St. Louis Cultural History Project—Fall 2020
J. Barry McGannon, S. J. (1924-2000):
Dean, Fundraiser, Friend
by John Waide, M.A.
I remember the first time I met
Father J. Barry McGannon. It was August 1969, and I was a new freshman student in Saint Louis University’s College of Arts and Sciences. At that time, Father McGannon was the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, a position he had held since 1963. During orientation week before classes began, Father McGannon spoke to a gathering of all freshman students in the College of Arts and Sciences. Father McGannon met with us in what was then called the Sesquicentennial Room of Busch Memorial Center. Now this space is the St. Louis Room of the Busch Student Center. I remember today, more than 50 years later, something that Father McGannon said to us. He asked us to look to the two students on our left and on our right, none of whom I knew at the time. Father McGannon then asked us to consider that of these five students, including ourselves, one of us would probably not be graduating from Saint Louis University in four years! As I was a naïve and serious-minded at the time, I admit that I was rather nervous hearing from the Dean that I had a 20% chance of not graduating. I hoped I would not be the student who would not be there to graduate in four years!
As four years passed, I was one of the students who did make
it to graduation from the College of Arts and Sciences in May 1973. Ironically, Father McGannon was no longer the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences when I graduated as he had recently left Saint Louis University to assume the position of Executive Vice President of Rockhurst College in Kansas City. After my graduation, I attended graduate school at Duke University where I received a master's degree in history. But then I returned to Saint Louis University in September 1974 where I began my more than 45-year professional career in the University’s Pius XII Memorial Library.
Father McGannon also returned to the University, becoming the University’s Vice President for Development in 1977. Father McGannon remained at Saint Louis University in various positions until he passed away in 2000. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Father McGannon on numerous occasions and on various projects over the next 23 years. I particularly enjoyed working with Father McGannon on the Cartier exhibit project in 1995. Father McGannon was a tireless promoter of Saint Louis University and a remarkable fund raiser for the school. In addition to these professional accomplishments, Father McGannon was a kind and decent man. He was able to make all who met him, whether an undergraduate student or a potential donor, feel at ease and comfortable. He was always generous with his time and he developed friendships with thousands of individuals during his years at Saint Louis University. I considered Father J. Barry McGannon my friend—even though he scared me into thinking that I might not graduate from Saint Louis University that first time I met him!
John Barry McGannon was born in Humboldt, Kansas on April 18, 1924 to Patrick Joseph and Jane Clare McGannon. McGannon was usually called by his middle name “Barry,” his mother’s maiden name. Barry McGannon had two brothers, Eugene (Gene) and Paul. Gene McGannon became a prominent Kansas City lawyer while Paul was a medical doctor, also in Kansas City. Humboldt, Kansas is a small town of nearly 2,000 people approximately 115 miles southwest of Kansas City. Humboldt had a population of 2,500 at the time of Barry McGannon’s birth.
He attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Humboldt from 1930 to 1934, but his family moved to Kansas City, so he completed his elementary school education at St. James School in Kansas City between 1934 and 1938. He went on to attend Rockhurst High School, graduating from Rockhurst in 1942. In August of that year, Barry McGannon entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) at Florissant, Missouri. McGannon took classes in both Saint Louis University’s College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Philosophy and Letters, receiving his AB degree from the latter in 1947. He took several courses in education in the University’s Graduate School for two years, and from 1949 to 1952, McGannon was on the faculty of Marquette University High School in Milwaukee. He returned to St. Louis where he received his Licentiate in Philosophy and his Master of Arts from Saint Louis University. Barry McGannon then took his Jesuit theology training at St. Mary’s in Kansas. He was ordained a Catholic priest at St. Mary’s on June 16, 1955, and did his Jesuit Tertianship at St. Joseph Hall in Decatur, Illinois between 1956 and 1957. Father McGannon received his Licentiate in Sacred Theology from Saint Louis University in 1957.
