John J. Cavanaugh, fifteenth president; early years. Gifts to the University. The Notre Dame Foundation. Vetville. The Mediaeval Institute. Scientific research. Lobund. Economic research. Athletics. Reorganization of the administration.
THIRTY-ONE years ago, in 1917, during the presidency of Father John W. Cavanaugh, there came to the campus a stocky lad with a fine smile and a great capacity for hard work. His name, too, was Cavanaugh, John J. Cavanaugh, no relative of the president, but destined to be closely associated with him. He had been born at Owosso, Michigan, January 23, 1899, the son of Mary Keegan and Michael Cavanaugh. In the family there were three other children, Michael and Anne, older than John, and a younger brother, Frank. The father of the family died a young man, and left Mrs. Cavanaugh with no easy lot. All the children went to work and showed an energy beyond their years.
John Cavanaugh took a business course and it was not long until he had a good position in Detroit as a secretary to Henry Ford's private secretary, Mr. Liebold. But he was hungry for an education. His younger brother, Frank, had enrolled in Holy Cross Seminary, Notre Dame. Through him, John met Father Cavanaugh, then president, and it was agreed that John should come to Notre Dame to act as Father Cavanaugh's secretary for two years; after that, John would be free to pursue any course of studies he might choose.
In 1919, he entered the College of Commerce, doing some secretarial work for Father James Burns, the new president. He was graduated in the summer of 1923, and was immediately employed by the Studebaker Corporation. In 1924, he was assistant advertising manager. Then he took a step he had long reflected on. He wanted to be a priest. He entered the novitiate at Notre Dame on his birthday, January 23, 1925. He rode over in company with his old friend, Father John W. Cavanaugh. The prospective novice asked if there was any word of advice that the older priest might have to offer. "Yes, there is. Just remember you are joining a religious community, not founding one."
After completing his novitiate and passing a year and a half in Moreau Seminary, John spent four years in Washington, D. C., studying theology. Then, after his ordination in June, 1931, his superiors sent him to Rome. He studied philosophy at the Gregorian University, absorbed the Catholic spirit that can be obtained nowhere as in the Eternal City, and had one memorable episode at Chamonix in France during vacation, when he met a tall spare priest, evidently an Italian, but whom John understood to have a parish in America. They exchanged stories, there was a great deal of laughing, John laying a heavy hand on the priest's knee as they sat relating the oddities that happen to people unaccustomed to a foreign tongue. Only when John rose to leave did he recognize his tall confrere. It was Eugene Cardinal Pacelli, incognito, then Papal Secretary of State, probably the only successor to the throne of St. Peter whose knee had been roundly thumped by a future president of Notre Dame.[1]
When Father Cavanaugh returned to Notre Dame in 1933, he was made assistant prefect of religion. When Father O'Hara became president in 1934, Father Cavanaugh was appointed prefect of religion, a post he occupied until he became assistant provincial in 1938. When Father Hugh O'Donnell replaced Father O'Hara as president, Father Cavanaugh was appointed vice-president. He was an able assistant to Father O'Donnell, initiating many of the policies that appeared during that administration. In the summer of 1946, Father Cavanaugh was named president of Notre Dame.
There was a day long years ago when education was, perhaps, a paying business. But as every college administration knows, that day has long since passed, and it is hardly likely ever to return. Student fees do not pay for a student's education. This difference between cost and fees has to be made up somehow. Nearly all institutions of higher learning make it up through public taxes or private endowment or both.
No university can maintain a high standard of teaching, carry on research, or acquire needed equipment if it has no other revenue than student fees. In a previous chapter, we saw how Father Burns built up an endowment fund of over a million dollars in the early 1920's. But by 1946, it was estimated that Notre Dame could not carry forward her plan of progress except with an endowment of $25,000,000.00. In increasing numbers over late years, the University has received gifts, some of them very substantial, but they do not approach the sum required for the University's needs.
This is as good a spot as any to tell of some of these benefactions, even though some of them fall in the previous administration. In 1942, Mr. P. C. Reilly of Indianapolis, whom Bishop O'Hara had interested in the University, added to our collection of art by a gift of several old masterpieces. Three years later, in 1945, Mr. Reilly gave a million dollars to the endowment fund, with the reservation that the interest be used for further study in chemistry and chemical engineering.
Mr. I. A. O'Shaughnessy of St. Paul, perceiving that our material progress would lead only to catastrophe unless it were supported by Christian intelligence and ethics, wished to assist in this end by endowing the Fine Arts Foundation in the College of Arts and Letters. Three times -- in 1943, in 1945, and in 1947 -- Mr. O'Shaughnessy made his gifts of one hundred thousand dollars each.
