Brother James Liguori”™s second-favorite Gospel is Luke: “I relate to a physician,” he said, citing Luke”™s profession. “Because I think I have the same mindset as a physician. A good physician is searching always and tries to heal. The day you stop searching is when you die, at least in my rubric.”
His favorite Gospel is Matthew for seemingly less transcendental reasons: Matthew was a tax collector: “My father was an accountant. A tax collector always interested me.”
The reflections came, appropriately, on Tuesday of Holy Week. Liguori, the president of Iona College, had just come out of the rain. He had been to noon Mass. His day began at 4 a.m. He was in the office at 7 a.m. There is no time this year for a religious retreat.
That changes May 15 when he retires at 66.
“Survival, happily,” he said was his greatest accomplishment.
A typical day has involved “interaction with peers, government agencies, the press, the diocese. Fundraising is a huge part. I hope I spend enough time on campus. I attend student activities and getting to know the people takes time.”
He prefers baseball ”“ the Gaels and “for 60 years” the Yankees ”“ over basketball and laments that his sister-in-law in Massachusetts has apparently been raising a Red Sox fan behind his back.
Liguori, perhaps more than anyone, has molded Iona College into an ascendant institution. What was a commuter college when he took over is now a magnet for students from coast to coast, Europe, Africa and Australia ”“ fully two thirds of undergraduates now live on or near campus. The school fielded 1,500 applicants in 1993; this year”™s applicant number was 7,835.
It”™s not just quantity: “As the academics go up, that draws a better student,” Liguori said.
Liguori”™s tenure as president of Iona College began Nov. 1, 1993. “I had been around the block,” he said. “I knew what I was getting into.”
He will be replaced by a non-Christian Brother for the first time in the school”™s 71-year history, Joseph Nyre.
“With all the ups and downs that are part of anybody”™s lifecycle, I still have a great passion for what I do,” Liguori said. Obligingly, he retains the build of a high school halfback.
Liguori loves Fuji apples ”“ just learned of them: “I guess if being open to Fuji apples means being open to change, then I am open to change. I am, after all, leaving here after 17 years and taking a sabbatical. That”™s change.” He”™s been given a year; he”™ll give it three months. His whereabouts will be his own business: “Somewhere … near water.”
Historically, Liguori favors the papacy of John XXIII in the 1950s. He decided to join the Christian Brothers at 17 and did so at 18. He is not a fundamentalist. He is not a conservative. He is not a liberal. Neither does he pick and choose ”“ “shopping-center Catholicism,” his term ”“ from his faith”™s mandates. His days begin with “lectio divina,” literally divine reading.
“I”™m a believer who, like most believers, struggles with his faith,” he said.
He texts ”“ “Not as much as the kids” ”“ and remains technically savvy. “I am perpetually interested in almost everything,” he said. An example: “I am fascinated by how people interact with other people and how leaders interact successfully with other people.”
He just finished a Dwight D. Eisenhower biography and admits a love of biographies, including recently of Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill and Iona ”˜89 alumnus Matt Long, a New York City fireman badly injured in an accident and, Ligori said, “He”™s literally put back together, 53 operations.” Liguori”™s pride in a Gael alumnus is evident: “He not only did a marathon, he did the Lake Placid Iron Man. He”™s an amazing inspirational speaker; in fact, we just had him on campus. He”™s extraordinary. I”™ve heard him three times and he gets better each time. People like that inspire me.”
He added, “I like fiction, too. I”™m an English teacher by trade, but I would say my predilection today is to see how other people live their lives.”
His tenure witnessed an embezzlement scandal in which a nun, Marie Thornton, who was the school”™s vice president for finance, admitted in March to stealing some $850,000. Liguori said much of the case”™s notoriety was due to Thornton being a nun, but he was not defensive. “We found the party doing it,” he said. “Steps were taken. Most of the money has been returned.”
His tenure more positively has witnessed growth across the manicured campus in libraries, lecture halls, labs and playing fields. He notes that at some point the college will have to invest more in the visual and performing arts because of demand.
On May 16, work begins on the Hagan School of Business trading floor, “which will allow students to simulate what it is to be involved in the whole gamut of stock trading and everything attached to that,” Liguori said. “They”™re creating a whole curriculum around it.” The trading floor opens in September. “It”™s spectacular. It recreates the whole first floor of Hagan. A simulated trading floor is not that usual today. Come back in three years and I suspect most schools will have to have it. It”™s one thing to give students lectures and another to sit them down with Bloomberg terminals and faculty who actually knows how to do trading.”
On April 30, hundreds will gather at the Waldorf-Astoria to fete him. The event also hopes to raise $1 million for scholarships.
