Bob
Brennan '81 remembers the day he met the girl who would become his wife, Susan
Murphy '79, in Dean Joe Maguire's apartment in Mulledy residence hall. Dean Joe
remembers it, too. Brennan was visiting him one evening
when two girls, roommates "Big Murph" (Susan) and "Little Murph" (Annmarie),
came by to say hello. After the girls left, Brennan told Maguire that he thought
Susan was cute. A few weeks later, Susan came by to see Maguire again. She picked
up an Etch-A-Sketch that the dean had received as a Christmas gift from some
children. On it she wrote the words, "Big Murph." Later, Brennan came in and
saw what was written there. He added the words "I like" before the nickname.
A day or two later, Maguire saw Susan and told her she had a message waiting
for her on his Etch-A-Sketch. When she saw Brennan's words, she added, "Bob,
the feeling is mutual." At the time, Brennan was a second-year student and Murphy
was a senior.
When Brennan saw Maguire during the last days of August 1979, he was excited
to show Dean Joe the diamond that he had bought over the summer and planned to
give to Murphy. Within days after that, Brennan and Murphy were engaged. When
Maguire attended their wedding, he presented them with the Etch-A-Sketch as a
wedding gift.
Now Brennan has three daughters and is president of Leo Burnett Worldwide, one
of the world's most successful advertising agencies. His company handles such
accounts as Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, McDonald's, and Heinz. Brennan credits Maguire
with teaching him how "to be a good person, a good husband, a good father, a
good business leader, and a good member of society." For this reason he is spearheading
an effort with Ed Ludwig '73 to raise funds to honor Maguire by establishing
a chair in education to be named the Joseph
H. Maguire Professorship in Education.
Ludwig, president and chief executive officer of Becton
Dickinson and Company similarly tells about the impact Maguire
has had
on his life. He talks about the lessons the dean taught him,
and the gifts he thinks Maguire has given the students of Holy
Cross during his 39 years here. "Joe listens
without judging," Ludwig says. "He's an invaluable resource to young people at
a crucial time in their lives. He is a living example of his beliefs." Although
Ludwig and Brennan are not teachers, they would honor Maguire in this way because
it would help make permanent something that the dean
values-the department of education at Holy Cross.
As chair of the department of education, Maguire has been very involved with
the survival of the teacher training program. When he arrived at Holy Cross in
1962, he was the only faculty member teaching education. After a series of financial
cutbacks in the late '60s and early '70s, with the department nearly wiped out,
Maguire continued to offer courses in educational psychology. Despite the obstacles,
Holy Cross continued to produce teachers.
In the mid-'90s, Joe explains, Provost Frank Vellaccio proposed re-establishing
a teacher preparation program at the College. By 1997, the Teacher Certification
Program had been approved by the Massachusetts Department of Education, and the
College graduated its first group of certified teachers that year. The program
has prepared Holy Cross students to teach biology, physics, mathematics, chemistry,
English, history, social studies and foreign languages.
Maguire explains that endowing a professorship in education
is a way of guaranteeing the stability of the program he cares
so much about. He would like the College to be able to recruit
an outstanding individual to head
the education program-an individual who is visionary, an excellent teacher and
a competent administrator. "I shared that wish with several friends," says Maguire, "and
I am still stunned that this is happening."
To date the effort has raised almost half of the 1.5 million cost of endowing
an academic chair. Brennan explains why endowing a chair in the dean's name is
a fitting tribute to his teacher who will retire this spring. "I define education
in a broad sense as everything a person learns, not only
the academics," Brennan says. "Joe is a teacher in the truest sense of the word.
He is concerned about the overall well-being of students and has a unique ability
to embrace and accept people without judgment. Joe has an ability to create in
his students a desire to question and keep questioning; to continue always to
learn and engage the world; to develop a sense of beliefs consistent with the
morality and ethics of Catholic
thought. I'd like to do something that validates and perpetuates what Joe did
at Holy Cross. I'd like to see more teachers out there who are like
Joe."
Ludwig adds, "Joe brought an education program to the College. We want to honor
him by fulfilling his vision. I hope that the person who assumes the professorship
can do as much both academically and informally in the next 39 years as Joe has
done in the past 39. That would be an extraordinary
thing."
J. O'C. D.
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