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Presidents
of the College of the Holy Cross:
Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J.
Twenty-seventh President of Holy Cross
2000 - Present
On
July 1, 2000, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., became the 27th president
of the College of the Holy Cross.
Prior to becoming president, Rev. McFarland was
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Gonzaga University in
Spokane, Washington. He was at Gonzaga for four years, where he
was also a professor of computer science.
Born in Boston in 1948, he lived for a time in
California, later graduating from Xavier High School (now closed)
in Concord, Mass. He completed his bachelor’s degree in physics
at Cornell University in 1969, earning a master’s degree and Ph.D.
in electrical engineering (computer engineering) at Carnegie-Mellon
University. He worked as a consultant from 1985-86 at the AT&T Bell
Laboratories and, in 1990, was a postdoctoral fellow there.
Rev. McFarland taught at Boston College from 1986
to 1996. As associate professor of computer science he created new
courses in ethics and computers, computer architecture and digital
systems. He created a laboratory for digital electronics and developed
tutorial materials for a course on computers in management. He served
as department chair for three years during his tenure at Boston
College.
Rev. McFarland joined the Jesuits in 1975. He
studied at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., and
earned a master’s in divinity and Th.M. in social ethics. He was
ordained in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at Holy Cross by Bishop
Timothy J. Harrington ’41 in 1984.
The current Holy Cross president enjoys running six
days each week in his free time.
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