Sanctae Crucis Award presented

The seventh annual presentation of the Sanctae Crucis Awards, the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College on an alumnus or alumna, took place on May 7. Awards are given in the categories: Distinguished Professional Achievement, Outstanding Community Service and Outstanding Young Alumnus/Alumna. This year’s recipients are: Patrick E. Clancy ’68, William F. Crowley Jr., M.D., ’65, Julia A. Dowd ’94 and John J. Higgins ’76.

As a student, Patrick Clancy ’68 was one of the founders of SPUD—Student Programs for Urban Development, a premier Holy Cross institution, which provides more than 600 students to work at a wide variety of social service projects around the Worcester area. Graduating magna cum laude from Holy Cross, Clancy earned his juris doctor from Harvard Law School, where he edited The Civil Rights, Civil Liberties Law Review. In 1971, he joined The Community Builders, a Boston-based nonprofit housing development corporation whose mission—simple in conception and complex in execution—was stated in its name. By 1976, Clancy had become the company’s chief executive officer. For the last 33 years, he has worked tirelessly to develop, finance and manage affordable housing in communities across the nation. With a staff of 400, Clancy has created over 15,000 units of housing and has arranged for community development financing totaling more than one billion dollars.

After graduating from Holy Cross, William Crowley ’65 earned his medical degree from Tufts University and completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. Through the years, he has tenaciously pursued his research interests in the neuroendocrine and genetic control of reproduction in the human. The chief of the reproductive endocrine unit at Mass General and the director of the National Center for Infertility Research, Crowley is also a professor of medicine and the director of the Harvard-wide Reproductive Endocrine Sciences Center at Harvard Medical School. In addition, he is the director of the National Center for Infertility Research. The recipient of the first “Mentor of the Year” award from the Women in Endocrinology group, Crowley was the recipient of the “Clinical Investigator Award” from The Endocrine Society. Last fall, his laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital were part of the team hailed for a breakthrough in what has been called “one of the great mysteries of human biology”—the discovery of the “Harry Potter gene,” which plays a key role in regulating the onset of puberty. The discovery is expected to lead to major infertility and cancer treatments.

Following graduation, Julia A. Dowd ’94 spent a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in San Francisco, working with homeless families at an emergency shelter. In 1995, Dowd became the program coordinator at St. Ignatius Parish in San Francisco, establishing the parish’s first Parish Council and coordinating its religious education, social justice and community life programs. In 1998, she became the parish’s director of social ministries, securing a one million dollar endowment from the Jesuit community at the University of San Francisco to develop numerous social justice programs. In the midst of creating, financing and orchestrating a plethora of outreach programs, Dowd also managed to earn a master of arts degree in theology; recently, she has earned a second master’s degree in non-profit administration. Dowd is currently the coordinator of program development at the University of San Francisco’s Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service & the Common Good. In this capacity, she is currently working to establish an Institute of Catholic Social Thought within the Center.

After a year spent with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps following graduation, Jack Higgins ’76 began honing his craft at The Daily Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. Soon, he progressed to freelance work for the Chicago Sun-Times, eventually earning a staff position at that paper as editorial cartoonist. In 1989, his topical, witty and intelligent editorial cartoons earned him a Pulitzer Prize. Higgins is also the recipient of a Scripps-Howard Award; a Peter Lisagor Award; and the John Fischetti editorial cartooning award. He is a two-time winner of the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. In 1996, Higgins was named “Illinois Journalist of the Year.” His work has appeared as the front piece on volumes of The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year.