page_title: James A. Ryder
section_title: Second presidency
hierarchical_section_title: James A. Ryder / Georgetown College / Second presidency
caption_attribution_description: English: Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. is the oldest Catholic Catholic Church in the District of Columbia.
context_page_description: James A. Ryder was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who became the president of several Jesuit universities in the United States. Born in Ireland, he immigrated with his widowed mother to the United States as a child, to settle in Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. He enrolled at Georgetown College and then entered the Society of Jesus. Studying in Maryland and Rome, Ryder proved to be a talented student of theology and was made a professor. He returned to Georgetown College in 1829, where he was appointed to senior positions and founded the Philodemic Society, becoming its first president.
  In 1840, Ryder became the president of Georgetown College, and oversaw the construction of the university's Astronomical Observatory, as well as Georgetown's legal incorporation by the United States Congress. He earned a reputation as a skilled orator and preacher. His term ended in 1843 with his appointment as provincial superior of the Jesuit Maryland Province. As provincial, he laid the groundwork for the transfer of ownership of the newly established College of the Holy Cross from the Diocese of Boston to the Society of Jesus.
context_section_description: In 1848, Ryder was appointed president of Georgetown for a second time, replacing Thomas Mulledy. His first act was to build a new edifice for Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Georgetown neighborhood, which was then located on college property. He also implemented his fervent support for temperance by prohibiting students from consuming alcohol on or off campus, and eventually applied this ban to the Jesuits as well. This unpopular policy was accompanied by a ban on smoking.
  In the fall of 1849, Ryder was approached by four physicians who had been excluded from the Washington Infirmary and established a new medical faculty. They asked that their faculty be incorporated into Georgetown as its medical department, creating the first Catholic medical school in the United States. Ryder accepted the proposition within a week, giving rise to the Georgetown College School of Medicine. He appointed the four petitioners as the first professors of the school on November 5, 1849, and the first classes were held in May 1851.
  A rebellion broke out among the students in 1850. It began when members of the Philodemic Society held a meeting one day, in defiance of the prefect's order to the contrary. Ryder, who frequently left the college to preach, had been away for several weeks on a preaching tour. In response, the prefect suspended the society's meetings for one month. Upset at this decision, several members refused to perform their nightly reading at the refectory, and later threw stones in the dormitory. When Ryder returned, he expelled three students. One of these entered the refectory that night and incited the students to insurrection, who stormed a Jesuit's room. 44 of the students abandoned the college for downtown Washington and wrote Ryder that they would not return until the three were re-admitted and the prefect replaced. With the students' hotel bills mounting and going unpaid, Ryder convinced them to return to the college and quit the rebellion. He later replaced the prefect with Bernard A. Maguire.
  Later that year, Ryder presided over the marriage of William Tecumseh Sherman and Eleanor Boyle Ewing. His presidency came to an end in 1851, and Ryder was replaced by Charles H. Stonestreet.
caption: Ryder oversaw construction of the new Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown.
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