Francis X. Shea

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Francis Xavier "Frank" Shea (1926–July 9, 1977) was an American

the College of St. Scholastica and, after leaving the Jesuit order, as chancellor of Antioch College
.

Biography

Francis X. Shea was born in the

high school from 1950 to 1953.[1]

Following additional study of

Ph.D. in 1961. After receiving his Ph.D., he was again assigned to St. George's College, where he taught until 1963.[1]

In 1963, Shea was assigned to teach 19th and 20th-century English literature at

civil rights initiatives. He participated in a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, with Martin Luther King Jr., in 1965, and was involved in the Upward Bound program. In December 1968, he became Boston College's first executive vice president.[1][2] In that position, he is remembered as an enthusiastic innovator whose effectiveness was sometimes diminished by his lack of administrative experience.[2]

Shea left Boston College in 1971 to go to

American Indian studies, physical therapy, and media studies. In the spring when smelt were running, he invited the college community to his home on the shore of Lake Superior for a fish fry, beginning a school tradition of a spring celebration known as Mayfest.[1][3]

In 1974 Shea resigned both his position at St. Scholastica and his priesthood to marry Susan Gussenhoven, a physicist, then at Boston College, whom he had met when both were graduate students.[1] Although he resigned his priesthood, he did not leave Roman Catholicism.[4] He moved to Ohio to become chancellor of Antioch College.[5] He presided over Antioch during a period of financial difficulties and other disarray at the school. Describing the school as he found it, he said: "The entire administration has levitated out of sight, departed, or become otherwise incapacitated or unavailable."[5]

Shea served three years at Antioch, resigning June 30, 1977. He died a few days thereafter, on July 9, 1977, from a massive

heart attack.[1]

Works

After his ordination in 1956, Shea wrote a book-length manuscript account of the history of the

Society of Jesus as The Shadowbrook Fire (Elephant Tree Press, Watertown, Massachusetts). Years earlier, Shea had told friends that Jesuit administrators had deemed his work to be "too frank" and to reflect badly on their community.[1]

Legacy

An annual lectureship, the Francis X. Shea Memorial Lecture, was established at St. Scholastica in his memory.[6] Shea's widow, Susan Gussenhoven Shea, has donated forest land in Corinth, Vermont, to the town for establishment of a town forest to be named the "F.X. Shea Forest" in his honor.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g J. A. Appleyard (2009), Editor's note, pages iii-vii, The Shadowbrook Fire by F. X. Shea. Elephant Tree Press, Watertown, Mass. [1]
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9625934-0-6. Page 341. [2]
  3. ^ The Rev. Francis X. Shea Archived 2011-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, part of the "A Century of Saints" series, College of St. Scholastica website, April 25, 2011. Accessed May 14, 2011.
  4. ^ Neil T. Storch, Bishop Paul Francis Anderson and Vatican II Renewal: A Change of Mind and Heart, page 22 of 45.
  5. ^ a b Education: Antioch on the Brink, Time, January 20, 1975
  6. the College of St. Scholastica
    website, May 14, 2011
  7. ^ "Town of Corinth, Approved Minutes of Regular Select Board Meeting, October 11, 2010". Archived from the original on December 14, 2010. Retrieved May 14, 2011.

External links

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