Closest to the Heart – The Life of Emerson Hynes: A Biographical Study of Human Goodness with a Focus on the College Years A dissertation presented by Jeanne Lorraine Cofell to The faculty of the School of Education of the University of Saint Thomas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education March, 2014 ii UNIVERSITY OF SAINT THOMAS St. Paul, Minnesota Closest to the Heart – The Life of Emerson Hynes: A Biographical Study of Human Goodness with a Focus on the College Years by Jeanne Lorraine Cofell has been approved with honors by a dissertation committee composed of the following members: ____________________________________________ Kathleen M. Boyle, Committee Chair ____________________________________________ Thomas L. Fish, Committee Member ____________________________________________ Sarah J. Noonan, Committee Member ____________________________________________ Date iii Closest to the Heart – The Life of Emerson Hynes: A Biographical Study of Human Goodness with a Focus on the College Years Jeanne Lorraine Cofell Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved iv Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… viii Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………… x Chapter 1 – Introduction to the Study ……………………………………………. 1 Reflective Statement …………………………………………………………. 1 Statement and Significance of the Problem ………………………………….. 10 Leadership Consideration and Emerson Hynes ………………………………. 18 Teaching ………………………………………………………………. 18 Conversation ………………………………………………………….. 20 Writing ………………………………………………………………... 21 Family ………………………………………………………………… 22 Advising ………………………………………………………………. 23 Chapter 2 – Methodology ………………………………………………………….. 26 Methodological Traditions …………………………………………………… 26 Portraiture …………………………………………………………….. 26 Biographical Study …………………………………………………… 28 Archival Research as a Lived Process ……………………………….. 30 Oral History ………………………………………………………….. 31 Data Collection Sources ……………………………………………………… 32 Archives ……………………………………………………………… 32 Oral Histories ...………………………………………………………. 34 Writings by Emerson Hynes ………………………………………….. 37 Geographical Locations ………………………………………………. 37 Secondary Sources ……………………………………………….…… 38 Data Collection: Analysis …………………………………………………….. 38 v Validity and Generalizability ………………………………………………… 41 Ethics and Confidentiality …………………………………………………… 44 Chapter 3 – Life Overview …………………………………………………………. 48 Involved Parents/Happy Childhood ………………………………………….. 48 Formal Education: Vibrant Intellectual Life …………………………………. 53 Virgil Michel, O.S.B., Influential Mentor …………………………………….56 The Rule of Saint Benedict, Oblate, and Religious Life …………………….. 56 Marriage: Who Shall Find a Valiant Woman? ………………………………. 66 Kilfenora ………………………………………………………………………73 Family Life in the Collegeville Years ……………………………………… 81 Rural Living and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC) …...96 St. John’s University ………………………………………………………….106 Students ……………………………………………………………… 107 Colleagues …………………………………………………………… 111 Activities …………………………………………………………….. 113 Leaving St. John’s …………………………………………………….118 Legislative Assistant and Advisor to Senator Eugene McCarthy …………….119 Illness and Death ……………………………………………………………. 128 Chapter 4 – Mentor Virgil Michel ……………………………………………….. 131 Prodigious Patron, Development, and Introduction to Michel’s Influence ….. 131 Supporting the Argument of Virgil Michel’s Influence …………………….. 137 The Moral Nature of the Prodigious Patron/Mentor …………………….….. 143 Virgil Michel, O.S.B. …………………………………………………………144 An Ethic of Conversation …………………………………………………… 150 Michel, Hynes, and Education ……………………………………………… 153 vi Some Threads into Emerson’s Adult Life ………………………………….. 165 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 168 Chapter 5 – Formal Education …………………………………………...……… 172 The Academic Life …………………………………………………………. 177 Catholic Backgrounds and Current Social Theory …………………………. 179 Catholic Backgrounds, First Semester ……………………………………… 183 Christian Sociologists ……………………………………………… 183 Work and Labor …………………………………………………… 190 Religion and Culture ………………………………………………. 195 Personalism ………………………………………………………… 196 Catholic Backgrounds, Second Semester ………………………………….. 204 The Liturgical Movement ………………………………………….. 204 The Corporative Order ……………………………………………... 205 The Distributist/Agrarian Movement ……………………………….. 207 Catholic Backgrounds: Reflections ………………………………………… 222 Looking Back ……………………………………………………………… 225 Graduation: Its Moral Meaning …………………………………………… 227 Chapter 6 – Extracurricular Life ………………………………………………. 230 St. John’s Record …………………………………………………………… 235 “Today’s History” ………………………………………………………….. 250 The Sagatagan ……………………………………………………………… 262 Scribbler’s Union …………………………………………………………… 265 Debate Club ………………………………………………………………… 266 vii The International Relations Club (IRC) …………………………………… 271 Institute for Social Study …………………………………………………… 278 Religion …………………………………………………………………….. 