Woodstock College
Where was J. Havens Richards educated from 1874 to 1879?
J . Havens Richards Joseph Havens Richards ( born Havens Cowles Richards ; November 8 , 1851 – June 9 , 1923 ) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who became a prominent president of Georgetown University , where he instituted major reforms and significantly increased the quality and stature of the university . Born to a prominent Ohio family , his father was an Episcopal priest who controversially converted to Catholicism , and had the infant Richards secretly baptized as a Catholic . Richards eventually entered the Society of Jesus . Richards became the president of Georgetown University in 1888 , and undertook significant construction , such the completion of Healy Hall , which included work on Gaston Hall and Riggs Library , and construction of Dahlgren Chapel . Richards sought to transform Georgetown into a modern , comprehensive , and high-caliber university . To that end , he significantly bolstered the graduate programs , expanded the Medical and Law Schools , established the Georgetown University Hospital , improved the astronomical observatory , and recruited prominent faculty . He also navigated tensions with the newly established Catholic University of America , some proponents of which called for the closure or downsizing of Georgetown . Richards fought anti-Catholic discrimination among universities of the Ivy League , which resulted in Harvard Law School admitting graduates of some Jesuit universities . Upon the end of his term in 1923 , Richards engaged in pastoral work attached to Jesuit educational institutions throughout the northeastern United States . He became the president of Regis High School and the Loyola School in New York City in 1915 , and then was made superior of the Jesuit retreat center on Manresa Island in Connecticut . Richards died at the College of the Holy Cross in 1923 . Early life . Havens Cowles Richards was born on November 8 , 1851 , in Columbus , Ohio . His parents were Henry Livingston Richards and Cynthia Cowles , who married on May 1 , 1842 , in Worthington , Ohio . Havens Cowles was the youngest of eight children , three of whom died in infancy . His surviving siblings were : Laura Isabella ( b . 1843 ) , Henry Livingston , Jr . ( b . 1846 ) , and William Douglas ( b . 1848 ) . Henry Livingston Richards was an Episcopal priest and the pastor of a church in Columbus . To the surprise of many , on January 25 , 1852 , he sought to convert to Catholicism , two months after Havens Cowles birth . He was said to have been moved during a visit to New Orleans , where he saw whites and enslaved blacks receiving the Eucharist side by side at the altar rail in a Catholic church . He was baptized by Caspar Henry Borgess at the Church of the Holy Cross in Columbus . One day , following his conversion , he snuck out of the house with the infant Havens Cowles and brought him to Holy Cross , where Havens Cowles Richards was also baptized by Borgess . These two conversions disturbed Havens Cowles mother , Cynthia , who was Episcopalian , and her relatives encouraged her to leave her husband . Likewise , Henry Livingston was ostracized by his family and acquaintances in Ohio . As a result , he abandoned his ministry and moved to New York City to search for work in business , leaving his family in the care of his father in Granville , Ohio . While there , Cynthia Cowles followed her husband in converting to Catholicism . She moved with her children to Jersey City , New Jersey in September 1855 , and was conditionally baptized on May 14 , 1856 , at St . Peters Church . All the other children were eventually baptized as well . Ancestry . Richards was born into a prominent family , which traced its lineage to colonial America on both his paternal and maternal sides . His uncle was Orestes Brownson , a Catholic activist and intellectual . On his mothers side , he was a descendant of James Kilbourne , an army colonel who led a regiment on the American frontier in the War of 1812 , founded the city of Worthington , Ohio , and became a United States Representative from Ohio . On his fathers side , Richards lineage included a number of men who fought in the American Revolutionary War , such as William Richards ( his great-grandfather ) , who led a contingent of troops that partook in the siege at the Battle of Fort Slongo , and who later fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill as a colonel . Through William Richards , he traces his ancestry to James Richards , who is documented in 1634 as residing on the Eel River in Plymouth , Massachusetts . Education . Richards father sought to send all of his children to Catholic schools , but at times , was unable to . Therefore , Richards attended both Catholic and public schools in Jersey City . At the age of fourteen , he quit school and took up work for his father as a bookkeeper . However , four years later , he moved to Boston , Massachusetts with his father , where they