Martin J. Gillen of New York and Land O'Lakes, Wis., had interested himself in Notre Dame problems since the early 1920's, first through Father Burns, later through Bishop O'Hara. Although not an alumnus of Notre Dame, he developed a liking for Notre Dame and was eager to help. He offered Notre Dame his estate near Land O'Lakes, of over six thousand acres in order that it might continue to be a preserve for botanists, geologists and allied scientists throughout the country. He wished, also, that the University would maintain there a summer camp for boys and a vacation spot for the priests of Notre Dame. The University accepted.
When Mr. Gillen died on Sept. 22, 1943, his will bequeathed Notre Dame almost his entire estate, which, later, was estimated to be in excess of one million dollars. With the exception of expressing his preferences concerning his property at Land O'Lakes, Mr. Gillen attached no strings to his gift.
In the summer of 1946, Father O'Donnell announced that one of his own friends and classmates, Joseph A. LaFortune, '16, had made an unrestricted gift of one hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. George W. Strake, of Houston, Texas, contributed approximately $150,000.00; the Michael P. Grace Foundation is now over $50,000.00. The James Haggar fund totals more than $40,000.00. Michael Cudahy has given more than $25,000.00. Rev. John A. O'Brien, a secular priest teaching at Notre Dame, has given over $50,000.00 for a chapel of perpetual adoration as a war memorial for Notre Dame men of World War II.
Among her alumni, Notre Dame does not have many who are very wealthy. But the alumni, throughout the years, have manifested a generosity quite proportionate to their means. At the beginning of the centenary celebration, it was felt that the alumni could best assist the University by contributing to a fund which would be added to the endowment. In 1942, the St. Joseph Valley alumni club started the ball rolling by contributing $25,000.00. The energetic Ernest M. Morris, '06, was very active in promoting this drive and, also, very generous. By the end of the year, over $107,000.00 was contributed by the alumni throughout the country. That drive has continued ever since, and at the end of 1947, it had reached the sum of $936,114.00.
Alumni participation got a mighty shot in the arm when Harry G. Hogan, '04, a banker, lawyer and civic leader of Fort Wayne was elected president of the Alumni Association in January, 1947. Almost immediately after Mr. Hogan's election, a plan was developed which seemed likely to solve the University's financial problems. That plan was announced at the alumni meeting at Notre Dame, May 31, 1947. Organize, said Mr. Hogan, all the alumni by states. In each state of the union, and in foreign countries where there were sufficient alumni, let a governor be chosen. Under him, in the larger cities, let there be a committee of five who will make it their business to contact, not only the alumni, but that vast reservoir of well-wishers, Catholic and non-Catholic, who would be willing to add to Notre Dame's endowment. The plan was spontaneously accepted and so quickly adopted throughout the country that it exceeded the very sanguine hopes of both Father Cavanaugh and Mr. Hogan.
The plan has been named the "University of Notre Dame Foundation." It is an organization distinct from the alumni association and the various alumni clubs, although closely allied to all of them. Its purpose is to raise, within ten years, the endowment to twenty or twenty-five million dollars. The Foundation says this can be done if all alumni will each give, or cause to be given, $200.00 annually for the next ten years.
Father Cavanaugh and his executive assistant, Father Robert H. Sweeney, together with Mr. Hogan and Mr. Armstrong have traveled extensively speaking to alumni clubs in different sections of the country. Everywhere they found gratifying response, and considerable awe at the tireless energy and clear vision of Harry Hogan.
And for what does Notre Dame want this endowment? The answer is not difficult if one can analyze the sometimes so nebulously conceived "spirit of Notre Dame." To begin with the meanest things: new buildings are needed, for all our facilities -- residence halls, dining halls, class-room buildings, lecture halls and the theatre -- are crowded beyond their capacities. Notre Dame hopes to attract the best students, especially for graduate work, and these are often unable to carry on without financial assistance. But the best students will profit us little unless we match their thirst for knowledge with a faculty of highest intellectual ideals, thorough training and experienced research. Such a faculty costs money. In the long run, Notre Dame, if she realizes her endowment aim, will achieve no selfish purpose. The products of such an educational program will benefit the whole country, and in many ways undreamed of now, could be a universal benediction.