289 Catholic Worker …………………………………………………………… 296 Informal Activities ………………………………………………………… 301 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 303 Chapter 7 – Closing Thoughts …………………………………………………… 309 A Philosophy of the Soil ……………………………………………………. 311 Mentorship …………………………………………………………………. 314 Teaching Ethics …………………………………………………………….. 318 An Ethic of Conversation …………………………………………………… 320 Human Goodness …………………………………………………………… 325 Appendices ………………………………………………………………………… 329 Appendix A, Publications by Emerson Hynes ……....................………….. 329 Appendix B, Oral History Guidelines of the Oral History Association ........ 340 Appendix C, Letter of Inquiry to Prospective Participants …....................... 345 Appendix D, Consent Communication Script .…………………………….. 346 Appendix E, Consent Form ………………………………………………… 347 Appendix F, Transcriber Confidentiality Form ……………………………. 350 Appendix G, Interview Questions …………………………………………. 351 Appendix H, Collegeville Tales …………………………………………... 353 Appendix I, Prayer Litany ……………………………………………….. 361 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………. 362 viii Abstract This study examined human goodness as lived through the life of Emerson Hynes with a focus on the college years. Emerson Hynes was an ethics and sociology professor at St. John’s University during the 1940s and 50s before he became legislative assistant to Senator Eugene McCarthy. He cared deeply about ethics and was a leader in family life, teaching, rural life and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, publications, advising, and legislative work. Influenced by Rev. Virgil Michel and the Benedictines, Hynes was a proponent of Catholic social justice, personalism, and distributism. He lived by an ethic of conversation and philosophy of the soil, and promoted flourishing rural life as the best possibility for a healthy society and culture. Primary research methods were biographical, historical, and social science portraiture. Biographical methods were influenced by John Shoup’s synthesis on influences of exemplary leadership. Historical methods included archival research, oral histories, geography of place, and writings by Hynes. Portraiture methodology was attentive to context, voice, and relationship in order for themes of goodness to emerge to illuminate the aesthetic whole. An overview of the life of Hynes is provided. The study then focused on three aspects of Hynes’s college years at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota: the influence and mentorship of Rev. Virgil Michel, his formal education, and his rich extracurricular life. These three key influences intertwine with the purposeful nature and ethical outlook of Hynes’s adult life. Five reflective themes emerged: a philosophy of the soil – the soil that brings forth food to feed all beings and is the basis of growth for the oxygen all beings breathe – ix as foundational for all activity of life including love, ethics, and relationships; the importance of mentorship and its unique possibilities in the college years and implications for college teachers; a pedagogy of student engagement and conversation as a primary platform toward supporting transformational learning in the ethical realm; an ethic of conversation as fundamentally necessary toward action in the world; and accessing human goodness as an approach to support human flourishing. x Acknowledgements I am indebted to those who in essential ways have been foundational to this dissertation. First of all, I acknowledge my ancestors, who brought forward to me the value of the human person, the irreplaceable treasure of the land and natural world, and the appreciation for Mystery. In particular, I am immensely grateful to my parents, William and Lorraine Cofell, who continually model dignity of being, unconditional love, lifelong learning, and are exemplars of human goodness. I am grateful to Emerson Hynes, whose life was such that I heard deep respect in the voices of people who spoke of him many years later, and to Arleen, whose life drew out beauty in others. Special gratitude goes to the children of Emerson Hynes who I was able to meet and talk with: Denis Hynes, Patrick Hynes, and Mary Hynes-Berry. Mary shared a wealth of materials, ongoing insights, time, many phone calls, and a heart of love. Thanks also go to Mary and her husband Gordon Berry for hosting me and my family for multiple visits. I am grateful to many people who also assisted through interviews, emails, letters and shared materials: LeMay Bechtold, Bob Bray, Lorraine Cofell, William Cofell, Justin Doyle, Art and Monica Erler, Mary and Mark Hughes, Roger Nierengarten, Jody O’Connell, Kathrine Powers, Frank Roehl, Sy Theisen, Hilary