Governors Emeriti: Ralph McInerny, Felix McGinnis,
Jr.
(Fall 2002 Newsletter)
Two distinguished members of
the Thomas Aquinas Board of Governors were recently honored
for their exemplary service and conferred with emeritus status:
Ralph M. McInerny, who has served on the board since 1993,
and Felix S. McGuiness, Jr., who has served since 1974.
Ralph M. McInerny
 Ralph
McInerny is the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies
and Director of the Jacques Maritain Center at the University
of Notre Dame, where he has achieved international stature
as a Thomistic scholar, and where he has been the professor
and mentor of many Thomas Aquinas College graduates over the
years. A writer of prolific proportions, McInerny has published
more than 23 philosophical books and 200 articles and stories
in a variety of scholarly and popular publications over the
years.
He helped launch a 20-volume edition of the works of Jacques
Maritain and is publishing a six-volume edition of Aquinas'
Commentaries on Aristotle. In 1982, he co-founded,
with Michael Novak, the monthly magazine now known as Crisis,
a journal of lay Catholic opinion that is a recognized force
for orthodoxy in the Church today. In 1994, he also helped
found Catholic Dossier, a bi-monthly periodical devoted
to timely religious and cultural issues.
Moreover, McInerny has enjoyed rare success as a cross-over
writer, having penned 67 works of fiction, including the Father
Dowling and Andrew Broom mysteries and the Notre Dame mysteries.
His Father Dowling series was turned into a television series
and ran from 1987 to 1991. In 1993, he received the Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Bouchercon (Mystery Writers) of
America, and he sits on several editorial panels for judging
fiction.
He has taught at Notre Dame since 1955, having obtained his
doctorate, summa cum laude, from the Université
Laval in Quebec. He has also enjoyed visiting professorships
at numerous universities.
Last year, President Bush appointed him to the President's
Committee on the Arts and Humanities. This high honor follows
upon other distinctions he has received, such as fellowships
with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National
Endowment for the Arts, and election to the Catholic Academy
of Sciences. He also received a scholar's coveted honor to
deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectureships at the Universities
of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St. Andrews.
In 1991, Thomas Aquinas College awarded him its highest honor,
the St. Thomas Aquinas Medallion. On assuming emeritus
status, he said:
"Short of the College of Cardinals, there is no college
I hold in higher esteem than Thomas Aquinas. From its founding
to its present flourishing it has been truly a source of hope
that young Catholics will see the life of the mind and the
life of the spirit as two sides of the same coin. That hope
has been fulfilled for decades. There is no stronger argument
for TAC than the magnificent young women and men who have
graduated from there and, as priests, religious and laypeople
spread the influence of their education through the nation.
I have been honored to serve on the Board of Governors where,
though I did little governing I was never bored. Ad multos
annos."
Felix S. McGinnis, Jr.
 Felix
S. McGinnis, Jr., has been a member of the Board of Governors
since very nearly the founding of the College. In 1974, McGinnis
joined the board and has been a loyal friend since then.
He is the President of the Leonardt Foundation of Los Angeles,
a charitable foundation that provides assistance to various
hospitals, colleges, universities, clinics, and homes for
the aged. Involved with the foundation since the 1950s, he
joined it full-time in the 1970s after twenty-five years with
Southwestern Portland Cement Co.
He was born in Los Angeles in 1918, but grew up in San Francisco,
where he attended St. Ignatius High School. He later attended
the University of San Francisco, where he received a degree
in chemistry in 1940.
McGinnis has been honored as a Knight of Malta, a Knight of
the Holy Sepulchre, and a Knight of St. Gregory. He serves
on the advisory board of the Los Angeles (Maryvale) Orphanage
and as a director of International Life Services.
He and his wife, Barbara, celebrated their 50th Anniversary
last year. They have two children and six grandchildren. One
of his children, Felix McGinnis III, graduated from Thomas
Aquinas College in 1984.
"I became an early supporter of Thomas Aquinas College,"
McGinnis said, "because I could see it was offering a
clear, sound, Christian education of exceptional quality that
was aimed toward truth - something that was, and is, in great
contrast to the confusion elsewhere in American higher education.
It's been a pleasure to see it flourish over the years and
I've been privileged to be a part of it."
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Fall 2002
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