. It's also one of the things that were in Boston for a reception, I overheard a keeps you very alert when you talk with him. And couple of his nephews talking about the changes in

it's what makes him appear strangely vulnerable in him. "And we used to call him the quiet Monan," public appearances, even as he speaks of anything one of them marveled.

and everything but his self. And it puzzles the hell out of people who draw ABOUT MIDWAY THROUGH THIS season of their idea of the public person from what they farewell, a member of the president's staff glimpse in the millennial shadows, where even sent me a collection of about 20 of his speeches for

self-reference, as in "Bob Dole would not lie to my files. I put that set in a folder with my own you," or "Wade Boggs had an addiction but now collection and ferried the lot between home and

he's cured," is considered good form. In recent •work in a Lord &-Taylor shopping bag, waiting for times, I've seen JDM indulge in self-importance reading time to materialize and only after several

only once, and it was on that film shot in 1972. In weeks realizing that I didn't want to read any of the

talking to the gang of students he begins a question speeches in the bag because the one I remembered

and then backs down it to intone: "But I like the best was never written down.

1 word 'cultivation' better here." It was so odd, this It was a eulogy that JDM made on a fall day in pointing at his own mind, that I made a note: 1994 for Shirley Hogan, for nine years his executive "pretension." Obviously, though, he has since man- secretary. Discreet, patient, efficient, precise, Shirley aged to straighten himself out. was the very model of an executive secretary. She

This is a piece of journalism, however, and for was also tall, gawky, humorous, plainspoken, open- the sake of form here are a couple of items about hearted, brave and good. It was impossible not to the-Monan-no-one-knows. love her, and she was only 58 when she died.

The first is that he can't time a joke. In fact, Shirley's funeral service took place in a Mor- when he tells a joke, he begins by blushing and mon church near Boston. The Mitt Romney-Ted saying that he's bad at telling jokes, but he's going Kennedy senatorial race was in full swing, and to try this one, and then he laughs, blushes some when the BC contingent arrived, the church park- more and wrecks the joke. Then, inevitably, there's ing lot was already full of red Romney bumper

a pause while his listeners pick up the pieces and stickers, to which, as I recall, we added none.

put the thing back together and laugh if that is still Shirley's sister spoke, and so did a nephew, I

possible. He is, after all, the president, and besides, believe, as well as a bishop and several elders. It was many of us happen to like him anyway. a long ceremony of remembrance, through which

The second revelation is that he has grown JDM sat on the podium with the elders, all of whom increasingly merry in this last year as he gets closer appeared to be about 30 years his junior and to have to the morning on which he wakes and finds that stopped by on their way to jobs at the bank. the 24-year burden of preoccupations has lifted. I JDM was the last eulogist to speak. He talked of don't know this from him directly, and, of course, Shirley's love of her family and of her fellow work-

I wouldn't ask, and if he answered, I wouldn't say. ers and of her adopted New England, of her com-

But I've seen what I've seen, and I know it wasn't an mitment to BC and her courage in the face of

26 BOSTON COLLEGE MAGAZINE >\ i

illness and rehabilitation and more illness. And he area, for example, who was called up to give JDM a said how much she had meant to Boston College gift of a CD-ROM of his speeches and began by

and how much he and all of BC would miss her. saying, "Father, I need to tell you something I've

And then, where we all expected a right turn into never told you," and then confessed that when she scripture, he took a left and quietly recited Socrates' was a student she and her friends had been in the words from the lyrical wind-down of The Republic: library one day studying frog reproduction, and