both worked in the steel industry . In September 1869 , Richards enrolled at Boston College . The rest of his family joined them in Boston in July of that year . Richards remained at Boston College for three years , where he was active in sports , before entering the Society of Jesus and proceeding to the novitiate in Frederick , Maryland on August 7 , 1872 . Upon entering the order , he changed his name to Joseph Havens Richards . At the end of his probationary period , Richards was sent to Woodstock College in 1874 , where he studied philosophy for four years . He then went to Georgetown University as a professor of physics and mathematics , and did work in chemistry during his vacations . During the summers of 1879 and 1880 , he was sent by the Jesuit provincial superior to study at Harvard University . In July 1883 , he returned to Woodstock for four years of theological studies . The provincial superior made an exception for Richards to be ordained after only two years of theology because his father was ill . Therefore , on August 29 , 1885 , he was ordained a priest by James Gibbons , the Archbishop of Baltimore , in the colleges chapel . He then completed his theological studies at Woodstock in 1887 , and returned to Frederick to do his tertianship . Georgetown University . Immediately after the completion of his Jesuit formation , Richards was made the rector and president of Georgetown University , taking office on August 15 , 1888 , and succeeding James A . Doonan . He had an ambitious plan to transform Georgetown into a modern , comprehensive university that would be the leading university of both the Catholic Church and the United States . This role would be amplified by the fact that the university was located in the nations capital . Curriculum improvements . Though Richards sought to dispel that perception that Jesuit schools were of inferior quality than their secular counterparts , he maintained that the curriculum of the Ratio Studiorum should be preserved . Therefore , he revitalized the graduate programs of the university . He introduced new courses in the Law School , and oversaw construction of a new building in 1892 . He also sought to establish an electrical , chemical , and civil engineering program , but this did not come to fruition . For the first time , upon his instruction , graduates of the university were authorized to wear a hood as part of their academic regalia . Richards succeeded in bringing prominent faculty from Europe onto the Georgetown faculty , as well as recruiting distinguished researchers from the Smithsonian Institution . Graduate courses in the arts and sciences were re-established in 1889 , and courses in theology and philosophy returned to the university , which had previously been removed to Boston and then to Woodstock College . Richards sharply criticized the decision to remove the theological training of Jesuits from Georgetown to the semi-wilderness of Woodstock , which was remote from libraries , from contact with the learned world , and from all the stimulating influences which affect intellectual life . Richards enlarged the School of Medicine by establishing a chair and laboratory of bacteriology , increasing the number of instructors in anatomy , physiology , and surgery , and improving the chemistry curriculum . He also standardized the curriculum , and increased its duration from three to four years . The property of the medical school , which theretofore had been owned by its own legal corporation was transferred to the President and Directors of Georgetown College , giving Richards authority over the appointment of professors . Richards also desired to have a hospital adjoined to the medical school , but there was initially little interest in this among faculty and donors . Eventually , the Georgetown University Hospital was completed in 1898 , and it was put under the care of the Sisters of Saint Francis . Richards also worked with Bishop John Keane to address tensions with the newly established Catholic University of America , run by the American bishops . Many feared that it would interfere with Georgetown University , and it did indeed seek to take control of Georgetowns law and medical schools as its own . This proposal was approved by the Jesuit Superior General , Luis Martín , who feared that the Vatican might suppress Georgetown altogether if it did not acquiesce . However , the faculty of the law and medical schools publicly protested the proposal , and Catholic University dropped its plans . Eventually , an agreement was reached that Catholic University would focus exclusively on the graduate education of secular priests . Construction . Richards most immediate task upon taking office was the completion of Healy Hall , construction of which began in 1877 under Patrick F . Healy , but whose interior remained unfinished . He was able to have the bulk of the work complete by February 20 , 1889 , the date on which the university began its three-day centenary celebration . Within