After the war, Notre Dame was crowded with applicants. The government, by granting discharged soldiers an opportunity for education at government expense, filled every vacancy in all the schools throughout the country. Notre Dame, anxious to see her soldier-sons continue their interrupted studies, cooperated as fully as possible. A new dormitory, named for the beloved Father John Farley, was erected just north of Breen-Phillips Hall at a cost of nearly $730,000.
A large number of married veterans, together with wives and babies, returned to the campus, their own special campus. The government provided housing for them. Vetville, as it is known, was created when the government transferred, from Weingarten, Mo., 39 prisoner of war barracks, and made them over into 117 living house units, located to the east and north of Cartier Field. Notre Dame had agreed to clear the site, install water and sewage disposal. By November, 1946, the first units were ready for occupancy. It cost Notre Dame about $36,000.00. But it is estimated that the government spent at least $400,000.00 in transferring and erecting these very temporary quarters.
Old Notre Damers get a chuckle when they see so many young matrons on the campus, and the young book-laden fathers wheeling their youngsters under the statue of Sorin. On a Sunday morning, the line-up of baby-buggies outside the church attests that something new has been added to the campus. It seems quite likely that, come the year 1964, some prospective students may enter the registrar's office, and put down their birthplace -- of all things -- as the Notre Dame campus! Although most of the married veterans have a struggle to get by on their meagre allowances, they are, by their own assertion, experiencing one of the happiest periods of their lives. They tell us that a great share of that happiness has been due to the solicitude of their very special chaplain -- Father Theodore Hesburgh.
Most of the war time color of the campus has now disappeared. At the present time, Notre Dame retains merely a "token force" of her effort for the navy. There is a unit of the NROTC on the campus. It is under the command of Captain A. L. Danis, who replaced Captain Barry in August, 1946. One sees the group now and then in uniform, a reminder of Notre Dame's service during the recent conflict and sometimes a dismal reminder of the uneasy peace under which we live.
In the fall of 1947, the navy department, then headed by James V. Forrestal, sent a bronze plaque to the University, expressing its appreciation for the "efficiency, patriotism and cooperative spirit demonstrated by the University of Notre Dame in training NROTC, Navy V-12 and USNR Midshipmen units." Rear Admiral J. Cary Jones made the presentation on the steps of the Administration Building, and Father Cavanaugh accepted it, and had the plaque hung on the wall beneath the rotunda.
Notre Dame, during Father Cavanaugh's presidency, was happy to present the Laetare Medal in 1947 to William G. Bruce of Milwaukee, a Catholic publisher for more than fifty years, who has served his Church and his country with distinction. In 1948, the medal was awarded to Frank C. Walker, '09. Mr. Walker is the fourth alumnus of Notre Dame to receive the Laetare Medal. He has been a public servant and cabinet member of outstanding ability.
The University was the scene of happy festivities on April 23, 1947, when one of its alumni, Rev. Lawrence L. Graner, C.S.C., '24, was consecrated Bishop of Dacca by the Most Rev. John F. O'Hara, Bishop of Buffalo and former president of Notre Dame. Bishop Graner, for whose Bengal diocese in India are held the annual Bengal bouts at Notre Dame, has been a missionary with dozens of other Notre Dame men for nearly twenty years.
There have been sorrows, too. Robert Riordan, for years registrar of the University, reentered military service at the beginning of the war. While overseas, he contracted a fatal illness which caused his death on Dec. 4, 1946.
As well known as Brother Aloysius, of whom we spoke in the previous chapter, was Brother Maurilius DeGan, his close associate in governing old Carroll Hall. More wisdom dropped from his lips than from those of many a doctored don. He was a shrewd and devastating analyst of character. His late years had been spent as porter in Corby Hall. He died after a painful illness on April 23, 1947.
Father William Carey, learned classical scholar, passed away on May 31, 1947. And Brother Justin Dwyer, member of the English department, died Nov. 8, 1947, after a few years illness.
Frank Ackerman, whom the present student body knew not at all, but who is known to thousands of older students, died February 1, 1948. He had been practically a "lifer" at Notre Dame. I remember him telling me years ago that when Father Morrissey was president, he asked Frank to move his living quarters up to the fourth floor of the Main Building where he would be handy to his class room. "Just temporary, Frank," Father Morrissey had said. "Temporary!" Frank was repeating to me. "Temporary! That was forty years ago, and I'm still there!"
