Fairfield University President Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J. to deliver Commencement Address

Fairfield University President Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J. to deliver Commencement Address

The commencement speaker at Fairfield University on Sunday, May 22, will be Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J., who last July joined Fairfield as its eighth president.

Four honorary degrees will be presented to four Connecticut residents whose lives have been marked by service to others. They are: Monsignor John Sanders of Stamford, a Roman Catholic priest and professional musician who will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree; and Mary Ann Furlong of Ansonia, director of the Thomas Merton Center in Bridgeport; Arthur C. Laske, Jr. of Trumbull, whose service has benefited Fairfield University and St. Vincent's Medical Center Foundation; and Florence Schorske Wald of Branford, founder of the U.S. hospice movement and former dean of the Yale University School of Nursing, who will all receive honorary doctor of laws degrees.

During his inaugural year at Fairfield, Fr. von Arx invited the university community to help formulate a 10-year strategic plan. The 10-year overview will include the three goals

Fr. von Arx outlined in his inaugural address: the renewal of Jesuit liberal arts education, the integrity of life and learning, and the integration of Jesuit values in professional education.

An historian by discipline, Fr. von Arx began his academic career at Georgetown University, where he taught in the History Department from 1982 to 1998 and was its chair from 1991 to 1997. He then moved into administration at Fordham University, serving as Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill from 1998 until his selection as president by the Fairfield University Board of Trustees in 2004.

A graduate of Princeton University, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1969 and subsequently earned an M.A. and M.Phil. in history at Yale University, and completed his Ph.D. there in 1980. A year later, Fr. von Arx received an M.Div. from the Weston School of Theology and was ordained a priest.

Fr. von Arx has served or is currently on the boards of trustees of Boston College, Canisius College, Loyola Marymount University, and Xavier University. He was appointed to the Fairfield Board in 2002 and as president, continues to serve as a trustee.

Msgr. John Sanders Msgr. John Sanders was a jazz musician-trombonist and a regular in the Duke Ellington band during the 1950s, who left an established career in the entertainment industry to enter the Holy Apostles Seminary in 1965. He was ordained in 1973, becoming the first African-American priest in Connecticut. He was named a monsignor by Pope John Paul II in 1988, the first African-American priest to receive that honor in the Diocese of Bridgeport. He has served in several parishes, including as pastor of Blessed Sacrament in Bridgeport and most recently as Parochial Vicar for 15 years at St. Mary's Church in Norwalk, retiring last June. He continues to hold the office of Diocesan Director of the Apostolate to African-Americans.

Born in Elmsford, N.Y., Msgr. Sanders began studying trombone in high school and upon graduating in 1943 entered the U.S. Navy where he was assigned to the U.S. Navy Band Unit in San Diego, Calif. Discharged in 1946, he enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music as a trombone major.

An engagement at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem led to his joining the Duke Ellington orchestra in 1954 where he played both the slide and valve trombones. He also undertook the immense task of documenting and preserving some of Ellington's original music manuscripts. While following a vocation to the priesthood, he continued his love of music and particularly jazz, maintaining his friendship with the Duke who died in 1974.

Msgr. Sanders was one of 15 musicians interviewed by Ken Burns for his 2000 film, "Jazz." The following year Msgr. Sanders was a judge for the three-day "Essentially Ellington" High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival at Lincoln Center.

Mary Ann Furlong As director of the Thomas Merton Center, Mary Ann Furlong oversees a program that provides 250 warm meals each day, a food pantry that supports 600 families, and medical care and family support services, prayer groups and literacy volunteers for people in need in the Bridgeport region.

Appointed assistant director of the Thomas Merton House of Hospitality in 1987, she was named director of the expanded facility in 1993.

Mary Ann Furlong is a graduate of the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and a Certificate of Professional Studies in substance abuse. She also earned a Master of Art degree in counseling from St. Joseph College in West Hartford.

She has been an associate of the Sisters of Mercy for 17 years and a lay minister in the Archdiocese of Hartford since 1985.

Earlier in her career, Mrs. Furlong was a pediatric nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, a home care nurse at Connecticut Hospice in Branford, a nursing instructor at Eli Whitney Technical School in Hamden, and a nurse care manager at the Elizabeth Street Group Home in Derby.

Arthur C. Laske, Jr. Arthur C. Laske, Jr., a business major in Fairfield University's first graduating class, has used his talent and career in support of his alma mater and in service to area community endeavors. He is a long-time member of the board of the St. Vincent's Medical Center Foundation, where he now serves as chairman. He is vice president and director of the William T. Morris Foundation, which supports major charitable institutions such as hospitals, colleges and museums, and a director of the Somir Petroleum Foundation.

An active volunteer at Fairfield University since his graduation in 1951, Mr. Laske has worked on behalf of the University and its alumni and students. A member of the President's Circle, he served on the Alumni Board of Directors for 16 years and was co-chair for his class during the recent "Our Promise" capital campaign. He served as co-chair of his reunion class in 1991 and 2001 and received the University's Alumni Association Service Award in 2003.

Mr. Laske retired in 2000 from O'Keefe Controls, where he was sales and marketing manager. Before that he was president of A. C. Laske Associates, Inc. Earlier in his career he was a sales manager with First American Chain & Cable and then Bristol-Babcock. He is a past Connecticut president of the Instrument Society of America (ISA).

Florence Schorske Wald Florence Schorske Wald had been dean of Nursing at Yale University for ten years when she resigned in 1968 to study the British approach to care for the terminally ill. While she continued as a research associate and member of the clinical nursing faculty and was promoted to professor in 1980, her interest in providing more humane care for the dying would revolutionize such care in the United States.

Influenced by the pioneering work of Dr. Cicely Saunders, medical director of the St. Christopher's Hospice in London, Prof. Wald joined with two pediatricians and the Yale Medical Center chaplain to create, in 1971, the first U.S. hospice facility in Branford, Conn., not far from her home,

Since the 1960s, Prof. Wald has continued to speak out against overmedication of the elderly and overemphasis on technology in the treatment of cancer patients. She has published countless articles and book chapters on hospice care and on the training of nurses. She believes that nurses should work in the community and administer to patients' needs from birth to death. She also recommends that nurses work in soup kitchens as well as hospitals, something she did early in her career.

Among the many awards Prof. Wald has received are induction into the American Nurses Association's Hall of Fame and The National Women's Hall of Fame. In April, 2004, then-Lt. Governor Jodi Rell presented her with The Connecticut Treasure Award. An earlier Connecticut Governor, Ella Grasso, named her a Distinguished Woman of Connecticut. She is presently working to set up hospice units in American prisons.

Posted On: 04-27-2005 10:04 AM

Volume: 37 Number: 252