Healy Hall , he made improvements to Gaston Hall , and oversaw the start of work on Riggs Library . Richards improved the universitys astronomical observatory , which raised the stature of the university in scientific circles . He additionally invited Johann Hagen to take charge of the observatory . In 1892 , he received a donation from Elizabeth Wharton Drexel for the construction of Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart . That year , he also procured the library of John Gilmary Shea , which extensively documented the history of the Catholic Church in the United States . Richards presidency came to an end on July 3 , 1898 , after experiencing worsening health for two years , and he was succeeded by John D . Whitney . Anti-Catholicism in the Ivy League . Richards also took up the cause of fighting discrimination against Catholics by prominent Protestant universities , especially those of the Ivy League . In 1893 , James Jeffrey Roche , the editor of the Boston newspaper The Pilot , wrote Charles William Eliot , the president of Harvard University , about the fact that no Catholic universities were included on the list of universities whose graduates were automatically eligible for admission to Harvard Law School . Eliots response , which was published in The Pilot , was that the quality of education at Catholic universities was inferior to that offered at their Protestant counterparts . Richards and other Catholic educators had long believed that anti-Catholic discrimination had been at work at Protestant colleges . Richards sought a retraction from Eliot , writing to him that graduates of reputable Catholic colleges were better prepared to study law than any other college graduates , and included information on Georgetowns curriculum . Eliot responded by adding Georgetown , the College of the Holy Cross , and Boston College to the list . Upon the provincial superiors instruction , Richards then unsuccessfully lobbied to have all 24 Jesuit colleges in the United States added to the list . Pastoral work . Following his retirement from the presidency , Richards became the spiritual father of the novitiate in Frederick . He remained interested in Georgetowns astronomical observatory , and petitioned to have a station established in South Africa , so that the entire sky could be studied . The following year , he became the spiritual father of Boston College , where he established the Boston Alumni Sodality . When not in Boston , he spent time in Philadelphia and Brooklyn , where he worked with the New York Sodality . He also began cataloguing Catholic works in the New York Public Library , but his health soon prevented him from continuing . Upon recommendation that it would benefit his health , Richards moved to the novitiate in Los Gatos , California in March 1900 , but was there only for a short while before he returned to his family in Boston due to news of his mothers death . Richards then returned to Los Gatos in April , where he remained until the summer of 1901 , when he returned to Frederick , Maryland . There , he became minister of the novitiate . With the relocation of the novitiate to St . Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie , New York in January 1903 , Richards followed as minister . In the summer of 1903 , he was instead made the procurator , and was in charge of the mission in Pleasant Valley . He then transferred again to Boston College in the summer of 1906 as spiritual father , where he remained for a year . From 1907 to July 1909 , he was prefect of the Church of St . Ignatius Loyola at Boston College . Richards then became of the Church of St . Ignatius Loyola in New York City . After four years , he was sent to Canisius College in Buffalo as minister and prefect of studies . He ceased to be minister in July 1914 , but remained as prefect . He was appointed the rector and president of both Regis High School and the Loyola School in New York the following year , succeeding David W . Hearn . At the same time , he became pastor of the Church of St . Ignatius Loyola . Being advanced in age , he was relieved of the position by the provincial superior on March 25 , 1919 , and was succeeded by James J . Kilroy . Later years . Following his positions in New York , Richards was made superior of Manresa Island in Norwalk , Connecticut , where he received Jesuit scholastics and priests from the Diocese of Hartford during the summer for their retreats . During the rest of the year , he lived on the island with just one other Jesuit . In December 1921 , he was transferred to Weston College as spiritual father and procurator , the latter of which he ceased to hold in September 1922 . On March 2 , 1923 , he suffered his first stroke , which left his speech impaired and the right side of his body paralyzed . He spent seven weeks in the hospital , before going to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester , Massachusetts . He suffered another stroke on June 8 , and died the following day .