Joseph A. Sellinger, S.J. (January 17, 1921 – April 19, 1993) was an American

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest and

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

. He served as the President of

Loyola College in Maryland Loyola University Maryland is a private Jesuit university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early and eight other members of the Society of Jesus in 1852, it is the ninth-oldest Jesuit college in the Un ...

from 1964 to 1993, making him the longest-serving president of any Jesuit university in the United States at the time. During his presidency, he oversaw a significant transformation and growth of the school, including its merger with Mount Saint Agnes College, the admission of female students, the creation of an independent School of Business and Management (which was later named in his honor), and substantial increases in the school's endowment, number of professors, and campus. Prior to his appointment as president, he was a professor of theology at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and served as the Dean of

Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers over 40 undergraduate degrees and a Mas ...

from 1957 to 1964.

Early life

Joseph Sellinger was born on January 17, 1921, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, to Frank and Carolyn Sellinger. He was the younger brother of Frank Sellinger, an executive who worked with the

Burger Brewing Company The Burger Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of the staple breweries of the region through the 1960s. At the company's peak, it was deeply associated with the Cincinnati Reds and then-broadcaster Waite ...

and

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but was most noted for being vice chairman and chief executive officer of the

Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company is an United States, American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was once the largest producer of beer in the United States. Its namesake beer, Schlitz (), was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" ...

from 1978 until his retirement in 1983. He attended

St. Joseph's Preparatory School St. Joseph's Preparatory School, known as "St. Joe's Prep" or simply "The Prep", is an urban, private, Catholic, college preparatory school run by the Society of Jesus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The school was founded in 1851 ...

, where he graduated first in his class, before entering the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

in 1938. He was then sent to the seminary in

Wernersville, Pennsylvania Wernersville is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,776 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. Geography Wernersville is located at (40.329941, -76.080701). History In the late 19th century and ...

, and then

Spring Hill College Spring Hill College is a private Jesuit college in Mobile, Alabama. It was founded in 1830 by Bishop Michael Portier of Mobile. Along with being the oldest private college or university in the state of Alabama, it was the first Catholic college ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

in 1942. He began teaching chemistry, philosophy, logic, and German at

at the age of 24. In 1951, he was ordained a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

at the Facultes St. Albert de Louvain in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Following his ordination, he was made a professor of theology at

He became the Dean of

at Georgetown University in 1957, and remained in the position until 1964. Sellinger was expected to become the next President of Georgetown University, but had a falling-out with the Jesuit hierarchy, and was sent to Loyola.

Loyola College

Sellinger was appointed president of Loyola College in Maryland in 1964. He oversaw significant changes in the school as a result of the turmoil of the 1960s as well as the reforms of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. Among these was the conversion of the college from all-male to

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

(despite his initial opposition), which occurred after the absorption of Mount Saint Agnes College in 1971. Over the course of his almost 30-year presidency, the school transitioned from a small commuter school to a regional college. He acquired the school's first dormitory in 1967, Hammerman House, and established the School of Business and Management as its own institution in 1983. A successful fundraiser, he created the school's endowment, which totaled $42 million at the time of his death. Likewise, the school's operating budget increased from $1.4 million in 1964 to $65 million in 1993; the number of professors increased from 100 to 400 in the same time. The campus also grew from to . He died on April 19, 1993, of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

in the President's House on Loyola College's campus, and his funeral was held in the

Cathedral of Mary Our Queen The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is a Roman Catholic cathedral located Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It was completed in 1959. The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Baltimore. It replaced the Basilica of the National Shrine of t ...

. He is interred at the Jesuit Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville. His presidency was the longest of any among the Jesuit universities in the United States.

Legacy

Sellinger Lounge in the Leavey Center at Georgetown is named in his honor. Governor

William Donald Schaefer William Donald Schaefer (November 2, 1921 – April 18, 2011) was an American politician who served in public office for 50 years at both the state and local level in Maryland. As a Democrat, he was the 45th mayor of Baltimore from December 197 ...

announced in 1993 that the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

's program for distributing money to private colleges would be named after him. This fund was challenged before the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

grounds, and Sellinger partook in the program's defense along with other private colleges; the constitutionality of the fund was upheld in 1976, in the case of ''Romer v. Board of Public Works.'' In 1984, Loyola College's business school was renamed the Rev. Joseph A. Sellinger, S.J. School of Business and Management in honor of him, after an anonymous donor pledged $1 million to the school contingent upon its renaming.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellinger, Joseph A. 1921 births 1993 deaths St. Joseph's Preparatory School alumni Spring Hill College alumni Clergy from Philadelphia 20th-century American Jesuits Deans and Prefects of Studies of the Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences Presidents of Loyola University Maryland Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Maryland 20th-century American academics