"But if you believe with me that the soul is immor- JDM, wandering through, had asked what they were

tal and able to endure all good and ill, we shall keep studying and they without hesitation had replied

always to the upward path and in all things pursue "photosynthesis." justice with the help of wisdom. Then we shall be There were 14 speakers and presenters, plus two at peace with Heaven and with ourselves, both videos—one serious and one humorous—an invoca- during our sojourn here and when, like victors in tion and four musical selections, and when all that the Games collecting gifts from their friends, we was done there was a long standing ovation that

receive the prize of justice; and so not here only made JDM cry, and I heard someone say, with a will we fare well, but in the journey of a thousand swell of pride, "You know, that's the second time this years of which I have told you, we shall fare well." year—he broke down at the secretaries' Christmas And there JDM stopped and stepped away from luncheon as well." But then JDM cleared his throat the lectern, and if anyone had fallen into the silence and spoke and thanked everyone in the room, saying

that followed, I believe that person would still be he had long known he could never prepare for this

falling today. day. "How do you prepare for the presence of all of

you?" he said, asking the exact right question, even if T^HERE WAS A MAIN EVENT IN—the season of he didn't have a better answer than tears. farewell. It was the May 1 tribute "A Legacy of Afterward, everyone did their best with "Hail! Excellence"—at , attended by about Alma Mater," and then JDM came down and stood 2,500 staff, faculty and alumni and preceded by a in a reception line that snaked across the floor of marching-band parade around the campus. "Legacy" Conte. People filed by as at a wedding and took his was the kind of party that could be introduced by a hand or hugged him and said nice things about parade. The emcee appeared to miss a cue or two but him, and he, when he heard such things, immedi- earned forgiveness with some smart off-the-cuff ately told them how much they had contributed to jokes. Speakers ran through their allotted minutes BC with their work or support, and they asked him and kept on going like the great-uncle or aunt who to autograph programs and were then photo-

insists on making the toast the way it needs to be graphed by the house photographers with him and made. Children in dress clothes roamed the mezza- with those of their cookie-filled children and grand- nine eating cookies that had been set out to refresh children who weren't busy playing chasing games their seniors at the program's conclusion. And some in the mezzanine. It took more than an hour to people said the kinds of things they might say while clear the house. Someone from athletics who came sitting at the kitchen table but not into a microphone down from his office to see what was up, looked at on a platform in a bannered Conte Forum. Like the the receiving line and said to me in wonderment, young woman who was representing the computer "This guy's bigger than Parcells." continued

BOSTON COL1 I (.1 \l\(.\/IM 17 1 j

Alumni 1972 1996 Graduates 54,847 113,412 Percent female 31% 47%

California residents 989 4,295

Massachusetts residents 32,908 55,677

Students 1972 1996 Enrollment ir,m 14,695

Nations represented 34 91

Undergraduates (full-time) 6,640 8,894 The MEASURING UP Percent female 44% 53% African-American *234 328 Asian-American *179 677 Monan Era Hispanic-American *238 454 Foreign students 26 314 Freshmen from New England 93% 40% Administration Undergraduates living 40% 69% 1972 1996 on campus

Undergraduate cost $4,125 $26,086 Undergraduate applications 7,286 16,680

BC financial aid (millions) $1.7 $51.1 Average SAT scores:

Operating budget (millions) $34.4 $340 verbal 530 570 Fund balance (millions) $50.0 $780 math 554 655

Endowment (millions) $5.0 $590* Graduate students 3,370 4,559

Bond rating (S&P) none A+ Doctoral degrees conferred 52 110

Full-time staff 887 1,709

Computer workstations 3,990 Facilities 1972 1996 Fund-raising Campus acreage 112.3 184.9

1972 1996 Buildings 59 88

Donors 4,896 30,200 Residence halls 15 30

Individual gifts (millions) $1.4 $24.7 Residence hall capacity 3,000 6,482

Total annual gifts $1.8 $31.1 Library volumes (thousands) 173 1,592

Faculty ii.Athti ri v.* n,fttp

Full-time 523 591 Men's varsity sports 9 16

Earned Ph.D. 72% 94% Women's varsity sports 5 15

Percent female (full-time) 24% 32% Basketball seating 4,000 8,500

Compensation $17,025 $82,000 Football seating 32,000 44,500

(average salary and benefits) * / 980-8 1 figures * estimated as of May 31, 1996 Research grants and awards $6. $19.5

