ALLEGANY, N.Y. — A $400,000 St. Bonaventure University endowment has been made in the name of Gerald McCaffrey, OFM, a resident of St. Anthony Friary in Butler, N.J.
The gift was made by the Leslie C. Quick III family to honor Gerald, a longtime moderator for university athletics who was inducted into the SBU athletics Hall of Fame last year.
The Fr. Gerald McCaffrey, OFM, Endowment for Athletics will be used to augment the men’s basketball program and help support SBU’s 14 intercollegiate sports programs. It is the second-largest gift in SBU Athletics history.
Pleasant Surprise
“When Les (Quick) phoned and said they would like to do this, I was quite surprised,” said Gerald by phone. “I was very much reminded of the number of friars who were at SBU long before I was and the wonderful things they did for athletics.”
Gerald, who attended SBU, is still a sports enthusiast and enjoys watching college basketball on TV. “I don’t watch much professional basketball,” he added, “but I am a died-in-the-wool Yankee fan.”
He was also looking forward to a presentation on the endowment at the friary on June 26.
“We are grateful to Les Quick and his family for this incredibly generous and significant gift,” said Steve Watson, athletics director. “The endowment will benefit our whole athletics program, and specifically the men’s basketball team, and provide opportunities not just for our current student-athletes but for all future Bonnies.”
This is the third major endowment established by the Quick family. In 1999, the Martine-Keenan Endowment was established to fund faculty development, and in 2007 the Clarkson Arts Education Endowment was established to support arts education programming at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
In Other SBU News
• University president Sr. Margaret Carney, OSF, was a guest last month on “The Busted Halo Show” hosted by Fr. Dave Dwyer, CSP, on The Catholic Channel of Sirius satellite radio. She discussed how a life of faith inspires a life of leadership during a segment about vocation. In the light-hearted interview, Sr. Margaret talked of her Irish heritage, Buffalo wings and the summer programs at SBU’s Franciscan Institute. “One of the things I find thrilling about working at a Catholic college,” said Sr. Margaret, “is that students begin to deepen a sense of what life is all about. We are intentional about curriculum and about asking … freshman … what their life is all about.” The two touched upon other topics such as God-given talents and how Christians are called to use gifts. “What I sense with the students,” Sr. Margaret said, “is a lack of awareness that their choices have extraordinary potential for them.” The full interview is posted on SBU’s website.
• To commemorate its recent 150th anniversary year, SBU has posted on its website an historical slide show documenting graduations over the years, starting in 1860. It includes black and white newspaper clippings and photographs featuring friars, including Mathias Doyle, OFM, Daniel Hurley, OFM, Reginald Redlon, OFM, and Daniel Riley, OFM. Famous faces noted in the photos include Thomas Merton, Bob Hope, Paul Harvey, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, and other news people and politicians.
• The late Irenaeus Herscher, OFM, librarian emeritus, is featured in a photo on the website about the history of the SBU post office. St. Bonaventure 14778 was started in 1907. With a master’s degree in library science from Columbia University in New York, Irenaeus went to SBU in 1934 to become assistant librarian, according to the Provincial Annals, Vol. XXVII, 1970. In 1937, he became head librarian, a position he held until 1970, when he retired to become librarian emeritus.
• A group of 20, comprised of SBU sudents and faculty and the Salamanca School District, are embarking on a 15-day trip to Ireland beginning June 26. Organized by the Father Mychal Judge Center — named after Mychal Judge, OFM — the group will explore the process of reconciliation, with a focus on that of United States and Native Americans. The center provides student, faculty and cultural exchanges in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United States and opportunities in academic study, service learning, co-curricular seminars and research. Information about the center appeared in the Feb. 17 issue of HNP Today.
• The university’s 2010 alumni reunion on June 12 will include a rededication of a plaque created by the Crispin Maguire, OFM, Endowment Committee, which is being repositioned in the university’s Garret Theatre, in memory of Crispin, a longtime administrator at SBU.
— Compiled by Wendy Healy