Alumni Success Stories
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Peter Jankowski ’86 Producer, Law & Order -
Edward P. Jones ’72 Award-winning novelist -
Joyce O’Shaughnessy ’78 Prominent oncologist -
J.D. “Dave” Power III ’53 Founder, J.D. Power -
Mary Pat Ryan ’78
SIRIUS Radio executive -
Ann Dowd ’78
Actress - TV, film, stage -
Maggie Wilderotter '77
Telecommunications CEO -
Chris Matthews ’67
Host, Hardball -
Anthony Fauci '62
AIDS researcher -
Clarence Thomas '71 Supreme Court justice
Alumni Success Stories
Chris Matthews '67
Chris Matthews ’67 plays Hardball. If politics is your game, Chris Matthews is the color commentator to watch. Matthews is the star of MSNBC’s Hardball and NBC’s The Chris Matthews Show, and you can often find him as a guest on Today and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He’s also the author of five books, most recently Life’s a Campaign (2007), in which he reveals some practical truths about how to achieve success in politics and in life.
Matthews developed his insights through hard-won experience. Following two years in the Peace Corps in Swaziland, the Holy Cross economics major knocked on 200 doors on Capitol Hill and was rewarded with a 15-year career that started with his working as a legislative assistant in the Senate, continued to a post writing speeches for President Carter, and then led to the role of top staffer for Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr. Next, Matthews turned to journalism, both print and broadcast, covering such world events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first all-races election in South Africa, the Good Friday Peace Talks in Northern Ireland, and every presidential election campaign for the last two decades.
How did Holy Cross prepare Matthews for his career? In his words, “We argued about what we really believed about life, about God, about truth, about right and wrong, and how or if we could ever get to the bottom of it all. I still pursue those arguments, just on a larger stage.”