After completing his theology training, Father McGannon was appointed an Administrative Assistant to the President of Saint Louis University, Father Paul Reinert, and the following year his responsibilities were expanded to include serving as the Administrative Assistant to the University’s Executive Vice President. In 1961, Father McGannon began special studies in education, and he received his Ph. D. degree in Education from the University in 1963. The title of his dissertation was A Study of Patterns in the Teaching of Philosophy and Theology in American Jesuit Colleges and Universities, 1960-1961. Soon after he completed his degree, Father McGannon was named the Dean of Saint Louis University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Father McGannon remained as Dean of Arts and Sciences until February 1973 when he assumed the position of Vice President of Rockhurst College in Kansas City. He was the second longest-serving dean in the history of the College of Arts and Sciences. During those years, the College experienced significant growth in both the academic programs it offered and the number of students, and McGannon deserves much credit for the leadership he provided. Among his accomplishments as Dean were his introduction of the 3-year degree to the College and of the 1-8-1-8 Program in which more than 1,400 students from 18 St. Louis area high schools took classes for college credit at the University. This program served as a way to interest many of these students to eventually enroll at Saint Louis University.
But as Father McGannon prepared to leave Saint Louis U. for Rockurst in 1973, in his typical manner, he looked forward to what was ahead rather than dwell on past accomplishments. He said:
I’ve enjoyed my 15 years at the University, but no one should be dean of arts and sciences for more than ten years. There should be a turnover, to bring in new ideas. For my part, I'm looking forward to working in new areas. Rockhurst is much smaller than the University-about 2,400 students altogether. But my responsibilities will be broader than they are here. I’ll be in charge of internal administration, including budgeting, student affairs, long-range planning, and government and foundation grants, as well as academic matters. I’m going to enjoy the challenge.
The years Father McGannon served as Dean were also very tumultuous times in the country. President Kennedy had been assassinated shortly after Father McGannon became Dean, and the United States’ deepening involvement in the conflict in Vietnam resulted in demonstrations against the War, including on many college and university campuses. Then the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy in the spring of 1968 led to even more disruption across the country.
In April 1969, a group of Black students at Saint Louis University from the Association of Black Collegians occupied Father McGannon’s office in Ritter Hall, demanding that the University address the concerns of Black students at the University. Among these concerns were the harassment of black students on campus, hiring more black supervisors in the maintenance department, hiring more black security officers, integrating black culture into the academic curriculum and creating an office of Black Student Affairs.
Then the following year, in May 1970, after the shooting of students at Kent State University due to protests over the Vietnam War, more anti-war protests erupted at Saint Louis University. Students surrounded the University’s Chouteau House which housed the offices of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. Just the evening before, the ROTC building at nearby Washington University had been burned to the ground by student protestors. Many classes were disrupted or cancelled altogether. And then, just as academic life began to settle down later in May, a group of Black students began additional campus disruptions as they were frustrated that the issues they had raised the previous spring during their occupation of Father McGannon’s office were being ignored by the University.
Father McGannon served Rockhurst College as Executive Vice President until 1977 when he returned to Saint Louis University to become the University’s Vice President of Development. He was encouraged to return to Saint Louis U. by his friend, and former boss, Father Paul Reinert, who had retired as University President at around the time Father McGannon left for Rockhurst. At first, Father McGannon was hesitant to take this new position at Saint Louis. Father McGannon was familiar with Kansas City as he had he had lived there and attended Rockhurst High School. He was very happy in his work at Rockhurst College. Besides, McGannon had little experience at fund raising, and as the new Vice President of Development, his primary responsibility would be to raise funds! But with the encouragement of Father Reinert and other Jesuits, McGannon accepted the invitation to return to St. Louis.
Little did he know then that he was about to embark on a wonderfully fulfilling new career, both for himself and for Saint Louis University. Father McGannon was a natural fund raiser. In addition to being a disciplined and tireless worker, he was a genuinely kind person. He had a knack for connecting with people, of establishing and developing relationships. And as most development people know, raising money is all about relationships. When Father McGannon was Dean of Arts and Sciences, students marveled at how he remembered the name of each student. The same was true in his development work. Father McGannon quickly established a friendship with every donor or potential donor, and he would never forget their name!
Many of the practices and standards he established for fund raising at Saint Louis University are not only still in use at Saint Louis, but they continue to serve as models for development officers across the United States. Father McGannon served as President of Jesuit Advancement Administrators, Vice President of the St. Louis Regional Chapter of the National Society of Fund-Raising Executives, Secretary and Chairman of the American Conference of Academic Deans, and Chairman of the Board of the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago. In fact, the Jesuit Advancement Administrators named their highest honor after him. The J. Barry McGannon Award goes to the individual who has made a distinguished contribution to Jesuit higher education and Jesuit advancement!