In an earlier chapter, we referred to the work of Father Philip S. Moore in mediaeval studies. His earnestness about this branch of learning communicated itself to his superiors and they decided to establish at Notre Dame an Institute of Mediaeval Studies. In July, 1946, just before he retired from the presidency, Father O'Donnell announced the University's good fortune in procuring the services of the Rev. Gerald B. Phelan, long president of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at Toronto.
The treasury of learning which had been almost the monopoly of the Catholic schools of the middle ages, and which was becoming more appreciated by even non-Catholic scholars of the present day, must be augmented and shared by those who have inherited the Faith. It must be reinterpreted by Catholic scholars, applied to present day problems and new discoveries. While all knowledge is the proper object of a university, the world has, in some sense, the right to expect present day Catholic universities to defend and explain that learning which flourished in the mediaeval schools.
Early in 1947, the Michael P. Grace ('41) Foundation made a gift of $20,000.00 to defray the expenses of inaugurating the Mediaeval Institute. Father Phelan was appointed head of the Institute. With solemn Mass and sermon by Father Phelan, the Institute was formally opened on Feb. 2, 1947.
Closely connected in spirit with the Mediaeval Institute was Notre Dame's invitation to several outstanding scholars to participate in the first Natural Law Institute held at the University on Dec. 13-14, 1947. Rightly it was felt that all the confusion in American ethics and sociology has its source in the rejection of the scholastic doctrine of the natural law. Without that law, no other law has either stability or sanction. Dr. Mortimer Adler of Chicago University, Prof. Ben W. Palmer of the University of Minnesota, Harold R. McKinnon, prominent attorney from San Francisco, took part, as well as prominent members of Notre Dame's faculty, notably, Father William J. Doheny. Father Doheny, whose experience and industry are manifested in several scholarly tomes, contributed greatly to the success of these meetings. So impressive was the entire program that Notre Dame plans to repeat the Institute at regular intervals.
In a recent report made by Rev. Robert J. Sheehan, head of the department of biology, he calls attention to the fact that during the war the major portion of research work was in the field of bacteriology. Advanced research, however, is now taking place in both botany and zoology. The teaching staff and the number of graduate students are steadily increasing. The former single program of biology has been expanded to include programs for undergraduate and graduate studies in botany and zoology.
For the successful accomplishment of graduate work in biology, Notre Dame provides laboratories, libraries, a museum, herbaria and greenhouses. In previous chapters, mention was made of the magnificent botanical library donated by Dr. Edward Lee Greene, together with his herbarium. The University also possesses the library and herbarium of Father Julius Nieuwland, and the Wenninger-Kirsch zoological library.
When the present Biology Building was finished in 1937, everyone thought it would be adequate for many years to come. And although the class-rooms and laboratories are still sufficient to take care of undergraduates, more space and equipment must be found shortly to insure proper development for graduate work and research. The department could use, even today, an entire new floor if it could be added to the present building, an animal room, another greenhouse and a limnological laboratory on the shore of the adjacent St. Joseph's Lake.
Serious consideration is being given, also, to the establishment of a biological station on the Martin J. Gillen property at Land O'Lakes, Wis. Surveys of the property, with its numerous lakes and its almost untouched flora, indicate that it would be an ideal spot for such a station.[2]
The name of James Arthur Reyniers, '30, assumes greater importance in the field of bacteriological research. When he was an undergraduate he received encouragement from Dean Wenniger and later from Father O'Hara, when he became president, to pursue a problem which puzzled him. This was the part which germ-free animals might play in the discovery of new bacteriological problems, diseases and cures. Up to that time, germ-free animals were not obtainable in large quantities.
Resourceful in a mechanical way, and receiving help from his father who was an experienced builder of machines, Reyniers devised a method of producing animals, e.g., guinea pigs, by caesarian section in a sterilized compartment, without contamination from outside. Thus, when the animals were injected with some serum, the investigator could be sure that there were no unknown bacteria in the animal in checking the reaction.
The work was slow. Reyniers burned the midnight oil. He needed help. Gradually others became interested in his work, Philip Trexler, '34, and Robert Ervin, '36. Their laboratories were then six rooms in Science Hall. When the Biology Building was erected, Reyniers and his co-workers moved into 23 laboratories in the basement, laboratories which had been designed by Reyniers himself.
So rapid has been the expansion of Reyniers' work, and so many industrialists and other institutions are now interested, that the laboratories are now inadequate. This past year (1947) three new buildings have been put up on Juniper Road near Douglas -- a machine shop in which to fashion their own tools and machines, a house for the animals -- the monkeys and rats -- and another building in which approximately 1000 animals can be raised germ-free.
