Creighton University - Bluejay Yearbook (Omaha, NE)

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REV. F. X. McMENAMY, S. J. It was during the presidency of Father F. X. McMenamy, S. J., that Creighton University came to the front as an institution of higher learning. From 1911 to 1914 he acted in the capacity of vice president. When appointed to the rectorship in 1914, which position he held until 1919, he was well acquainted with conditions here and was able to do the great service for the institution which he accomplished. After the term of Father McMenamy expired at Creighton, he was made Provincial of the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus. Father McMenamy is remembered for the work, he accomplished in putting Creighton University on a sound financial basis. The greater Creighton had its initial impetus when the gymnasium was built in 1913 under his able direction. Page 22 }

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iiifii ■ i© EDWARD CREIGHTON INSTITUTE. Former home of the Colleges of Law and Dentistry. from parish work. Accordingly, he called in the Jesuits. In 1878 the new school, manned by five Jesuits, threw open its doors to a thin trickle of pioneering students. In 1879 the institution was incorporated as The Creighton Universi ' v. Of that first little band of teachers, only one remains, the Rev. Michael Eicher, S. J., of Milford, Ohio. The great Father Rigge was one of the five, but he died last year. When [ Turn to Page 23 ] [ Page 21 ]

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REV. M. HIGHER, S. J. The only member of the original Creighton faculty still living is the Rev. M. Eicher, S. ]., who is now stationed in Cincinnati. Father Eicher came as a scho- lastic to the young college of Creighton in August, 1878, together with Father Hubert Peters, S. J., and two other scholastics, Messrs. William Rigge, S. ]., and A. Beile, S. }. the jubilee celebration is held next winter, Father Eicher will be here, and fitting tribute will be paid to the only living man who can tell the story of those first days from the view- point of the teacher. The young and raw Nebraska of the seventies was hardly ready for a college, and during the first few years of its exist- ence, the new institution was little more than a grammar school. Stage by stage it grew, first into a high school, then into a college, finally into a university. In 1885 the school took a great bound forward, when the Rev. Michael P. Dowling, S. J., entered upon his first term as president. It was under Father Dowling that studies of college grade were first offered; it was under Father Dowling [ Page 23 ]