By Bill Henk – Most readers should readily recognize many or all of the men listed below and know why they’re famous. The list includes actors, directors, athletes, authors, politicians, journalists, entertainers, scientists, business leaders, coaches, sports executives, and even world leaders and popes. But there is something special that binds each of them together. Do you know what it is?
I promise to let you know the answer later in the post, but for the time being, look over the list, then try to use the subtle clues in the title (and maybe the probably equally mysterious graphic to the left) to come up with some hunches.
Here’s the list:
- Alan Alda
- Robert Altman
- John Barrymore
- Elgin Baylor
- William Bennett
- William Peter Blatty
- Jerry Brown
- William F. Buckley
- Archbishop John Carroll
- Fidel Castro
- Tom Clancy
- President Bill Clinton
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Harry Connick, Jr.
- Pat Conroy
- Bob Cousy
- Bing Crosby
- Rene Descartes
- Senator Dick Durbin
- Patrick Ewing
- Doug Flutie
- John Paul Getty
- Bob Gibson
- Richard Harris
- Alfred Hitchcock
- James Joyce
- Senator John Kerry
- Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo)
- Vince Lombardi
- Peter Lynch
- Nathan Lane
- Bill Murray
- Steve Nash
- Representative Tip O’Neill
- Karl Rahner
- Al Roker
- Pete Rozzelle
- Bill Russell
- Vin Scully
- Don Shula
- John Stockton
- Spencer Tracy
- Pierre Trudeau
- Donald Trump
- Denzel Washington
- Pope Benedict XIV
- Pope John Paul I
- Pope Pius XI
- Pope Pius XII
- Pope Paul VI
So what is it that these men have in common? Do you need some clues?
- AMDG
- social justice
- cura personalis
- magis
- Manresa
- men and women for others
- Ratio Studiorum
- Spiritual Exercises
- Finding God in all things
- St. Ignatius of Loyola
Still don’t have it? What if I told you that IHS are the first three letters, in Greek, of the name Jesus? Had enough?
The Envelope Please
Fact is, every one of these men attended a Jesuit high school, college, or university, and I could have listed A LOT more of these alumni. For a much longer list courtesy of Wikipedia, click here. I just chose the ones that jumped out at me who I believe actually graduated from the schools. That’s why I left off Marquette’s own Dwayne Wade and Chris Farley.
And yes, the larger list includes some well known women as well. Both “my” list and the larger one reflect the fact that Jesuit institutions often educated males only, though – like our own local Marquette University High School.
It turns out that St. Ignatius of Loyola and his companions (who founded the Society of Jesus in 1540) did not have establishing schools numbered among their initial priorities. Still, fairly early on these Jesuits started colleges to serve young men wishing to join their religious order, and in 1547 they opened their first school for educating young lay men.
At the time of St. Ignatius’s passing in 1556 there were 35 colleges in existence that served the secondary school level as well as the first year or two of college. That number swelled to over 800 by the time that the Jesuit order was suppressed by the Vatican in 1773. Each school represented part of an integrated system of humanities-centric education that produced many Jesuits who went on to distinguish themselves as “mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, linguist, dramatists, painters, architects, philosophers, and theologians.”
As an education dean at a Jesuit university, I’d like to think that all of the men and women on the larger list exemplified the full range of Ignatian principles and teachings. I just don’t know. But no doubt some fell short of the mark. After all, it’s no small feat to achieve personal and professional excellence while living a life of faith and leadership expressed in service to others — all done for “the greater glory of God and the common benefit of the human community.” But there is no mistaking the fact that all of the alumni managed to achieve significant notoriety, and their Jesuit education almost certainly played an instrumental role in their formation as public figures.
What I can tell you to a certainty is that our College of Education at Marquette aspires to prepare all of our students to live up to these extraordinary standards. In fact we pride ourselves on it. Put differently, what we want our graduates to have in common is that, as education professionals, they qualify as uncommon.
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To find out more about our academic focus in the College of Education, click here to visit our website.
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