This entire set-up is called the Laboratories of Bacteriology of the University of Notre Dame (LOBUND, for short). It is no part of any academic department, but is a distinct division of the University devoted exclusively to research. It is divided into three sections: the division of germ-free research; the division of micrurgical research; the division of biological engineering.
Twenty years ago, Art Reyniers was working on his own. Today, he has a staff of 45 working under him. They are studying many problems -- the underlying cause of tooth decay; the reason for the wild growth of cell tissue that we call cancer; how to improve feeding formulas for babies; what research can teach one about more efficient raising of poultry.
In the field of physics, too, there has been a great program of research. The war gave it new impetus. In practically every laboratory in the country, physicists and their students were contributing what they could to solve war-raised problems. Although Notre Dame received little publicity about her work in physics, her contributions were of a high order. That research still continues, especially in nuclear physics, polymer physics and physical electronics.
Notre Dame was the first institution in the country to study high energy electrons and X-rays. And although other universities have worked with these problems at times, Notre Dame, since George Collins began the work in 1930, has kept at it. Dr. Collins and Dr. Edward Coomes left Notre Dame at the beginning of the war to work in the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Collins now heads the department of physics at the University of Rochester. Coomes has returned to Notre Dame and is now director of the physical electronics laboratory.
Notre Dame contributed her share in the construction of the atomic bomb. Prof. Walter Miller and Dr. Bernard Waldman were both at Los Alamos during the testing. Dr. Marcellus Wiedenbeck worked on the Manhattan project.
In the field of polymer physics, Dr. Eugene Guth is directing the study of the physical properties of plastics and rubber-like substances. The first university laboratory to undertake this study in a systematic way was, and is, located at Notre Dame. All during the war, this department was under contract to furnish its findings to the Rubber Reserve Board, the General Tire Company and the Armstrong Cork Company.
Even now, after the war, all the research projects of the physics department are, to a great extent, supported by the government. When Dr. Arthur Compton lectured at Notre Dame in the spring of 1948, someone asked him why it was that Notre Dame received so little publicity for her first-class research in fashioning the atom bomb. The task of putting the bomb together, he said, was so intricate and so enormous that no one nan, and no one institution, could have accomplished it. The work had to be farmed out in tiny bits, and each little detail required the intensive study of an entire staff of researchers. In thousands of laboratories all over the country, different groups were working on small problems, some necessary element of knowledge, that had to be fitted into its proper place if there were to be any bomb at all. No group could guess where the results of its own work would fit into the whole. By reason of this complexity, it would be impossible for a foreign agent, if he got the results of one group, to do anything about it at all. It was because of the type of work that was done at Notre Dame, and thousands of other institutions, that Russia has not got the bomb today, said Dr. Compton.
During his lifetime, Father Nieuwland, particularly through his work in chemistry, had brought international esteem for the chemistry department at Notre Dame. To maintain this high level of accomplishment the University secured the services of Dr. Charles C. Price, formerly of the University of Illinois. The work now being done under Dr. Price's direction justifies the administration's choice. In 1946, the American Chemical Society bestowed on Dr. Price its award for distinguished work in pure chemistry.
The dean in the College of Engineering since 1945, Dr. Karl E. Schoenherr, has an outstanding record in his field. While with the Navy Department, he devised a new formula for computing the force necessary to propel a ship through water. This formula is called the "Schoenherr Mean Line" and has been adopted by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. For his work in the Navy Department, he received the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal.
When Bishop O'Hara was president of the University, he took a special interest in the field of economics. He desired to investigate certain pertinent questions about the sources of our national income and the distribution of wealth. It seemed to him that too many uncritical assumptions had been made about the division of wealth in this country.
In 1936, he appointed Father Edward A. Keller to take charge of this investigation. Father Keller wished to bring to this study an atmosphere free from all bias either toward labor or toward industry, to make of it a study of pure economic character. But since pure economics must, of necessity, find its application both to labor and business, his work has been variously interpreted.
During the past years, Father Keller has produced many thoughtful publications: "Primer of Economics"; "A Study of the Physical Assets of the United States, 1922-1933"; "A Study of Receipts and of Banks Which Issue Receipts, 1913-1944"; "The Church and Our Economic System"; "The National Income and Its Distribution"; "The Physical Assets of the State of Indiana and the Earnings and Distribution of Income of Indiana Corporations, 1936."
During recent years, the football teams of Notre Dame have continued their winning tradition. After Coach Leahy joined the Navy, the teams were under the supervision of Ed McKeever, Leahy's able assistant. When McKeever left Notre Dame, Hugh DeVote took over.