Beginning in 1982, Father McGannon helped lead Saint Louis University’s ambitious Resources for the Future
fund raising campaign. The goal of the campaign was to raise $75 million by 1987. Remarkably, the University was able to raise more than $100 million dollars by the end of the drive. The moneys gathered during the campaign were used to help pay for the new student recreation center, the renovation of the School of Business building, the Anheuser-Busch Wing addition to Pius XII Memorial Library, the development of the West Pine Pedestrian Mall, and renovating several student dormitories, among other improvements.
Father McGannon once said that Some of the best gifts to the University come from the angels.
Well, evidently the angels came calling to Saint Louis University through J. Barry McGannon in 1983. One day, while he was simply at his desk in the Development Office going through various papers and reports, he received a telephone call from a representative of Marion Rumsey Cartier. This call marked the first step in the most interesting development relationship for Father McGannon during his entire career. Marion Cartier was the daughter of Pierre Cartier of the famous Cartier jewelry company and Elma Rumsey, the daughter of a prominent St. Louis businessman. Marion Cartier was married to Paul Claudel, the son of the French Catholic poet, but she began using her maiden name Cartier
after she and her husband separated. In any case, Marion Cartier contacted Father McGannon to explain to him that she was interested in exploring her mother’s St. Louis history.
Marion, who had only visited St. Louis once, was interested in possible locations for her vast personal collection of paintings, photographs, letters and a trove of jewels. Included among these jewels were 50 pieces of Cartier jewelry and gems owned by her mother, Elma. These jewels had been valued at $2.3 million by Christie's International in Geneva!
For the next 11 years, until she passed away in 1994. Father McGannon developed a friendship with Marion Cartier. He visited her at her home in Switzerland several times where she discussed with Father McGannon her desire to deposit her personal collection with Saint Louis University. On his part, Father McGannon provided Marion with assurances that the University would maintain her collection of art and papers and would develop a plan to exhibit some of her personal jewelry. McGannon also shared much information about St. Louis and Saint Louis University with Marion. As she was an avid swimmer, even in her older years, Father McGannon told Marion about the University’s swim team. Very early on in their relationship, Marion Cartier had told Father McGannon that it was her desire to make a sizeable donation of cash to the Saint Louis University for a scholarship endowment for students on the swim team and to help in the maintenance of her collection of art and personal papers. Father McGannon said of his relationship with Marion: Marion was easy to get acquainted with. She told me a lot about her family, her religion.
The capstone event to this friendship between Marion Cartier and Father McGannon was the public exhibition at Saint Louis University of numerous items of jewelry, art, memorabilia and personal papers from her collections. For two weeks in June 1995, the University sponsored an exhibit called "The Legacy of Elma Rumsey Cartier" in honor of her mother, Elma, who was born in St. Louis. Thousands of people visited the exhibition, raising significant funds for Saint Louis University.
In 1990, Father McGannon was named Chancellor for Saint Louis University. Although he was no longer person responsible for all University development, as Chancellor, his primary duty was to raise money. And that is what he continued to do for the next decade. But in August 2000, Father McGannon began to experience significant difficulty in walking and moving about. Various tests were conducted, and doctors discovered that he had a tumor in his brain. On August 25, doctors operated on Father McGannon and removed a malignant tumor from his brain.
Although he was able to return to Jesuit Hall after the operation, his health did not improve. On Christmas Eve, December 24, 2000, Father J. Barry McGannon passed away at the age of 76. Hundreds of Father McGannon’s current and former colleagues and Saint Louis University students came honor their friend at the Mass of the Resurrection celebrated in the St. Francis Xavier (College) Church a few days after Father McGannon died. Many alumni made it a point to remark to other Jesuits at the funeral celebration that without Father McGannon’s support and guidance, they would have never been able to attend or graduate from Saint Louis University.
During the homily at the funeral Mass, the priest told the congregation that when the doctor who removed the tumor told Father McGannon that the cancer was virulent and that he only several months to live, “Barry accepted this with serenity. There were no tears, no bitterness, no despair. He was certain that God would never abandon him, and he was at peace and content to place himself in God’s loving hands.”
Father McGannon wrote the following words to all of us shortly before he passed:
Whenever you need me, talk to me. I will come to you, full of new wisdom and light to help you open your blocked paths, to untangle your knots, and to be your avenue to God. And all that I take with me as I move on from you is your love and the millions of memories of all that we have shared together.