(millions) SERIOUS VIDEOTAPE SHOWN at the May THE L ast week I calculated that, of 2,000 BC 1 tribute was created by the Public Affairs Office and featured interviews with several score people who had worked with JDM. Jim McGahay employees, the number, exclusive ofJesuits, '63, a writer for development, told the story of his

first meeting with JDM in 1972, when McGahay who are entitled to call JDM "Don" in the was working for the Alumni Association. "My assignment," McGahay said, "was to go presence of others could be counted on the with Father to alumni gatherings [at which JDM was being introduced], and I vividly remember the fingers of one hand that had lost three fingers

very first one. I was somewhat nervous because he was very new to me, and we had a bit of a ride. I in an industrial accident.

didn't know how it would go in terms of conversa-

tion and so on, and it was really very pleasant.

However, when we did arrive at the destination, three endowed faculty chairs in the name of J. the motel where the reception was being held, the Donald Monan, and to call the planned new hu- marquee had this very nice, warm greeting as we manities building by his name, and to give his name pulled in that said: "Welcome, Father Moran." to the quadrangle that will replace the Dust Bowl

In 1 982 a secretary in JDM's office sent me a list when the student center project is completed. Sit- of 37 misconstructions of the president's name, ting beside JDM on the platform, Cosby pointed at which I have kept in the back of a desk drawer. his neighbor with one hand and lifted his other

They include "Fr. Moan," "Fr. Norman," "Jay D. hand in the air and flopped it about in the time- Monan" and, my favorite, "Donald S.Jay." honored "hot" signal. Again the crowd roared. Last week I calculated that, of 2,000 BC em- But before any of that happened, JDM gave the

ployees, the number, exclusive of Jesuits, who are last Monan commencement address. In it, he ap- entitled to call JDM "Don" in the presence of preciated the weather and the families who'd sacri- others could be counted on the fingers of one hand ficed and the students who had worked so hard. In

that had lost three fingers in an industrial accident. it, he recalled words of St. Bonaventura that he admired, inteUectum valde amn, "mightily love your

npHE SEAS( )\ OF FAREWELL ENDED with com- own mind," but cautioned that intellect wasn't all, -Lmencement, the last public "last." The gradu- that a full life was made also of community, reli- ates and faculty and trustees were already seated on gious faith, justice, love and courage. The genius of

the field, and the BC Band was long past its 50th the Catholic university, he said, was that it did not round of "Hope and Glory" when the VIP party draw "a curtain between mind and heart, between processed onto the football field. intellectual discovery and belief, with each irrel- It was JDM, Bill Cosby, Berry Brazelton, Billy evant to the other." Bulger, Marian Heard, Mike Mansfield, Cardinal \t that moment a woman in the stands behind Bernard Law and five trustee escorts. By some me stood up with her camera raised and screamed tricky celebrity- affect, however, Cosby seemed to "Megan, turn around!"

be the only one visible to graduates or their fami- I retreated to the shade beneath the stands,

lies and friends in the stands. "Dr. Huxtable!" where I found myself surrounded by a legion of people shouted, holding out their programs. Cosby, grandparents, seeking shelter from the sun. As the

who had decorated himself with a tasseled BC proceedings continued, I found I could look out baseball cap, shook hands over and through the the doorway into the bright light and count seven railings, made faces at children and bantered with Monan buildings in sight range, including the one

graduates, some of whom dashed from their fold- I was sheltered in. I could also see JDM seated on

ingchairs to lean on him while their friends snappe* 1 the platform, looking quite small between Cosby

pictures from a distance. When "William 1 I.Cosby and Geoff Boisi, the six-foot-plus trustee chair- Jr." was finally called to walk up the aisle to the VIP man. But I couldn't tell what JDM was seeing or platform, the stadium roared. Then JDM's name whether he was counting anything. was called, and a strange thing happened. The u n stadium roared louder. Ben Birnbaum is the editor of BCM anddirectorofthe Office Later he received an honorary degree and of Publications and Print Marketing. learned that the trustees had decided to establish

TON COLLI (.1 VUGAZINE 29