During this period, when enlistment in the armed forces somewhat restricted Notre Dame's enrollment, her football teams found it difficult to match the competence of football material gathered by the various service teams, particularly that of West Point. We do not suggest that Notre Dame had mediocre squads in those years. Far from it. But the Army had truly outstanding men. They had, too, the understandable desire to equalize somewhat the one-sided series of over twenty years during which Notre Dame had won the majority of games. They did it. Twice -- in 1944 and 1945 -- they blanked Notre Dame by large scores.
Frank Leahy, released from the Navy, returned to his coaching job to mold a fine team for the fall of 1946. The game with the Army ended that year in a scoreless tie. There was a joint announcement by West Point and Notre Dame that after the game the following fall (1947) the long and popular series would end, for a time at least.
On Nov. 8, 1947, Army brought its team to Notre Dame. From the opening play, when Terry Brennan ran back the kick-off for a touchdown until the last whistle, the game was a thrilling spectacle. Notre Dame won the game 27 to 7. The season was without defeats or ties. Most of the sportswriters of the country voted Notre Dame the national championship.
Everyone agrees that Leahy is a perfectionist. So long as he sees flaws in his team, he is an unhappy man. Some suspect that his success arises, in part, from his pessimism. He sings the blues -- "The outlook is pitiful! We'll lose at least four games" -- quite convincingly. Happily, although a great coach, he is a poor prophet.
A great many of the top notch teams of the country are increasingly reluctant to schedule games with Notre Dame. Why? The best analysis of that reluctance seems to be based on this judgment: "A team so consistently a winner must be playing `dirty football'." None of her opponents offers a concrete suggestion as to how the matter may be remedied. It just seems to be Notre Dame's fate once or twice a generation to be black-balled because she is a winner. The only reformers to step forward are those of whom Father Cavanaugh spoke on January 13, 1947. "The type of reformers I refer to are those who say that an indefinable something has to be done in athletics in a way nobody knows how, at a time nobody knows when, in places nobody knows where, to accomplish nobody knows what. . . . When we in American sports hold the winner under suspicion merely because he is a winner, we discredit many of the fine qualities that have made football inspiring. . . . We come perilously close to the kind of dismal thinking that would reduce the ambitions and possibilities of all men to mediocrity."[3]
Shortly after he became president, Father Cavanaugh realized a long planned reorganization of the University administration. The different fields of activity which concern the president of a university, are vast in number. He must be assisted by good men in key posts with the requisite delegation of authority and responsibility.
Father Cavanaugh has as his vice-president and chairman of the Faculty Board in Control of Athletics, Father John H. Murphy. In the supremely important post of director of studies, Father Howard Kenna ably succeeded the late Father Carrico. The financial business of the University was entrusted to Father John J. Burke. Father Joseph Kehoe and Father Joseph Barry divide the work of the prefect of discipline and director of student activities. Father William Robinson, as assistant religious superior, supervises the personal wants of the religious members of the faculty. As prefect of religion, Father William Craddick is ably assisted by Father Edmund Murray. For his executive assistant, Father Cavanaugh chose Father Robert H. Sweeney, who is largely concerned with the Notre Dame Foundation.
Regular meetings of this group are held. Each discusses the problems peculiar to his own field and thus all become acquainted with the work of the University as a whole.
Those who love Notre Dame -- her faculty, her students, her limitless number of friends -- hope that the University will grow in honor and effectiveness. In this we are joined by the greatest single figure in Christendom, His Holiness Pius XII. Those of us who remember his gracious visit to our campus that cold, drizzly day in October, 1936, cannot doubt the sincerity of his earnest good wishes which he expressed in the year of Notre Dame's centenary. Let those wishes bring to a close this book.
"We have seen," he wrote, "with Our own eyes the facilities provided for the intellectual advancement of the students in the six distinct branches of the University, and the international renown gained by Notre Dame professors and alumni gives ample proof of the thoroughness of their scientific and practical preparation. The honor roll of the University's scholars is long and impressive and We gladly record here Our paternal appreciation of their inestimable contribution to human knowledge and to the advancement of scientific research. . . .
"It is Our sincere and confident prayer that on this joyous occasion, She whose name your University so proudly bears may continue to guide the destinies of the Institution to ever greater achievements for God, Country and Notre Dame, and that her benevolent intercession may obtain for the University and for her beloved children there a bounteous measure of heavenly blessing."